Yo Ho Rum & Tacos — Restaurant in Orange Beach

My wife and I were visiting Orange Beach and we decided to stop at The Wharf and walk around to check out the shops and food. After checking the menus at several of the restaurants we decided to eat at Yoho Rum and Tacos. When we entered the restaurant, the hostess at the front asked us if we wanted to dine inside or outside. As my wife and I were discussing which we would prefer, inside or outside, the hostess threw her hands in the air and said “Well, I’m not going to tell you where to go!” In a rather rude manner. We chose to dine outside near the water. Our waitress, who showed us to our seats, was very pleasant and friendly, in contrast to the hostess we spoke with as we entered. After being seated, we ordered the smoked brisket queso and chips as an appetizer. This was the only part of the meal that we really enjoyed. The smoked brisket queso was very good and did have a nice smoked flavor to it. For our entrees we both ordered the chipotle shrimp burritos, and we each ordered one taco as well. I had the blackened grouper taco that turned out to actually be mahi mahi instead of grouper, and my wife tried the fried chicken taco. The tacos were okay, but definitely not exceptional. The shrimp burritos were inedible. There was no hint of chipotle whatsoever. The shrimp had no flavor of any seasoning. The rice and filling inside the burrito had an unpleasant sweet flavor to it, and the tortilla that wrapped the burrito was very doughy with the texture of an uncooked dinner roll. I attempted to eat the burrito despite the unpleasant quality of the dish, because it was getting late in the evening, I was hungry, and I didn’t want to wait for another dish to be prepared. I ate little more than half and I was unable to finish it. My wife found her burrito so unpleasant that she gagged on her second bite and she was unable to eat any more of it. When our waitress returned and asked us how our food was, I told her that the burritos were not good. She left and brought her manager to our table who did attempt to make things right by asking if we wanted anything else, and also offered us dessert at no charge. We politely declined and told him we didn’t want anything else (as at this point we had both lost our appetites). We did not ask for any kind of discount but the manager did offer to discount the food, and he did discount the price of the chipotle shrimp burritos by approximately 30%. Overall, the friendliness of our waitress and her manager was the only pleasant part of this dining experience. This is not a place that I will be...

Tl;Dr The tacos were very delicious but our server was a bit frazzled

My friend and I had an interesting experience here. We went for dinner late-ish on the night of 3/13/20. It started out as expected: We ordered two Dos Equis on tap and our waitress brought them out quickly, along with chips and salsa. The chips and salsa weren't good. The salsa tasted like mushy tomatoes and had no flavor -- someone doesn't know how to make salsa! And the chips were okay, a little oily, under-salted, and weren't warmed.

A few minutes later, our waitress came by with 3 Dos Equis on a platter, frazzled and confused. She asked if we had ordered these 3 drinks, we said no, and she mentioned that someone else must have brought our drinks to us (even though it was definitely her!). 30 minutes later she came by and informed us that she just now put in our orders, because she forgot. My friend was gracious, but I think the waitress saw that I wasn't amused and she offered us another round of drinks, on her.

A man came out later, who must have been a manager. He said that our food would be free, which was the only reasonable course of action at that point, because it was still another 30 minutes until our food came.

Because the chips and dip were so bad, I wasn't expecting the food to be good at all, so I was pleasantly surprised! I had a crawfish taco that was amazing and was good enough to redeem most of the short comings. Too bad I only got one taco! After that, our server vanished. We sat around for awhile, waiting for her to follow up on our table, but we saw nothing of her after the manager had came by like 45 minutes before. We had to get up and find where she was in the restaurant.

So in that way the service was strange and iffy, resulting in the review...

Sigh. I really hate being someone who would leave a bad review, especially because I work at the wharf as a manager and I know how overwhelming this place can be on concert nights. But this needs addressed. I’ve been to yoho a few times to grab food quickly knowing there aren’t many other options here, but every time I do it takes them nearly an hour to prepare a to go order. This time I will admit I came in a few minutes after 9pm because I had just gotten off work, but I quickly placed an order for just two beef tacos and an order of chicken enchiladas hoping that wouldn’t take long to prepare. After 45 minutes of waiting and never getting a receipt or confirmation on if my order was placed correctly, I remained patient and tried to be understanding. I watched as other guests got their food, and the bartenders all starting closing up for the night. I could tell thee girl felt bad for me but she kept repeating that she did place my order into the system. Kept waiting. Finally the girl says she has no idea what happened with my order on the screen and therefore I don’t have to pay for it, so she hands me “my order” and I leave.

Guess what was in the bag. Not a single beef taco or enchilada…

In fact, just 4 random soggy/cold tacos with fruit and shrimp in them that I can’t even eat because I’m allergic. Which is why I ordered the items that I did.

I wish I didn’t waste almost an hour of my time again at this place because now everything else is closed. Please do better, and good luck to anyone who does settle for dining here. I am grateful that you thought it might be nice to comp my meal for the wait, but I feel like it was a cop out for knowingly handing me someone else’s forgotten order that had probably been sitting there...