I stopped in at El Taco Rico around 11:40 on a Tuesday for lunch and ordered the Taco Plate with Pastor and Fajita as my proteins, along with a Horchata. The pastor was California style with pineapple, which was a nice touch, and the fajita meat was tender and seasoned well. The tortillas tasted fresh, and the salsa had a decent kick. That said, the tacos are very small, about two bites each, and while the flavor was good, the overall quality was pretty average for the area. The Horchata was disappointing; it tasted watered down, like it wasn't mixed properly, and clearly came from a powdered mix. The rice may surprise some diners, it comes with carrots and peas mixed in. While that's common in some styles, it lacked the garlic and tomato flavor you might expect, so it felt a little bland. On the plus side, they do provide sauces: a HOT red sauce if you want heat, or a medium green sauce for a milder option. One highlight: the gentleman working the cash register and delivering food was very friendly and helpful, truly great customer service. Service speed, friendliness, and fair prices are strong points, but the food itself didn't stand out in Denton's taco scene. Overall, El Taco Rico is decent, but not memorable. read more

Great experience! Was greeted immediately when I walked inside. Kept it simple and ordered the steak taco plate. It did not disappoint! Food came out pretty fast and was fresh and hot. Authentic atmosphere while enjoying amazing taco plate. Highly recommended this restaurant! read more

El Taco Rico - Steak Taco plate - Mexican Near Me - Denton, Texas

New Management, better services, polite employees, and then you can enjoy your food. I was unable to niche order because of my experience with the employees. read more

***owner responded, and i have some concerns with his response. I can't do a separate response or I would. Response to his reply is in first paragraph, original review below.... To owner: Jose, that just isn't so. We all know you can get time stamps from Uber but if you have matching independently time stamped verifiable video, then post it. Additionally, I'm sure you can remake it properly and change time/date settings anyway, so whatever. I promise you I checked a couple of times and neither item was on the sandwich. I just know neither cheese nor avocado were there and your sour cream you up charge for isn't even a cream. There was no ham on the sandwich. I didn't think there was supposed to be, but since you mention it, I'll respond to that. Thank you for acknowledging the lack of seasoning on the meat. I hope your health code scores are accurate- and to be fair, I obviously didn't see any issue with the back of the house on a delivery order. I made it clear that it was delivery in my comments. However, it's a reasonable suspicion as proper cleaning obviously costs money and time, and if you're skipping cheese and avocado and watering down your sour cream, it doesn't bode well for sanitation. ORIGINAL post: Awful delivery order, but can't blame Uber here. No cheese, no avocado. (Coincidence, i guess- the most expensive ingredients short of the meat?) , speaking of- meat was worse than school cafeteria- extremely dry, no seasoning. Don't bother paying for the Sour cream- thinner than cheap ranch! And I paid seperately. AND they are 1oz containers, not two oz. So I paid 12-14 bucks for TRULY garbage flavorless food. I guess even salt, basic spices/seasoning, etc are just too much. This place that will do nothing but piss you off for the money- really, at any price. I don't even want to think about sanitation there if they can't even do an ounce of real sour cream someone paid for without altering it so much that it's unrecognizable, or put a slice of included cheese even on a $10-12 sandwich. Just don't. read more

This place always has great food and fantastic service. Always clean, and presentable. Highly recommended.

Not a bad little place. I've been driving past it for years and decided to give them a try. I'm glad I did. The guy who took my order was nice and clean cut. The take out order was fast and the food was pretty good. I enjoyed the green salsa! Give it a try and let me know what you think. read more

El Taco Rico - 2 barbacoa tacos, 1 beef fajita taco and 1 chorizo taco. - Mexican Near Me - Denton, Texas

Food has 0 flavor I personally don't think it's Mexican food but to each their own I prefer La Fondita

Food was good, but if you want lettuce and tomato to substitute in place of onion and cilantro be prepared to spend a fortune. Always amazes me when a restaurant will charge you extra, but won't call it even for the things you remove. read more

Yikes. New to the neighborhood and thought this place would be good and could get lots of business from us. Sadly the tacos tasted horrible! Like the meat went bad. We went back to return the tacos, no sorry, no refund, no great or decent customer service as you would expect. The donut place next door is on point with their food and service! visit them! read more

Really good tacos for the price with great customer service. Rice and Beans were okay but tacos and salsa made up for it. read more

