Known for their tacos, sister restaurant to famed Mission District location
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1007
Reviewed: 5/8/2006
Rating: 8
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I've been wanting to do this rematch with La Taqueria for over a year now. My last visits to the San Francisco location had me thinking, whats the big hoopla with this place? People swear up and down about their tacos and could not figure out for the life of me what the big deal was? I even used the excuse for such high praise due to tourists coming out to the west coast trying mexican food for the 1st time. For me, I've been eating mexican food for decades and once in a blue moon I'll run into a place that blows my socks off. La Taqueria never did it for me until today, it didn't blow off both socks, just 1.
Terry was sick today so I recruited a coworker. Headed off for a short drive down the 280 to the 87 and exited Santa Clara. If you've read the early reviews of downtown San Jose, I used to bitch and moan about getting lost and finding parking, well folks, Jason is now street wise. The trick is, memorize the freeway ramps and bring lots of change. Parking is fairly easy in San Jose as I have good luck finding parking everytime. It cost 25 cents every 15 mins so I deposted 75 cents.
We arrived around 12:45 and the line was loooooong. I got to the back of the line and snapped a couple of shots. Since it was a rematch, I ordered the exact same thing; Carne Asada and Carnitas taco with a last second addition of guacamole. Don't let the long line scare you as it moves quite fast and they are efficient enough to have a lady take your order while you wait in line. I'd estimate a short 5-10 minute to order and pickup my tacos.
The tacos are expensive at $3.50 each with $1 for quacamole. So, for my 2 tacos with guac and a small drink, I paid a hefty $10.93! That's a fortune in mexican food money, think of all the food you can get at TB. I'll try to justify the high prices
tortillas - they aren't you're normal taqueria small corn tortillas, they are quite large and doubled up. Heated on the flat grill and quickly assembled by the taco builder. The tortillas should still be warm by the time you get it. cough...La Rosa...cough....mercado...cough...
salsa - much better than my SF visits, it didn't taste like flat tomato puree but resembled a decent tasting salsa. I could taste the onions and cilantro.
beans - one of the few places that will put pinto beans on your taco. I normally don't order beans on tacos and co-workers would love that I skip beans too but today, I went all out. Tasty, but I'm on the fence about beans on tacos, it was good but I think the beans should be an option.
guacamole - no complaints here, tasted like fresh avocados. expensive but definitely adds to the delectable experience.
carnitas - just ok, no crunchiness involved, I found the carnitas to be slightly on the bland side. It needed some salt, nothing more, just salt. The good news is they pile up the meat, a lot of it. Just add some green sauce and you're good to go.
carne asada - the real winner by far. they have a gas fired grill. Score. they had some bright red meat to the side of the grill which looked like it had been marinating. Score. meat appeared to have char coloring to it. Score. The taste was outstanding. Just the perfect amount of seasoning with a tad burnt flavor and a giant mount of meat. It was super tasty.
I really enjoyed my carne asada taco. The taco builder made me a near flawless taco and thank gawd he strained the salsa before putting it in or the tortillas would have fallen apart.
For taste, I'd give the carnitas between a 7-7.5 and carne asade a 9. Service is a 9, these guys were quick considering I had 15+ people in front of me and the guy at the register is awesome. He was in a great mood and even offered me candy on the way out. The lunch experience was by far better than my previous San Francisco visits. The atmosphere is cleaner, service was faster, and parking is much easier.
The only major complaint I have is the prices. The tacos are HUGE and are definitely 2-3x your normal taqueria taco. They pile on the meat and looking at a chicken taco, they use giant pieces of breast meat. I loved my carne asada taco, but $4.50 for a taco seems hard for me to swallow. I normally get 2-3 tacos at taqueria stands which costs me anywhere between $3-7. That's a big difference in price! Browsing the menu, building a carne asada burrito ($5.25) with no beans($1) and guacamole($1) would cost me $7.25. I didn't see a vegetarian burrito option nor did I see rice. Cheese and sour cream costs 40 cents each, so a veggie burrito with no rice would cost $7.05.
To quote my last review I would say they are the most over rated Taqueria joint in the world. 11/04/2004 San Francisco location.
Ok, today I will eat my words and recant my previous statement and replace with, La Taqueria is not the most over rated taqueria joint in the world anymore but the most expensive place to get an awesome carne asada taco.
Reviewer: wchane
Total Reviews: 147
Reviewed: 2/22/2007
Rating: 8
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Met up with a couple friends downtown today for lunch and ended up being led to La Taqueria. My first reaction was 'Isn't there one in San Mateo or San Francisco?' however I was hungry and the Amgen tour wasn't going to wait for me so I ordered a quesadilla with carnitas, sour cream, and guac. I wasn't sure if it was going to be enough food, but the cashier assured me it was more then eneough. I added a bottle of water and the total bill came just shy of a ten spot.
When my number was called I was impressed, the quesadilla was huge. I was so glad I didn't add on a taco. It looked like they stuffed it with carnitas then deep fried it like a chimichanga, but I guess they're just generous with the oil and keep a hot grill. Either way it was delicious. I'm not a mexican food affectionado by any means, but I did like their offering. The carnitas was moist and flavorful, the sour cream and guac were fresh and the tortilla definitely had flavor due to the oil/grill.
“Tacos are big but pricey. Place is busy but they have a fast system. Coworkers crabbed that the tortillas were like microwaved soft not slightly crunchy around the edges. The guy was grilling them but maybe not long enough. Value:Price maybe 7.5”
