Eduardo's Lokos Tacos — Restaurant in Tavares

When we arrived to Eduardo’s we were greeted by an older man who appeared to be possibly the manager or maybe even the owner. The restaurant was busy so the only place to seat our party was at a high top in the bar area. Which we were totally fine with except when we arrived to our table the room smelt moldy and the cute lights around the bar were all off making it a bit dark and dreary. I asked the gentleman if it was possible to turn the lights on and I explained we were there to celebrate my daughters 18th birthday. The gentleman told me the lights no longer worked and it was “one of those things on their list to do”. Not a problem. The gentleman sat us at our table and went to get the chips and salsa for our table. When he arrived with the chips and salsa he made an announcement to our table telling us not to ask for anymore chips because they were all out and that was the last 2 baskets they had. My mom questioned him about the cheese dip we heard such great things about and he said he could absolutely get that for us. I questioned him about how we would eat cheese dip if there were no more chips? His response was “oh no! That’s not a problem a I can gather a couple more baskets of chips for the cheese dip”. ?? 🤔?? He then left to put our order for cheese dip in and fetch our waiter. We then sat for 20 minutes waiting for a waiter and to place our drink order. The cheese dip we ordered still nowhere to be found. Finally the waiter shows up and asks for our drink order. We placed our drink order and I asked for a glass of wine. The waiter then leaves to, I’m assuming get our drinks, but again we wait another 20 minutes. Still there is no sight of our cheese dip. By this time the restaurant has cleared out with very few customers left in the building. Finally our waiter comes back with our drinks. We questioned were our cheese dip was and he then told us he could place an order for it if we wanted it? (Meanwhile we are watching the manager who informed us not to ask for chip refills bring baskets of chips to every table left) I told the waiter we ordered the cheese dip 45 min ago but the order was obviously not placed. The waiter delivered all our drinks after another 20 minute wait but the glass of wine did not come. When I questioned him about it he told me I never ordered it initially. Our entire table informed him I did order it initially. He checked his note pad and sure enough he had written it down. Not long after my wine did arrive with the cheese dip that was ordered almost an hour before. We then placed our dinner orders. The cheese dip sure did hold up to its reputation. It was awesome! I will give them that. However, we then waited another hour with no sign of our dinner anywhere in sight. Our waiter disappeared with our food. Nowhere to be found. Empty drinks on the table for 30 minutes... nothing. Finally I grabbed the managers attention to question him about or dinner order. The manager went back to check on it and came back and told us unfortunately it would be at least 15-20 more minutes. (Meaning it was never even placed) at this point we had been sitting there for 2 hours. Everybody was starving and I had just had enough. I politely asked for our bill and told him not to worry about our dinner order. He sent our waiter over. Our waiter apologized and then told us it would be only 5 minutes if we wanted to wait. (Not even a minute before the manager said 15-20 minutes) I again politely asked for our check for what we had consumed at that time, cheese dip and one drink. I explained our entire experience and questioned again why we were told to not ask for chip refills as we were told there were no chips left but our entire 2 hours of sitting and waiting we watched several tables get chips and refills! He did not have an answer. He apologized and offered to discount our bill if we stayed. I...

Decided to take my wife to a different Mexican food restaurant instead of our usuals. I spent some time going through Yelp for ideas. Eduardo's Lokos Tacos popped up and after looking at the pics and the menu, decided that's where we should eat. We waited until she was done with work to head that way...and we were starving! We had eaten there before, but it's been so long that neither of us could really remember if we liked it or not.

Upon arrival, everything was fine. Server was nice, the margaritas were decent and the salsa was ok (after we spruced it up with salt and some lime). My wife ordered her meal and I ordered mine, which was the Taco Tuesday tacos AND a taco meal, so I could have leftovers the next day. First issue was my first tacos. I ordered the authentic tacos with soft corn tortillas. When my tacos arrived, they were flour tortillas. Not really an issue and took my first bite...not bad.

