I met my sister here to pick up my parents and take them back down to San Diego and was not really impressed. The server did inform us that the Shrimp taco was voted best in San Clemente? So obviously I had to try it because I had to know what the best shrimp taco in San Clemente tasted like. So the fish taco was very mehhh and seemed to be lacking something to make it stick out. End of story.
Review Source:TACO STUPID. That's the only name I've known this place by since I've lived here, two blocks away. Cannot for the life of me reconcile anyone giving this place a four or five star review. Well, then again actually, if they were high that night on Taco Tuesday and their buddy was tending bar...
M e d i o c r e .
Stale chips, canned beans and sauces, jarred salsa, flavorless meat, terrible draft selections. This place reminds me of what a honkey would open up in an Alaskan forestry outpost, or anywhere that had never experienced authentic Mexican food.
Service has been very hit-and-miss. Both ends of the spectrum, and I apologize to the really nice bartender for the crappy review- you were good enough to bring us back despite the other complaints.
When your product is this bad, I suppose a very good Taco Tuesday and decent Happy Hour can be your savior (hence the two stars). Location is kinda neat and well situated. Price without specials affords no value, except that it's locally owned and operated. C'mon peeps- we can do better than this.
Hoo-boy, the margaritas sure sucked both times. Stick to the cool (not cold, very not cold) beer. Both Mr. and Mrs. T would pity the fool that bought in to terrible sweet & sour with very light pours. Brown limes don't help either. Cut them fresh or don't use them- jeez.
Overall, I think there's a stigma about this place, since it's been here for 25 years. Lots of people come because it's what they know. It represents the lack of international culture that was present when it opened, and represents the lack of commitment to quality and culinary evolution that restaurants need to remain relevant.
Friendly service but super-meh on the food. Â Fish tacos were cooked to oblivion. Â Canned flavors dominate. Â This is a classic OC faux food play. Â Should have known from the name alone to keep looking but I swear OC Yelpers are a generous bunch who've trained me to be pretty skeptical visitor.
Come 'on, doods. Â You CAN give out 2 and even 1 star reviews and still be a good person.
Place was nice... I ordered the 3 tacos special and my steak taco was really bad, my steak was very tough! chicken one was ok...the best one was the shredded pork! margarita was good too! but nothing special that would make me come back... lots of better places with better food all around !
Review Source:Had dinner with friends for the first time last night at Taco Surf. Â Expected the ambiance as we live in South OC. Â I ordered a carne asada taco and cheese enchalada. Â The carne asada taco was ok but the meat was a bit tough. Â The cheese enchalada was one of the worst I have ever eaten. Â The cheese was fine but the sauce on the outside was purple in color and terrible.
By the way, those that are recommending the chips and salsa are crazy. Â The chips were stale and the salsa was terrible.
The couple that we went with and recommended Taco Surf said this was their last time going as they have had terrible food now for several meals.
Try the chips and salsa at Casa Ranchero in Ladera Ranch if you want great chips and salsa.
Came for taco Tuesday. The chips and salsa are awesome!!! Love the salsa. The blackened chicken tacos were okay. I didn't care for the fish tacos. I'd rather go to wahoos or something. If I go back I will try something other than the tacos. Like other reviewers, service was slow, but the staff is really friendly. Got our food very quick but we waited 15 minutes for them to ask if we were ready for the check. It is small, and can get crowded at times.
Review Source:I usually only come for Taco Tuesday. Their nachos (I order the carnitas) for $4 is a bargain. The blackened chicken taco is decent.
Service can be spotty at times. I guess its because its Dana Point and they're used to the laid back clientele, but I wish they were a bit more prompt with their service.
But, its right by my house and the food is reasonable and good.
Food & service has always been great. I just wanna know why the owner lets his friends play live music. There's been two different guys and neither can sing. They would both get more cash tips if there was a jar in from of them that said tip me to stop singing and ruining a lot of classic songs. I'll add the extra star to my review when you make friends with someone who can sing. Although I have to admit it is fun to try to guess which song the guy is massacring as he sings.
Review Source:TACO SURF!
Allow me to preface this review by stating that I came into this world thanks to a wonderful mexican woman who has practiced the craft of Tejano cuisine her entire life, utilizing many generations of rich family tradition.
That being said, I'm not really on a hunt to find the freshest highest quality mexican food since only a handful of places in OC do it right. Instead i'm more concerned with a certain value that meets my needs and deserves my business.
