Taco Rosas

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I won't go to the one in Crystal Cove ever since in an episode of Real (housewives)dumbshitz of the OC the Real dumbshitz were eating there. The one in Laguna was nice if you sat on "patio" and have a nice view.
 
That shows why everyone keeps finding my blog by searching for "real housewives javier's" With their move from Laguna to Crystal Cove they have apparently decided to only cater to Real Housewives type people.
 
[quote author="blackvault_cm" date=1231899662]Went there for the first time with my wife to check it out.



We were seated promptly, but waitress didn't arrive for the first 15 min or so. I had to flag someone down to come to our table.

We placed our order for a couple of burritos and a side of chips and salsa. The chips were burnt, so it took another 15 min or so to get our waitress to get us another batch. We also had only one set of silverware and napkin. With our order I asked for another. About an hour and 20 minutes of waiting, I had to call for the waitress again...except I couldn't find her so I flaged down a bus boy. I asked about our food that we haven't received yet. This is now almost two hours into the night.

I looked over to the couple next to us and asked if I'm getting service from hell and how their service is. They were in the same boat. They even proceeded to tell us that they had to put their name in twice to be seated. The first time they waited 30 min and found out the person never even wrote their names down. How un-suprising.



Anyway, the food arrived, I asked again for a set of silverware...no problem she said. Nothing...I had to get up and go to the kitchen and fetch me a set so I can eat my food that tasted like garbage.



I spoke to the manager afterwards...he didn't seem to care. He simply said... "Sorry". I repeated a short version of my frustration...he just looked at me and said "sorry" in a half sarcastic way. Fine. I left, whatever.



The bill was rather small...25 bucks and I left ZERO tip. Tip is a charge for service, not an obligation...I served myself.

Next day, my wife calls me over and asks didn't we only charge 25 bucks at Taco Rosas, I'm like yeah...she said our card got charged for 34.50. I called back the restaurant and asked for the manager. I asked why did I get charged 34.50 on a 25 dollar bill. He hung up the phone. Straight up. He said nothing, just hung up. I was shocked to be honest. I eventually called my bank and reported fraudulent charges.



Anyway, not sure if others have issues with them...but I'm never going back. One time was enough.</blockquote>


Most I-Phone users like YELP. I encourage you to write a very bad review on this site. Because the restaurant is in a prime location they should not get away with fraud and bad service. Bad press will affect its business.



My credit card information was stolen twice at restaurants that I rarely frequent. Both times were from Mexican resturants.



El Torito in Tustin was one. $12,000 worth of paint sprayer compressor were purchased from Home Depots through out OC and Riverside County. Massive amount of groceries were bought from Stater Brothers. The investigator told me that waiters often use a portable card reader to scan credit cards. I usually go to restaurants that I trust and my credit card transaction is being conducted at visually open space.



One of the design template criteria for PF Changs is their register command center is located out in the open where patrons or other employees can see the transaction being performed.



I get suspicious when the transaction does not come back in 5 minutes like in my case at El Torito in Tustin by Zov.



Use cash when ever possible at unfamiliar places. Never piss-off the waiter when they still have access to your food and credit card info.
 
[quote author="ChristianZ" date=1231907562]Thank you to irvine_native for linking to my blog.



The Taco Rosa debacle is unfortunate but does sound like an isolated incident. I've always had good service there even before I ever mentioned them on my blog or before I even had my Mexican food blog.



You might want to write up your complaint and send it to them. The very first entry I did on my blog was about them and I found out later that they found what I said and printed it out and made a copy for every employee so that the employees could see how the customers perceived them, so Taco Rosa <em>is</em> open to input.



Having said that, my blog covers over 200 Mexican restaurants in the county with new reviews added all the time.</blockquote>


Welcome to IHB Christian! I've been a fan of your site since I first found it linked on OC Fliptrack. :D
 
[quote author="ChristianZ" date=1231917625]The Laguna Javier's moved to Crystal Cove and ever since then I have had a bunch of complaints left about them on my blog. When I have personally been to about 200 Mexican restaurants in the county it's hard for me to pick one and say it's the only one people should consider going to. El Farolito is good and so is El Farolito Jr. I also like La Sirena but I like their El Segundo location best and hope they can have one like it in OC someday.



