Masa Taqueria — Restaurant in Richmond

Food is EXCELLENT. Service is very mid. It's extremely inconsistent. I wish they would try to do a little less - pick what they're good at and just focus on that.

FOOD: Tamales are uniformly excellent. Baja style fish/shrimp tacos and burritos are awesome. Quesabirria is incredible. Crispy tacos (always a special - never available online or via kiosk) are hella good. All the tacos show the love that goes into the homemade corn tortillas, which are delicious. Esquites is watery canned corn with bland toppings - very bad. Skip. They should take this off the menu. Ceviche is watery flavorless fish that they mix in a mixing bowl with pico and seasonings right in front of you. No citrus flavor at all. Skip. They should take this off the menu.

SERVICE: It feels like they're trying to do the drive thru just cause their building used to be a Jack in the Box but they can't really handle it. The menu on the website vs the in-store kiosk vs what you get if you order face to face is not the same. You can't get the saucy tamales online (their best dish). You can't get the specials (birria ramen, crispy tacos, chilaquiles) without ordering face to face. But sometimes if you come in for lunch there's just nobody taking orders - maybe they're talking to drive thru, maybe they're staging or expediting, maybe they're just in the back. But if you go drive thru, you better be ready to WAIT, and also they don't ask you the same questions. Like if you get a burrito online there's a couple of options. However if you order a burrito face to face they won't ask you anything at first, but when the person making the food calls your number they ask about rice, beans and other toppings. But in the drive thru they don't ask you these questions. And also sometimes the person taking your order doesn't ask the questions and then they also don't ask you when they make it. So it's like they have a half dozen different processes and it's just random what you get on a given day. They'd be better off just eliminating the drive thru, then either put the entire menu on the kiosk/website or eliminate the kiosk. Let the employees focus on delivering a consistent experience in-store and just make good food. Cause the food... is good.

You might be able to tell I've come here a LOT. I have. At least 25 times. It's one of my kid's favorite restaurant! The food (with the exception of the esquites and ceviche, which are gross) is so good! I just want them to figure out how to take and make an order! But it's worth it for the frustration cause the Baja style fish burrito is so freakin good.

I really hope I'll update this review...

Been here several times. Drive thru service is SUPER SLOWWWW but especially slow today..which is really disappointing bc they didn't even make my usual order of fish tacos right .they had ran out of avocado and then told me after the fact that I ordered it while sitting there for about 10 minutes idly in my car in the hot sun while they made food for customers that came in after me. You would think that would be something they would find out before I drive up to the window and wait. So then they offered to put guacamole on it instead and I said yes but I get home and there's not even any guacamole on it. They also didn't add the usual jalapenos or carrots that they usually add to it and it seems like the fish was smaller than usual and they made it in a hurry even though they took a super long time this time. I got it yesterday and maybe I was just super hungry but it was delicious yesterday and today it was incredibly disappointing and I had paid more today too because I bought some other things too for other people go figure how ironic when I pay more than it's more terrible and the service was extremely slow. Disappointing. I'm going to overlook this experience and hope that it's a fluke as I've been there many times before and have always enjoyed their fish tacos but this was especially bad because not only was the drive-through service slow as heck and the workers seemed rushed and incompetent and nervous today but it was also not up to its usual standards. Maybe I'll go back there and see if I can get them to remake it or give me a refund and then I'll decide how I feel about this review...

July 29 around 8-8:30 pm. I liked the corn Esquite. The service needs some work. As someone who is sensitive to gluten, it’s my own responsibility to ask questions. No one’s responsibility to cater to me but my own. So I ask questions at places I’ve never eaten before even if I’m almost certain the thing I want will be safe for me. In this case, I asked ONE question and that was about the tamales even though I know they aren’t typically made with wheat flour, rather with corn masa. The guy taking my order today seemed either confused or put off by my question and his reply came off as sarcastic and annoyed. I was polite, smiled, wasn’t being pushy. I know customer service is hard. But then I realized he may not have been too bright, bless the poor fella. So I decided to cut him some slack and not tear him a new one for what I perceived to be sarcasm (or just ignorance...maybe he was a little dim?). I do hope this establishment starts hiring brighter people. Since he couldn’t answer my question which was simply “do the tamales contain WHEAT flour?” (Likely they didn’t but I have to be careful) I opted for two street tacos. They were just ok. when I went back to get two strawberry tamales to go, the young lady who took my order later was informative and friendly. I...