La Corneta Taqueria

Great portion sizes, wonderful service and incredible food all at a fair price! The super steak nachos are THE BEST!

Worth a stop by! Great taste and price. The Burritos are excellent (especially the baby burritos) but the other plates are delicious as well. Quick, easy and perfect to pick up on the way home for dinner. Usually not very crowded (which is a mystery). Been there over a dozen times in the past few years.

First time at this place. My husband and I ordered burritos. Neither of the girls preparing our food wore gloves, one even used her fingers instead of utensils to put tomatoes on one of the burritos. Both used their hands to fold the burritos, one of them with very long finger nails dug her nails right in to the burrito and poked holes in it with the long nails. VERY unsanitary. As I stood there watching them I felt my stomach turn. We walked out and went for lunch elsewhere.

It’s good but I ordered chile verde burrito and some pieces were tender and some were very chewy… weird?! Not cooked evenly. Not too authentic but chips and green salsa were good. I’ll try something different next time. Service was good, very fast and friendly.

We placed a large order through Doordash. We ordered for +8 people and explicitly asked them to put names on the containers. They did not do this + wrote really poor descriptions of the food on the containers.
I ordered the steak and prawn Quesadilla and the chicken salad. The quesadilla was soaking wet and resembled more to soup. the salad was just a big pile of guacamole with beans, pieces of chicken and tomatoes (although I explicitly asked them without tomatoes). Really poor quality of food

Great spacious place, pleasant lighting, employees are all really nice! Great selection of meats, decent salsa bar and adorably priced for the area. Definitely coming back.

I got a super carve asada burrito after a hair appointment. It was ok. Nothing too standout. I prefer places that cook meat to order but this was pre-​cooked and in bins. The burrito was huge! The guy could barely get it closed once the ingredients were piled up. The salsa bar was the highlight – the green was my favorite when compared mines with the spicy salsa.

Cheap lunch. Open area. Great for families. There is always a TV going to distract the kids while they’re waiting for the food.

I should have never doubted La Corneta!
It’s located in downtown San Carlos (off of Laurel St.) and nuzzled between quite a few hip and fine restaurants. I always assumed prices would be super high at this taqueria just by looking at the location it’s in. I thought wrong. Prices are very reasonable — cheap — for the generous portions you get.
I ordered a carnitas super burrito for ~$ 9 at most. Came with free chips and access to the salsa bar. The burrito was nicely and tightly packed. It was perfectly round all the way around. o_​o It was wrapped well too. I wish I got more guac though — they had just finished that tray and a new one came out right after she started wrapping. Not a big deal, I could’ve spoken up, etc. etc. Carnitas were juicy and plenty. They were cut up kind of large though so whenever I took a bite, I took an unusually large piece of carnitas with me. The super burrito looked daunting but I was able to finish it easily. My friend just got the caramel flan, which she really enjoyed.
Clean, spacious establishment. Lots of seating. Located in a nice downtown next to some other fun restaurants and bars.

In our area it is really hard for a Mexican restaurant to differentiate itself, since there is so much competition. At this time La Corneta doesn’t.
I came in here for dinner and had two soft tacos (carnitas and chicken salsa verde), and my wife had a chicken burrito. Mine was decent (kinda average), and my wife was pretty happy with hers. Based on this experience, 3 stars.
The interior seems clean and spacious, and the people working there were super nice.

I frequented the Balboa Park location many times while working in SF so I was thrilled that San Carlos had one I could try for lunch!
The carnitas super burrito was stuffed well! Meaty, cheesy goodness with authentic rice and tasty, pinto beans. Not greasy. However, once I was seated, the outside of the burrito was a cold tortilla. Request that they put it in a steamer machine unless you like the inside warm only. And lettuce in a burrito? No! $ 8.50 for a big one. Not bad for Bay Area prices.

Accessibility (Parking /​Wait Time)
¹⁄₁ Star: street parking was easy but I beat the lunch time rush.
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Service (Waiter /​Cleanness /​Ambiance)
⁰⁄₁ Star: fast food style service that wasn’t too fast. The tall lady who put my burrito together wasn’t very good, but the guy in the paper hat was good. He made a nice plate of nachos. Clean. Nice Ambiance. No one knew how to use the register in conjuction with the credit card reader. The line backed up, food was getting cold, and people who planed to dine in were asked to come back to pay.
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Taste (0=Not Edible /​1=Edible /​2=Good (average) /​3=Must Try!)
²⁄₃ Stars: burrito and nachos were good. The carnitas was good, but I wish it was fried longer and crispy. Food here is delicious and tasted clean.
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Overall Experience
³⁄₅ Stars
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Last Words
The staff needs proper training.

