Tapacubo

We stopped in here for some drinks, guac, salsa, and chips before seeing If/​Then The Musical and it was the perfect pre-​show spot! It is connected to The Graduate hotel. We were able to park there and then just walk across the street to see the show when we were finished dining. The best part, they give a discount to show attendees! The guac and salsas were fresh and delish. We will definitely be back before our next broadway production at Gammage! P. S. I recommend that you walk through the lobby of The Graduate hotel on your way in or out! It is SUPER retro and cool. :) I would love to plan a staycation here on the night of a football game or a special occasion!

Was a bit disappointed with this place. I expected a full taco spot with lots of yummy options but that wasn’t the case. They offer a carne asada burrito but won’t do Carne asada tacos? I asked the waitress what that was about and she said she ASSUMES it’s because her chef is concerned with cross contamination? What the… Ok. So I order a fish taco, the prices are over inflated for only getting a tortilla a ton of cabbage and a little piece of fish. There are by far so many better options for tacos than this. I will not be returning to this establishment.

Unilocal removed my previous review saying that they thought I’d left it on the wrong businesses page, but no, this review is meant for Tapacubo, not some other business. So here it is again.
I came to this bar for the two dollar beers and I saw a beer on tap that I had never tried before. I asked to have a taste of a beer I had never tried before and the bartender was extremely rude. He asked me if I was kidding for asking for a taste because the beers were only two dollars. Regardless of the price of the beer, I wanted to know whether I enjoyed it, which isn’t too much to ask for. The bartender chose not to serve me after I asked for a taste and this kind of service deserves a poor review.

Yummy tacos, local beer selection & fun staff. We’ll be back just to eat very soon. The day we were here there were lots of everyone. There were couples dressed up for a night at Gammage, students studying on the patio & professors munching & chatting. Very fun atmosphere & décor. Definitely looking forward to an evening on the large patio now that the weather is agreeable.

Ten months later and the service is just as good as my first visit. The staff was warm and welcoming and very helpful. The F&B manager is doing it right. I will be back.

Super cute restaurant. Loved the old toolboxes for lights and maps for wallpaper. I thought the food was so-​so. I’m kinda a taco junkie. I thought the tacos lacked a punch in flavor as well as the gauc. The best thing I had was the flatbread taco which the meat was super good. I took it off the flatbread, as that was too much for me.

The food was pretty good. Sweet corn is amazing. However, it took an hour to get our food and drinks are overpriced.

I’ve been here about three times total. The first two times were to meet friends for drinks only which were great. I have no qualms about their bar. Today was the first time I came to eat. I arrived with my husband and two friends. I was on a time crunch since I had to get back to work in 40 minutes but the other three had more time to spare. I made my waitress aware of that and that I would need a to go box when the meal arrived so I could make a quick exit. I am fully aware that I am a really picky eater. I ordered a taco salad which listed that it came with beans, guacamole, and sour cream. When I ordered it, I asked for the salad with the ground beef, no sour cream, no beans, and guacamole on the side. About five minutes before I had to leave I received my salad with no to go box, no beef, and olives. First off, if you’re going to put a description of what’s in the salad, why don’t you put EVERYTHING? If I had known there were going to be olives, I would’ve asked for no olives. Then I had to ask for the beef again which left me asking my husband to bring the meal into me at work. That was the end of my personal experience inside the restaurant. When he brought it to me, he proceeded to tell me when there were two cups of beef. When the first one was brought out, the meat barely covered the bottom of the cup. He then told the waitress that was not acceptable for that size of a salad. She said she could bring another one out but it would be 15 minutes. When I finally did get to eat it (about an hour later) I was severely disappointed. Here’s the total breakdown: five minutes picking out olives, 1 minute putting out flavorless beef, two minutes eating a soggy salad with an even soggier shell (I get it, it was an hour later, that can’t be helped), one minute to really say that salad was crap, 20 seconds to walk to the trash can and throw ¾th of the salad away. I honestly wish I took the extra steps and walked to Chipotle.

My experience here a few weeks ago was a big disappointment.
My friend and I went before a show at Gammage last week for the 15% off discount with our show tickets — we were so excited to give this place a try! As a lover of all things Mexican food, I can tell you that this place makes a lot of empty promises.
I had the chicken taco, pulled pork taco, and street rice with a side of guacamole. While the chicken taco was pretty bland, it was definitely the best thing on the plate. Before I ordered the pork taco, I was warned that the mango habanero sauce would be extremely spicy, but I reassured my waitress that I would be fine. Naturally, I was expecting a big bite of flavor after that claim, but was severely disappointed. It tasted like some sort of alcohol didn’t cook out completely and the mango habanero didn’t have much flavor — just heat. I tried adding the guacamole to give it a lil’ flavor, but even that didn’t help. Now, the biggest disappointment was the street rice (which shouldn’t even be named that). Though the rice was obviously green from cilantro, there was hardly any cilantro flavor AND the rice was undercooked. I actually couldn’t even finish eating it.
Overall, I had really high hopes for this place and hope management sees this post and makes the necessary changes they need in the kitchen.

