Totopos Street Food & Tequila Restaurant Review - Cary, NC


1388 Kildaire Farm Road
Cary, NC  27511
(919) 678-3449


Exterior View


Interior View from Booth


Chips & Salsa


Shrimp Tacos & Chicken Soup - $13.95


Grilled Chicken Fajitas and Black Bean Soup - $11.95


This is a review for a Mexican restaurant located in Cary, North Carolina called Totopos. It's across the street from Trader Joe's and it's in the building that use to be a Chill's restaurant. When we visited their sanitation grade was 96 which is very good yet we both had stomach issues after eating here. They are open from 11 am until 2 pm then reopen at 5 pm and close at 9:30 pm Monday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday night they stay open half an hour later. Sunday they are open from 11 am to 8:30 pm. We arrived on a Saturday around 12:30 pm. I was shocked to see so few cars in the parking lot and regret not returning  to the car. I thought because of so many good reviews it would be a good experience, but it wasn't at any point during the visit. We were greeted by a hostess who fumbled to get all the menus together and walked us to our seat. We were offered a tiny booth for two and since there were so few customers and tons of seats open I found that strange and I asked for a regular sized booth. The only time I want to sit in that tiny of a space is when the restaurant is full and it's the only seat left. She wasn't friendly, so it was another sign we should have left. We were given a brunch menu, a drink menu and a lunch menu and she dumped them all on the table in a very disorganized and careless manner. 

So we started organizing the menus and figuring out what menu to look at, tossing the alcohol and brunch menu to the side. It took a whopping seven minutes for the waitress to show up. A very long time considering there were so few customers. Just look at my interior view photo above, nothing but empty tables! This was during the prime time lunch hour on a Saturday! She took our drink order prior to bringing us chips & salsa. She asked us if we wanted them. Huh? I've never been asked that in a Mexican restaurant before, so I had to ask if they cost extra and she said no. Very strange! She brought out the chips and one tiny cup of salsa with our drinks. I felt really strange sharing such a small bowl with Hubby only to have her deliver another bowl later when we were running low. So why didn't she just deliver two bowls in the beginning like other restaurants? I thought maybe her boss was on her back about giving out too much salsa, but she landed up delivering two anyway. I guess she doesn't think about tips and making customers happy. The chips were greasy and the salsa wasn't very tasty. So after we decided what to order the waitress tells us we can't order from that part of the lunch menu called Lunch Trios, due to brunch being served. What?! Seriously, no way, really?! This has to be a joke! It just so happened Hubby chose something from that part of the menu, so then he had to decide again what to order and we weren't finding much on the menu to begin with. So that was yet another sign we should have just left and went somewhere else. It was a rainy day and we just wanted to eat, make a run to Costco and return home quickly. Regrettably, we ordered anyway. The waitress mentioned that Hubby could substitute the sides for soup since Hubby was going to order the soup from the "Lunch Trio" that he was told he couldn't order. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. The items he was going to order from the "Lunch Trio" were available on other parts of the menu, so saying he couldn't order from that part of the menu made no sense whatsoever. Not to mention we should have been told we couldn't order from that part of the menu at the time we sat down prior to deciding what to order. Hubby ordered the Iron Skillet Fajitas with grilled chicken. I ordered the Shrimp Tacos and we both skipped the rice and beans for soup. Our food arrived about ten minutes later. Both of our soups arrived barely warm. I took a couple of spoonfuls and then decided it was too risky to eat anymore since it wasn't kept at hot enough of a temperature to be safe. I'm really glad I didn't eat anymore because shortly thereafter I had a stomach ache. The shrimp tacos were warm when they arrived, but they had way too much cheese on them and the pico de gallo was missing. I love cheese, but this was too much. The waitress had asked when I ordered it if I liked spicy food, I thought that was odd. I didn't find it particularly spicy, so now her question seems even stranger. Hubby's chicken and vegetables were served on a mini skillet yet it wasn't sizzling when it was brought to the table like it should be. Notice how tiny the skillet is in comparison to the spoon in the above photo. His portion was quite small for $11.95! The chicken wasn't sliced into small enough slices and the vegetables were overcooked. His soup was also served at room temperature and it tasted like just beans and sour cream mixed together, very amateur recipe for soup! I thought it was strange his meal didn't come with sour cream and salad for his fajitas. Shortly after we left, Hubby also felt sick to his stomach. The waitress was dressed in jeans and sneakers with a headband on. She looked like she was ready to vacuum her house certainly not tend to customers and make a good impression. I would never turn up for work looking like that. To top it off she was unfriendly, unwelcoming, inattentive and gave the impression that she'd rather be anywhere than at work. She walked passed our table three times and didn't once ask if we wanted drink refills, additional napkins, if the food was ok, nothing. She forgot to wear her smile to work also. There was no sign of any management keeping an eye on things. The music was way too loud, so we ate quickly so we could leave. Normally, we enjoy a leisurely lunch on weekends. I also didn't care for the decor. The lamp above us was moving because it was so lightweight and the air conditioning was blowing so hard. It was also moving the ugly, cheap paper decorations hanging from the ceiling. 

I recommend you stay away from this restaurant and we will not be returning. What's your favorite Mexican restaurant in the Triangle? Our new favorite is San Marcos in Raleigh. Our long time favorite restaurants in Cary are Sushi Thai and Bosphorus. What's your favorite restaurant in Cary?

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Totopos Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato
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