| Clean interior with classic Guadalajaran cuisine |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 3/27/2006
Rating: 8
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How the heck do you people find places like this? Rubys Taqueria is in this lost neighborhood off N. Matilda. Its next door to the Guadalajara Market and a hair salon. This shopping center has seen better days as its kinda runned down with trash in the parking lot. Terry and I have seen a lot worse and we get excited to eat at places like this.
I was told to try the carnitas tacos but after scanning the menu, I spotted 2 interesting items I had to order - gordita and vampiros.
It's sad the only gordita I've ever had was at Taco Bell. The one I had today didnt look like anything Taco Bell would serve. It looked like a corn tortilla pocket stuffed with carnitas, lettuce, sour cream?, and cotija (crumbly cheese). It was messy as hell now I figured why they wrap these things in a paper wrapper. Stupid me removes the wrapper and I proceed to go through a dozen napkins. The corn tortilla was awesome, homemade, a bit thick towards the bottom. I have never seen this at the market. Carnitas was good, I kinda wished they would have added more meat. If they would add some guac and a hot salsa, this thing would be decked out. For now, it would rate a 7.5 with a potential to hit a 9.
With a name like Vampiros, how could I leave this place without ordering it? My co-worker Jose has been taunting me about the Vampiros at his top secret taqueria joint in San Jose. He's withholding the name of the taqueria because he claims I would not do it justice by ordering it in the daytime. Its just my good luck I found another taqueria that serves it :) The menu says Mazatlan style and Im taking a guess on why its called a Vampiros taco.
- 2 corn tortillas lightly deep fried, laid out flat
- red onions
- red salsa
- Quesadilla cheese
The remaining ingrediants were normal things you'd normally see on a regular taco, carne asada, guac, and cilantro.
When you mix all these goodies together, you get one greasy belly busting taco that wants you coming back for more. It was really good. I'd recommend at least giving it a try. Id rate it an 8.5 for originality and taste. Trust me, Ive been to over a 150 taqueria joints, you dont find this on the menu too often.
The prices were cheap and the wait was longer than your average taqueria stop but its forgivable. Gorditas tortilla pocket is made from scratch, its going to take longer than 5 minutes.
I had a chance to practice up on my spanish, I tried an awful drink called Chaparittas, tried 2 new mexican dishes, destination unknown, rubys rubys rubys rubys taqueria. (shout out to ska and punk fans). Try something new, try a Gordita or a Vampiros.
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RETURN VISIT for Jason! 2/26/2008 - 8.5 Rating: 4 visits under my belt and growing. Each visit is getting better and better. If you make a visit try;
- Vampiros taco
- Gorditas
- Sopitas
- Mulitas |
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Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 723
Reviewed: 3/27/2006
Rating: 7.5
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We arrive here and this place is quite rundown looking from the outside. To the point where I was almost questioning if I should drive on or not. But I figured the rundown looking places are the best quality usually. So I pull into the lot and go inside. The place looks much nicer inside, and actually quite clean and done-up. The counter is right as you walk in, so I scanned the menu on the wall, and go for the standard Vegetarian burrito. At first the girl behind the counter didn't understand me. She had some trouble with English, but eventually I got Vegetariano out of it and we were good. The burrito was fairly cheap, at about $3.50.
The wait was a little bit long, which kind of was a bummer. But it arrived and was a good size. It was a bit smaller lengthwise, but thicker than most veggie burritos.
The ingredients were all good, but not record-breaking. The flavor of the burrito reminded me a bit of Los Gallos Taqueria in Fremont, except a bit on the dry side. The wait (even though the place wasn't too crowded) kind of spoiled the experience for me.
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Reviewer: jsatre
Total Reviews: 69
Reviewed: 11/27/2006
Rating: 6
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I stopped in last night as a burrito craving hit... Keep in mind it's SUPER HARD to pull me away from Chavez Market / Taqueria but another review seemed due...
Wholly cow, this place is in an obscure place! Ahwanee parallels 101, but with the tall sound wall, you'd never know this place is here. I drive up and have an uneasy feel about the place. I look around and see a security guard pacing in front of the market next door. Ah well, I bet its not so bad in the daylight.
