Los Dos Amigos

This past weekend I decided to try something different in San Mateo Downtown, which is, I must tell you, quite unlike me! My choices are usually set in stone, what with all of those Japanese restaurants galore, boba shops with cheap snacks, and pizza places!
However, I do have my occasional craving for Mexican food, so I decided to give it a go! I had eaten at Tres Amigos a few years back, and this place is the newer restaurant owned by the same people, I think.
Ordered a Super Burrito with Carne Asada as well as the Amigo Fries. The Super Burrito was really moist, which is what I LOVE LOVE LOVE. (A little sad I forgot to ask for chopped jalapenos in my burrito, meep…) And it was packed with meat, rice, beans, and everything else that makes a great burrito, a great burrito.
The Amigo Fries are something that’s new; there was a picture of it right next to the cash register, and we decided to go for it. Why not? I was already packing in the carbs on the burrito, ahaa. :P
The Amigos Fries is basically like nachos with nacho toppings, but replace the chips with french fries. YUM. They’re very generous with the toppings, and there’s a chip and salsa bar at one side of the restaurant as well, in case you need some pico de gallo and green sauce.
It’s not expensive, and it’s not too cheap either. For the amount of food they give, I think their pricing is very fair. I give them ⁴⁄₅ stars, and I think I’ll be coming back more! It’s a really spacious restaurant, with a large TV in a corner. It also appeared to be very clean. My only down side is that the salsa bar was a bit lacking, because they hadn’t brought out more of the salsas when they were running out.

Easily the best Pastor in downtown San Mateo. Taco Tuesdays: $ 1.25 tacos. Best Pastor burrito and Pastor tacos around.

I don’t know why it has only 3 stars on Unilocal.There are an abundance of Mexican restaurants and taco shops in San Mateo but this one holds its own in my opinion.
I’ve only had tacos here so I can’t speak on the topic of anything else on the menu. There is a decent selection for meats but I tend to go for the pollo asada, carne asada and lengua. The hot sauce that comes with the regular taco is bomb dot com! And they don’t skimp out on meat when they make the tacos which is a huge plus. For $ 2.25 a taco, not bad. If you come on Taco Tuesday, the tacos are $ 1.25 (from what I remember).
But the best part of this place is their salsa bar and unlimited chips. I haven’t found another place in downtown SM that has unlimited, self-​serve chips and salsa. I’m a huge sucker for salsa and chip bars! There’s a good variety of salsas — I come here with my friends and we each have our own personal favorite. The best in my opinion is their green tomatillo salsa verde. The right amount of kick and spiciness. Their chips are decent too– nothing too special but no complaints either since it’s unlimited and free.
The price of each taco is a little on the high side especially for a regular taco without anything special or mind-​blowing but two tacos and unlimited chips and salsa does the job well. That’s an entire meal for less than $ 4.50!

Man this place is the shit.
Why are people hating on this place? It tastes awesome
I got the fish tacos… WOW. The sauce is amazing, and the fish is served HOT. There is always a crazy amount of toppings, more than you can wrap around with the tortilla. Biting into one of these tacos is absolute heaven.
There also a self-​serve station for chips, so they won’t cheap-​out on you like other taco places. The wait staff are also very nice. The inside is very spacious, and the TVs usually have some kind of mexican TV shows playing.
Man. The fish tacos. Gotta come back for more fish tacos.

Beware! The prices in the window are NOT the real price. The prices above the order counter can be 25% or more higher. The person taking the order would not honor the prices in the window. The prices at the counter are very high compared to other similar places.
When I talked to the owner she did not care that the prices were deceptive. I said she should take the window sign down until they can update the prices and she said she was leaving it up.
She reluctantly offered to give me the prices as shown in the window, I told her I would eat at their restaurant. There are many other taquerias within 2 blocks. The name was tres amigos, now dos amigos. Soon it will be uno amigo and out of business.

Tuesday tacos are my favorite not to mention the salsa/​chips bar! The other Mexican eatery around here are waaaaaay overrated!

The food was very tasty. I recommend the asada tacos. They have a very good salsa bar. But the lady up front seemed like she didn’t know what she was doing. She moved very slow and seemed to not know much about the menu. Other than that it wast a good place.

The food was just OK. Nothing spectacular about it. Prices are not that bad. Service is a bit slow and it was not busy. The forgot part of our order and got one of the two burritos we ordered wrong. The fresh tortillas could have been cooked longer, my burritos looked a bit raw. Will not becoming back.

