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Old 05-29-2013, 11:38 PM
 
Location: Raleigh
436 posts, read 668,410 times
Reputation: 682

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I'm going to be in the area visiting family and want to bring my brother for his first taco truck experience!
Any suggestions about specific trucks and where/when they set up would be great.

He is in Palm Harbor, so Clearwater and north is handy. Also west Tampa, especially Hillsborough Ave. is convenient. I doubt there will be time to travel to St. Pete or USF areas.

Thanks!
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Old 05-30-2013, 04:45 AM
 
Location: says MA on my license but can be found wandering the beaches of RI
1,432 posts, read 1,815,124 times
Reputation: 907
Taco Bus - Authentic Mexican Food

I have heard many good things and they have also been featured on a couple of food shows on tv.
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Old 05-30-2013, 06:24 AM
 
Location: Terra
2,826 posts, read 3,977,208 times
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The USF and Downtown Tampa locations aren't real bus locations unfortunatly, so scratch those off.

Really it's just a matter of driving around and you will eventually run into one, lol.
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Old 05-30-2013, 08:22 AM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,417 posts, read 3,784,035 times
Reputation: 5204
Raleigh has good Mexican options. Lucky you.

There is no good Mexican food in Tampa Bay, including that which is served from trucks. Taco Bus is dirty and disgusting fake Mexican for the masses. A notch above Chipotle.

Tampa has excellent food options, but not for Mexican food. Luckily I am about to head to California next week to get my Mexican food fix. I basically have to wait until I can get on a plane and head west of Louisiana to get any great Mexican food.

Jonathan Gold recommends: 13 great tacos in Southern California - latimes.com

Just like you never order a Cuban sandwich in Nebraska, you never go get Mexican in Tampa. It's a sad situation until someone who knows how to cook from Mexico, Cali, Texas, New Mexico, etc. moves here and opens a decent restaurant.

Last edited by sinatras; 05-30-2013 at 08:35 AM..
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Old 05-30-2013, 09:11 AM
 
6,594 posts, read 4,973,452 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras View Post
Raleigh has good Mexican options. Lucky you.

There is no good Mexican food in Tampa Bay, including that which is served from trucks. Taco Bus is dirty and disgusting fake Mexican for the masses. A notch above Chipotle.

Tampa has excellent food options, but not for Mexican food. Luckily I am about to head to California next week to get my Mexican food fix. I basically have to wait until I can get on a plane and head west of Louisiana to get any great Mexican food.

Jonathan Gold recommends: 13 great tacos in Southern California - latimes.com

Just like you never order a Cuban sandwich in Nebraska, you never go get Mexican in Tampa. It's a sad situation until someone who knows how to cook from Mexico, Cali, Texas, New Mexico, etc. moves here and opens a decent restaurant.
You are saying out of our large mexican population no one here can cook. The old lady making tacos at Acapulco grocery sure looks the part. I been to both Mexico and California, granted I am not a big mexican food guy and the food there wasn't mind blowingly better than the fish tacos from the Taco bus. The one thing I was a fan of was the korean mexican fusion they had going, which I have since had in NYC and was just as good. I am not trying to say we have better mexican than the west coast, but i don't think the couple of decent places we have here are inedible either.
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Old 05-30-2013, 10:12 AM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,417 posts, read 3,784,035 times
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The tacos at Acapulco are the only halfway decent tacos in Tampa Bay. But compared to many other cities, they suck. They are 4 star tacos in Tampa but 2 star tacos in LA. Not to mention that Acapulco is dirty and not an appealing place to eat by any stretch of the imagination.

I would just rather wait until I can get out to San Antonio, LA, San Diego etc.

This is not just my opinion. Most local critics, experts, bloggers, foodies all agree and have pontificated at length about the sad state of Mexican food in this area.

Even Raleigh where OP is from has award winning taco trucks with cooks who make their own tortillas. The next time you have a tortilla at Taco Bus that tastes like cardboard, it's because it was made in a giant plant and been sitting in a bag for weeks.
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Old 05-30-2013, 11:24 AM
 
Location: Raleigh
436 posts, read 668,410 times
Reputation: 682
Last time I visited I (finally) was able to get my brother to come with me to the Thai Temple for the food on a Sunday. He was blown away by the experience! A table-mate told him about area taco trucks...

It's his first dabble. Tasty is good. Doesn't need to be the best in the taco food truck category! Plus it gives us a chance to bond a little and get away from the family health issues which bring me to town.

BTW, I had read about the Korean Taco truck. Is it still around?
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Old 05-30-2013, 12:17 PM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,417 posts, read 3,784,035 times
Reputation: 5204
Actually yes I have been to every single Mexican restaurant in the Bay Area. If I were narrow minded I certainly wouldn't rush to try a Mexican joint the minute it opens. Which I do all the time. From Sarasota to Brooksville. They are all substandard. This is obviously my opinion, I never said i was speaking for everyone. However I am not the only person with this opinion. Please refrain from calling me ignorant and stupid and attacking me personally. You know nothing about me, my education, my background or my culinary training.

Regarding the Thai temple I agree that is a great place to get good Thai food. I go there all the time!
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Old 05-30-2013, 12:47 PM
 
Location: Denver
605 posts, read 1,051,183 times
Reputation: 706
Have you tried Los Vallartas?
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Old 05-30-2013, 12:50 PM
 
17,486 posts, read 38,934,424 times
Reputation: 24166
Quote:
Originally Posted by stpeteguy View Post
This is one of the most ignorant posts i've ever read here. To actually believe that there isn't a good mexican food place anywhere in the Tampa Bay region is just plain stupid. Have you sampled every restaurant in the area? Do you speak for everyone?

Don't be so narrowminded. I'm sure, that somewhere amongst the millions of mexicans that inhabit this area, there is at least one who owns a restuarant and knows how to cook food that even you would like.

Your job is to find that restaurant and not just sit around making blanket generalizations about how 'all the mexican restaurants around here are bad'.

I know several that I enjoy going to myself. I'm not going to tell you, cause i'm sure you would insult them too to.
Totally agree with you. Plus.... they're friggin' TACOS for pete sake! How much "better" or "worse" are they going to be??? There are loads and loads of Mexicans from Mexico all over Tampa Bay including St. Pete, Bradenton and Sarasota. The little town of Palmetto north of us looks like a little town in Mexico because of all the taquerias, and specialty food stores, etc. But I'm sure they are all sub-standard to the wonderfully wondrous Mexican food out west.
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