[quote=“lupillus”]Tried to go today, but found that the metal door was half pulled down and a hand scrawled notice put up - “starting today, we’re closed every Tuesday for training sorry.”
Great. What a waste of time.[/quote]
I’ve been. A couple of times. I’m not from KKKalifornia (although quite what that has to do with Mexican food I’m not sure – I’ve heard that middle-class KKalifornians sometimes consider themselves to be some kind of Mexican food gourmands, but nobody I’ve ever known from yer actual Mexico would agree) but I worked as a chef in a Mexican kitchen for several years and I thought the tacos were quite OK. Not great, but then, they were UBER-CHEAP! So I give it a good thumbs up.
[quote=“sandman”][quote=“lupillus”]Tried to go today, but found that the metal door was half pulled down and a hand scrawled notice put up - “starting today, we’re closed every Tuesday for training sorry.”
Great. What a waste of time.[/quote]
I’ve been. A couple of times. I’m not from KKKalifornia (although quite what that has to do with Mexican food I’m not sure – I’ve heard that middle-class KKalifornians sometimes consider themselves to be some kind of Mexican food gourmands, but nobody I’ve ever known from yer actual Mexico would agree) but I worked as a chef in a Mexican kitchen for several years and I thought the tacos were quite OK. Not great, but then, they were UBER-CHEAP! So I give it a good thumbs up.[/quote]
Yeah, I’ve had a couple of better-than-average feeds from there for a real great price, so I can’t complain.
Plus I get a bit of a woody thinking about you-know-who being an owner…
I just tried a chicken burrito from Macho Tacos. To be honest, looking at the Mexican wrestler-themed marketing documents was more interesting than the taste of Macho Taco’s chicken burrito. Pretty disappointing. The shredded chicken was bland and tasteless. What happened to flavorings? You know, cumin, chili, garlic, maybe a bit of lime, cilantro… something! Also, I am definitely not a fan of rice IN the burrito. In my view this is a sneaky way to reduce costs. Refried beans all the way! Nevertheless, the rice appeared nicely colored like traditional Spanish rice. But like the chicken - bland and tasteless. After a my first few disappointing bites I decided to give it a good douse of the hot sauce that came with it. The sauce was hot enough and had a good color, but again, it suffered from the same symptoms described above - bland and tasteless. I have to say this is the worst $125 I’ve spent in a while. This item does not merit the name “burrito”, but instead, a “California tortilla wrap sandwich” IMHO.
I love the Macho Taco theme and advertising campaign, it is somewhat world class and seems well thought out. It could be a winner and help them become a largely well known name or brand with maybe even some franchise opportunities. Kudos. The staff is also friendly and hospitable.
Unfortunately, sadly, the food doesn’t match and doesn’t have the flavor and freshness. And the hours don’t even match some people’s eating habits. But that doesn’t really matter in Taiwan as low price, notoriety (have you heard ?), and location take precedence over quality of food.
But to add to my happiness, I have recently found 2+ other somewhat new good places for tacos and burritos. One of them has become extremely popular with everyone to which I have introduced. Will post that information separetely.
I can’t believe I am talking so much about food and places to eat food… alas, the final sign that I have become Taiwanese…
Macho Tacos is going downhill fast. Meat is dry, cheese on the nachos unmelted and it clumps, no more cholula, and even the horchata is awful. I actually had to pour it out and sneak some soda.
They’ve opened up one near Shita now (they are in soft opening starting Wednesday until their “grand opening”) so everything is 10% off until then.
The place was totally empty for the most part, but it’s on Pucheng St. so a bit off the Shita beaten path in a way. I ate there twice – once for lunch, once for dinner. I’m simultaneously pleased and underwhelmed. I felt everything was really good, flavor-wise, particularly the rice with cilantro and lime and the carne asada. But I wanted to burst out laughing when I got the soft taco I ordered on my first visit. If you’re going to call a place “Macho Taco” you don’t want to be handing out “Teeny Tacos”. Really, the diameter of the tortilla (which was lying flat open on the plate) was such that I could span it with my thumb and middle finger stretched out. What’s that, like 5-6 inches? Not impressive IMO. Slight problem with the soda machine which was fixed within minutes.
Chips were meh. Staff were very nice, spoke unusually good English (the kind where you don’t get irritated by it) and after I’d eaten, I liked the flavors of everything well enough to think that what they gave me was probably the portion size I ought to be having anyway. I did end up feeling like I’d had enough to eat.
Before you hop on the HSR for a visit, take a deep breath and say, “Wait a minute. Mexican food. In Taiwan.” Then think about it. Repeat if necessary.
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I gotta second this. Honestly, it’s average. I haven’t eaten everything on the menu but the burritos I had were just okay. My buddy Richard makes stuff at home that kicks the ass off what I’ve had here.
Hey all, i am an owner over at Macho Tacos and would like to thank everyone for taking the time to critique our shop. Of course it’s hard to hear negative feedback, but in most cases it is taken under consideration. We have a tremendous number of people who love our food and support our desire to bring something new to taiwan. Due to us being a start-up and not a chain restaurant sometimes things can get messed up… its just part of tying something new. Since its impossible for me or one of my partners to always be present as each dish goes out to the customers sometimes something will get missed. The problem lies in not learning from mistakes or taking into consideration our customers options and experiences. so, again, thank you for ur feedback.
