Palos tacos — Restaurant in Vero Beach

Reader Warning: language regarding gross food poisoning symptoms

Jumped through hoops trying to report this to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation but regardless, I don’t believe that will do anything so I feel it’s my responsibility to let people know as I wish I would’ve seen before eating this place.

Before I even begin, after eating here our family has made it a habit to ALWAYS look at violations/inspections of restaurants BEFORE eating the food. Multiple work colleagues have recommended palos tacos so we decided to order on January 27th 2024, we got delivery through DoorDash and ordered

-Carne Asada Tacos -Elotes -Barbacoa Tacos

One of my family members had the asada tacos and elotes and said they were delicious, no issues. I shared the Barbacoa Tacos with another family member and immediately something tasted off, but I had not eaten that day and assumed I was just hungry and that was why it didn’t feel right going down. We started gagging as we finished the Barbacoa, I mean my body was actually rejecting this food and I ignored it, thinking maybe I had just been full. We started sweating, then the nausea came, before we knew it a few hours pass and were both throwing up blood and on the verge of passing out. This kept up for 5 days, then extended ANOTHER 7 days as it gradually got less extreme. I thought we were going to need to be hospitalized, thankfully we were able to bed rest and hydrate at home, not to mention the days of work we had to miss. We were both sick for almost two weeks, that was simply the worst food poisoning either of us have ever experienced.

Basically, the Barbacoa tacos gave us debilitating food poisoning that took weeks to get over, we know this because the family member who didn’t eat those was not sick and in fact enjoyed their food. Run far, far away from this place because the severity of what we experienced isn’t worth it even if it was a one off situation. I’m going to include info from a restaurant inspection report for Palos Tacos available in public records online that opened my eyes to making sure I check this kind of thing to avoid places that are risky to eat at:

Feb. 27, 2024 Inspection Number: 3397871 Number of Violations: 11

-Intermediate, Food being cooled by nonapproved method as evidenced by inadequate rate of cooling during time of inspection. Salsa Verde sitting out on the counter being cooled. Manager stated it has been in the process of cooling for 1 hour. Temperature reading 108F. Advised manager to put in smaller containers and move to cooler uncovered Corrective Action Taken

-Intermediate, Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime. Repeat Violation

-Intermediate, No proof provided that food employees are informed of their responsibility to report to the person in charge information about their health and activities related to foodborne illnesses. 2 new employees hired under 60 days, printed out form for manager to go over with employees and have them sign. Corrective Action Taken

-Intermediate, Ready-to-eat, time/temperature control for safety food prepared onsite and held more than 24 hours not properly date marked. Cooked chicken made yesterday in reach in cooler. Manager stated it would not...

FOOD POISONING WARNING We ordered Palo’s Tacos Saturday night (it’s now Tuesday) my husband & sister-in-law had nothing to eat that day because they were busy and were hungry & excited to try this taco place that was recomended to us. I had the asada tacos which, to be fair, were absolutely delicious. They had barbacoa and it looked off to me so I didn’t eat those. Shortly after eating the tacos, my husband and SIL felt sick. When they each tried to go to bed that night, they were up in their bathrooms on the toilet and vomiting. They haven’t been able to keep anything down since then. It is Tuesday afternoon and my husband & SIL still have uncontrollable diarrhea and are vomiting blood. My husband had to leave work early on Monday due to his illness and isn’t able to work today either because of his severe food poisioning. I’m not sure if the meat was undercooked/raw, was sitting out for too long at the restaurant, or both. But it looked and tasted off, and is still having an effect days later. This is absolutely horrendous and disgusting the pain they are in from this food. Thank God we didn’t feed any of the tacos to...

This place was absolutely awesome, I went in yesterday and I ordered 5 asada tacos, and it was my first time coming here so the girl behind the counter recommended so many things to me and not to mention she was the sweetest lady ever. She was extremely patient with me and she did an awesome job at multitasking. I do speak Spanish and I would say one thing the way the cooks treat her is extremely questionable, I saw her get yelled at in front of so many people and that’s extremely unprofessional behavior. I can tell she was extremely stressed out but she kept her composure unlike the people in the back especially the lady. I would definitely be coming back because the food is amazing but the cooks really need to cut her some slack, her job isn’t easy as most people think. The service industry isn’t easy especially if it’s only one person having to take orders and...