Taco Cabana

I love Taco Cabana. This was my first visit to this one. We ordered chips and Guacamole and Chips and Queso — we ordered the «large» size for both. We received one small basket of chips and was told that it was $ 4.75 for a refill. even though we had over half of our queso and guacamole left. We spoke with a manager and they refused to budge on their «policy». You just lost a customer, Taco Cabana. I will starve before I give you another dime… unfortunately people will continue to visit and spend money so this absurdity will go unrectified.

decided to finally try this place since it’s near my house. ordered the barbacoa breakfast taco and a side of rice. the taco had lots of meat and i put some salsa with it. it was yummy. the rice wasn’t really good. the rice was a little hard so i didn’t finish eating it. the staff was friendly and my order came out fast.

Came in around 1pm on a weekday. Very dirty, any open table was filthy with old food and/​or crumbs all over the floor. Big liquid mess in front of soda machine. Salsa bar was totally out of pico. Never seen that before. Ok the bright side, this quesadilla is delicious.

Wow. People smoking on the patio with signs everywhere saying no smoking. Cashier was handling money with the same gloves he was preparing food with. What is the point of the gloves?
One employee was literally dragging the chairs across the floor the entire time we were ordering and we could not hear a word the cashier was saying.
Absolutely the dirtiest place. The floor has so much trash. Not sure how this place is even open to be honest.

Awful. I had to change my baby on the chair in the dining area because «it’s a liability» to put one in the restroom.
The employee handling the salsa bar (who wasn’t wearing gloves) poured too many onions, then proceeded to pile them up and scoop them out of the neighboring salsa instead of changing it or taking it to the back. Then… I witnessed him pour too much pico in the container. He then used the scoop to pick up the spilled pico and PUT IT BACK IN THE CONTAINER!!! Cross. Contamination. I will not be back to this location. Gross isn’t even the right word for this location.

Caca.

Growing up Taco Cabana, was a part of San Antonio, I grew up asking my Dad to take me there so we could «Get Real» as Mr. Memorial Day Miracle himself, Sean Elliott would say in the commercials. When I lived in Oklahoma City, I would drive 45 minutes to Norman, so I could eat at Taco Cabana, and get a much needed taste of home. While working in Houston, being practically homeless, Taco Cabana was one of the few places I could afford to eat at and have a full meal. The menu has changed a lot from the «Get Real» days, and I’ve been back a few times recently to enjoy some of my favorites, and I can’t help but ask myself one question: Is this real food? Seriously, the food I’ve gotten the last few times has really made me question my whole life and food, as I know it.
Here are a few gems, from the service I’ve received over the years, yes amazingly this is all at the same location. When I asked the question «Can I add Chicken to that?» The answer I got was «I don’t think so… No.» I literally had to order a Chicken Taco and remove the Chicken and add it to my dish. Being Catholic there are a few days a year where I abstain from Red Meats, Pork, and Poultry, but Sea Food is acceptable. Not much of a sacrifice if you ask me, but I didn’t make the rules. On one of these occasions I went to Taco Cabana with my Mom, and we wanted to share a Shrimp Quesadilla, but we where unsure if a personal size would be enough for the both us, or if we should go for the regular. When I asked what the difference was the Woman behind the counter said with a straight face: «The Personal is the small one, and the Regular is the big one.» When I pressed further to see if there was a difference in the number of pieces served, she had no answer. In my most recent visits, 3 times over the last week or so, they’ve messed up each of my orders, forcing me to go through my painfully horrifying worst nightmare of sending food back to a fast food kitchen for re-​fire. Now, not only has my food taken longer to get to me, I’m now genuinely worried for my health. The last tale I have for you is that I was once served the health code violation of a refrigerator cold Chicken Taco.
Despite everything I just said, there have been several visits where my order was correct, and the service was acceptable, but lets talk food quality shall we? This pathetic excuse for a taco salad the Cabana Bowl, needs to go. Too often the lettuce used has started to brown, yet still served. Once you mix up the different components of the dish it turns into a tasty pile of slop. Although the flavors are there the dish itself, is unappetizing and no longer resembles anything a restaurant with any sense of pride would serve to a human. I don’t know whats happened over the years. I’m not entirely sure if my palate has become more refined, or if the quality of the food has just gone down. I want to believe its the latter because of the fact that they’ve branched out too far. Thats what happens, you end up sacrificing quality, for mediocre consistency.
I love Tex-​Mex Food. I believe it has a true home in San Antonio. After talking it over with some fellow San Antonians over the last week or so, it was concluded Taco Cabana has lost it’s pride and sacrificed the things we used to love about it to appeal to a wider audience. Which may be good for business as a whole but not good for those of us who remember the good ol’ days. They’ve stopped serving Tex-​Mex Food and have started serving Tex-​Mex like products, some of which barely resemble anything close to actual food. I think Taco Cabana should take Sean Elliott’s advice, and «Get Real.»

I was not a fan of this fast food Mexican restaurant. Skip this spot and head over to Chipotle.