For Taco Surf, the sweet spot is the bar and happy hour. Very affordable drinks, solid $1 street tacos (WHAT! A BUCK!), and the most friendly and welcoming service you can get. It's a fantastic laid back little hole in the wall that provides an amazing taco-tuesday-like-deal every weekday till 5pm. If you're a spoiled pretentious stereotypical OC person then cruise on over to Javier's and enjoy the gorgeous atmosphere and $30 chicken- this is more of a divey feel.
Also, I can confidently state that their salsa is simply hands down better than 95% of the salsas in OC. Truly, Taco Surf salsa has achieved a very impressive balance of not being quite too spicy for the common gringo, yet providing detectable heat for the salsa enthusiast. It also has a near perfect blend of acid, salt, cilantro, and onion that will render your mini salsa bowl barren in minutes. If I notice my mind drifting towards a cold XX amber and bottomless salsa towards the end of the work day consistently throughout the week, that deserves 5 stars.
  -Great Service
  -Cost Effective Drinks
  -Cost Effective Tacos
  -Free & Amazing Chips & Salsa
TACO SURF!
Best mexican food in OC? Not likely, but it's hands down one of the best and most enjoyable happy hours you'll find.
This is our new favorite place for a casual dinner in DP... Â The service was extremely prompt and attentive. Â The restaurant has a fun beach decor - very casual but exactly what we were looking for.
In terms of food, the chips and salsa were both excellent and plentiful. Â My husband and I both got 3 tacos a la carte - carne asada, carnitas and baja fish. Â They were filled to the brim and even included guacomole on top. Â All for $7.95 - what a steal! Â The house margaritas were delicious too...
We will definitely be back! Â Awesome!!!
This is not Mexican food. It is American, chopped up veggies and meats put on tortillas. Basically diner food. Â Their salsa is good but everything else is mediocre or worse.
The good:
- laid back and casual and not corporate
- chips and salsa are very good
Convenient location
The bad:
- burritos are kind of messy
- rice and beans are flavorless
- shrimp has little seasoning and are so small and undercooked
- fajitas have no flavor
- service is often horrible and don't answer questions about your food
It is a bunch of locals and if they don't know you the waitresses are apathetic to wait on you like you are intruding.
Would have given it just one star but reserve that for the truly horrible events or if I get sick.
Give me LA Mexican food. Â The food here was greasy and smothered with melted cheese. Â I ordered a pork enchilada and the pork came out hard and stale, not very appetizing at all. Â Also had a chili relleno which was bland and basically just one greasy cheesy mess. Â Rice was tasteless too. Â My sister, who ordered a fish taco, wasn't impressed with her food either, and said it was way too spicy and she likes spicy food.
Review Source:I have to say Taco Surf has the best tacos I've had anywhere!! I haven't had anything else, so I can't comment (I love the tacos so much, I honestly haven't tried anything else). When we are in town and hungry for tacos, this is where we come. My wife loves the grilled fish tacos and says she hasn't found a place with any better. I would say I love the grilled chicken tacos best, but also love the carnitas and beef as well (I have to say I'm confused about what the other reviewer didn't like about the chicken tacos?). The tacos are literally stuffed with ingredients and we also love that they automatically come with a generous amount of guacamole! We usually order the three taco special and add one additional taco. I could easily eat here 2-3 times a week!
I highly recommend you try it for yourself and then be your own judge!
Came here with two girlfriends for dinner on Friday night & sat on the patio to avoid the loud live music.. Our waiter was nice. The three blended margaritas were kind of runny. I had the combo fajitas with steak & shrimp..yum! & a good sized portion. Only complaint was our server returned for the bill but, he never refilled our water glasses.
Review Source:I wanted so badly to like this place - I've eaten here fairly often in the last couple of months. It's summer! Tacos and margaritas are summer food! But sadly, the service is seriously hit and miss, and the food continuously makes me and my companions ill. It took us awhile to figure out that all of us were getting sick at once, and why, but after we realized it was the food here we're not interested in coming back.
Review Source:We stopped by Taco Surf after spending the day with family in Dana Point. Â We had a great experience there. Â We had a group of 14 people and our waitress was attentive and happy. Â The atmosphere is fun! Â There was a singer there that night and even though we were right next to him, so it was pretty loud when he was playing, we still had a fun night. Â He even played two songs that my cousin dedicated to us and by the end of the night they were singing back-up with him. :) Â The food was yummy. Â It's definitely not gourmet, but it is tasty and plentiful and there were no complaints from anyone! Â The taco meal (pick any three...it was fun to try more than one type!), the wet burrito and carne asada were all favorites. Â It's definitely worth stopping in!
