Creek Side Taco Shack — Restaurant in Queen Creek

The environment at this place is amazing! It is a very rustic old house turned into a restaurant. There are places for Equestrian riders to gallop on in and park their horse. Makes me want to own a horse just so I can ride it along the Queen Creek wash and park there for dinner! Parking can be a little tight because this place has been a hit and is usually pretty busy at peak times. The wait can be pretty long at peak times. It seems to have a varied mix of locals and out of towners here. They have a full serve bar which makes for a rowdy night inside the house. For families I'd recommend eating outside. The other thing about ordering that can be confusing is that you can order at a side window, the bar inside or by sitting down at a table inside the house. The inside table ordering takes longer since there is someone waiting on you and they are pretty busy. Personally, I would order at the window, sit outside and let them bring the food out. It is faster this way. They have outside activities for kids and adults like sand volleyball and there is adequate shade during the hot summer days with a nice water misting system and fans going. It is a hidden gem in Queen Creek! It is a sit down place, serving really good Mexican food. I want to say it is California/Baja style Mexican. I tried their battered fish tacos that were so crunchy and fresh, which is pretty amazing for AZ. You would have to go to California to get any better. I also tried their Carne Asada Nachos and those were also very good. This place is fun and has great food. I recently learned that all their pork dishes are serving pork from our local "Pork Shop" out here and I am very excited about that! I am excited to have found this taco Shack and learn how to navigate...

This is a place you go to for the ambiance rather than the food.

There is a full service "tiki" bar and a sandy beach theme, along with music playing over loudspeakers. There are daily happy hour specials. It seems they really play up the "taco shack at the beach" shtick.

This place is great for families with young kids, or group gatherings of mother's. They can sit back, enjoy a beverage and talk while their kids play in the sand.

Being right alongside a trail, Creek Side Taco Shack also gets a lot of business from bicyclers and horseback riders. So if you are in the area, or on the trail, they make for a good destination/stop over point.

Now the food. We were disappointed 😞. We each had the Taco Plate--two tacos, rice and beans. We shared one chips/salsa. My wife had a beer, and I had a soda. That came to $44.56 including tax. Fish tacos. My wife's were fried, and mine were grilled. Not a lot of flavor. My wife's comment was she's had much better, and mentioned So Cal Fish Co. in downtown Gilbert. The beans needed salt. In fact, everything needed salt. If you are on a salt-restricted/low salt diet then you will have absolutely no problems at the Creek Side Taco Shack. You might even say they cater to you. The rice. If you are a fan of sticky chinese rice then you are in luck. The rice here is like a Mexican version of chinese sticky. The scoop of rice was almost like a rice ball.

At just over $22 per person for lunch Creek Side Taco Shack would NOT be considered inexpensive. You could get a great steak dinner for that (try San Tan Flats). The food was forgettable, but the ambiance and bar will more than make up for it for...

Went in on today on a Tuesday at lunch time for my first visit. In spite of all the complaints about the service both here and on Yelp, we had good service. Our server was prompt, the orders were accurate and the wait time was normal. The decor of the place is adorable. Really quaint and cute with lots of attention to beachy details. The outdoor beach area is awesome. The chips and salsa were very tasty, but I feel that they should be free, like most mexican restaurants. Also, the portions of the food were very small. They offered taco tuesday today and the tacos were teeny tiny--smaller than most street taco size. the shells were maybe 2 to 3 inches in diameter? One would have had to order quite a few to fill up a normal adult. I got the chili verde stew, which is not green and features ground beef , beans and a red sauce, so it should really be called chili con carne. This was definitely not the green chicken chili verde I am used to getting at the mexican markets around town. It was tasty, but very zesty. Others in my party got the bowl, which is like a big taco salad and theirs was the only decent portion size of the whole table of 10 orders. The temperature inside the restaurant was also freezing It was 76 degrees outside today and I deeply regretted sitting inside. I was wearing a coat and still had goosebumps and was shivering. This is not close to my house, but I would return for the atmosphere, but only if I was not very hungry or I'd have to order a bowl or an entree. Even two regular sized tacos were pretty small. This place could be an absolute gem if the portions...