Municipal Taco Mezcal - BLD Oceanside

Totally bummed that they went out of business.it was my go to place in Oceanside. I would stop sometimes and get their arugula salad on warm days. Tacos and beans out of this world. To be replaced by barbecue place I hate anything smoked . ugh!!

Too bad they have gone out of business! I miss their delicious food and the ambiance!

I loved this place when it was Adventure 19, then when it was Urge/101 as well as now Municipal Tacos. I really liked what they did with the bar from what was Urge as i felt it really streamlined things. I kind of wished they did better at minimizing the dead space, but with the decor dialed back and the menu simplified to shared appetizers, and tacos they focused on styles, but not flavors. I've always looked at tacos and vehicles for flavors and not so much a single ingredient/protein. It's not just barbacoa or carne asada or adobada. It's the whole thing. It's the salsa, the toppings, the single bite of complementary flavors. I dislike the coming soon notations as from what i could tell in my visits some never made it on the menu after I came back a few times. The ensenada taco is a classic fish, but i was hoping for shark as that's the original fish used. Now it's more common a generic white fish. The rice flour is a nice touch to keep the structure under the weight of the toppings. They always go too light on the crema. Mango and shrimp to me never worked, just some odd mariscos/salad flavors. The chicken really doesn't marinade in the pipian the way i'd hoped, it's more of a salsa than an infusion of flavor. Carnitas goes better with the tang of tomatillo's to cut the richness in the pork. Al Pastor, again with the avocado, I get it, but it's an overused ingredient that doesn't necessarily add to dishes, just mellows out what should be bold flavors. The drinks are ok, 2 bangers of note. Two Pinas in a pod has great mouth feel using the gomme syrup. Cafe de olla is nice because it uses my favorite abosolo and oat milk, so it's refreshing, but in a palate cleansing way. Service is hit or miss, bartenders stick to the menu and classics, but rarely go off script with a dealers choice, forget going that route outside of belly up. The prices aren't too high or too low, but I really wanted the menu to fill out considering they dialed it back already. Parking is weird, it's not packed, but the lot is. The biggest issue here is lack of foot traffic. If your not already going south to Carlsbad or coming north to hit the 78 it's a foregone conclusion your going to drive right by this. I really wanted them to stick around with the opening of Freeman Collective across the street at the old Red White.

The tacos and the ceviche are great! Each unique taco has a special flavor blend. It was fun to try and share the variety that our table ordered. It was slow at lunch, but I have wanted to come here before after driving past. The food is good and fresh.

Nope, no thank you. I was so excited to try this place ever since their clever signs during construction and was fully let down. We checked in there was a wait no big deal, except we're standing out front and I look down to find I'm standing next to a puddle of dried puke which is on their building and side area... grossed out but get our text tables ready, woo. Well, we get seated only to wait another 10-15mins before someone comes to talk to us, we get it everyone's short staffed and it's hard right now. While we were just sitting we noticed we're sitting next to an unfinished wall, like straight up drywall! Order drinks and an appetizer another 10Mins before getting waters (not the drinks we ordered) no apology or explanation from our waitress really not a lot of communication at all. A runner drops our appetizer the mahi ceviche which was soup like? Finally my drink gets dropped which is a margarita not my husbands SODA? We watch the table who got seated AFTER after us get all their drinks and plates of food before my husband got his soda.. While waiting we ate the ceviche which was a different take than I've ever seen. The fish was cut into large cubes not good for chips it was extremely lime forward and watery. So odd, we ended up getting our check and going elsewhere. The vibe was off maybe if we had a different server it would have been better? Truly, I don't know.