Jul 29, 2008
Yucatan Taco Stand — Magnolia’s Newest Eatery
by Pete WannI have it on good authority that Yucatan Taco Stand (the new restaurant going into the old BJ Keefers location) will be opening within the next 2 to 3 weeks.
My source has indicated that the menu will be a variety of Latin American dishes and the atmosphere and service will be “Pei-Wei style.” I guess that means it’ll be like Fuzzy’s, only with a better menu and higher-end feel.
The restaurant will feature “over a hundred different tequilas” and a nice selection of local and craft beers.
Got any tidbits to share? Post them in the comments!
Tags: BJ Keefer's, fuzzy's tacos, magnolia, magnolia ave, restaurants, yucatan taco stand
36 Comments, Comments or Pings
Ross
Any idea how late it will be open? I could see this place turning into a pretty good late night watering hole. It has at least two nice size flat screens and a decent bar area. Maybe the crowd from Nona’s/Lili’s will come down the street after they get through eating and continue their boozing ways.
And I like this name better than the Acapulco Taco and Tequila Bar. Nice ring to it. Hope this is the real one.
Jul 29th, 2008
Pete Wann
This filing with the TABC shows that “Yucatan Taco Stand” is definitely the name of the new place. The permit is also for a “Mixed Beverage Late Hours Permit,” so I’m guessing they at least want the option of being open late for your tequila-shooting pleasure.
Jul 29th, 2008
Chewy
It could also be a nice little pre-party place before a show at The Fairmount.
Jul 29th, 2008
Jeremy
It looked like they were just about done with it and then all of a sudden they started adding on something to the west side of the interior.
Oh and I agree with Chewy, just two blocks away!
What a cool area this is becoming…
Jul 29th, 2008
Kevin Buchanan
Now all we need is a series of infill projects on Magnolia with apartments/condos over retail to fill out the vacant lots.
Jul 30th, 2008
Bernie
What this area really needs is retail, retail, and more retail. We got the restaurants covered. We’ll soon have the nightlife covered. We need those last few shops that make it possible hardly ever to leave the neighborhood if you live here:
1. Independent Clothing stores
2. Neighborhood Grocery(s)
3. Farmer’s Market
4. etc.
Jul 30th, 2008
Jasmine
I agree with Bernie! This neighborhood desperately needs some quality retail and by “quality” I don’t mean the concrete abomination that Montgomery Plaza has become. Would love to see a Whole Foods or Sprouts go into that old Carnival on 8th Ave.
Looking forward to tequila and tacos.
Jul 30th, 2008
Kevin Buchanan
The Carnival site would be grand for another grocer, but I do hope that they’d demolish the old store and build something urban there. Put the parking to the rear/side where that little annex building is now and bring the main building up to the street on both sides.
Jul 30th, 2008
Rochelle
OMG Jasmine! I so agree. In fact, I am so inspired I just submitted a new store request to Whole Foods!! I don’t know how big that location is, but apparently they won’t consider anything under 35k sq ft.
Jul 30th, 2008
Kevin Buchanan
Tesco’s new American chain Fresh & Easy goes into small neighborhood spots like that - that’s all they do, in fact.
I’d love to see them there.
Jul 30th, 2008
Rochelle
Well, darn it. I just heard that Cook’s may already have plans for the building.
Jul 30th, 2008
fwtacoma
Is it open yet?
Aug 11th, 2008
Jeremy
Not yet…in the Fort Worth South newsletter it says sometime this month
Aug 11th, 2008
Chewy
They do have the sign up that says The Original Yucatan Taco Stand.
Aug 11th, 2008
Ross
It’s open for business.
Aug 19th, 2008
Jacko
The Yucatan Taco Stand is getting good reviews on Fort Worth Hole In The Wall and the Fort Worth Forum. Can’t wait to get over there. Anybody else been yet?
Aug 21st, 2008
Horatio Handy
Honestly I was let down. It’s basically a higher-end version of Fuzzy’s. Same garlic shredded beef, same tempura fish, same chips and queso and same hot sauce on the tables. The feel is Pei Wei-ish, and not cheap to boot. My cabrito taco (the menu claims lamb, but cabrito is actually goat) was full of cabbage and lettuce and cheese but little meat. Each taco is upward of $4, if I remember correctly, and doesn’t come with beans or rice or anything actually. Maybe there are kinks to work out, but I wasn’t blown away.
Aug 21st, 2008
Kevin Buchanan
My experience was very different. Completely impressed. I loved it. The vegetarian stuff is great (and nothing at all like anything at Fuzzy’s). I did not think the queso was anything at all like Fuzzy’s - it tasted and felt completely different.