I walk in and the place is empty except for a lady chopping vegetables and 2 guys joking around. I order a super carne asada burrito… I was very tempted to order the Vampiros (See Jasons review) but I wanted to stick to burritos for fairness of the review… Judge oranges to oranges, ya know?
I swear the guy was half asleep… Took a while to make my single burrito but alas, I take my food to go 8-10 minutes later.
I give them kudos for grilling the tortilla, but after that, it was all downhill…
The whole thing was flavorless! Rice – bland (although cooked correctly), the meat tender, but lacked any taste, very little cheese, only a little salsa in the first few bites, beans were basic – nothing memorable, no sour cream…. Only real flavor predominate was the onions and cilantro…..
I think they have the texture down, but what a lack of flavor! I also had some tough grizzly bits and several prices of the meat were cold.
Sad… I finished ¾ of it, hoping it would get better but I tossed the remains in the bag.
Nope… I doubt Ill return. Not with top notch places like Tres Portillos and Chavez in the area.
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Reviewer: Dan
Total Reviews: 70
Reviewed: 8/9/2007
Rating: 8
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I discovered Ruby's in web search a few years ago. I was a pretty regular customer until I discovered other taquerias on Jatbar, and I hadn't been back in a while. So I thought I'd pay them another visit. I arrived around 12 and got in a short line behind three guys, one who was raving about the vampiros. I would've ordered these as well based on Jason's recommendation, but was getting food to go, and I figured it would be too messy. I ordered my standard: regular chicken burrito with chips. On previous visits they made me pay an extra buck for chips, but this time no charge. Not sure why. Total came to $4.32. What a deal! I remember having speed issues with this place, but my meal was ready in just over 2 minutes. Cool. Only problem was I saw them grab chips out of a big store-bought bag, and my least favorite brand at that. These chips pretty much sucked. No fresh made like other taquerias. My burrito, however, rocked; Grilled tortilla; Good sized and full of tender meat, cilantro, onions in a flavorful sauce. No complaints. 7.5 so far.
On my next visit I ordered the gordita and the vampiro, both carne asada, and both to go. There was not much of a line and I received my food in under 5 minutes. Not bad. I'm starting to wonder if “to-go” orders aren’t given precedence. Once I made it back to work, I dove in immediately.
Vampiro – wow great stuff. The carne asada was tender and flavorful, if a little fatty. This was smothered with salsa, onions, and guacamole. This was wrapped lovingly in two corn tortillas with melted cheese in between them. A little taste of heaven. It was so good I would have scarfed this quickly if my boss hadn't walked in to chat with me. As it was, I chewed slowly and savored. This baby rates at least 9 points.
Gordita – another hit. Bigger and more meat than the vampiro, plus lettuce and crumble cheese, and there were a bit of beans at the bottom, all wrapped in a very thick corn tortilla, kind of like Mexican pita bread but denser and thicker (and fried). My only issue was they added sour cream on top when I specifically asked for none. I ended up scraping it off with half the lettuce. More annoyance than anything. I still scarfed the gordita and rate it an 8.5 Total cost for this plus vampiro was just under 5 bucks...sweet.
On my most recent visit I tried the carnitas just to be thorough. Same combo of one vampiro and one gordita. This was as good as before, if not better. The carnitas here pretty solid: shredded style with good flavor. Pretty equivalent to those offered by other taquerias in the area.
One thing I don’t like about Ruby's is the setting. The place has a less welcoming feel than most taquerias. Also the seating layout is a bit goofy. You either sit at a shelf on the wall or in a long narrow room that is more like a hallway. There are also a few small tables our front next to the unattractive parking lot.
They also have a little trouble with English here, and at some points I had to switch to Spanish to make myself understood. Wasn't that big a deal, but it could be for some.
Pros: Unique items offered, incl. gorditas and vampiros; Good food and variety
Cons: Sometimes slow service; store bought chips; layout/setting could be nicer |
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