BTW, "Taco Rosa" translates as "Rose Taco" (big change, huh?) not "Pink Taco."</blockquote>


Actually, it also can refer to the color. Usage 12 (<a href="http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=rosa">Real Academia - "rosa"</a>). 'Taco Rosado' would be a more generally favored translation for pink taco though.



I apologize for the thread jack. I appreciate knowing about the incident at Taco Rosa and won't be trying it out. thanks!
 
"Welcome to IHB Christian! I?ve been a fan of your site since I first found it linked on OC Fliptrack. :D"



Thanks! Believe me, there's plenty more content coming.



"I appreciate knowing about the incident at Taco Rosa and won?t be trying it out."



Would you have gone otherwise? The incident they referred to may have been real but is nothing like the dozens and dozens of times I've been there.
 
El Cholo in Irvine has Online Ordering for to-go! :D



<a href="http://www.elcholo.com/">http://www.elcholo.com/</a>

<a href="http://www.gimmegrub.com/r/elcholoirvine.html">http://www.gimmegrub.com/r/elcholoirvine.html</a>



They're kinda pricy, but it's the Irvine premium.



El Cholo Cantina

5465 Alton Pkwy

Irvine, CA 92604

(949) 451-0044

<a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-cholo-cantina-irvine">http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-cholo-cantina-irvine</a>
 
[quote author="ChristianZ" date=1231925398]"Welcome to IHB Christian! I?ve been a fan of your site since I first found it linked on OC Fliptrack. :D"



Thanks! Believe me, there's plenty more content coming.



"I appreciate knowing about the incident at Taco Rosa and won?t be trying it out."



Would you have gone otherwise? The incident they referred to may have been real but is nothing like the dozens and dozens of times I've been there.</blockquote>


Personally doesn't matter. I read some other reviews and I'm not the only one. Some complained about the same burnt chips that I've experienced. In order for a restaurant to be listed as a quality one, they can't have an incident once every couple of dozen visits. You can F-up once, and maybe I'll come back the second time if you were accomodating to my incident. Second time...forget about it.

Times are tough...so imagine people that do take a shot at a restaurant like this...how would they feel if they had this experience considering they probably stretched their income just to dine there. You can't screw up in a bad economy.



If this was a stock, I would be 110% confident in shorting and buying puts on Taco Rosas any given day. Wish they were public...I would pull all my capital and aim to sink it.
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1231919787]

Most I-Phone users like YELP. I encourage you to write a very bad review on this site. Because the restaurant is in a prime location they should not get away with fraud and bad service. Bad press will affect its business.

My credit card information was stolen twice at restaurants that I rarely frequent. Both times were from Mexican resturants.

</blockquote>


Yelp is popular because it's free. Zagat is also avail on the iPhone, but costs $10 to download via iTunes, not to mention $25/year subscription.



As a cheaper alternative, one could purchase the $6 Zagat OC Restaurant Guidebook, or $10 Michelin Guide for LA.
 
[quote author="blackvault_cm" date=1231926280][quote author="ChristianZ" date=1231925398]"Welcome to IHB Christian! I?ve been a fan of your site since I first found it linked on OC Fliptrack. :D"



Thanks! Believe me, there's plenty more content coming.



"I appreciate knowing about the incident at Taco Rosa and won?t be trying it out."



Would you have gone otherwise? The incident they referred to may have been real but is nothing like the dozens and dozens of times I've been there.</blockquote>


Personally doesn't matter. I read some other reviews and I'm not the only one. Some complained about the same burnt chips that I've experienced. In order for a restaurant to be listed as a quality one, they can't have an incident once every couple of dozen visits. You can F-up once, and maybe I'll come back the second time if you were accomodating to my incident. Second time...forget about it.

Times are tough...so imagine people that do take a shot at a restaurant like this...how would they feel if they had this experience considering they probably stretched their income just to dine there. You can't screw up in a bad economy.