This is a Mexican restaurant that has a full size swimming pool right in the backyard. Girl sitting out there in their bathing suits. We came here before he went to Gammage Theatre for the night and it’s totally casual with a mixture of business people and students and super cool.

Food was so tasty! The service couldn’t have been better! The place is really nice inside, the guacamole and salsa was so delish!
The best server ever!!!

I used to work at the diner next door, so I’ve been to this bar a few times. Here are my thoughts:
It’s really small compared to a lot of bars around. I’m not a fan of the pretentious atmosphere. It’s part of the hotel, if that says anything.
The music is nothing great. You can find better at lounges near by. Mill is literally down the street with much better options, even for food!
And last but not least, the management sucks. The manager of Tapacubo (Tolan Farris) is one of the worst most arrogant people I’ve met. I mostly say this due to the fact that I’ve heard him say some awful things about customers for no reason. He’s unprofessional and inappropriate.
Honestly, don’t spend your money there, especially with the current management. There are so many better options in the area! Explore and find businesses that will treat you with respect and not bad mouth you behind your back.

Not the very BEST, but pretty darn good! (I still Gallo Blanco).
I had the short ribs taco, the pork taco and the side of corn (which comes in a bowl). The tacos were delicious if a bit greasy. I ate every bite! The meat was fall-​apart tender and nicely seasoned. The view to the pool provided nice relaxing atmosphere. The corn is DELICIOUS! Definitely a young person’s place (so near ASU), but everyone was very friendly to us older folks (ranging in age from 40’s to mid-50’s). Would I come back again? I think definitely!

Came here on a Tuesday to watch the FIFA game. The place is located inside The Graduate Hotel and from what I gather it was pretty dead.
I started by ordering some Happy Hour specials; chips and salsa and a beer. For my entrée I went for some tacos; pork shoulders and the chicken tacos. I thought the chips and salsa was decent at best. I would rather have fresh made chips and salsa; plus the salsa had a weird strong vinegar-​like taste; both red and green. The pork shoulder tacos were a tad bit cold my partner and I thought plus could use a little more kick and spice. The thing I like about it is the pickled onions giving it some texture. My chicken tacos was probably my favorite of the night. I love avocados, but again would want some more spice to it and also more cabbage slaw for more texture.
In the end, Tapacubo was a nice place to visit and chill for drinks. I didn’t really care for the food and thought the chips and salsa at least be complimentary. No Taco Tuesday?! — Enjoy!

Pros: The Papi and Conchintia tacos, cubano sandwich, and location.
Cons: Salsa was flavorless, micheladas aren’t prepared well, service is slow, I like free chips and salsa (what, don’t judge).
I expected more from this new restaurant, but it is new. I’m sure the business has a few kinks to work out. I believe the gentleman that greeted us halfway through dinner was the manager? It was a two word conversation. I would expect a bit more friendliness, especially on a Saturday at 9:00pm when there are a total of six people in the restaurant.
The tacos are good! I would maybe get take-​out for the tacos.

Great service, location, and atmosphere. The wait staff was very helpful. I love how it’s connected to the pool of the Graduate.
The tacos were really impressive. The guac is great. I also had a horchata slushee that can be served with or without alcohol. I think all horchatas should be served in slushee form now.

Not sure where to start on this one.
We came in here a few weeks ago for some dinner before catching our show over at Gammage. When we got there, there were not many people there but the place looked pretty cool so I was excited to check it out. We were there with another couple who were also headed to the show.
Our server was very friendly and certainly did her best to keep up with everything so I am not sure where the disconnect is as far as management or the kitchen. The place started to fill up and it was clear that she was the only server for the entire place which made for a longer wait time for our checks at the end of the meal. Apparently her manager was behind the bar working so I don’t know who messed up the scheduling that night.
Let’s move on to the food. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. We tried a few of the tacos — I liked the cod and the short rib, but the pork and the chicken were kind of plain. We had the guac to start which was pretty good, except that it took a while to come out. My girlfriend ordered the adult horchata drink which was not very good in that it was way too strong and not very tasty. It tasted like a whole lot of rum in a slushee and it didn’t come out until halfway through the meal.
All in all, it could have been worse, but it could have also been way better. Free advice to management from someone who has a lot of industry experience: work on the ticket times for the kitchen and work on scheduling more people during happy hour because you are only hurting yourself by trying to run a skeleton crew.

