Tacombi Flatiron – Cafe El Presidente
“I came to a happy hour fundraiser here recently, and loved the interior – so colorful and full of light.”
“The guacamole and chips are a must, I would fill my bathtub with that stuff, not jump in, but eat from it every afternoon.”
“The layout and feel of this restaurant is very welcoming with a cool, but not trying too hard to be cool vibe.”
Tacombi Flatiron – Cafe El Presidente
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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HUGE space – I had only passed the NoLita location before, so wasn't expecting such a large space here. It's VERY loud, so it was absolutely perfect for our giant group of 23 people, but maybe not the best place if you're looking for a quiet, romantic date spot.
We sat at a long table sort of in the back and sampled from a prix fixe menu: guacamole, esquites (delicious spicy street corn), fried fish tacos, pork tacos, vegetarian tacos and chicken tacos. My favorite were tacos al pastor (the pork tacos). The street corn is also quite good. I skipped the chicken and vegetarian tacos because I was so full by the time they arrived.
Great spot for a big group. We shared pitchers of sangria and margaritas and buckets of beer. Price was good per person for what we had. I'm a fan!
Lol. Okay, where do I begin….this experience was beyond silly. I recommended it to my friends as our Cinco destination b/c I liked the one on the LES. It's totally supposed to be vibes, right right?!
But naw, aside from the fact that we were seated immediately, the rest of the evening didn't stack up at all. The "pitcher" of margarita, talk about a fuck ton of ice, hardly, barely, almost 4 drinks for 59 bucks. What a waste. And it arrived with all the food too, talk about bringing things the way they normally are at any freaking restaurant.
And that was the whole problem with this restaurant. They did the most baffling things. Like each of us ordered 4 discreet plates of tacos, but they served us like 5 generic tacos, arranged by meat/topping. Like WTF. How hard is it, exactly, to plate the food the way people ordered it? Only like every restaurant I've ever gone to….Lol
So we're fucking confused. Cuz it's like which meat is what, it's all hella ambigious. Who ordered what, and how many? Totally threw us off. Anyways, the avocado tostadas, while piled high, sucked. Like just cold beans, almost stale tortilla, no combination of hot sauces could save it.
Blah. Some of the meat tacos were legit, we had carne asada, carnitas, al pastor and fried fish. I think I liked al pastor the best, but how the fuck was I supposed to know what I was eating. Oh I do like the hot oil though, that's cool. Um yeah….but otherwise, this place serves up shit margs at abhorrently high prices, comptetely disorganized service – they brought us our checks, but didn't leave us a pen x_x – maybe it's cuz its Cinco, but actually, no I can't give them that cuz it's not like there a line or shit, and you what day it is on calendar goddamn.
I feel silly when I recommend a place to my friends, who take my word on it, and it's just not what you made it out to be at all.
Having lived in the San Joaquin Valley in CA, I've had legit mexican food and tacombi is one of the better renditions of mexican I've had in the northeast.
A friend and I split the guac and each had two tostatas. The guac was fresh and made with ripe avocados, generous portion size too. Tacombi has really substantial tortilla chips that have a great crunch and can really hold up to the guac.
I had a carne asada and the special which involved carnitas on top of guac. The carne asada was decent, with a nice grilled flavor. The carnitas was quite juicy and porky – I could have used another lime wedge to cut through the fat.
The portions are authentic to Mexican street tacos – which means they're small by American standards. However, I think 2 tacos/tostatas per person and a guac between 2 people is a perfect amount.
The house salsas are no joke either, really authentic based on the flavor and texture. It's pretty sad how America thinks salsa tastes like a jar of Tostitos. Watch out, they're not playing around with the heat though. The arbol is pretty hot and I didn't even touch the "black gold" made with habaneros.
The prices aren't bad either; the portions are similar to what you'd get at a tapas plate but for much cheaper. Flavors are authentic and well executed. I'd totally come again for a chill dinner with friends.
Soo it's definitely not authentic Mexican therefore the 3 stars. Or maybe 3.5? In Yelp language it doesn't really matter. That said, the space is meticulously designed to transform you to a market in Mexico. The quesadilla, while untraditional, is pretty delicious. Instead of melting cheese between two tortillas, it's protein and cheese on top of the tortilla. I ate it folded in half, and it was way better than the grilled fish taco I had.
By the way, would not recommend the grilled fish taco, which had too much pepper toppings and not enough fish.
Oh and get the elotes. It doesn't come on the cob, but actually the little paper cup is kind of fun and makes eating easier.
Good place for hanging out and some drinks.
TACOMBI Flat Iron Area, on West 24th Street. I called to place my "all vegetarian" take-out order of Guacamole & chips, 4 sweet potato & black bean tacos. I arrived only minutes later, & my order had just been placed on the lovely, white tiled counter, with Alfonso and Gus nearby. The TACOMBI brown shopping bag was ready to go. Manny (of TACOMBI) stopped by to say hi to his coworkers, so I snapped a photo, WITH THEIR PERMISSION…see the photo!! A pleasure to do business with a restaurant that has great food & great people working there.
I met my friend for lunch outdoors on the rooftop dining area of her office building…so nice. Food was great! We both agreed. The next time I order, I will remember that my VEGAN friend does not eat cheese, or dairy, or meat, fish, chicken, so I'll just ask TACOMBI to leave off the cheese.
It was a delicious lunch. All this fresh, delicious, food was just under $30. Lunch for two . The tacos look small, but they are full of flavor & very fresh ingredients. This was money well spent, and fairly priced for such FRESH INGREDIENTS. I highly recommend TACOMBI. So far, I have enjoyed food from TACOMBI on Bleecker Street, Tacombi on West 24th Street& I must try the TACOMBI further downtown on or near Lafayette Street. That location has the VW bus/van vehicle inside its space. The van was used to start TACOMBI. Gotta visit there!
Tacombi is pretty awesome. I'm a big fan of the SoHo / Elizabeth St. location so I was excited to give the Flatiron one a try.
First, the space is massive. Absolutely huge and plenty of tables to sit at. It is lacking the VW bus which is so iconic at the SoHo outpost. We came for dinner and passed on drinks, ordering a taco parade with a side of some guac and chips.
Let's start with the guac. It's good – typically pricey at $11 but we managed to grab a side for $6 which was still a very healthy portion! Chips were good and the guac was just ok.
We ordered the Chicken Quesadilla which was OUTSTANDING. So flavorful, I'd definitely recommend this over some of the other tacos we had. Loved the Al Pastor pork and pineapple taco. We were not a big fan of the sweet potato special on a tostada, mainly because the tostada was of an odd consistency – hard but also slightly chewy which was hard to eat. Chorizo taco was on point.
Great spot for Flatiron. Typically there is a super long wait to sit down, but thankfully there are plenty of great places to grab a drink in the area during your wait if the Tacombi bar is full.
I stopped by for an event on the lower level which was quiet. The main level is insanely noisy. Not a place for me. But it was very very busy. Lots of people like it.
I finally had a chance to go back to tacombi and revisit to make sure I had a accurate review. It took us a while to be seated, but when we were the waiter was attentive even though it was super busy.
We order the guacamole and chips to share and each got the al pastor. I remembered the Baja crispy fish was really good last time so I ordered it again as well.
Maybe I mentally hyped it up too much but the al pastor is the way to go. It was delicious and I loved the sweetness of the pineapple. The Baja fish was good but if I could only have one I'd have the al pastor.
There's definitely kitchen efficiency problems because every single time I've been here wether it be drinks or food it's always slow to come to the table. We had to follow up with the waiter twice during this visit for my Baja fish.
If my food was on time I'd definitely give this place their fourth star.