When I was a kid I knew two thing would always happen on Fridays.
1) My dad would give me 10 bucks for the weekend.
2) Half of that was going toward a burrito at «Tres Amigos»
It’s kind of sad to see how this placed changed so much to try and keep up with the food trends (lettuce inside an authentic Mexican burrito, WTF!!!). They forgot they were the originals, but I still got love for them and the food is still awesome. 3 stars because to me they are still the «Tres Amigos». In reality I want to say 4, but I hold this place to a different standard.

Yum! Found this place open at 10:30 pm on a Wednesday night. We walked in because I was starving, was craving Mexican, and when I peeked inside, the customers were ALL Mexican. I figured if they like it, it should be fairly decent. I didn’t even have a chance to check the Unilocal reviews prior to ordering so I had no expectations whatsoever. We had the best carnitas taco in a really long time. It was so good we ended up ordering more. Just had the last tasty bite as I type this. This will definitely be my go to place for some crunchy carnitas!

THEY WILL NOT ACCEPT YOUR GROUPON.
Pros:
Nice, open space
Good chips with salsa variety
Cons:
SUPER slow service
Food is not very tasty
Fish taco was served after 15 min, chicken taco served 15 minutes later, friends meal 15 min after that-what’s that about?

Unfortunately I can’t recommend this place. I went here on a Thursday for lunch. The place was deserted, which doesn’t bother me, except for something which I’ll mention later.
I ordered a chile verde super burrito. It came out in a reasonable amount of time. My first observation was that after several bites into the burrito, I still wasn’t getting much meat. There was a lot of sour cream mixed with guac, rice and beans. Small bits of meat in most of the burrito. It didn’t taste bad but it wasn’t a good balance of ingredients.
Then I got to the bottom, and found out what was really going on. There was a bigger portion of meat near the end of the burrito, and it tasted pretty off. It tasted exactly like the smell of meat that you’ve left in your fridge for too long.
So, my guess is that they don’t have the volume of customers to have fresh versions of everything available, so they have to make a choice between serving ingredients that aren’t fresh (thus saving a bit of money at the expense of food quality) and making a bunch of stuff which they don’t have customers for. I can sympathize with this situation (I don’t really see how most restaurants can survive the rent in downtown SM). But practically speaking, I couldn’t go here again. That bite of meat tasted pretty off and I don’t want to risk it.
I would have highly preferred that they just tell me they didn’t have what I asked for, and I would gladly have ordered something else. But they didn’t do that.

This place is pretty good. I’d give it 5 stars but I’ve had better. Then again, being Mexican, kinda makes me a lil’ picky when it comes to Mexican food.
I bought the $ 15 for 3 $ 10 vouchers from Groupon. Great deal! I got a carne asada & shrimp super burrito & drink to go for just over $ 10. Decent size burrito & pretty tasty. Grabbed some chips, salsa, roasted jalapeños & green onions from the salsa bar & was out the door within 10 minutes.
Friendly service & they don’t discriminate like some places do when you come in with a groupon. Being in downtown San Mateo, parking may be tricky. I will most definitely be back even after I use my 2 remaining vouchers.

I went there on a Friday just before lunchtime. I ordered a chili relano and a sopa. I ate the chili relano and it was good. The sopa was loaded with stuff, the toppings were fresh looking and tasting but the meat was not. It tasted ike it was old. It was alos dry.
The service and prices were good. the girl who waited on me was very pleasant. I guess I could have given it a 5 but just didn’t feel it warrented it.
I will go back and give it another try.

This place is just decent and filling. Food is edible and reasonably priced, but I find it for the most part lacking in flavor and a little imbalanced.
There are a couple things that make it worth going to, though. Usually they serve their entrees with homemade tortillas that are the perfect balance of firm and flaky. (they also sell these by the dozen.) The salsa bar tastes fresh and I like the red sauce with lots of onions.
My favorite dish is the Caldo de Res, which is actually the best I’ve had. It’s served with a couple big pieces of beef rib and is stuffed with fresh veggies in a savory broth. Give me a couple tortillas with this and I’m all set. The problem is that they don’t offer it every day (only when they have the sign up), and some days they run out pretty early. The menudo is ok. Once I saw a sign for Caldo de Mares, but didn’t get a chance to order it.
Go here for the Caldo de Res and/​or if you want Menudo on the weekends in central downtown. But you’ll have to head a bit further from downtown if you’re looking for a tastier taqueria.