Can I be real with you for a second?
There are very few things I miss about living in the city. I accept, with grace and dignity, that I am getting older and that means I may not be a city person.
But I do miss this place.
Fortunately, I moved to the peninsula and there are at least two of them within minutes of my house.
What I love most about La Taqueria is that they will prepare the food in whatever way you ask. Can’t have carbs? No problem. Gluten sensitivity? No problem. I’m on a diet and I crave Mexican food like a mother, but I can come here and have them prepare a salad with my favorite Carnitas. It’s so awesome!
Also, the restaurant and line is always so clean. I just really love this place.

While there are many options around redwood and San Mateo, you will not walk away disappointed with a super AL pastor burrito. Very large and cheap.
Also the salsa bar id give ⁴⁄₅. Good salsa choices

Great Mexican option in the downtown San Carlos area! just order at the front & take advantage of the open-​air indoor seating or the sidewalk tables
you get FREE chips & access to the unlimited salsa bar with any order!
—Carnitas taco with guacamole: super tender & juicy! the single taco with beans, pico de gallo, meat, & guac was so MASSIVE that I had to eat it with a fork since I couldn’t pick it up. there were enough ingredients on there to make 3 street tacos PLUS it cost just $ 4!
the chips were just okay but you can’t complain since they’re free

What a nice little find right off the El Camino. We were looking for a quick lunch and then off down the highway. Well it was way past lunch time and there was parking and no waiting as we chatted and ordered our food. The staff was so friendly and talkative. Enjoyable for sure. With the grill and hot table right in front of us, the food was prepared while we watched. The shrimp nachos (we had a double order) was real nice and so filling we could not finish — and that is an oddity for sure! I had the get my favorite tester, a chili Verde burrito! For those who read my reviews, know that I have been on a quest for some time to find the best chili verdes around the state. What a fun Challenge. The chili verde was good, nice chunks of pork and a mild sauce. We will be returning to test other items on the menu. So many choices and so few meals. Life is a real buffet!

We went for dinner while visiting friends in the area based on their recommendation. It’s a large place in a fantastic downtown but it still has enough of that authentic Mexican kitchen feel that I love. The menu is pretty typical with burritos, tacos and other options where you pick the meat and other additions. I had a chili verde burrito and it was great. My wife had the enchiladas which were good but not outstanding. The dish just doesn’t lend itself to a quick front line preparation. I’d definitely go back but I’d stick with the burritos.

This is my go-​to place for burritos! Very quick, cheap, easy, no-​brainer. The quality is consistent. The service is good. They do substitutions for you and are attentive enough that once they started adding cheese to my burrito and when I asked them to just remove it with a spoon (it was a tiny bit), they happily made me another burrito!
Chips and lots of dips and salad is complimentary. Their salsa verde is amazing!
Go here if you are very hungry, dont want to think much, and want a quick take out. I find their mole chicken the best of all meats available.

–Super Taco (chicken) (4.50)
–taco (steak) (3.00)
Very ordinary flavor, relying mostly on the salsa for any kick.
Staff at the counter had difficulty speaking English, and further difficulty speaking over the noise. The establishment is surprisingly spacious– almost cavernous, with no manner of sound dampening.

I loved this place when I lived in San Francisco (the Glen Park location), but after moving to SoCal, they fell off my radar. Happily, moving back up to the Peninsula made me rediscover these guys in their San Carlos location!
THE TACOS.
They seriously shine with their tacos. They give very generous scoops of meat, which I’m not finding at many of my favorite places anymore. They do charge extra for little things (lettuce, for example), but I prefer mine pura carne anyways. Out of the meats I’ve tried so far, they rank as:
+ Al Pastor
+ Pollo Asada
~ Chorizo
— Carne Asada
— Lengua
They also have a legit salsa bar, including a crazy spicy orange sauce.
Overall, I think I may have found (again) my favorite place for tacos in the area!