El Taco Rico - Al Pastor Tacos - Mexican Near Me - Denton, Texas

We've been here quite a few times in the last year and a half and this is my absolute favorite taqueria in town! We would come here a lot more often if we lived closer. I look for any excuse though, and with the new Discount Tire built across the street I now have one more reason to be at that intersection. The owner is a really good guy and you can see how much he cares about his business. When he is there, which is 99.9% of the time, everything is PERFECT! The only time he wasn't there, the food was very good instead of exceptional. You really can't complain. Like all the best business owners, he does whatever it takes. This has resulted in times where he is there at all hours- seriously, no matter what time of day we came in, there he was! There were several months where he looked really tired all the time. I genuinely hope they continue to grow so he can hire a large enough staff to take the occasional day off. Dude deserves it. This may strike you as a small, hole in the wall place, but those are my jam! Still, it's kept clean and has 7-8 booths. I do notice most people take it to go or call in ahead and pick up at the counter. We typically come in mid morning on a weekend, but I've seen a lot of DoorDash orders when we come in the afternoons. I prefer to dine in as they put so much care into the food, I love that I'm getting it fresh off the grill, mmmm! The prices are fantastic! We always leave completely stuffed for under $20 and get to try a variety of things, including the agua fresca. They have bottled drinks, horchata and usually 2-4 types of agua fresca. The glasses are large so we've never needed a refill. This is my favorite place in town to get agua fresca as it's always made fresh in house and is outstandingly delicious and refreshing! They have me so hooked that sometimes I'm at a gas station or a grocery store or a dentist office and I start feeling resentful that the business doesn't serve homemade agua fresca, lol! They rotate flavors so I always ask what they have that day. My picks are the melon and pineapple, but the Jamaica is very good too. Make sure you get some! My husband rotates- gorditas, quesadillas, tortas, etc. All the portions are great here, but the tortas are HUGE! I've seen people enjoying a good looking caldo de res, but have yet to try it. Personally, I can never stray from the tacos- ever! I do have other spots in town where they have my favorite carnitas, barbacoa or horchata, but these are my favorite tacos overall. All their plates come with rice and beans and are a lot of food for $7.25. I used to get the taco plate all the time and they would let me get 4 different tacos. I'm not sure when this changed, as I asked on my last visit, but now you can only get 2 meats for the taco plate. Since it's so much food and we're usually running errands (can't take leftovers) I changed up my typical order quite a while back to getting 2 or 3 tacos and a side of rice. It comes out cheaper than the plate and I actually have a chance at finishing it, lol. The tacos are only $1.50 for almost every type! My favorite is al pastor, it's so flavorful and it's got crispy edges and not a lot of fat, which is my preferred texture profile. I think these are the best around. The carnitas and barbacoa are also in my regular rotation- very tasty and well seasoned! I also throw bistec and pollo in the mix on a regular basis. The more I come here, the more I appreciate the consistency. I'm always satisfied! The location is on the corner of McKinney and 288 next to a Donut shop. Due to the median, you can really only enter from one side of the road (288 heading towards I35). However, if you are on the McKinney side I recommend you take the street behind the dollar store and O'Reilly's (Cardinal) as it allows you to come up next to the DQ (Hummingbird Lane) and go in the right direction. There are only a few spots out front, but they are connected to the Sonic and there is a small lot behind there too that's not very obvious. You can always park illegally and place an order to go- tacos are worth a ticket, always! My cravings can't be stopped by things like the law and common decency, so I understand. I'm going to dine in though, so if you took the last spot and I'm blocking you in- don't worry, I'll treat you to a taco! :) read more

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So sad and really disappointing. I was overcharged by $7 - I let it go because it's a small business but wow it was bad. Nothing about my order was correct - not the items or meat. The owner did not speak to me other than to give me my order total ? And he literally started turning of the music and gave me my order Togo. I guess it was close to closing. They were out of salsa and the food was so dry it was inedible. I really wanted to like this place :( Update - I also have food poisoning now from the couple bites I had. I've never gotten sick from a restaurant before but I most definitely won't be going back. I genuinely don't understand the positive reviews. The food and experience was so bad. read more

The food torta de milanesa was bland the salsa was ok the red one was the only one with a good flavor the service was horrible the owner/cashier/waitress was a jerk while i was ordering he was acting like he had something better to do the -honestly i would have rather gone to Arby's read more

