Delivery from Taqueria

Taqueria Downtown recently opened another outpost on Grove Street that will focus on catering, take-out, and delivery orders. Taqueria is one of the most popular spots in Jersey City, but after so long of being eat-in/take-out only, I was curious to see how they'd hold up for delivery.

Short answer: Not Well.

There were two of us eating, so we decided to split the enchiladas, one chicken and one cheese, with a green sauce (basically salsa verde) which came with rice and beans and we got three tacos: barbacoa, carnitas, and chorizo.

Delivery was relatively quick; around 30-40 minutes, which seems to be the best I can really hope for from anywhere no matter how close by I live. So given the relatively short time, I was surprised the very first thing I noticed upon receiving the delivery was that nothing seemed terribly warm.

The second thing I noticed was that the enchiladas were incredibly disappointing. There were two enchiladas, both pretty small and flat out cold. I noticed only a spoonful or so of the green sauce and quickly realized that while there clearly wasn't much on there to begin with, they had also put the beans in their own container (a move I appreciate) but then they had put that container in with everything else which caused the double whammy of squishing the already small enchiladas and getting the sauce all over that container. As opposed to on my food where I would have liked it. On top of that, there was far more tortilla to the enchiladas than filling and I felt like that's basically all I was eating - a tortilla. The cheese was so cold, it was rubbery and completely lacked flavor especially with so little sauce. The chicken was barely even noticeable, although what I could taste was very good.

The next issue came when we started divying up the food. I had thought it looked like a really generous portion of rice which I thought was nice, considering the size of the enchiladas, but in reality, it was a couple of bites each. I know Taqueria doesn't do huge portions which is fine by me, but this really was extremely small.

The tacos were fine. Two were still fairly warm, the third was completely cold, but flavorwise, they were all excellent as usual. The tortillas were a little mushier than usual, but I imagine that has to do with steaming for a bit in the foil. It wasn't enough to be a problem or even be really noticeable.

All in All
Thinking back, I can't remember ever ordering the enchiladas at Taqueria so maybe size-wise, that's typical - in which case, I honestly can't say I recommend ordering them - but there were also some pretty major flaws that stemmed from delivery. The temperature and packaging created serious enough issues that the meal was a disappointment and will probably prevent me from ordering again. Granted, this is early on in their delivery service, but until I hear a lot of rave reviews, I'll stick with visiting in person to be sure to get a meal I'll actually enjoy.