Tinga Taqueria — Restaurant in Westfield

Perfect for a quick dinner for date night. My wife and I try to visit Westfield restaurants at least 2 times a week and we're always on the look out for "undiscovered gems" that we can share with our friends and family. Tinga has a dining experience unlike anything you'll find in Westfield with great prices and large portions.

3 reasons to visit Tinga:

1. Great ambiance. For the second you walk into the restaurant, it’s almost like you are taking a trip to Mexico. The walls are bright and colorful and lined with lit Jalapenos. Definitely something different than your normal Westfield Restaurant.
2. Bang for your Buck! You get a lot of delicious Mexican food for your peso… I mean dollar! You can easily do dinner with appys for under $60
3. Quick and friendly service. Our server refilled our drinks without us asking, and anticipated our needs before we knew we need them. He had a great personality and made it a very enjoyable evening. Your food comes out fast so be ready!

What we ordered and what you should probably order too:

Drinks: Virgin Mango Margarita & Iced Tea, Price - $3.50 + $2.50 Appetizer: Chicken & Beef Empanadas, Price - $4.95

My wife and I are empanada fanatics! The best ones we've ever had we're at Silvia's in Louisa, Puerto Rico. (Check my profile for a review on that one! It's worth a trip to PR!)

Back to Tinga, we started with their Chicken and Beef Empanadas and weren't disappointed. The meat could have used a bit more seasoning, but when you dipped it in the salsa it added just the right amount of heat to every bite. The beef empanadas had peas and other vegetables mixed in which was a nice surprise for my taste buds!

Main Courses: Shrimp Tacos & Veggie Tacos Price – $13.45 + $9.75

Tinga is on par with the Taquerias in NYC. Each order came with 3 tacos, rice, black beans and a side of sour cream. They are about double the size of the small tacos you get at Tacombi in NYC. (Another review in my profile... If you’re looking for amazing Mexican in NYC… you must go here!)

The Tacos are served in an outer hard corn tortilla with a soft flour tortilla on the inside. I suggest taking them out of the hard tortillas and just ate them with the soft. It’s a lot easier to manage.

They don’t skimp on the amount of meat inside each taco. Every bite had just the right amount to balance against the other complementary tastes inside.

The Veggie tacos were HUGE. I recommend asking them to fill the inside of the taco with less, and then giving you an extra side of the veggies. My wife had a hard time managing to get a bite of the tacos without getting lettuce everywhere.

We skipped dessert in favor of grabbing a drink before exploring the new Cinemark theater in Watchung. (Check out the review in my profile, it’s a must go…they have heated seats and Tuesday tickets for $5.50)

All in All – you won’t find a better Mexican place in downtown Westfield! There are some little things they could improve upon, but for a date night under $50 I was mildly impressed.

Total Meal = $34.15 + 20% $9...

So we generally LOVE Tinga’s food, their flavors are great. We used to frequent pre-pandemic and now order delivery all the time. However I’ve been very disappointed the last four times we ordered and I even brought it up the last two times prior to ordering, hoping to avoid further disappointment. All of the sudden their quesadillas have barely any cheese.. Like, tons of very flavorful chicken but barely visible cheese. It’s so dry and hard to eat, we’ve had to add our own cheese every single time. The last two times we ordered we even specifically asked for extra cheese and they still came with barely any (see photo) and had to add more. One of our orders was a group order and everyone complained of the same thing. Thankfully we had extra cheese in our fridge to go around. But that shouldn’t have to happen - it's a quesadilla, never would I expect to have to ask for cheese! Normally I wouldn’t write a review for a single item but having brought it up several times and even after asking, not getting what we ordered, it’s just very disappointing. Especially because it used to be our favorite item...

I had a very unpleasant experience at this restaurant today. While walking back from the restroom, I noticed they drain the tortilla chips in a big commercial size trash can that has a black garbage bag and paper to catch grease. After seeing that I wasn’t too sure about eating there. Against my better judgement, my friend and I ordered food and ate. As she was chewing her rice, she found a piece of plastic. She informed the waiter and the manager and they comped her meal. This was scary and unacceptable because her 2 year old was also eating the rice. I could no longer eat my shrimp quesadilla after seeing that. It was not tasty to begin with and the rice and beans I had tasted disgusting. I now feel sick to my stomach after eating there and will never return. The meal was also incredibly overpriced for what we received. The waitress was friendly. Eat here at your...