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    Cartel Taco Bar

    3.4 (199 reviews)
    InexpensiveTacos, Cocktail Bars

    Order Cartel Taco Bar Takeout or Delivery

    Cartel Taco Bar Photos

    Business Info

    CARTEL TACO BAR ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Live music
    Moderate noise
    Dogs allowed
    Happy hour specials

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    Recommended Reviews - Cartel Taco Bar

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    Birria taco and
    Linn P.

    Came here for a work gathering. We tried the Birria tacos- they were okay. The dipping broth was good. The chicken quesadilla was rec by the worker taking our order. It is okay. Their rotisserie chx is not the best thing. I did dip it with the birrias broth, that helped. I had the fried chicken taco. That was good and fried chicken is always a tasty unhealthy choice. But usually a solid choice for me. It had a spicy sauce on it that I liked. Someone ordered the firecrackers. They are good. Needs a lot more ranch for dipping considering their size. One of the order, half the firecracker had no cheese in it. I think it oozed out while frying. They did make a few more to replace them. The service here was very nice! The guy taking our order was so friendly.

    Sauteed Shrimp Taco - only 3 small shrimp
    Jazmon M.

    Pros: cute place. Affordable place. Drinks good. Cons: DISGUSTING BLAND food. I ordered a sautéed shrimp taco, it had 3 TINY shrimp on it. Plus some plain WHITE rice that was claimed to be cilantro rice. The kids food was worse... my children aren't hard to please. They ate nothing. Thats how bad it was. Anyways if you want a good cheap drink go here. If you want good food with your drink RUN the opposite direction. I wish I went to Taco Bell. At least it would've tasted seasoned.

    Adrian Q.

    The tacos are ok. The tortillas definitely need some flavor but i think overall i came out saying "meh". definitely not authentic services. Good not great but really nice location is OK. Parking sucks. Overall, buy frozen food at Walmart, cook it really well at home put on some good music and you'll save yourself some money. This is not a knock on the establishment. The food is OK but I'm here for the people. I've got to be honest thumbs out of 5

    Haley K.

    I found myself at Cartel tacos when figuring out a place to eat when hanging at Cidercade next door. On here and on my map app they were listed as closed but on my way to go try another place I noticed someone cleaning the windows at the doors. A manager/co-owner came over to me as I was walking over and he asked me about Cidercade being busy for their tax day special. I let them know they showed up as closed, but he let me know they are open! Staff was friendly when coming in and generally was busy once I got my food. Oh I do have to give a shout out that they do have big red at the on tap soda machine. (Not for me but for my husband and sister.) So I came in and got the chicken birra tacos which comes with 3. You can get more than one meat if you would like. The food was decent and the price was really reasonable. $10 and some change after tax, but before tip. I'm glad I came over to give them a chance, and we may keep them in rotation if we come back to to Cidercade.

    Mini chicken flautas
    Ryan W.

    What can I say? We love this place. It's a fun spot. Especially the bar area. You can order at the main counter. However, if you are sitting in the bar area, you can order there. And speaking of the bar, the bartenders are great. They are personable without being overly familiar. Just right. As for the food, they have a good menu with lots of treats. Lots of fun tacos and apps. The chicken quesadilla is fantastic. They season the tortilla and it is so good.

    Tiny little corner bar.
    Kendall S.

    We've found ourselves at Cartel Taco Bar more often than I initially thought! Their menu isn't exactly authentic Mexican food (of course they never claimed to be) -- they've many untraditional items like fried chicken tacos, fried green beans, smoked mac and cheese, Kentucky bourbon baked beans... it's a fun variety. And of course you'll find lots of tacos, bowls, salads, etc. I ordered lettuce wrap tacos and a side of beans on our last visit and shared chips and salsa with Jon. They give you soooo much salsa here, red and green, and they've got those super thin cantina style chips that are always delicious unless they're stale, and these weren't! They were perfect. We love to sit at the bar here. It's small and in a great spot by the outdoor patio, and the bartender is always cool. The crowd in general here is pretty cool, laid back. There's a couple TVs and sometimes they have live music in the main dining area. Cocktails, beer, tacos, patio, bar, salsa. It's everything you need!

    Fajita Chicken Taco, Rotisserie Chicken Taco, and Buffalo Chicken Ranch Taco. Queso Dip.
    Leah K.