El Taco Rico at 107 N. Loop 288 in Denton, TX refused to accept an entertainment book offer. The owner who the cashier called for help said they never authorized Entertainment Book to publish deals for their business. A pic of the deal is attached. I have a hard time believing they didn't authorize the advertising. I think they just changed their mind after the ad was already published. The waitress was nice, service was ok, but not great. The a/c was not on when we entered the restaurant. In the summer in Texas, you need a/c. We were seated at the entry to the restaurant, which was awkward. The food was awful. The chilaquiles were just soggy chips covered with mainly green sauce. It was not anything like the chilaquiles I've had at other restaurants. The refried beans tasted like they came from a can. read more

El Taco Rico - They don't accept their deals that they published in the Entertainment Book. - Mexican Near Me - Denton, Texas

Tacos are not the best but if you're hungry they'll do. The service was really good and staff was friendly.

Service good, tacos good, tostadas very good! Rice and beans fair to good needed a little more seasoning.

Muy rico! Tacos reminded me of Guadalajara, the meats were prepped and seasoned perfectly. Homemade salsa verde was perfect. read more

El Taco Rico - Tacos - Fajita de res, lengua, carnitas - Mexican Near Me - Denton, Texas

THIS PLACE IS A JOKE! I would rate 0 stars if I could. The lone person cashier/cook/waiter is not friend at all. The tacos we order not good and the sope was okay. The salsas were watered down. My wife order an agua fresca and the guy said it would be hot b/c it was boiling - agua frescas are cool drinks. Yet, this jerk gave my wife hot agua fresca. We asked for a cup with ice and he said he couldn't b/che is cheaping out on stuff. THIS PLACE NEEDS TO CLOSE ASAP! Bad service, worst food and I'm NEVER COMING BACK! Save yourself disappointed and $$ - go to Taqueria Guanajuato 5 mins. down on McKinney towards Denton County courthouse. ESTE LUGAR ES UNA BROMA! Calificaría 0 estrellas si pudiera. El cajero / cocinero / camarero que está solo no es amiigable. Los tacos que pedimos no estaban buenos y el sope estaba mas o menos. Las salsas estaban rebajadas. Mi esposa pidió una agua fresca y el viejo dijo que estaría caliente porque estaba hirviendo. ¡las aguas frescas son bebidas frías, o no! Sin embargo, este idiota le dio a mi esposa agua fresca caliente. Le pedimos un vaso con hielo y dijo que no podía porque es un tacaño. ¡ESTE LUGAR NECESITA CERRAR LO ANTES POSIBLE! Mal servicio, peor comida y ¡NUNCA VOLVERÉ! Ahórrense la recepción y su $$ - váyanse a Taqueria Guanajuato a 5 minutos - en McKinney Ave hacia la corte del condado de Denton. read more

I can't comment on the food because I walked out. The guy was so extremely rude, I looked around for a camera thinking I was being pranked.

It was decent. Salsa and sauce was very bland and could've used a lot more spice. Wasn't super clean but the food was decent enough to return here and there. read more

Great taste and portions for the price. Lovelys remind me to bring you here for the tortas. read more

El Taco Rico - Mexican Near Me - Denton, Texas

I never give 5 stars, but should consider it due to how yummy and traditional the food is here. My favorite are the breakfast and street tacos! The Menudo is great for hangovers read more

El Taco Rico - Mexican coke to start the morning (great for hangovers along with the breakfast tacos here)... - Mexican Near Me - Denton, Texas

The food is consistently good and the price is right! I've had breakfast tacos a couple of times but usually come for lunch. It's fast and yummy. read more

Great food, high quality, higher price than similar taco shops. The tacos were great, with some of the best rice in town. Menudo was good but only came with 8 pieces of hominy in the large size. Bathrooms were nice and clean. Great staff, super helpful. Previous reviews are overhyped, this is not nearly the best place in town or somewhere you NEED to go to, but it's worth your time if you're big on tacos. read more

This place has ridiculous oversized tortas. Carnitas are delicious!!! My wife had the chicken street tacos and she said they were okay. Hot sauce (red and green) was tasty but not hit enough for me (red is hotter than green but green tasted better). I will definitely go back to try different items. read more

El Taco Rico - Huge tortas! - Mexican Near Me - Denton, Texas

My favorite taco joint in Denton and try to come here when I am in town. The tacos are always fresh and delicious. The chips and salsa alone make a trip here worth it. Great selection of delicious foods served by great people! read more

The wannabe cholo workin the front desk has no clue how to work a register. Food is good if you don't mind a long wait.

