Taqueria Vallarta

I was born and raised in this beautiful city I call San Francisco. When it comes to Mexican food, I have a go to place for each item. Yes, it’s that serious lol
If i am in the mood for Tacos, there is only one place I go and that is Vallarta. This review is based on the tacos only! I haven’t tried anything else on their menu. I have my other go to spots for burritos, quesadillas, tortas, etc.
The tacos at Vallarta are LIFE. Their tacos remind me of the days as a kid when we would visit my dad’s fam in Mexico and the taco stands on each corner were guaranteed to be delicious.
Ok enough babbling here’s the review: When it comes to meat selection, they have it all. Carne Asada, chicken, Al Pastor, Tripas, Chorizo, you name it, they got it. My go to is usually asada, al pastor, and chorizo. Believe me you can’t go wrong. The meat is always so tasty and cooked to perfection.
I am not going to lie, the tacos are a bit overpriced: $ 2.50 a taco. Yes, they are the small sized (double tortilla) tacos, but trust me when I say they pack a punch. The tacos are that good, I will gladly pay the $ 2.50. Although I do miss the $ 1.50 days! Lol
Walk in, let the person at the stand know what kind of tacos you want and say yes to the grilled onions! After they will give you the tacos so you can prepare them to your liking. The Salsa & Condiment bar is everything you need. Salsas are fresh and good! I recommend the darker green salsa, with some lemon, yesssss! Enjoy my fellow Unilocalers!
Rating: 4.5

Between the good food and carrying Corona Familiar, you can’t go wrong. I come here every time I’m washing laundry across the street and it’s probably the highlight of that mundane chore. I recently had the Papas Nachos… meat and all of the fixing (including avocado) over fresh french fries. Heaven.

Great Veggie burritos! Even though I don’t live a couple of blocks away anymore I stay coming back because it never disappoints. Whenever I’m too lazy to look for parking in the Mission & wait in those lines (this is often) and need my burrito fix (also very often) you can find me here.
Warning for strict vegetarians — beans & rice probably are cooked in lard. I never got around to confirming though.

Small portions. Poor quality meats. Semi stale chips. Overall a typical burrito joint for at a decent value.

Tried using a Groupon there today, but was told that they are no longer accepting Groupons, even though the expiration date is not until next week. How do you change your Groupon policy before the expiration date? Totally shady to use Groupon to drive customers into your business and then deny them the redemption once they come in. People in our party had already sat down and started eating otherwise we would have walked out.

The lengua burrito we got was very bland. The very cold ingredients were just dumped in a strange order and not heated up. Just did not taste well.
The vegetarian (eggplant) burrito we ordered with no rice, came with rice :(
Although it tasted pretty good, after eating it you realize that it’s only good because it is super greasy. I know eggplant absorbs all the fat, but somehow this eggplant burrito was extra greasy. The Taqueria Vallarta in the Mission made a much better eggplant burrito.
So yeah, although you should get the same menu as the Taqueria Vallarta in the Mission, this location was quite disappointing.

Chicken burrito is probably four stars, but the asada and pork burritos were 3 stars. Cheaper than most other maintream taquerias, and almost as good.

Quite disappointing. No cilantros offered at taco bar area. They said they didn’t have any that day. Damn — I love cilantros on my tacos! In addition to tacos also got a super burrito with Cabeza (beef cheeks). Asked for NO spicy salsa. Of course the lady making my burrito somehow forgot but realized half way. So she freakin proceeded to scoop the salsa out with her BARE hands. Thank god I saw it and stopped her. Disgusting. I just told her to add extra rice to balance it out. Worst of all the Cabeza meat was barely edible! It had a lot of bones and cartilages attached with the meat! Wtf?!

