Cascabel Taqueria
“Always a great place to grab a margarita for happy hour or enjoy some excellent tacos and fresh, tasty salads.”
“breakfast burrito
baked eggs
bottomless brunch
cornbread
margarita tasted like
weaker version at cabo vacation.”
“Not their fault, but the outdoor seating has been overshadowed by scaffolding for a while, which is a bit of a bummer as you can't see the sky.”
Cascabel Taqueria
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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This place keeps getting better and better in my book. My friends and I went for their unlimited tacos/sangria night on Monday, and we were so surprised at how great the service was! Usually when you get unlimited food, the service is slow and prevents you from getting your bang for your buck in the two hour limit, but here, every time that they saw our glass was empty or our plate was clear, they brought over more tacos and sangria. The baja fish, pollo chipotle, and carnitas tacos are all fresh and super good. They load them up with meat too. Get here early (around 6 pm) because by 7 pm it gets crowded and there is a wait!
My friends and I were wandering around the Upper West for a spot to grab brunch. We came across Cascabel Taqueria, which, along with great food, has a fantastic boozy brunch. For an extra $15, you can get unlimited drinks from the cocktail menu for one hour, and they were delicious. The spicy margarita was a little heavy, but I highly recommend La Lola. The space is tiny and the vibe is very casual, but this is a great spot if you're in the neighborhood to grab some authentic Mexican food with friends!
I wasn't inclined to like Cascabel. I'm used to great, cheap, humbly served tacos from living out West and while NYC's Mexican cuisine is improving, it has a way to go to compete with California, Texas, or Colorado. That said, Cascabel has grown on me and become something of a Friday night ritual. The sangria is inconsistent, but when it's good it is very good (like last night's batch). The guacamole is decent, although I would rather have actual tortilla chips than the tostadas that Cascabel provides. The tacos are tasty and well portioned, but a bit on the pricy side and unnecessarily inflexible about mixing types within a two or three taco order. My favorite dish is the sopa de tortilla, a spicy and rich soup served with a roasted poblano pepper on top that you can tear apart and drop into the soup for a smoky touch. A word of advice: save room for the tres leches cake, an excellent version that is not overly sweet and perfectly moist. Salud!
So, I finally decided to give Cascabel a try. I guess I avoided it for so long because I judge pretty harshly when it comes to ANYTHING Mexican in New York. So, it was on.
Not bad, Cascabel. Not bad.
The good.
-The food is actually pretty good and the little squeeze bottles of hot sauce have the potential to light you ablaze. Yum.
-Apparently the drinks are good but since we came here during a work day for lunch… I will leave this to my imagination.
In-limbo.
-The service. The waitress took a while to get to us. First we thought it was because we may have seemed indecisive with our menus open but then it took some serious eye contact and gesturing for her to come by. Things were fine once we got her.
-The venue. iAy, qué trendy! Much better now that the scaffolding is gone. It is one of ONLY two places by Columbia where you can get good tacos and a chair to eat it in.
The bad.
-I've grown used to good tacos that: 1) are less than $3 each; 2) contain protein that you can mix and match. The tacos here come in twos or threes and come only in sets. This means if you're craving al pastor AND carnitas (but can only hold down two tacos) you had to choose between them (or bring a friend and be creative). Two tacos will also go for double what you can get from the cart on 110th or 96th.
Like I said, overall, Cascabel wasn't bad. Does it beat out my joints in Corona? Not even close.
This is an ideal place to visit when the weather is nice. They have a decent sized patio and they can open up their floor-to-ceiling windows to let in the sunshine/breeze. I came here on Sunday at noon with an 11-person party for brunch and we were seated immediately. I'm glad there wasn't a wait!
The food itself was pretty good! Their taco platters come in orders of two or three, but unfortunately you can't request different types of tacos within one order. One way to get around it is to share with friends. I was able to try the baja fish, carne asada and al pastor tacos. My favorite was the carne asada – it had a really nice rich flavor. The al pastor has some pineapple in it to make things fun, but overall it was too sweet for my taste. The baja fish is breaded and while I enjoyed the batter, I didn't really think the fish was that fresh.
FYI, they have an all-you-can-drink-in-one-hour-brunch for $15. They just require you to order a brunch item off the menu.
I had a good experience with the service and our water was constantly refilled. Others in my party didn't really like the service, so maybe I got lucky. Bonus tip: If you check in with yelp you'll get a free churro. Who doesn't love free churros?
Debating on whether to go to Chipotle or this little Mexican joint down the block, I decided to try Cascabel – Chipotle's line was out the door (as usual). We were seated immediately. I noticed right away that the decorations (paintings of Mexican wrestlers' colorful masks) were really great. I had the "Al Pastor" which is actually pretty spicy, but very delicious. It was really refreshing with the pineapples. Unfortunately, I didn't like the guacamole too much. The tortillas were not cut into chips, which was pretty annoying for everyone in the table to break. They were also super thin and broke easily, so I wouldn't get the guacamole.
As for the price, it is a little more expensive than your authentic, tiny mom-and-pop shop, which I prefer much more. The service was great otherwise. As for the atmosphere, very colorful and cute, unfortunately, not air conditioning so very hot.
I was hesitant about ordering food here because I'm definitely a little bit of a snob when it comes to eating Mexican foods outside of Texas (and even in Texas, I realize it's more of Tex-Mex). We were here when it was happy hour, so I ordered a few tacos off their happy hour menu, the yuca fries, and a margarita.
First things first, the margarita has chile rather than salt along the rim. It's probably listed somewhere, but I wasn't paying attention and was surprised when I got it. It's not my favorite thing, and I couldn't taste the tequila in the margarita.
The yuca fries were a little flavorless, and the sauces didn't help that much. I think they'd be better if they were cut thinner, but you just got a lot of starch with not a lot of seasoning.
My tacos though, those were good. I got the carne asada tacos, and yum. I'd easily eat these again. I didn't notice any of the mushrooms that were described in the dinner menu, but the steak was cooked well, it was seasoned beautifully, and I was definitely happy with these.
The service was okay. It's nothing to rave about, but nothing that's disappointing either. Would I come back here? Probably not, but the carne asada taco was good enough that I wouldn't mind eating here again.
Had a great Saturday evening here!
Food:
– Started out with the guacamole and chips. The guac was delicious. We ordered medium and it was exactly that. It was also a bit chunky which I love
– The camarones tacos were good. Little bit spicy.
– My boyfriend had the breakfast burrito which he loved. It comes with egg and sweet potato fries sprinkled with cotija cheese.
– We had the yuca fries: really good. They come with cilantro and seasoning, and the quinoa and frijoles:
also yummy!
Service:
– Everyone was friendly, from the hostess to our server
– I left my bag in the outside area while we were waiting to be seated and the staff found it and kept it behind the bar
Drinks:
My table had margaritas in two different flavors (regular and pomegranate). It comes with a salty seasoned rim and the table loved it!