If this was a stock, I would be 110% confident in shorting and buying puts on Taco Rosas any given day. Wish they were public...I would pull all my capital and aim to sink it.</blockquote>


Well, every restaurant I've been to has had some sort of negative aspect to it which means you should never go to any restaurant. I don't get chips there because chips are not an authentic Mexican item at least not in the way Americans think they are. At Taco Rosa each person gets a free appetizer that is better than chips and salsa, but OC gringos have it in their heads that every Mexican restaurant has to have chips and salsa. Taco Rosa has them for people who think that way and many of the misunderstandings I have seen people have about Taco Rosa stem from the customer's own misperception of what authentic Mexican food is. Mexican restaurants in Mexico only started serving chips and salsa when droves of Americans would go down there and go, "Hey, where's our chips and salsa like we get all the time at Mexican restaurants in America?"



"You can F-up once, and maybe I'll come back the second time if you were accomodating to my incident."



Yes, that's true but you're not putting any stock into me telling you I've been there dozens and dozens of times (perhaps over a hundred but I'm not counting) and haven't had negative experiences like the ones described here. So you are saying, "Only believe the negative reports because obviously negative reports are more credible." You also seem to be implying that once a restaurant (or one employee of a restaurant) makes a mistake that they should never ever be able to live the mistake down and that nobody on the planet should ever go there again.



I've had the chips there a few times (not often, and I've really only had them when somebody in my party goes, "Hey, where's our chips and salsa?") and they are not burnt but they do have a robust, rustic flavor. I might just tell them though now that everybody thinks they are burnt and that maybe they should become less authentic and bring chips and salsa to every table and stop doing the free, more authentic, bocadillo.



And I've been to every other place other posters have mentioned here and can tell you negative things about each one, but in each case the positive outweighs the negative. In fact I've been to each one more than once.



I think I might actually e-mail this thread to them.
 
ChristianZ, no offense but I never said "Where is my salsa" I paid for it my friend. If I paid for it, I expect it and I expect quality. Not sure where you are getting this notion that "OC gringos have it in their heads that every Mexican restaurant has to have chips and salsa." No it doesn't have to have it, but it was on the menu, and I ordered it, and paid for it. And yes they were burnt, and yes my buritto was burnt all along the edges as well. I know what burnt is, and I know what burnt tastes like. I'm thrilled for you that you've had an amazing experience at Taco Rosas. I'm not here to combat you, just simply stating my view of them.

The bad food isn't the issue, its the service. I can understand that things don't always come out the same. I'm a cook, I cook many Eastern European stews...they don't all come out the same 100% of the time. But there is no excuse for service or lack of.



I guess your logic is to go to a restaurant 100 times and if its good 95 of the times then its all good. My logic is if I go to a restaurant 1,000,000,000 times, I expect it to be good 1,000,000,000 times. If I want bad Mexican Food and a waste of time on a Saturday night, I can attempt to make deep fried tortila chips at home.



Plus how do you know they arent biased. I mean you claim to have been there over 100 times. If I was a manager of a restaurant I would remember my customers after that many visits. Perhaps they even know you write reviews, of course you will get different treatment. However, based on a few sites...experiences similar to mine exit by the handful.
 
Sorry, I'm not just talking about you but generalizing things I have heard other people say (as far as the chips and salsa thing goes).



"I guess your logic is to go to a restaurant 100 times and if its good 95 of the times then its all good. My logic is if I go to a restaurant 1,000,000,000 times, I expect it to be good 1,000,000,000 times."



My logic is that every place I have ever eaten at has had some sort of negative aspect to it. If nobody ate at a restaurant that ever made a mistake then we would all be eating at home. Which could be a good thing...



"Plus how do you know they arent biased?"



