Nixtaco — Restaurant in Roseville

Driving down the street and decided to stop into this place. Usually, I wouldn't touch a place with the name like Nixtaco. Doesn't sound authentic. But wife and I were hungry and it was there. Walk in this strip mall type taco place and there is a hostess at the door. What???? That's a first for any taco place I have ever been in. I looked around and it looks like home-made booths with some stand alone tables in the center of the place. Back wall has a full bar. The smell of the place called to mind smoked foods, spices and mezcal tequila. I have never smelled this in your typical taco shop. Seated and served chips and array of four salsas. Notable was the peanut based salsa and the hot salsa which was not just very spicy, but flavorful as well. Chips were thin and crispy, no two were alike. I ordered the NixTacos (I always order the flagship dish when I go to a new restaurant; if they can't get that right, I wont be back), birria taco (I somehow found birria late in life and now make it myself at home), and a carnita taco. My wife had mushroom taco and something else I can't remember. Five minutes later the tacos are out and the presentation was amazing. My three were served together along with a small plastic cup of sauce for the birria. Birria was first and it was hot, like right off the grill. I moved over to the Carnitas taco and it was then that I knew this was going to be a good dinner. Finished that, then hit the birria and finished off with the Nixtaco which featured shrimp as the protein. OK this is getting to long so: this place is next level mexican tacos. it is not homestyle. It IS tacos raised to an art form. They may have been the best tacos I have ever had (sorry Rosarita Beach on a five day street-taco and dollar beer bender in the 1990s, you have been replaced). Spices are used to elevate, protein cooked perfectly, unique, flavorful. I was very full after the three tacos. 11 out of 10. Things I did not like: Being told 4-5 different times the kitchen closes at 9 made me feel a bit rushed (I think we sat at 8:15 which should be plenty of time to eat, but seriously if people are in and seated, why rush them, just come by at 8:50 and say last call if you want anything else? So while we were eating, I notice the bar is starting to get cleaned. OK I get the fact that folks want to get ahead on their end of shift tasks, but I do not like seeing the bar trays getting dumped out and cleaned in public view while I am eating. Gross! And then that sweet smell I talked about earlier started to be overtaken by the smell of cleaning chemicals (don't get me wrong, it wasn't that bad, but I could smell it). Anyway, I said to my wife, if I owned a restaurant that had food at such a high level, the last thing I want to do is have the last impression of a gross bar tray and cleaning supplies in my customer's mind as they were finishing the meal. She kinda told me it wasn't that bad and I had to agree it wasn't, but this type of food deserves that type of expectation. Like if I was at a fine dining establishment, I would not expect to see or smell these things when I was eating. But this is a taco place so should I give them some slack? Probably. But it is also someone's business and they are keeping a great staff employed. The restaurant is someone's baby and they are doing good work. So why not go the extra step avoid the final impression? In the end, I guess it doesn't matter much, but I root for people and businesses to succeed. One way to do that is to make constant changes in an attempt to do better. In this case, the food need not change, it was great! The service was great too. I will be back and maybe I will just make the change to an earlier eating hour to make myself happy! I've already told two of my friends they have to check out this taco place. Nixtacos is the best around for elevated mexican...

I have been wanting to try this restaurant as the reviews are really good plus they received a Michelin Star. I am honestly at a loss after eating here tonight as to where all these good reviews are coming from? The QR ordering system was not for us. You can't ask questions and talk about the food, ingredients, etc with your phone. My #1 complaint. I like to interact and tip a server that was providing service from the start. Chips and salsa came right away and water. We appreciated this. Chips were a little too dark but it was fun to try all the salsas. None of them were good. Tolerable but nothing special. We ordered the Queso Dip Appetizer to start. I have never had this dip come without meat at other restaurants so I thought when you chose what type of meat you wanted it would be included in the price. We requested Chiorzo. Come to find out it was 4.00 extra so a very small cast iron pan was a total of 13.99. Total rip. We also ordered rice and beans. Everything comes alacart. They were the driest beans we have ever had and the rice had zero flavor. So disappointed. I didn't even waste the calories to eat them. We ordered the fried chicken taco, Combination taco and Chicken Mole Taco. The meat in all the tacos was just okay. These tacos don't come with lettuce, sour cream, cheese, radishes or anything extra. I didn't realize I would miss the usual toppings until I didn't have any. Again, if we didn't have to order our food ourselves, maybe this would have came up. Neither of us liked the blue corn tortillas (thick and just not our cup of tea) so when I pulled one of the servers over to quietly discuss the tortillas and ask for a flour tortilla instead, she was very sweet but said each flour tortilla would be 1.00. Really? You should have a choice of corn or flour without neither costing more than the other. The flour tortilla was the best item we had; honestly. The atmosphere was loud music and servers kinda dancing around, singing and just kind of hanging around until a order was ready for them to deliver. I have no idea how they earned a Michelin Star. This is just our honest review but it is OURS. I would try it for your self and form your own opinion. You may love it! We were disappointed and won't be back. On a side note, there was a very sweet server who helped us alot and we...

Just like some of the other reviews… we were excited to try out NixTacos because of the social media and news reports about their ratings. I think based on their ratings, I was expecting a restaurant experience with linens but it was far from that. Here are my thoughts…

Pros: Food was good and priced about right, maybe a little high, for the quality. Cocktails tasted good, not the best margaritas I’ve ever had but good.

Cons: Simply put… zero service in a strip mall taqueria. Cocktails were really overpriced for what you got.

This was our first time here and this was our experience… walked in the door and waited a few minutes to be greeted and asked to wait a few minutes. The restaurant was only 1/2 full. We were sat in a booth which appeared to be homemade painted wood from HomeDepot. They delivered four, one ounce, salsas, a small bowl of chips and a bottle of water you had to pour yourself. We were advised that the menu and ordering were via an app. That was the last of the service we received.

In order to place an order, you have to scan a barcode and login to an online ordering system which requires you to provide a cellphone number so that they can text you an order link. After you get the link, you have to enter your credit card, zip-code and email address before it would allow you to order. After you ordered, the food and drinks came out relatively quick which was good. When you ordered food or drinks, someone random would deliver your order. We never got asked for refills or anything. We had to ask for everything, extra napkins, forks, etc.

Our margaritas came out in a small top hat style that was filled to the rim with pebble ice. You literally got 2-3 gulps out of the glass for $14.

We ordered drinks, apps, dinner, more drinks which all got delivered and the dirty plates just kept stacking up on the table.

At the end of the meal, you have to check out via your phone. No bill or service provided. We had to ask for a to go box. When you check it, it automatically prompts you for a 20% tip… for no service other than the bar tender making your drinks and someone dropping off the food you ordered yourself.

We experienced it and like I said, the food was good but we won’t go back. Maybe if it was a regular restaurant and not a walk up taqueria, I would...