My friends and I are only in LA for a few days, and randomly stopped here on my way to the airport. I am SO glad that this was the stop we made. The food was delicious! I am a person who almost never finishes my food, but I finished my food and wanted to order more, though I was no longer hungry, because it was delicious. To top it off, the gentleman working was probably one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. I’m also not typically impressed with “service friendly” people, because it never seems genuine (as a person who has done a lot of customer service in my life, no judgment), but he seemed like he really enjoyed his job, and people. He was very charming. 10/10 experience. I’m sad that I don’t live here, because this would be my go-to taco place.

Full disclaimer before I get into this review: I am a master chef and a baker, and I have traveled more than a million miles experiencing cuisine all over the world, so I am a critic. That said, I tend to go pretty easy on people, and it takes a truly bad experience for me to leave a negative review.

Let us start with the service. It was fine. The man was friendly enough, but I was surprised that he did not attempt any upsell. He did not offer a drink, ask whether I wanted extras, or suggest upgrading to rice and beans. Having owned a restaurant myself, I believe that if you run a business, you should be asking customers whether they want additional items. Generally, if someone asks me, I will buy something else. That is my philosophy: if you are working for your business, I am willing to spend more with your business.

I decided to buy one of every taco they had available. They offer seven kinds of street tacos, but right away I was told that two of them were out of stock. I did not come late in the day, so that was surprising.

When I got home and opened my order, I found that the five tacos had been grouped together in a way that made no sense. Three tacos were wrapped together, and the other two were wrapped together. That was a problem because al pastor has sauce, and so does chicharron, so the meats and sauces mixed together and contaminated the other tacos. The gentleman did not ask whether that was acceptable, and I certainly did not need to explain whether I was sharing my dinner. I found that very strange and very problematic. It also made for an unpleasant eating experience because I ended up with sauce on tacos that were not supposed to have it.

The food itself was fine, but not particularly great. I have had much better in town, so that was disappointing. The carnitas, in particular, was extremely overcooked and very dry. I ordered two carnitas tacos and ended up throwing half of them away. In fact, I threw away an entire taco because it simply was not edible.

One more issue: they add a service charge for using a card. I understand that many businesses do this now, but as a business owner myself, I know we are usually talking about less than 2 percent in actual processing costs. It is frustrating to see a 5 percent charge on the bill when that exceeds the real cost of accepting a card.

Overall, I cannot recommend this restaurant. They have work to do, and I did not enjoy my meal.