Stereotypical taqueria. The space, however, is large and very noisy. Service is a bit slow because the kitchen is understaffed. The taste of the items we ordered (carnitas/​chorizo quesadilla, carnitas super burrito, Carne Asada nachos) was on par with your basic joint.
So, I wouldn’t make it a point to come here for Mexican fare. I would probably lean towards going to El Nayarita on 3^rd instead.

A friend insisted he had eaten here before and it was good, and even though something bothered me about the place the minute I walked in perhaps the fact that this big restaurant was deserted except for two other patrons during the peak of the dinner hour on a weekend I decided to go ahead and give it a try anyway.
We walked up to the counter to place our order. My friend ordered a burrito, and I took awhile studying the menu board but finally decided on an enchiladas platter with carne asada. I asked for black beans instead of the refried beans and the gentleman who took my order said that was fine. He gestured towards their chips and salsa bar as an invitation to help ourselves.
A pan of tortilla chips sat under a heat lamp and there was a red sauce, a brown sauce, pico de gallo and a few containers with pickled veggies in them. I normally just go for the pico de gallo but I noticed the cilantro in there was a bit muddled looking as if it had been sitting out for awhile. My friend scooped some of the red and brown sauces, and despite its appearance I scooped up just a little of the pico de gallo. The chips (
) were very fresh, nice and crispy in fact, but not only the cilantro but the tomatoes also in the pico de gallo tasted just a bit weird.
My friend’s burrito arrived first, and I felt just a bit uneasy when the waitress turned towards me and asked whether I had placed my order yet. The orders were written on separate checks as my friend pointed out so I was assured my food was being prepared in the kitchen.
As I waited more patrons began filling up the restaurant which put me at ease. Perhaps my friend was right and this is an okay place.
A short time later my enchiladas platter (
) arrived, and what struck me immediately was how small of a portion the enchiladas were in comparison to everything else on the platter. My friend even commented that my plate looked a bit disappointing. Dude! YOU recommended this place! The black beans were hot in temperature and tasted freshly cooked. The rice was okay also.
I wish I could have said the same about the red sauce that covered the enchiladas because not only did it emit a slightly odd odor but it definitely tasted as if it had been cooked weeks ago. To make things worst there were two very noticeable brown spots in the guacamole. Hopefully they were just overripe fruit but I wasn’t willing to take that chance. I scooped out some of the bits of carne asada and finished up the rice and beans leaving everything else on the plate.
What’s funny about this experience was a text I received from my friend two days later which said he had stomach problems the morning following our visit. I am so glad I played it safe and left what didn’t taste right on the plate!

Decent place in Downtown San Mateo where it is filled with pizza, Mexican & boba places.
I decided to give this place a try since it was a place my wife went to as a kid. I do like that they have a chips & salsa bar. Nice touch, but the guacamole is a bit lemony.
The carnitas in the burrito was solid, but overall the tastes were alright. With so many competitors around you’ve got to do something to stand out. It didn’t help that it was empty during lunchtime.
Nothing bad, but nothing great. Average place.

The tortilla chips in my super nachos tasted like they were friend in a bad batch or old batch of oil. I just tasted accumulated grease and not the other ingredients on top. The sour cream, which normally saves dishes in my opinion, didn’t make that tinny oil taste go away. Service was okay since we were coming between lunch and dinner.
There really needs to be more Latin restaurants in downtown San Mateo. Pancho Villa is awesome and all but there is a need for strong alternatives.

I haven’t craved Mexican food since I’ve left San Diego (almost a year ago) and a craving hit me out of no where. I checked out this place since it was new and had good reviews on Unilocal.Sad to say, but I was disappointed (and obviously biased since I lived in SD for 7 years).
I got the lengua (tongue) quesadilla and though they were generous with the guacamole and meat, there was no flavor! The lengua was actually pretty tender, but had no flavor. The guacamole was real and fresh, but didn’t have any flavor! And there was just a thin layer of cheese. Luckily they had a (small) salsa bar and I got some hot sauce and some free chips since I was up there anyways (I love fresh tortilla chips!!) Overall, it would have been really good if there was more flavors.
I also ordered a super lengua burrito without beans for my sister to-​go. It was suppose to come with meat, rice, beans, salsa cheese and sour cream, and guacamole, but when I got home, we realized that she got a chicken burrito with a ton of beans and no guacamole. It wasn’t that busy so I don’t know how they screwed up that order…
On the other hand, the service was really good and the guy behind the counter was really nice, but it doesn’t really help the mediocre food and screwed up order.