We’ll be doing a Gastrognome very soon. Stay tuned for the W&C crew’s full take.
Aug 21st, 2008
Jeremy
I agree with Kevin. I had an awesome experience on Wednesday evening. For a place that had only been open for two days (the grand opening isn’t scheduled for another two weeks) I thought it was fantastic. I had the tempura fish bowl and my friend had the charizo bowl. Both were really good! As far as price goes, they weren’t much more than you would pay for a bowl at Chipotle at had 10X the flavor! Personally, I can’t wait to go back and try more…oh and the Margarita’s were good too
Aug 22nd, 2008
fwtacom
Is this place a chain or not? The comments on Fort Worth Hole In The Wall seem to disagree that its a chain and the comments on Fort Worth Forum say it is.
Does anybody know?
Aug 22nd, 2008
Pete Wann
It’s a chain, but not a national one. It’s owned by the same folks who brought you Fuzzy’s Tacos, along with several other new initiatives they are planning to roll out in the next few years.
Aug 22nd, 2008
fwtacoma
Thats cool.
Thanks for the info Pete.
Aug 22nd, 2008
Barbara Brown
Last night some friends and I gathered here and it was great! We started out w/ a frozen screw driver, which was refreshing! Then, we had chips/salsa/queso/guacamole, very tasty. I had the tequila lime chicken nachos, the serving was huge and the flavors were amazing! I tasted my friends tilipia which was one of the best dishes I’ve tasted in months…the sauce is wonderful. Loved the atmosphere too.
Aug 22nd, 2008
John MacFarlane
I took my wife and mother in law there on Thursday night. First of all, the cashier had no idea what was going on. She had no idea that cabrito is actually goat not lamb. So, the experience with the cashier and seeing that they have no idea what cabrito really is, made us uneasy. We ordered and sat down. There are like a million waitresses there. You really don’t know who belongs to your table. We sat outside. The beer came, we ordered one, they brought us two. I had a margarita. It was pretty good. The chicken and “cabrito” (lamb) tacos were pretty good. My mother in laws salad was good too. For the mix up about the beer, the asked if wanted anything on the house. I said it was ok. But I assume they charged me for it, so my mother in law drank the 2nd beer. A waitress came back and told me again that anything we wanted was on the house. I asked her if her manager told her to ask me again, she said yes, so I went ahead and ordered another marg. So, the food was good, a little overpriced for a high end Fuzzy’s, but the service is still lacking. I thought it would be safe to go there after this amount of time had gone by since they opened, but apparently not.
Sep 6th, 2008
Jasmine
In their defense, it’s very difficult to open a new restaurant, especially in an area with such restaurant savvy customers. They have only been open for 2 weeks and are still novices at the computer system and logistics.
We had a lot of waitresses coming to our table as well, so I assumed that the restaurant is running on a “team wait” concept. Sounds like they tried to remedy their service mistakes and make sure that you were a happy customer before you left. Realizing their mistakes and caring enough about the customer to fix it is more important than immediate perfection. I’m sure that everything will be running smoothly by the time Grand Opening comes along.
As for the cabrito, I too was confused why they call it lamb when it means goat, but they do. Oh well!
I love the place, great food, sleek ambiance, friendly service and the best frozen margaritas in town!!
Sep 6th, 2008
Jen
I was pretty excited about this place opening but was a little put off too. I like the concept of a relaxed or casual ordering platform but it was pretty pricey for what you get. The little beers were a rip off considering a schooner at Benito’s is less than half the price. I asked which type of Rahr beer was on tape and was told “the regular kind”. It must have been the same young lady that some others here have dealt with. The garlic shredded beef salad was ok but you get about half of what you would get at Fuzzy’s for a couple of bucks more and with less meat. I think I would have overlooked a lot of things if the wait staff had been a little nicer and more educated on what they serve. We even got attitude from one waitress because we asked if the beers that had been sitting there for a few minutes were ours. She grunted and motioned for us to take them. It’s a little too soon after opening and was too early in the evening to have that much attitude! Fuzzy’s and Benito’s have better food and prices. This place can be fun but it needs to adopt more of the Fort Worth attitude of hospitality. I felt like you had to be a certain level of cool to be there and even the TCU area restaurants aren’t that pretentious!! I would give it another chance though. There are a lot of things to worry about once you open a new restaurant and sometimes you don’t know where you’ve dropped the ball until you start getting feed back. It’s the response to that feed back that will matter here.
Sep 8th, 2008
Andy Mans
We stopped by a few weeks ago. We had fish tacos, an order of chips+salsa, a plate of chicken enchiladas, and a couple margaritas (on the rocks).