Please see my Nobel Prize winning theorem in the field of Quantum Restaurant Mechanics applied onto Taqueria Vallerta with particular mention of the Chicken fajitas, super burritos, and ALL the tacos:
Taste x [($Price/(.)(.)Portions)]
_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​
Service x [(Ambiance x Location^)]
=HR!2 {HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! SQUARED}

It looks so mom and pop I am surprised to see it’s a SF chain but a small chain is a good chain.
It was open late and Unilocal led me here. Barely remember what I had,… a meat burrito of some sort and it hit the spot…
ps – didn’t leave me with Montezumas revenge in the morning like some taco joints! TMI? Sorry.

It’s Friday evening and as usual parking is slim pickings by my favorite taquerias. Stomachs grumbling my boyfriend recommends trying a new place. We park a block away and brave the (suddenly) icy cold San Franciscan wind to Taqueria Vallarta.
Inside, patrons are sparse and the restaurant cold from a door that doesn’t close correctly. The BF orders a steak quesadilla and I get two fish tacos. Regular tacos are priced at $ 1.75/each but the fish tacos cost a dollar more at $ 2.75.
We waited an extremely long time. Longer than if we were at a crowded establishment. My BF noted that it was my fault that I ordered fish because no one ever orders fish so it takes longer to prepare. That may be true, mainly because I did not see it as one of the prepared meats waiting to be transformed into burritos and such.
I filled a couple containers filled with the complimentary salsa. pico de gallo, salsa verde, onions and cilantro.
Once they called us for our order we raced home hungry and desperate.
I was pretty disappointed. The tacos they have listed on their menu come with stuff like onions or tomatoes or stuff like that (I don’t remember word for word). Mine only came with two corn tortillas per taco and some fried/​shredded fish (which was dry, btw). It’s probably not their specialty so I should let that slide. Also I told her ‘no cilantro’ which may have been interpreted as «nothing but fish».
The salsa wasn’t good either. The pico de gallo was unusually spicy (and I love me some spice) which I supposed made up for the fact that it didn’t seem very fresh. The salsa verde was okay, not really spicy at all (so backwards!) and seemed a little sweet. My BF’s quesadilla came with chips which I ate, which I remember as average. At least they weren’t stale.
If I ever do decide to come here again it will definitely NOT be for a fish taco. I also didn’t like how some of their meats were already pre-​cooked. And that their salsa tasted old. I’ll give it one more try and update this at a later time, but for now, I must say I wasn’t very impressed. There are much better taquerias to try in the neighborhood if you don’t mind walking a couple blocks.

The chef that works here needs to police those nose hairs! Those nose hairs are in violation!!!
The chorizo quesadilla is good, but if you’re getting carne asada, I suggest hitting up one of the taquerias a block south. Their chips have been epic lately, though.

This is one of the best Taquerias in the Mission. The menu items here are very appropriately priced. Last time, I ordered the regular nachos with refried beans, cheese and jalapenos with a can of coke. This time, I ordered the white chicken meat and cheese quesadilla suiza with a can of coke!
I enjoy coming here and if you or anyone is on Mission St & Persia Ave looking for a place to get Mexican Food, then Taqueria Vallarta is one of the taquerias to try. Come in check it out and give the food a try. After all, San Francisco’s Mission District is well-​known for its endless choices of Mexican Food!

Surprised this place doesn’t have more love on here. I have come here on a few occasions and have been satisfied every time. The first time, I had a KGB deal coupon. But I have returned since without any deals to lure me in. Their meats are really good. I have gotten the buche both times and it has been excellent. Definitely the best version i’ve had in this city. The carnitas were also good if I recall correctly. The prices are about what you’d expect from similar places. The all meat burritos though are very weak in size. I got this tiny buche burrito one time that looked like a Tino’s microwave burrito size almost. It was really sad looking.
Also not very good was the Siete Mares. We never should’ve ordered it, but the wifey was craving soup. It was mostly this fake crab stuff, barely any legit seafood. There were 3 – 4 shrimp in there maybe. We should have gotten the shrimp soup. It was much cheaper and probably a better value. For $ 15, you should definitely order it from a mariscos restaurant. They do have a taco happy hour too I believe, but I do not know the details ($ 1 4 – 7 maybe? don’t quote me on that). Great salsas!