Review Source:Wanted to take my son for a tasty but casual birthday dinner while we were in Dana Point recently and Yelp pointed the way to Taco Surf. We drove by the eatery on our way into town and I thought it looked cool. But when I read that there is sawdust on the floor, that made up my mind firmly to try Taco Surf out.
So much of the Dana Point community is chi-chi and tries to be highbrow that I found it refreshing that there is an unpretentious place like this to kick back and enjoy good food and drink. And good it was. My son loved his wet burrito and the waitress was right: if you are craving fish tacos, try the shrimp tacos too.
The shrimp was big and juicy and placed on two corn tortillas with some guacamole, pico de salsa, grilled onion and peppers and it was DIVINE! Loved the margaritas and the basket of colorful tortilla chips were perfect.
On a Sunday evening, it looked like lots of local families were enjoying Taco Surf. THAT is how you know a good place to eat--where people who actually live there chose to spend their money to dine out. Â We decided to eat outside on the patio, as it was a warm evening and the live music playing inside was a tad too loud. Highly recommend Taco Surf. Yelp reviewers were right about the parking lot--it is smallish and fills up fast. 1 Yelp star deducted for a tight parking situation.
We like Taco Surf and is a regular stop for us when in Dana Point. Nice atmosphere, Food is good and priced right. Service is great with friendly staff.
The only thing there is no prices for beer on the menus. So if you throw down a couple cold beers with dinner you might get a little sticker shocked. Go on Tuesday they have beer specials.
20-years-ago I discovered Taco Surf in Seal Beach. Â Since then I have been a regular patron at every location they have. Â
1. Consistent 9/10 in the speed of service, food prep and quality.
2. Good prices.
3. I've never waited more than 5-10 minutes in well over 100 visits.
2x Wet bean burrito with red sauce and a pitcher of beer ($22 w/tip)...me and the wife's favorite. Â I get it vegetarian style with only black beans and brown rice minus the cheese and it's better than average.
We have a 2-year-old so getting in and out quick without blowing $40 is high up there for us.
In response to some of the less than favorable reviews; your expectations of what you get for $8 should be adjusted. Â For goodness sake, there is saw dust on the floor, full bar and t-shirts for sale...relax a bit, it ain't the Ritz.
Went there on a Taco Tuesday, food was ok chicken taco's steer clear of them JMO
Sat outside, nice ambiance, BUT as in the middle of eating out came the SMOKERS, lit up and killed the experense, you think mgmt would direct them to the front outside where everyone else was smoking, umm NO, I had mentioned it to the staff who replied these are local peep's, so if you want a SMOKING place to enjoy 2nd hand smoke while eating your food this is the place for you.
Good decent food. I went there the other day. I tend to go there when I go surfing at nearby Doheney. The service is fast all the time I been there. Waitresses  are nice. My only grip would be, the salsa always taste bland. I feel El torito has better salsa. There Chips taste kind of stale. Other than that, the rest of the food is good.
Review Source:I am pissed that I just spent 25$ On dog food. Neither of us could even stomach eating more than a1/4 Of the food on our plate. My wifes chicken salad, salad was fresh but the chicken was all thigh n leg meat, ligaments n all. My steak nachos were burnt on top, the steak was actually the shredded beef cut into cubes... Gross stewed meat, beans were even bad.
 Now the service n the place it's self are great. N the service lady askd my wife how everything was, but my wife beat me to the punch n was polite. Just real bad food. Don't even feel right offering it to our kids, straight out to the dogs...
I love this place. We try to visit Taco Surf at least once per week. The food is great. I have tried many of the items on the menu and none of them disappoint. If you are really hungry do yourself a favor and order a burrito. They are huge and yummy.
I really dig the atmosphere of the place...very casual and beachy and that
is right up my alley. Try it, you'll like it.
Nothing special. Nothing bad. I've had good meals here and just so-so meals. The service is also nothing to write home about, but no real complaints either. They have always been friendly, just not always attentive (but again- no complaints- they weren't bad!)
The coolest part is that this was the original Hobie Surf Shop building from the 1950's (not that you can tell anymore- but I worked here back in the 1980's and know the history of it).
Taco surf is definitely a dive, and that's one of the things I like about it. One of the reviewers complained about the decor being magazine pages stapled to the wall, but I enjoy that. It reminds me a bit of Crystal Cove, and the OC beach area, before it got sanitized. And after all, this was the local Hobie Surf Shop before it became a restaurant.
I come here with a hiking group once a week. I've had the shrimp tacos, which are great, and the quesedilla, which is quite good. Margueritas are good, and the prices are reasonable. Service can sometimes be a bit slow, which is the only thing that keeps me from giving this place a 5. But the staff is very friendly, so it's hard to get too upset.