Lets start off by saying the food was ok but after that its all down hill from there. I used the drive through and it took quite some time to get through needless to say I was not pleased. the window staff were not that friendly really seemed like they really didn’t want to be there. it was not late it was about 6pm on a weekday. it seemed like 45 min to get to the window but it was more like 30 mins which is much too long. I will have to give them this, my order did come out correct except for the salsa but at least my main order was correct. Thanks for reading my review.
If you are the business owner and would like me to re-​review your business feel free to contact me and I would be happy to. (keep in mind when I re-​review I will not tell you when I am going, I like my review to be an honest picture of what to expect when someone visits an establishment.)

I’ve been coming to this place for years. Taco Cabana was in its prime 4 – 6 years ago, but they’ve changed their menu and got rid of some great items like the Super Tex-​Mex. It’s still a great chain for cheap tex-​mex food. The tacos are pretty good, chips and queso are great, and the customizable cabana bowls can be made to be pretty healthy and still be tasty. Fresh salsas, onions, cilantro and other add-​ons are always available. I would avoid the nachos though. Overall it’s a good place to eat.

Let’s be fair, I’m from CO and we don’t have Taco Cabana.
Because of that, I love this place! The taco’s are small, but tasty and the array of sauces available are superb.
My favorite though, is the brisket fajitas. I was shocked at the quality considering it’s essentially taco bell on steroids.
Don’t miss it.

Been eating here for years as it was one of my daughters favorite places to eat. Since she was so particular, it was nice to have a «go to» place. Luckily, her taste has changed, so that we don’t have to eat here every week:-)
The food has always been freshly made and is served quickly. They even bring it to your table now instead of having to pick it up at the counter. They offer many different salsa options and other fresh ingredients.
Is the food the best? No, but it is consistent. It’s more like Tex Mex fast food.

This seemed to be one of the nearest vegan-​friendly options to where I was staying and I was absolutely starving/​hungover. Nearly a decade of consuming alcohol (I started later y’all!) and I still can’t responsibly patronize «open bar» anything.
Evidently this TC is bumping at 10:45 a.m. Perhaps similarly compromised people looking for a quick carby fix or lunchers hoping to beat the lunch rush? I decided to actually walk into the establishment to place my order, the advantage of this is that I can load up at the condiments bar. I love me some fatherfreaking pico de gallo and salsa drowning the taco innards — it’s presumably «healthier» this way, right?
I promptly ordered my trusty three black bean tacos to-​go, loaded up on pico and salsas, and patiently waited for them to arrive hastily wrapped in foil without a to-​go bag. Oh. Okay. Well let me just set up shop here and stuff my face then! The black bean tacos were pretty all right, although there was a couple of slivers of cheese in one of them — I can see some cross-​contamination happening during some frenzied taco making, so I’m not upset or anything.
The tacos do get soggy with the passage of time due to some of that black bean liquid (mmm), as I kindly reserved the third taco for the boyfriend (I overestimate my eating prowess a lot), but I prefer TC’s black bean tacos to Taco Bell’s fresco bean burrito. Something about the filling not resembling regurgitated bird vomit/​baby poo has really appealed to me lately! I’ve noticed that the TC’s black beans aren’t consistent in their quality — sometimes they’ve been a little sour-​tasting, but these served me well and rejuvenated me so that I could take down another open bar that evening. Just kidding, unless you consider 5 glasses of OJ «getting krunk.»
EDIT TO ADD: The flour tortillas are not vegan, just vegetarian (whey), so ask to substitute with corn tortillas.

This location is okay with cleanliness and service. The food is typical TC food.

The place is conveniently located, just off US281 (if recommend taking the exit at discount tire instead of the more official exit, for convince)
Staff are pleasant enough in inside, but dismissive to the point of being rude in the drive through.
Nice they have a small patio area that, considering 281 is right there, is reasonably well sheltered from road noise.
Restrooms were strewn with paper towels and felt un-​kept.
Food is as to be expected, nothing to really write home about, more sustenance than anything else.
If you’re looking for something more Mexican influenced, try the Tink-​a-​Tako just up the back street (head toward Discount Tire) and it’s behind the salvation army family store — it’s not great, but streets ahead of Taco Cabana on flavor.

This location always smells bad. The employees tend to the surly side, with a couple of exceptions.

During my first visit I ordered a soft chicken taco, which was so-​so. I also ordered a soft beef taco, which was very bad. The restaurant claims its cooks make food by hand. Well, the extremely salty beef taco tasted like they poured most of the salt shaker in it and then added some terrible chemical-​laden store-​bought taco powder. It did NOT taste like they made the meat with fresh herbs and spices like I expected based on their website. In fact, after the first bite, I could not eat that taco. Huge disappointment.

I prefer the Taco Cabana on 1604/​Blanco as it seems to get more traffic and consistently has better/​fresher food as a result.
The flour tortillas always seem slightly off here… often they’re way too thick and somewhat lumpy– and that’s just gross.