While having our usual good conversations (pretty good for being married for almost 26 years!), all of the sudden, my wife's eyes get HUGE and makes an audible gasp. It's not really a usual reaction for her, so of course I follow her eyes to what was causing the reaction. Next to me, not one foot away was a two inch cockroach walking up the dividing wall between the two booths. I don't know about you, but I don't want to share my eating space with a huge cockroach. We let the server know and she immediately moved us and said she was getting her manager.

We moved to a table across the booth we were sitting at. We watched for several minutes as the cockroach was mounted on the wall, determining what food he could eat that we had left. Busboy came by to look at it, nothing. Maybe a few minutes later, the manager picked up the cockroach with a paper towel, wiped the wall where the roach was (never mind the entire patch that roach took and I suppose the manger was satisfied with his cleaning.

At this point, neither my wife or me wanted to eat anymore. I don't think we could have if we wanted. We were both feeling somewhat uneased and didn't even want to touch our food (she has maybe one spoonful of shrimp cocktail and I had about half a taco). We just wanted out of there. At some point the server stopped and asked if we wanted anything else or a box to pack the food. That's a no for me, dawg.

Now this is where the story gets a little strange, never mind having to share a booth with the big bug from Men in Black (never thought I'd want Will Smith to arrive with his neuralizer) Another few minutes pass and the manager arrives to check if we wanted anything else. We explained we just lost our appetite and didn't want to eat. **He proceeded to tell us that there was nothing he could do to get rid of cockroaches and that we should be happy it was a big one, and not a small one. He explained that "it's just Florida" to have palmetto cockroaches in the restaurant. He let us know they come in when it's hot and humid. Never mind it was 69 degrees and not a shred of humidity in the air. HE TOLD US ITS NORMAL FOR COCKROACHES TO BE IN THE RESTAURANT AND WE SHOULD BE HAPPY IT WAS A BIG ROACH AND NOT A SMALL ONE!!!

Needless to say we were a bit speechless. He did say he wasn't going to charge for the meal, so that's good. There was a couple across from us who heard the conversation and they were mortified because they had just eaten and were paying. They were pretty grossed out and I heard one talking about calling the health department. Not a bad idea. Wife and I left determined to never step foot in that restaurant again.

"Keep Eduardo's Lokos Tacos out of your damn mouth"! --. Will...

Honestly worst restaurant Ive ever ate at in terms of food quality. I ordered steak tacos, chicken tacos, and a quesadilla with fries for my kid. The moment I walked in I had a bad feeling. If I had to guess what happened here was there used to be an authentic kitchen staff and owners. They sold it because im sure they wanted to retire and sold it with recipes my guess is to the gringos. Problem is these recipes dont translate well and the quality of meat and ingredients has to be the real mexican variety. The meat was chewy, barely cooked, and EXTREMELY over seasoned. The meat was covered in garlic, like visibly completely covered in garlic, and it reeked of the smell of a certain marinade product that has too much vinegar. The tortillas had an artificial smell and taste like the store bought kind. Not the authentic local tortillas. My childs quesadilla and fries were soggy and she said the cheese tasted funny. The chicken tacos were a joke. Chunks of chicken chopped up, like it was precut chicken breast strips they barely seasoned and just quicky diced. These arent your authentic mexican chicken tacos made with slow cooked seasoned chicken that is shredded properly. The only reason you all get 1 star is because you have some really good service, very nice young people working there. God bless you young folks. No offense to you all but this food is no where even close to authentic.

In Summary: My guess is this place wont last long. Miss managed and short on budget im sure. When you skimp on ingredients, choose subpar quality meats, and you dont stick to the authentic way of preparing and cooking you will eventually meet your fate. Take my warning now and stop what you are doing and redo it all from the ground up.

*I mean this with good critical intentions I want you all to survive. But this time the food was disgusting and we threw 90% of it away. I have managed restaurants, been an operations manager for a big chain, and ive even owned my own kitchen. Trust me here. You are setting yourselves up for failure riding on the coat tails of the previous owners and his reviews. Good luck...