Portions are generous. I am a fairly light eater, but I find that one shrimp taco makes a pretty good dinner. The salsa appears to be freshly-made, and you never know quite what you are going to get. Most of the time, it is only medium hot, but sometimes, it's a four-alarm fire. But it's always good.
This is one of my favorite dive spots to go for Mexican food. I eat here about once a week. I'm addicted to the Ensenada Shrimp Tacos and The Crispy Spicy Ground Beef Tacos. I also love their chips and salsa.
Taco Surf is very casual and laid back. Good local place to go and hang out without having to worry about how you look, what you are wearing, etc. In fact, alot of people stop here after spending the day at the beach.
I like my Mexican authentic, but as a gringo I must confess I do appreciate Californian or Texan spins on Mexican food. Â I sauntered into Taco Surf hoping to see a cheap and decent Cali-Mex joint, but it didn't stack up against other places locally.
I ordered a vegetarian burrito, despite not being a vegetarian, and enjoyed some of the complementary chips and salsa. Â The rice had been burned, and though they were not serving me the actual burned rice, the taste of rice-failure was rife within my meal. Â The vegetables weren't sauteed well enough nor seasoned well enough to make up for it.
Along with an iced tea, this set me back about $11 + tip. Â For that, I could have had lunch at half a dozen superior places within walking distance alone. Â At some of them, I may have saved a few bucks.
The service was good considering how busy the place was, but it was obvious that they needed another hand on deck for the lunch hour. Â I won't get more negative because the server was quite friendly once the rush died down, and I always appreciate personality.
It seems like, if this place is going to have a saving grace, it's in the evening with some friends and beers.
Taco Surf is a true locals' spot in the heart of Dana Point. Â On any given afternoon you will find a group of regulars (mostly the type of guys who wear "Old Guys Rule" t-shirts) chilling here and shooting the bull with the waitresses and bartenders. Â That's not to say you will feel out of place as a stranger - you won't. Â Everyone is pretty friendly and the vibe is mellow. Â
Decor is "surf," as the name suggests, and there's outdoor seating on the patio that's great on nice days. Â
The food is very decent - not gourmet but not nearly as bad as a couple of other reviews seem to suggest. Â It's not the greasy, cheese-coated variety of Mexican food. Â I usually get either a carne asada burrito or chicken tacos, both of which come in generous portions with good quality meat. Â Also, the salsa is really good. Â If you're into something lighter, Brandi's Salad is a winner, with big chunks of white meat chicken and fresh avocado. Â Skip the dressing and just use salsa instead, and wash the whole thing down with an ice cold Dos Equis Amber, which they have on draft.
With plenty of awesome taco joints in Southern California I can't really think of a good reason to eat at Taco Surf. Â
The inside decor is super chill and kinda fun, but the food here is just awful - and not in the good B-rated Mexican food kinda awful. Â If you are looking to just sit and have a drink during happy hour, I guess it would suffice. Â Honestly I would rather go to El Torito at the near by Dana Point Harbor, that's how bad this place is.
I have unfortunately been here a few times with co-workers. Â Last time I sent my food back - the "shredded beef taco" was more like cubed beef from a can. Â I sent it back to the kitchen - gross.
You can get cheap food here for Happy Hour and other specials, but from what I have experienced, it's not worth it.
Went to my first Taco Tuesday here this week. I happened to really like it. Cheap food and beer will always get me but their nachos are AMAZING! You have to try the carnitas nachos. They're delish. I happen to like the atmosphere and the crowd. It might not be everyone's thing but its mellow, beachy, cheap and a great place for locals.
Service was surprisingly attentive. We had 3 people check on us just to make sure we were taken care of.
Oh and the beans there are some of them most delicious I've tasted. Their secret is lard. Yup! That horrible for you thing that makes everything taste way better.
If your local, like mexican food and can appreciate greasy goodness, eat here.
When I used to work in Dana Point, this was my favorite place to eat lunch. Â You have the typical beach theme setting here, with a plethora of stickers, posters, and such adorned throughout. Â Seating is cozy with a small bungalow feature inside, basic high table settings, and a few TVs showing amazing surf videos. Â Seating is also available in an outside patio...
The food is generously priced. The quality of the soft shell tacos are amazing, offered in three different meats: fish, beef and pork. Â I prefer the baja fish burrito, breaded...
Location wise, it may be little difficult to locate; where PCH splits into one-way streets, it comes right after a blind curve on the left hand side. Â Parking can be a bitch during peak lunch hours, since the lot can only hold 20 cars or so...
Overall a great Mexican cuisine. Â Terrific Time at Taco Surf!..
-RR
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