    Yum! This was our first time and the guy at the counter was so helpful and sweet. I'm so sorry I can't remember his name, but he was so kind! He walked us through the menu and how ordering works and didn't rush us at all. Once you order, you get a little buzzer and it'll ring/vibrate when it's time to pick up your food. if you have a lot of stuff, they're more than happy to help you to your table! I ordered a: Fajita chicken taco rotisserie chicken taco buffalo ranch chicken taco (a "secret" menu item) queso dip (came with pork rinds and tortilla chips. i didn't think i would be a fan of the pork rinds but they were soo good with the queso!) as someone who isn't good with spice, there was definitely spice in something (tortilla chips/queso??), but other than that, everything was delicious! There is a separate bar in the back you can order drinks from. My only con is the live music. it's a small restaurant to have live music, but i can't dock too many points because we had looked up the restaurant before we came, so we knew it would probably happen. if i could give it a 4.8/5 stars, i would. but again, that's just personal preference :)

    Fajita
    Brittany R.

    Listen, I have tried many tacos joints throughout the entire DFW metroplex, and ain't no one topping Cartel Tacos! I ordered a few Chicken Fajitas tacos topped with Avocados Aioli & Tomatoes, and their specialty Beef Fajita Tacos. You can definitely tell they focus on quality and not quantity. Every single taco was HIT-TING! Go see for yourself!

    Chips and Salsa
    Marco R.

    We came on a Sunday and it was closed but we wanted to try their tacos so we came back Saturday. The place is nicely decorated with plenty of seating, the staff is very friendly and pleasant. To start we asked for chips and salsa, you get a large tray of warm seasoned thin tortilla chips plus green tomatillo salsa and red hotter salsa (we believe it was chipotle chiles in it), it was DEFINITELY DELICIOUS. That salsa was the star of the meal, we couldn't get enough. Then we got the smoked salmon street tacos and the beef fajita street tacos.... Unfortunately the beef fajita tacos they were plain beef steak, unsalted, unseasoned (bland) tacos, served on double tortilla. Pretty disappointing for a taco restaurant. The steak was not tough, but tasteless. I should mention that the street tacos is pretty cheap. My suggestion: raise the price a little, and season your steak, you could bring it around. We will have to come back to see it tacos improve, (or to buy Red Salsa To Go).

    Chicken Quesadilla
    Beth P.

    Great food! Super crowded and loud!^ Recommend getting there before the college crowd arrives.

    Kendy L.

    Came here with some "friends" so didn't choose to be here. Tacos here are just plain average. Tried their fajita specialty taco and their street tacos. It lacked the flavor I am use to with real taco places. I also got their 5 pepper Mac and cheese. It was really disappointing. Not really any spice to me. I got bored of the taste after 3 spoons. Their other sauces (red and green) were also boring to me.

    Hot sauce selection

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    2 years ago

    Love this place! Jack the bartender was awesome and friendly. Kelvin was awesome as well.

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    1 year ago

    Bartender will inspect your ID better than stadium security. But it's good environment

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    Page 1 of 5

    Ask the Community - Cartel Taco Bar

    What are the drink specials during the week?

    What's the definition of cartel and how would this name apply to a respectable business?

    i suspect the use of CARTEL is only for marketing. I can vouch only for the tacos which I enjoyed.

    Don’t See Your Question? Ask Away!

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    Delicious! Cheyenne is the best. I recommend their charcuterie board and Sangria. They are open…read morefor lunch.

    I loved it! I say…read more"I" as my wife wasn't as big a fan of the food as I was. We had reservations in a busy Saturday night and were seated at a comfortable 2-top. They were about full when we arrived. Not so much when we left. While I thought there was a game tonight - it's the Eagles in concert at one of the nearby stadiums. Because it was packed when we arrived, the space was fairly loud. Cheyenne was our server and she did great. She knew the menu well and made some suggestions. We had already read the Yelp reviews and sort of knew what we wanted. Two of us shared: - Margarita rocks - Pan con Tomate - Crispy Pork - Jerk Chicken Paella The Pan con Tomate was amazing. Really cool presentation too. The Crispy Pork was real nice. A bit dry due to making it crispy. Really meaty too. The Jerk Chicken Paella was great. Cheyenne told us the jerk seasoning wasn't very spicy. She was right. I would have liked it spicier though but understand the decision to appeal to a broader section of diners. The socarrat was amazing. They make the paella in a small (8"?) cast iron skillet. It made for a perfect caramelization of the rice (socarrat). The dish had jerk seasoned chicken thighs and vegetables. Yum! I would have loved to have the Coconut Cake. But we were full and it was $22. We'll come back to Cafe Americana and try other dishes and the cake!

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    Cartel Taco Bar - tacos - Updated May 2026

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