Taco Cantina — Restaurant in Smyrna

I love tacos so when I heard about a new restaurant close to the beltline with great reviews, I had to make it a priority to stop in for a bite. The restaurant entrance is on Boulevard in the same building as Condesa Coffee close to Freedom parkway and John Wesley Dobbs. Perfect location to grab a bite if you're walking the eastside beltline or freedom pkwy trail.

When I entered the restaurant the bar was full and there were groups art two tables. The hostess came over and greeted me and asked if we preferred high or low tables....I love options. The menu is double sided and everything sounded pretty good. There's a large selection of tacos and tortas to choose from and other tasty items to choose from. All of the tacos on the menu were a la carte and surprisingly did not include chips or salsa. The best part of a Mexican restaurant is the free chips and salsa.... but you have to pay for them here.

We started with an order of guacamole and I'm so glad we did. This guac was so fresh and perfectly seasoned, it's one of the best guacs that I've had at a restaurant... nicely done! There's a salsa bar with a variety of salsas at different spice levels so i filled a few containers to eat with the chips that came with the guacamole. Each salsa i tried tasted very fresh with lots of flavor.

For the main course, I ordered a fried shrimp and a salmon taco. You can choose between flour or corn tortillas, I went with flower. The shrimp taco was Amazing and after the first bite I thought, why didn't I order two. The salmon taco was so-so, it didn't have enough flavor for me.

I would come back and try additional items on the menu and order the fried shrimp taco again. The service was good, convenient location, nicely decorated, casual environment and there new so I have to give them another try.

I only wish they had free chips especially with the price...

OK, I wanted to like this place... but it was just ok. I ordered the quesadilla with Barbecoa and it came with a salad. The salad was OK but needed a little help on the dressing side. It had nice fresh lettuce(not iceburg) with cucumbers, tomatoes and a very light vinegarette dressing. The quesadilla was fine as far as amount of brisket and cheese. A little on the greasy side! I had hoped for some hot pickled vegetables, sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes or something on the side but that wasn't the case. I guess I am spoiled by places like the Taco Truck L1000000. Taco Cantina was more inviting on the store front level, but the taste of the food is king. I had another concern when at Taco Cantina... I could not find the health score posted anywhere. The licenses were up but no health score. The place looked clean on the customer side which was great. Just left me wondering why it was not posted in plain site. The price seemed a bit high for what you got too. I know prices are going up, but almost $13 for a basic Quesadilla to go, umm I don't know. Another thing I am beginning to dislike... automatic tip coming up on the payment options. It was made difficult to say no tip but assumed the customer would tip with the automatic option as 20%. Look, I like to tip for service, but asking me what I want and calling my name when it is ready is Not a tip situation. When I sit down and am served at a table I gladly tip for good service. I feel like the real wait staffs are getting cheated if I am tipping the same for no service as real service. Covid sympathy / empathy tipping is over... sorry if you disagree. Anyway, Taco Cantina is edible but not remember able. Note: drinks were in bottles in a cooler display verses fountain. Just info for your digestion LOL. Mediocre is...

I got two super tacos for $5 each. I thought that $5 was a lot for a single taco but they are actually pretty big.

Fried chicken was just alright. Has some heat to it and some creaminess but that’s it. Chicken is a little tough which isn’t great for eating as a taco. Kinda one note. Needs some sweetness or tanginess. Maybe some pickled red onions would’ve been good on this.

Chipotle asada taco was more flavorful than fried chicken taco but it was mainly lettuce and queso. Not much steak. Both tacos were heavy on lettuce/slaw but fried chicken had decent amount of chicken. Asada taco had less meat than you’d expect in a smaller standard sized taco so for a big taco like this it was kind of a rip off. The meat that I did have though was flavorful and tasty. If there was a proper amount of meat it would probably be a really good taco.

I personally wouldn’t go back but it's worth checking out for yourself if you’re nearby. They should consider doing a super taco combo. They have a plain taco combo with 3 tacos and rice and beans. If they had a meal with 2 supertacos with rice beans I would have ordered. Would have made it the right amount of...