Soul Taco - Shockoe Slip

Came to Richmond, VA on vacation from Texas and came across this place Soul Taco. Me and my family where surprised how good these tacos where. Did not expect. Not your ordinary tacos they had their own spin on it. I really respect that. Coming from Houston Texas where Tacos are king. I would put these up against Texas tacos. I really enjoyed the food here definitely recommend this place to everyone. We had the Oxtail taco, jerk chicken taco, birria tacos, buttermilk batter fried chicken tacos, country fried carne asada tacos. All where great.

I recently got a job in the area, and decided to check out Soul Taco since it was walkable. When you walk in you grab a menu and order at the bar. Enter Pat, the bar tender/server. She was so sweet. She checked on me without hovering and removed my dishes promptly, always calling me by my name (not something I care about, to be honest, but I found it made her seem even friendlier). I would come back just to be in Pat's presence. In fact, I'm considering coming back after work for a margarita. Now the food. Most of the menu items are battered and fried (I suppose that is the "Soul" part), so not exactly a light lunch, but still delicious. I got the Nashville Hot and the Shrimp Po' Boy. The tacos are about $5 each, but they do offer a lunch special of 3 for $12 for specific options, which is why I didn't go that route. They were ready very quickly and Pat brought them right over. Ambience wise, they were pumping somewhat loud pop music, which I enjoyed since I was solo. I could potentially see it being a little loud for a conversation. All in all, the meal might have been a little heavy for returning to work, but I will absolutely be back in the evening sometime.

I went to Soul Taco on a whim because it was close to my hotel downtown. I ended up ordering a delicious mojito from the bar while I waited on my tacos. I ordered the fried catfish taco, the buttermilk chicken taco and the oxtail taco & all 3 were amazing! So much flavor and very reasonably priced. I’ll definitely stop by again before I leave town.

What a disappointment. The food was bad — the jerk chicken tasted like the bottom of a burnt pan. Service was miserable. We had to ask for our drinks after 10 minutes or so as the server had clearly forgotten about them while making drinks for their friends at the bar. The other server seemed irritated we had even entered the restaurant. Tacos came without napkins. I had to hunt them down so we could eat. They didn’t have any ice — at 5 pm on a Saturday — and we had to wait for the owner to arrive with it so we could have our drinks. (Another reviewer had the same problem, oddly.) The menu had such potential but ultimately this was a let-down. We were surprised since the online reviews were decent — until we used the restroom and noticed a sign advertising two free tacos for a five-star online review. Assuming that explains it. Would also be great if they could switch from plastic cups to reusable.