The ritas appeared to be dispensed from a 7-11style lemonade dispenser, so I question the “no mix” on the ritas. They were ok, not very strong.
The fish tacos are a hit. Not greasy little pieces like Fuzzy’s. These had big crisp crunchy pieces of tempura breaded fish. Much better than Fuzzy’s.
The chicken enchiladas came out as a large serving. This could easily feed too healthy people, or satisfy two averagely unhealthy people.
Chips and Salsa were good. Paying for chips and salsa is a stinger since I’m so used to free chips at 99% of every other restaurant, but they are above average, and limited intake to a modest portion.
Sep 8th, 2008
Lois
Went to the stand last night it was great !!!! Had burrito in the bowl garlic shredded beef, Excellent !!!!! my friend had the tequila lime chicken nachos the best we ever had. The menu was to die for. We look forward to going back and trying more from the menu. Some of drinks were a little pricey. $9 bucks for a bloody mary was to much for my blood, But the margaritas were great !!!! The servers we had were nice but alittle confuse on food delivery. It is hard to deliver peoples food when you don’t know where there seated and they have to look for you. This is not the servers fault , but something the managers need to look into to help them help us. None the less I thougt it was great !!! Can’t wait to go back .
Sep 19th, 2008
Sarah
I went last night too…just for a drink and an appetizer. The frozen screwdriver was awesome….very, very strong. The tequila lime nachos were just a big pile of stuff all thrown together…they were cold and had a weird white cheese sauce and the chicken tasted like it came from a can. The servers were really nice but the system was confusing and no one told me whether I was supposed to wait at the bar for my drink or wait at my table and when I asked the guy at the counter kind of mumbled something incoherent so I just sat down and hoped for the best. All that being said, we still liked it…good atmosphere and the other stuff on the menu looked good. But mostly I just really loved the frozen screwdriver.
Sep 20th, 2008
Chachi
I went to YTS the other night. It’s got a pretty extensive menu to make your entire dinner and drink plans standing at a register. This is a place (and price) where you sit down, order a drink and appetizer and then your dinner. 2 tacos, piaya (sp), chips, salsa and guac, glass of wine, house margarita….42 bucks - Ouch! Tacos were great, piyaya was ok (but I give them credit for having it on the menu), my margarita was strong, the chips were not good but the salsa was.
Sep 23rd, 2008
sgt1967
I loved this place, the food is fantastic, the experience was awsome. I just dont understand people who cant grasp the concept of fast casual.
Sep 27th, 2008
Sarah
I love fast casual…sometimes I just don’t feel like having a server wait on me. I just don’t like it when the process isn’t very clear. At Yucatan I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do after I ordered…there were no signs, the guy at the register didn’t say anything, when I asked I couldn’t understand his answer. Some people had table numbers but I wasn’t given one…It’s different at Fuzzy’s where you order your drink and they hand it right to you then they call your number and you pick up your food at the counter. The set up was just a little complicated. Also, since they couldn’t ring up drinks that the server got and our food on the same ticket, we somehow ended up with three tickets in one sitting. I’m sure they’ll smooth things out eventually.
Sep 27th, 2008
Pete Wann
@sgt1967 - I don’t think it’s a matter of not “getting” fast casual. I think it’s that we all think the place could be better if it would pick one or the other.
Based on my reading of the comments, pretty much everyone agrees that the food is good, but they think that TOYTS should either:
A. Go “fast” and lower the prices.
OR
B. Go “casual,” keep the prices the same, but use a waitstaff instead of the Fuzzy’s model.
We “get” it; we just don’t particularly LIKE it. It’s confusing and inconvenient for customers, and companies that make things confusing and inconvenient for their customers usually don’t last very long. We want TOYTS to stick around.
Sep 29th, 2008
fwtacoma
I was there on Saturday night and things seemed to work better. I asked the guy who took my order about the drinks and he said they would be brought to our table. This was done quickly. Then our food came, wihtout any problems.
The only issue was when one of the girls with us went to order a drink at the bar and were ignored (when it wasn’t busy) and then asked about some of the drinks and got blank stares.
So it sounds like they’re coming along…or maybe we just had a decent experience. Also, the chile relleno is awesome.
Sep 29th, 2008
Kevin Buchanan
I do want to add that last time we were there, we decided to reward ourselves for a long day of painting and get the cappuccino pie again - only to find that it was radically different. It was served in a bowl and the best I could describe it as is “cappuccino soup.”
What gives? If the pie didn’t set up or something I’d prefer just being told that it wasn’t available to the weirdness we were given.
Sep 29th, 2008
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