In a previous life, I was probably a mermaid because I love seafood and oysters a little too much. I’m always looking to try Oysters with different sauces and toppings. Always Raw and on the half shell. Oysters always make my Happy Hour just a little happier.
My mom told me about the little special at Taqueria Vallarta in the Excelsior. We like to have cervezas with our oysters and they have a special during Happy Hour which is everyday 4−7pm, $ 1 Oysters and $ 1.50 Coronitas. Or 6 Coronitas and 6 Oysters for $ 13.
The only thing I was disappointed is that during happy hour, they ran out of the special Coronitas and had no jalapenos. I just can’t imagine a Taqueria without jalapenos.

2.5 stars
I’ve been to both the 24^th Street and 16^th Street Taqueria Vallartas and finally got the chance to try this location last night.
Pros:
1) Tacos are only $ 1.50 each instead of $ 1.75 at the other locations.
2) Barbacoa was just as amazing as the old, now closed, 24^th Street location! Juicy, tender, delicious. In my review of the 16^th Street location I mentioned I was served lots of membranous and fatty animal parts, but at this location the cook threw similar parts in the trash right before our eyes because it acknowledged that that was unservable. Props to him for that judgement!
Cons:
1) The cook was more careless than at the other places and allowed several of our corn tortillas to get drenched in various meat marinades so that they completely fell apart when we tried to pick them up.
2) The carne and pollo were both dry, and the carne and pastor were not as flavorful as the 16^th Street location.
I love the barbacoa here, but unfortunately that’s not enough to get me to drive all the way out here again. I’ll either stick with the carne and pastor at the 16^th Street location or keep my fingers crossed the the 24^th Street location will re-​open some day once it is pigeon-​free.

I think i screwed up getting a carnitas burrito at what really looks to be a taco joint. That said the burrito was sort of dry and not very good.
Followup review of tacos to follow.

AMAZING quesadilla! I’ve ate here a few times but the last time was most memorable. Crispy tortilla with melted cheese, avocados, chicken and tomatoes. Sooo oooo delicious.
Yes, I’ve ate at their competitors down the street but the lines here are way shorter and the quality is equal if not better since they’re not as rushed.

This taqueria has 3 locations (I prefer the location on 24^th street). This branch is only 2 years old, it replaced El Taconazo, who took over from El Fadi. It’s famous for the $ 1.50 tacos al vapor.
Those are ONLY available from the cooking stand near the entrance.
The regular tacos that u order at the cashier costs more.
The rest of the menu is like any average taqueria with burritos, quesadillas, etc.
Even though the Muni bus stops in front of this shop, they don’t seem to get enough business. So now they’re offering a happy hour special (only at this location) to attract more customers, 2−6pm daily — tacos al vapor for just $ 1 each. The problem is that the grilled meats remain in the oval grill cooking all the time, therefore without enough customer orders, the meat ends up overcooked and dry.
The only meats not overcooked were the lengua and barbacoa, because those meats are kept inside a separate steamer.
On my last visit, a woman with glasses was very inefficient (avoid her if u can). She got confused several times with a large order from a guy ahead of me. So they had to remake many items. I waited and waited for a long time. Almost half an hour, before a short and spunky woman took over. She fixed the guy’s order and then completed my order in less than a minute. But I didn’t like how she reused the soggy tortillas from the previous messed up order. Considering how long I waited, it would have been nice to get fresh tortillas for my order, instead of soggy ones. Can’t complain much for $ 1, so my rating is 2 stars.
Cash only.
(credit cards okay for larger amounts)

All of this for $ 6 (
): the al pastor tacos are decent enough, though it arrived pretty much as is (
). The condiments stand (
) is required to spruce it up (
).
The horchata was available in only one size. Their front board listed tacos as $ 1.50 (
), but the regular menu had them for $ 1.75.
The place is not small (
). Easy to find in the Outer Mission. Weekdays they close at 12:20AM, weekends at 3:20AM.