I took a walk down to the far end of Baggot Street to find the latest new addition to the frenzy of Taquerias in Dublin (a good thing fo' sho'). Tolteca - nice exterior, nice clean interior too...then suddenly BAM! the prices hit me from the overhead menu...€8 for a bean and cheese! (€4.50 in Pablo's, €6 in B&B's). There's a nice corporate message painted on the wall about Tolteca's dedication to farm-raised meat (where else do cows get raised?) which might justify the €9 for a steak burrito...but what makes the beans/rice/cheese/fajita vegetables so expensive??
Anyway, I gathered myself and ordered the barbacoa. There were about 17 staff members (OK I exaggerate) gathered in a line to assemble the food. One guy's job is flinging lettuce on anything that moves...maybe this is why the food is so steep?
As other reviewers have said, Tolteca is a copy of Chipotle in the US. It's now the second place copying that model as Boojum have been doing it since 2007. Is there no uniqueness anymore? Why don't all cafe's just adopt the Starbucks model while they're at it?!
Finally the food. It was OK. I had the Barbacoa burrito for €8.50. It wasn't nearly as good as a Beefy Barbacoa from Pablo's. I did like the chipotle salsa though. It was pitched on the board as the hottest salsa they had. It wasn't nearly spicy enough but I liked the smokie flavor. The staff were pretty friendly too.
Would I go back? Apart from the fact that it's a bit far from the city centre, the prices are almost arrogantly high and the food is just mediocre compared to the Cafe Aztecas and Pablo Picantes of Dublin. So that's a big, fat NO, I'm afraid. read more