Because I had great service and food from there beginning with my first visit and over many other visits since the first time until a year and a half later when I actually started my blog. Yes, from the very first visit when I found out about them from the Register and went searching them out because it sounded so good. That was in June 2004. I started my blog at the end of December 2005. Many people I have recommended it to have tried it, loved it, and recommended it to others. As ONE example I told a guy named Pat about it. He tried it and loved it and told, among others, a girl named Christine about it. Later on I was at Taco Rosa and bumped into Christine there and I asked her how she found out about it. She said, "This isn't my first visit but it was Pat N. that told me about it." I said, "Guess who told Pat about it?" "You?" "Yep."
 
Personally, one incident of them "adjusting" my credit card receipt would be enough to never go again, and to thrash them publicly.





And...Avila's: They are each individually owned, and vary wildly in quality. (I think each of the Avila children opened/runs one of them)



My impressions:

CdM=bad

HB=fair/poor

CM=excellent

NPB=medium

Laguna=good





(i've also heard that the santa ana one is good, but haven't been)
 
[quote author="freedomCM" date=1231930582]Personally, one incident of them "adjusting" my credit card receipt would be enough to never go again, and to thrash them publicly.





And...Avila's: They are each individually owned, and vary wildly in quality. (I think each of the Avila children opened/runs one of them)



My impressions:

CdM=bad

HB=fair/poor

CM=excellent

NPB=medium

Laguna=good





(i've also heard that the santa ana one is good, but haven't been)</blockquote>


I've been to the CdM and Newport locations once each and to the Lake Forest one two or three times. They are fairly good and they have good strawberry churros. Have driven past the Costa Mesa one about a million times but have never been in. Maybe it'll be the next one I try.
 
I should also add that with Taco Rosa and with other restaurants (basically any place where a tip might be involved) that sometimes I will check my checking account online and see it listed as a pending transaction with an amount that is a few dollars more than the total I wrote in . . . but once it goes through and the money is actually deducted from my checking account it is always for the amount I wrote in; well, there was one time where the actual amount charged to me by Taco Rosa was a few bucks less than what I wrote in. But when I first started to see this I was really thrown off. "What?! I only wrote in $18.34 and the pending transaction says $21.34?! Are they trying to cheat me?!" But then the correct amount (or less in one instance) is what would actually go through so I started to get used to it.
 
[quote author="freedomCM" date=1231930582]Personally, one incident of them "adjusting" my credit card receipt would be enough to never go again, and to thrash them publicly.





And...Avila's: They are each individually owned, and vary wildly in quality. (I think each of the Avila children opened/runs one of them)



My impressions:

CdM=bad

HB=fair/poor

CM=excellent

NPB=medium

Laguna=good





(i've also heard that the santa ana one is good, but haven't been)</blockquote>


Are they all different? I never did like the CDM one. We used to go because we could walk there. Technically we could walk to CM, but haven't gone since Taco Mesa is closer and we liked that better than what we thought we knew of Avila's. I used to go to the one in Lake Forest for lunch. Food was good, but service was poor.
 
Yes, all individual, and vary widely in quality and service. The CM one is the best of the few I've gone to more than thrice. Very good food, and service!



Get on your walking shoes!





(that said, I really do like the food at Taco Mesa quite a lot too. but TM is self-serve, limited menu, while Avila's is big menu, liquor(!), and nice service. plus, the CM one has an outdoor firepit that you can dine near)
 
We went to the Taco Mesa at the Irvine Marketplace last week for the first time, and the food was surprisingly good for a "gringo" location like the Marketplace, and the service was very good as well. We enjoyed the complimentary appetizer thing instead of chips. I did have a very irritating experience at the DSW shoe store at the District, but that's too offtopic for this thread...:)
 
Talking about tacos and burritos just makes me *hungry*...

I'm going to go to my favorite place: <a href="http://bajafishtacos.net/">Baja Fish Tacos</a>



The food is very good, and after 3pm they have Mexican Beer at 2x1: Corona, Negra (my favorite), Pacifico, etc., you don't pay "imported" prices. Weekends they have 2x1 all day.



The Santa Ana/Costa Mesa location (Bristol and McArthur), gets crowded at lunch time, but is the place that I like to go.



You know it's a good place when you see police officers eating in the next table.
 
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