Great authentic restaurant. Sitting in this place took me back to our vacations in Mexico. Food is good and fresh, if your looking for a taste of Mexico, this is the place. read more

El Taco Rico - Tortas - Mexican Near Me - Denton, Texas

I ordered the Guisado plate and they brought me the chicharon en salsa verde plate and just acted like it was the Guisado plate. I just laughed I will never be back. read more

Too busy every joying our delicious meal to take pictures. We ordered Chilaquiles with eggs and green sauce, menudo and pastor torta. All dishes were healthy portions and served hot and fresh! Highly recommend this place. We will be back soon! read more

My score is solely based on the taste of the food. VERY VERY BLAND (even though it was seasoned) and I had to add salt everything which helped a little. WHERE THAT HAPPEN AT?!?! I was in the mood for Mexican I ran across this joint. Small yet quaint, clean, friendly staff, reasonable prices and plenty of seating. I tried the steak tostadas(3), two tacos (chicken and steak) I won't visit this location again. read more

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My first torda pastor was a revelation. The marinated pork was tender, juicy, and generously portioned on a sandwich loaded with many of my favorite things: avocado, jalepenos, lettuce, tomato, and onion. Everything was fresh, especially the bread, which was lightly grilled. This was a great sandwich. Another pleasant surprise was the outstanding service. One of the owners met me at the door and recognized I was a first timer. He gave me a menu and orientation to the modest but clean dining room. My lunch came quickly and the price was more than fair. Taco Rico rewards the short drive to 288. read more

Such an awesome place! You won't be let down. They have tons of options that other taqueria/Mexican restaurants in town don't have (or seem to always run out of) like sopes, pambazos, pozole, mole enchiladas, and menudo (all the time instead of just weekends). I tried the pambazo sandwich and chicken sopes and I can't wait to go back sometime to try some more stuff. The prices are very reasonable and the service is great too. Our server talked to us for a while and helped us figure out what to get. Overall the food is amazing and makes you feel like you're in Mexico! Update: get chicken mole enchiladas - you will be SO happy. read more

Just tried Pambazo for the first time. 'Really, really good! El Taco Rico is a great Mom and Pop restaurant, friendly folks serving up authentic eats. The street tacos are awesome, the restaurant is clean and well managed. We'll definitely be back. read more

I already know this place is legit, when there's not a single American eating here during peak lunch hours. It's always a good sign that it's authentic and I wasn't disappointed. This place has one of the best Street tacos. This place gets it, great service, cheap, fast, and good. Enjoy. read more

I came in wanting to wash my hands before eating my meal and they said the bathroom was closed. I was unable and they did t have hand sanitizer. I ordered a Caldo de Rez ( beef stew and it was impossible to eat it cause the spoon melted in the stew never allowing me to eat anything. I politely asked if I can get a real spoon and he told me they offered plastic only. I was very disappointed. I left my meal because I was literally unable to eat it. My guest ate a chile relleno and felt so bad for me that she didn't finish her meal and we just both left. read more

I was in a rush, so I got mine to go, but even without a/c I would have stayed to eat here if I had time. The inside is small and cramped, but this is a hardcore family owned little joint. Grandma is waiting on the guests and son is too. I loved seeing this! I got 12 street tacos. 3 of each kind - pastor, pollo, carnitas & barbacoa. They were all amazing, perfectly sized street tacos as authentic as they come here in tex-mex country. Loaded with cilantro and onion and fillings stuffed into pillowy soft corn tortillas. All the meats were tender and flavored perfectly! The prices are outstanding and the service was very friendly. This place is truly a diamond in the rough, just waiting for gringos to discover it. I was the only white person in the building, the entire time I waited for my order. Please, please try this place people! You will not regret it one bit! read more

The service is friendly and the tacos are tasty. I got the breakfast tacos and both the green and red sauces. Both sauces are great and the chorizo had a bit of spice to it. I will definitely be going back read more

I ordered the bisteca chilaquiles with verde salsa. The chips were sog, the meat was cut very thin, flavorless and dry. Not at all like pictures in the review here. Out of 4 people, 3 of us were not impressed. The tile was also breaking under my feet as I walked to the register. I came based on the reviews. Perhaps it's gone downhill since. read more

Just tried this place for the first time. I ordered 4 tacos (2 bistek, 2 carnita) and caldo de res. All items were very delicious. Flavorful and authentic! I will be back for sure. read more