I taste most items most days and the flavors are mostly where we want them, however at times after being in the steam table for a bit some flavors are not as great as they are right off the grill. we cook our meats fresh daily after an overnight marinade. same for the rice.
Burritos are by nature a very personal item. people from all over the place have all grown up with different types of burritos with different fillings and its impossible to please everyone. you can always add and subtract to get as close to your palate as possible. and ADD “the works”, if u want extra hot sauce tell them to put it inside, no rice double beans no problem.
horchata! this post really upset me cause nothing has changed with the horchata at all. Maybe something got missed when making that batch and the flavor was off. sorry about that. in the future let the counter know and they will gladly refund u and treat u to a soda. Please PM me and i will ensure u have one on us in the future. a shot of tequila too!
that goes for anyone who feels they have not received the quality of meal they expected. i would be happy if you allowed us another try at our expense.
Bare in mind we are a small taco shop just trying to bring something we loved from back home to Taiwan.
please continue the conversation. all feedback is taken under consideration. much appreciated!
I went to the Zhong Xiao branch on Friday and was also disappointed with the burrito.
I ordered a “Macho Pork” - which, whilst being very big, had hardly any meat and was just padded with rice. I paid the 30NT extra for “The Works”, but again, that provided hardly anything.
One thing I would like to suggest (if possible) is on the burrito, not to make them in sections - on mine for example, the meat was all down the right hand side, rice in the middle, and the cheese and bits on the left. It made it impossible to eat a bit of everything at once - much better if it was all mixed together.
Two things, from repeated trips back to the Shita location:
Real guacamole does not come in plastic bags. I’m pretty sure that green stuff that was squirted on the corner of my salad did. This seems to be a nationwide problem with guacamole in Taiwan, because it’s been this way at every Mexican place I’ve eaten at for the last I don’t know how many years (though I have not yet hit many of the newer ones, to be fair.)
Can I please, please have the recipe for the cilantro and lime rice? I don’t live in Taiwan, and I’d love to make it during the year when I’m out of the country. :bravo:
Went to the new Shida location tonight with half a dozen friends and it seems like this place isn’t up and running properly yet.
The “bartender” was out, so we couldn’t have any of the drinks on offer for one.
We ordered a bunch of different things and as mentioned here, the pork wasn’t that exciting, a bit dry and not that much of it. The nachos had no cheese at all on them and tasted quite plain.
The chimichangas were nice, although I have nothing to compare with as I’ve never had it before.
One other issue was that we didn’t get any hot sauce with any of it until our second order and considering that all in we spent something like 3.5k there tonight, we were a bit disappointed with the staff who didn’t really seem to know what they were doing.
I also have to agree with the previous posters here about the cheese, sour cream and guac, it’s just some kind of saucy stuff and not very much of it, especially at NT$40 extra.
That said, it all tasted fresh and my previous time at the original location was overall much better.
Hopefully things can improve and I’d suggest that the meat is kept in the juices it was cooked in, the way Oola used to do before the change of ownership, as the meat there in general was much nicer.
At least the Shida location has a few more tables and it was absolutely packed out tonight within half an hour of us arriving there.
Yeah, hit this spot today and wanted to offer my 0.02¢…
I liked the overall experience as I was craving that U.S. Qdoba / La’Bamba’s / Taco Bell / etc. thing.
However, I was a little disappointed in the fact that the guacamole was some type of bulk bought green paste out of a bag / can / box and not made from fresh avocados… (like those are hard to find here).
And the beans weren’t anything really to rave about. Black beans with some shredded cheese on them, ok, but I would have much rather seen a nice plate of refried beans with some real queso and sour cream.
Overall I’d give this place 3 stars out 5, but it could dramatically increase its street cred and probably its bottom line by making a couple of very easy tweaks to their menu and ingredient choices…
Dropped by the Zhongxiao branch this week. The pork tacos are great. Anything with pork must be great. They have hard and soft shells.
Since Amy’s closed, Tacos2Go was at the top of my mexican food list. Cactus is now at the top of the list for the best full-on mexican plate meals with the best flavor, with Macho Taco followed by Tacos2Go as the two best for mexican fast food.
I’m going to be straight here, the first few months it was a novelty and the salsa and toppings were and still are up to standards but the meats…my god it’s bad. The pork has been increasingly dry and flavourless. The steak and chicken I just stay away from cos it’s not even worth trying if you guys already fucked the pork up. If you guys are looking in being just another average burrito place in TP, you’ve succeeded, but you’re FAR from being anywhere good. take it as it is, but I’m always on the lookout for good locally owned place in TP and that’s what I feel. I really hope you guys make it, by taking time to cook you meats right.
Was not impressed enough early on with the two times I tried Mayan to try a theirs time. Will give it another try soon.[/quote]
You’re more forgiving than me. I went there once and that was it. Won’t be going back again after paying such outrageous prices for such average fare. Will have to try Cactus sometime.
Speaking of Amy’s, a friend told me he saw a La Casita restaurant near SYS Memorial Hall recently. Has anyone else seen this? Hope Amy’s back in business.
WTF happened to the meat? I used to recommend this place to others but I don’t do that anymore. And it’s not one of my “go to” places anymore.
The pork had chunks of I don’t know what but I do know I couldn’t bite or chew it. It doesn’t really have flavor either.
But the staff seems to be happy staff sitting on a dirty outdoor front porch seating area blowing smoke in my face and having smokes and enjoying themselves.
I did end up feeling like I’d had enough to eat.
