Taco Man Express — Restaurant in Santa Maria

Horrible Experience – DO NOT HIRE TACOMAN EXPRESS for Your Wedding

We hired Tacoman Express (Santa Maria, CA) to cater our wedding, and we deeply regret it. Their unprofessionalism, incompetence, and complete lack of regard for our big day added an enormous amount of stress to what should have been a joyful, smooth celebration. Here’s what happened:

Unprofessional Communication: From the very beginning, their email responses were incredibly unprofessional — often just one poorly written sentence without punctuation, grammar, or basic courtesy.

Last-Minute Chaos: Despite our coordinator being in contact with them for months, they emailed us at 10 PM the night before our wedding to ask if the venue had ovens and who their contact was. This was shocking and inexcusable.

Day-Of Disaster: 15 minutes before our ceremony, instead of communicating with our coordinator or figuring things out themselves, they called the groom’s personal cell phone to ask where to park — then hung up on him once they spotted a parking attendant.

Rude and Unpleasant Staff: While serving food, the staff were grumpy and complained constantly — about the 75° weather, no less. Not once did they seem glad to be there or happy to serve our guests.

Payment Scam Attempt: After serving just a few appetizers, they suddenly claimed they hadn’t received the second half of our payment and refused to serve the rest of the food. They bypassed our coordinator and went directly to my husband’s father to demand payment. Thankfully, he paused and brought in our coordinator, who came to us in the middle of our private photo break to explain the situation. My husband pulled up proof of payment, which the coordinator took back to them. Only then did the caterer “magically” find a note in his clipboard showing we had paid in full weeks earlier — along with his own Venmo record. No apology was given. They simply resumed serving lunch like nothing happened. We never received the rest of the appetizers.

Inappropriate Behavior: As we finally got to sit and eat, exhausted and starving, they had the nerve to ask us to pose with our plates in front of their food truck for their Instagram. We were too drained to say no, but it felt incredibly exploitative and tone-deaf given everything that had just happened.

Leftovers Mishandled: After the reception, they packed the leftovers in containers that were either poorly chosen or deliberately tampered with — the bottoms had been cut open, and greasy sauce leaked all over the venue’s fridge. Our family had to help clean the mess.

We later learned from family just how much worse things were behind the scenes than we had even realized on the day. The whole experience was appalling. We still can’t say for sure whether they were trying to scam us or were simply that disorganized and negligent, but either way — it was completely unacceptable. If they were trying to double-collect payment, it was a gross scam. If they weren’t, it’s even more alarming that they would wait until the moment of service to check their records.

Bottom line: Tacoman Express nearly ruined one of the most important meals of our lives and made our day significantly more stressful than it needed to be. Their actions were not only unprofessional — they were unacceptable. We strongly warn anyone planning an event to stay...

Taco Man Express was such a disappointment for our son and daughter-in-law's wedding reception. The staff that came to the reception were rude and unprofessional. They actually pulled the event planner aside and asked to have the balance paid for their service, implying they would shut down before even serving. The balance had been paid well in advance of the event. Once he was told that, he checked and discovered that to be true. No apology was offered.

The catering contract had specific stipulations for appetizers. They fell far short of that. Minimal amounts were provided, not enough for the reception attendees. They actually forgot to bring tortilla chips for the various salsas. The event planner had to leave and go buy chips.

After the event, they packed up the main meal leftovers and placed them inside a refrigerator at the event venue. One of the aluminum containers had a large knife slit through the bottom. The grease leaked all over the venue's refrigerator, creating a pool of grease in the bottom of the fridge. The refrigerator had to be completely emptied and thoroughly cleaned for the venue owners.

This company was horrible in their service, quality, and execution. I would not recommend using them for any...

DO NOT HIRE TACOMAN EXPRESS for Your Wedding

Tacoman Express (Santa Maria, CA) was one of the worst decisions we made for our big day. Their communication was sloppy and unprofessional from the start. The night before our wedding, they emailed at 10 PM asking if the venue had ovens — despite months of coordination.

They called the groom 15 minutes before the ceremony to ask where to park, then hung up on him. Their staff was rude, complained about the weather (75°!), and stopped serving food mid-reception claiming we hadn’t paid — even though we had. They bypassed our coordinator, demanded money from the groom’s father, and only resumed service once we showed proof — no apology, no accountability.

They never served the rest of the appetizers, asked us to pose with their truck for Instagram (seriously?!), and packed leftovers into leaking containers that ruined the venue fridge.

Whether it was attempted scamming or just complete incompetence, Tacoman Express added stress, confusion, and chaos to what should’ve been a joyful day. Avoid them...