Beer Barrio — Restaurant in Wilmington

A tale of two tacos: This is not the authentic corner taco shop of rural North Carolina. I knew that going in this was a bar with a great draft list and good margaritas and that tacos were the salt to build more thirst. With that said these are also not $2 tacos that blow your mind in the little bitty corn tortilla, this is more oriented towards chips and salsa and service and let me get you another beer. All that's fine, I enjoy that, but the two tacos I ordered were in contrast to one another.

Taco number one. Oh yum. The very helpful person at the bar indicated that I could not go wrong ordering the al pastor taco. She was right. Tender very nicely spiced pork with cheese melted onto the tortilla made a lovely comforting combination. Knowing that it was not the typical taco shop, I was still surprised when it came with little shredded chip pieces on the top and jalapenos sliced. Nevertheless the combo of jalapenos and pork and cheese and that wonderfully soft warm tortilla made for a taco absolutely worth eating. I would order it again and recommend it to others, including you, dear fellow taco lover.

In contrast, in spite of the recommendation of this very same helpful person, I did not find the chicken taco to be everything that it built itself up to be. Clearly it's not the chicken's fault. It would be hard to blame a chicken even if it was their fault. But there was a lot of show and not that much substance. Wait let me correct that, there was actually too much substance. Imagine if you will a nearly soggy but once crisp corn tortilla that is cold, slathered with guacamole and nested around a lukewarm soft corn tortilla holding the remainder of the chicken filling pico de gallo and other ingredients, all stitched together in a large zigzag pattern of sour cream. Sounds kind of good right? Seems like it would have potential yes? Well it does, it has potential to be very very messy, confuse your taste buds with a mixture of hot and cold that just doesn't seem to blend well, and then get down to the core of the bite which is chicken that was not spiced that well, according to my taste. I saw others around me ordering this taco, and enjoying it immensely. All of which is to say that this might be a great menu option for you, it just wasn't for me. So while I may not personally recommend it, I'm not saying anything dire about it.

I will reiterate that this is a bar that also serves good tacos, has very helpful staff, a wide selection of draft beers, and a pretty good understanding of what a good margarita should be....

Last night was the first time at this place. It's the day before Thanksgiving my wife is outta town for three weeks and needed to whine down after work. A coworker suggested his regular spot. It's funny I have passed this place many times heading around the corner to Wake and Bake. I am very pleased to say that it was the perfect spot. Although it was full it wasn't noisy like some other places. Everyone was nice and chill the music playing at the time was 70's.

We sat by the bar and ordered 10 hot wings for $12, Elote (Mexican corn on the cob) $5, and some brewskis I don't really like beer gives me terrible gas but I thought they Angry Orchard on tap, but they didn't. Tori the bar keep, offered me an alternative that was very similar and asked if I wanted a sample but I decided to just go head in and order it.

A few minutes later they gave us chips and salsa which was great by the way chips were crispy and the salsa had this smokey bbq flavor.

The wings we ordered were flavorful and crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. Of course they were hot enough to sting and enjoy.

The Elote was also very good now I've had very few experiences with Mexican corn on the cob. The first place was in Chili's, best place yet. Second was at San Felipe it was a dissapointment, and third was here it was juat right. It was a smaller serving than Chili's but the full flavor was there plus it was slightly chargrilled burnt marks which was great.

The apple cider they gave me was awesome to me it tasted like a light apple juice with a tangy taste. It was Soo good I had to order another. The cider was local, they have many local options but my surprise was the fact that the maker of my cider drink was made by SkyTown one of the local brewerys I recently reviewed.

Overall I think you should visit Beer Bario, it's a good place to hang with some friends or meet new friends and throw back a couple of local brews that will not dissapoint. Plus the ambiance it pretty quiet for a full house and the background music is just right to enjoy a conversation. Of you sit by the bar there is this great art piece you must see. I didn't get...

This was our second time at Beer Bario and I was really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a pretty simple review. The food was great but the service was very poor. We arrived at the restaurant about 2:00pm and walked in and we’re greeted by a woman with black hair pulled back in a low ponytail. She seemed annoyed that she had to leave whatever she was doing on her cell phone and seat us. We ended up seating ourselves at the bar. There we’re 2 other tables in the restaurant and a gentleman was waiting on them along with a food runner (girl with long blonde hair in a braid). We didn’t have a problem with the speed of service, it was that she seemed very annoyed and put out that she had to wait on us. She took our order and my husband ordered a side salad that never came out. She was on her phone at the hostess stand pretty much the entire time we were there and when another party came in she again seemed annoyed. Then she came over and said she was going on break and that if we needed anything to ask the girl with the braid. My husband looked at me and said, ‘she’s going on break from what? She’s literally been leaning on the hostess stand and on her phone the entire time’! She left to go get her sub from Jimmy John’s and went upstairs to eat. We also ate! Delicious pulled pork, ahi tuna and tequila lime chicken tacos! Started with the queso dip and the best salsa! Finished our food and then the salad came out🤷🏻‍♀️. Our server came back from upstairs and didn’t wash her hands before coming over and checking on us. We asked for a to go box for the salad and was annoyed again at having to do something. We totally understand breaks but she was on break from the time we walked in the restaurant. It really ruined our experience at your wonderful restaurant. Like I said we’ve been here before and couldn’t wait to come back but after this experience I don’t care how good the food is, we’re not...