Called ahead to see if they had a roof top bar and to see what happy hour specials they had. We were a large group meeting for drinks. Well, no roof top bar but on the 4^th floor you can take your drinks up just no bar service. Not a bad view. No happy hour specials but they had $ 4 beers & $ 3 tacos… everything else was a little pricey. They had a decent selection on tap, our server was little clueless, the patio was kind of small, all in all nothing special.
So now we are ready to leave and our friends rode their bikes to Tapacubo and when we were ready to leave one of the bikes was STOLEN. The bike rakes were on the side of building in the parking lot. NO CAMERAS someone came and cut the cable and took off with one of the bikes. Our friends have been calling the hotel for a week to speak to the manager and not return phone calls.
It’s safe to say… do not ride your bike here and we will never be back.

Arrived early to meet two friends here for happy hour, but Tapacubo doesn’t offer happy hour. The one-​page food menu listed delicious-​sounding items with great prices, though, so I decided to stay. I initially had trouble finding a way to get into the restaurant after parking at The Normal’s parking lot– wasn’t able to locate the patio entrance, so I decided to try The Graduate’s hotel entrance and found my way in from there. The reason I couldn’t find the patio entrance from the outside was because it was latched shut.
Walked past the hotel’s pool (which reminded me of The Saguaro’s pool setup) on my left and walked around the central bar and sat down so that I could look out into the patio. Noticed the beautiful old gold coins on the counter set in a honeycomb pattern, which mirrored the honeycomb wallpapering at The Normal (and later on, I was able to check out Tapacubo’s women’s restroom to find that there’s honeycomb wallpaper there, too!). I love honeycomb pattern, so I was delighted. There was a flatscreen TV facing me on this side of the bar, so I“m assuming that the other side had one, too. The bar is flanked by two old pumps (gas?) — not something you usually see in a bar, so they were nice touches. I also noticed that the barstools are different from the ones depicted on Tapacubo’s website, which were very welcome, indeed! These had backings, plus comfy, if I recall correctly, padded seats. Tapacubo’s a small restaurant, but with an intimate ambience.
To drink, I ordered the Macua, which consisted of Matusalem rum, guava juice, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup.
Light, not too sweet, tart, and very refreshing! I’d order it again. For my mains, I ordered the Cochinita taco ($ 3)
and Pollo torta ($ 8.50).
The menu stated that the tacos come on either corn or flour tortillas, so I specifically requested for flour tortillas, because I was allergic to corn. I took one bite and noticed there was a corn texture and taste to it, and I turned to my friend to ask him if he thought it was corn, and he said it looked like flour, but felt thick like corn. I quickly spat out what I could and ran to the restroom (which is how I noticed that it had honeycomb-​patterend wallpapering). When I returned, our server Tiffany said that it was a flour tortilla, but because she had touched my food, she went ahead and asked for another one. The second one was definitely flour, because it was thinner, more pliable, and softer. I found the juicy pork to be a little too sweet for my taste, but I appreciated its spicy flavor. Wish I could’ve eaten more of the sautéed onions in this dish (onion intolerance), as they looked and felt perfectly cooked. The side of pickled veggies (jalapeños, carrots, and perhaps cabbage) was a nice touch! I’d try other tacos next time. The pollo torta contained well-​seasoned chicken, lettuce, cheese (cotija?), and chipotle mayo. Very tasty, but the chicken component was, as my friend described it, «indistinct.» You could’ve told me it was beef in there, and I would’ve believed you. Still tasty, though. I thought that the filling was a little sparse. Definitely more bread to this pressed sandwich than I’d wanted, but the crunch factor made my mouth happy. Homemade chips were very good! Crispy and light, perfectly salted, and not greasy– perfect!
For dessert, I had the Brown bag churros, which came with salted caramel sauce. I noticed that the pastry was on the counter not by sight, but by scent– it smelled wonderful!
The textures of the churros were terrific– fried exterior with deep grooves that were filled with sugar (unfortunately, there was too much sugar!), and the churro pieces were very pleasant to break into pieces, as I shared them with friends. Dipping them into the salted caramel wasn’t easy, as the grooves were overloaded with sugar and thus had no more room for the delicious silken caramel. So, we just spooned the caramel into our mouths. Problem solved. Yeah, this is worth ordering again, but definitely with less sugar next time.
Friendly staff. When we asked whom I assumed was a manager for possible live music in the area (since Unilocal app wasn’t of much help), she said she was a new transplant and would ask around. We told her we’d try the front desk reps, who also didn’t know of any places nearby, and it was a pleasant surprise to have one of the bar guests approach us with suggestions he found with his smartphone. Very sweet of him, and of the manager. Kudos!

Tapacubo (located at the bottom of the Graduate Tempe hotel) has a nice vibe to it. There is an expansive bar indoors with plenty of seating, and booths surrounding the bar for additional seating for larger groups. From the inside you have a view of the small outdoor pool and the outdoor patio. It is light, bright and airy.
The menu was simple: apps, salad, tortas or tacos, I was a little disappointed with the limited options but again, it is in a hotel. I will say the salad I had was delicious, it was almost their version of a chopped salad (lettuce, tomato, picked onion, quinoa, corn, blueberries and delicious smoked chicken).
The drinks were reasonably priced and although the food took a while the server more than made up for it.