The Taco Bus........:(

Yes, I am including an emoticon in this blog because words cannot express how disappointing this place was. I adore Mexican food, well good Mexican that is. This place came to me highly recommended from several people who I hope just had better experiences than I did and didn't recommend it to get back at me for something.

The Taco Bus is exactly what it sounds like, well kind of. There are a few locations, one in Tampa and one in St. Pete to speak of. You order tacos off of a school bus but the Tampa location also has an actual sit down restaurant attached to the bus. They are open 24/7 which is why I think they were so highly recommended, some things taste great at 3am after a night of drinking, dancing and who knows what else. They don't just serve tacos though, you can get most of your Mexi-faves. 

We arrived at about Noon to have lunch after a visit to Shriner's around the corner. We ordered a variety of items with different fillings: chicken tacos, a steak burrito, a pork taco based on a 5,000 year old Mayan recipe (their words, not mine) and some "homemade" guacamole. Each table sports two bottles of salsa, red and green which were both good. Everything else however can be summed up pretty shortly by using the word "gross". That wouldn't make me a very good writer though so let me elaborate.

The menu boasts lots of hand made, authentic items such as their guacamole or tortillas but if you take a trip to the restroom you can easily see that the tortillas are the same ones that you can purchase at the grocer. Ole, I believe it is and although those products are made locally, they are not homemade and they were old. Also frozen guacamole has a certain hue of green that cannot be replicated by any naturally existing avocado. All of the fillings were old, the taste of old meat is unmistakable no matter what spices you roll it around in. Perhaps we got whatever was left over from the last batch and the new batches of spectacular meats were cooking as we ate our offal. The concept was authentic enough, tacos with cilantro, shredded cabbage and onions. I thought the cabbage was pickled, however it was just beginning to decompose. Even the lime served with my taco was old and dry. What really scares me is that they also serve Ceviche, a seafood dish that uses the acids in citrus juices to cook the meat, there is no germ killing heat involved. Don't think that I'm embellishing, it took everything I had not to sick up in the parking lot as we left or in the car the entire way back to Lakeland.

I like the idea of this place, I really do and I hope that they are really spectacular and that it was only my family that was served disgusting, old, on the verge of rotting food. Unfortunately there is absolutely no way that I will ever try this place again to find out. The next time you're in Tampa cruising down Hillsborough Avenue and you see The Taco Bus on the horizon, keep going.

The Taco Bus
913 East Hillsborough Avenue
Tampa, FL 33604
813.232.5889
http://www.tampatacobus.com/