Tortilleria y Taqueria El Rey

Disappointing. Tortillas were cold and crumbly. The breakfast was overcooked and cold. Server slow and unenthusiastic. Bathroom scary. But hey — at least the parking is decent!

I am from southern california and used to visit mexico every month. I know real mexican food. I went to Tortilleria y Taqueria El Rey today! The food was pretty good, definitely the best I’ve had in Boulder!
I arrived with some friends at 4:00pm after ordering we were told we were not allowed to eat inside because they close at 5:00pm. They made us order our food to go. I am understanding that when you close you want to go home. Just 4:00pm seemed a little early to tell us we couldn’t eat inside.
Also I am white and can speak spanish and understand it well. I knocked off a star because I ordered my meal in english. I overheard one of the employees say my food was not done correctly and «just put it in the bag, she won’t notice until she leaves.» I didn’t want to start any drama so just let it be. Sure my meal was done wrong but still tasted really good!

I used to go here back in 2004 – 2005 when I was in school at CU. I didn’t get a chance to go back on my last trip a few weeks ago :(
Being from the bay area I like my tacos and my carne asada. This place knows what to do. I could care less if it takes a little extra time to get the food or if it costs a little more, you won’t find mexican food like this on the front range.
PS I hate tex mex food and would never qualify that as actual mexican food. That one’s for all you chipotle, illegal petes and qdoba fans. Lime cilantro rice? gag city…

Yuck.

Three words describe my visit here — SLOW, expensive and unimpressed.
SLOW: I ordered a burrito and chips and salsa to go. It took over 20 minutes to prepare my meal. I could have cooked it myself faster.
Expensive: The burrito was pretty small and the amount of chips as well, in my opinion. It wasn’t worth the money that I paid sizewise.
Unimpressed: The burrito was only OK — pretty dry. They ran out of guacamole, so that was missing from it. The chips were average, but tasted like they had been sitting in the tray for a long time. The salsa was among the worst that I have ever encountered — very watery with no spice or tang.
Bottom line, I would never go back. Maybe I hit it on a bad night, since so many other people seem to love it…

LA girl & Berkeley boy looking for taqueria fare. Finally, we found salvation in Boulder, Co (I heart the $hit out of you Boulder).
This is not a fancy place — hello, it’s a friggin taqueria.
Chips and salsa: The salsa doesn’t taste like water. Spicy. I ate it by the spoonfuls.
My husband ordered the carne asada burrito and shouted afterwards, «Can we please live next door to this place if we move to Boulder? Pretty please?»
Horchata: Divine.
I ordered a few tacos and a breakfast dish (eggs mixed with tons of tortilla strips). The breakfast dish was tasty, just way too carb heavy. The tacos had the right flavor. Nothing was overcooked or dry.
They have menudo!!! No posole though. I will fo’ sure check this place out again (maybe everyday if we LIVE in Boulder, a girl can dream, yeah?)

I don’t understand why this place has such high reviews. The service was pretty poor and most of the food was quite bland. The prices are reasonable and the horchata and guacamole were both good but this place was overall a real let down.
I don’t understand why this place has such high reviews. The service was pretty poor and most of the food was quite bland. The prices are reasonable and the horchata and guacamole were both good but this place was overall a real let down.

Not a whole lot to add here. Place is for real. Horchata is excellent. Tacos are authentic, and they have creative veggie options. Bit surprising that the tacos were only served in one corn tortilla because mine were overstuffed and busting out all over the place.
Reminds you that if it’s spicy and greasy going in …

Found this place on Unilocal.We were in town for mothers day and had a craving for some yummy Mexican food.
There really isn’t any ambiance… but I thought the décor was kinda endearing. Soccer games on TVs, portraits of Frida, colorful benches with «El Rey» carved into them.
Chips and salsa — very mediocre. Chips weren’t warm and the salsa was sweet and not spicy.
I ordered chicken fajitas and the chicken was so tough most of it tasted like gristle. The veggies were good, but overcooked. The tortillas were really yummy though.
My dad got Fajitas de Res… steak fajitas. I felt bad for him. The steak looked like jerky. It was super dry, old, and overcooked. The veggies were overcooked as well. Our rice and beans for the fajitas were cold and bland.
My sister ordered a ground beef taco which was dry and bland. She also got an enchilada with red sauce, which she really liked.
My mom got enchiladas with verde sauce. She thought they were pretty good.
Our waitress was sweet. We thought it was funny though. She was standing at the kitchen window the entire time we were at our table — except when our food was sitting at it. The cook rang the bell twice as we watched our food getting cold.
Overall, we were underwhelmed. We brought our fajita meat to our dog, who thought it was awesome.

So the word on the street I’ve found is that Boulder doesn’t do good Mexican food. Believable, but totally dead wrong. I never thought I would find a place here that serves agua frescas and fresh tortillas. I had the chile rellenos and I’m not too sure what my husband had as it was gone too quickly, but I left with a happy tummy.
I will be returning. Probably too often for my poor waistline.

If you like street tacos, this is the place to go in Boulder. If you aren’t looking for that, the rest of their food is still pretty good and above average fare.
The prices here are pretty decent and the portions are decent. The flavors are great but not mind blowing. The one nice thing about this place is they have a lot of options for the fillings of tacos and other items. You can get everything from chile relleno to adobada to tongue.
I haven’t been all that impressed with Mexican food in Boulder (and yes I’ve been to Efrain’s — it’s pretty good, but still not that impressive) but this is one of the better options for sure. Come here for a good meal that is relatively cheap. (Ps the ambiance is frightening at best).

This place is a block from my new digs and rated highly, so I decided to walk over and give it a try.
Wow. Can you say authentic? Or autentico? From the hole in the wall décor, the TV blasting mexican soap operas, the vats of stewing meat I was getting signals that the food would be delicioso.
The menu is fantastically varied with delicious and amazng things like toungue, beef stomach, brain etc. There are tocos, burritos and main stay entrees to choose from. I had tacos in the beef stomach, the carnitas and the spicy stewed beef versions. They were soooo tasty.
Now I’m in real trouble because it’s so darn close and so darn good.

If this is really the best Mexican food in Boulder, or the most authentic northern Mexican ever, or whatever everyone else said it was, I’m hoping I just came on an off day… because yesterday it was pretty bad.
We ordered 2 tacos, 2 gorditas, and two tostadas, with pollo, adobada, barbacoa, chicharrones, carnitas, and some other meat — I forgot what it was. You’ll see why in a minute. Dan asked them to bring it out however — to put whichever meat in whichever dish — and we’d enjoy it that way. What happened was that it came out in two dishes — 1 taco, 1 gordita, and 1 tostada for each of us, with all the meats combined together on all of them.
I actually thought it was sweet of them to do it — it meant Dan and I got equal servings of everything without having to share individual tacos, etc. But the end result was that all the meat blended together and I couldn’t tell what any of it was supposed to taste like. Aside from the puffy, airy chicharrones floating around, it just looked and tasted like a big mass of rubbery, tough meat.
Of the three, I only kind of liked the taco. The simple combination of onions and cilantro, plus the sauce that pooled at the bottom of the fold, helped to add flavor and moisture to the mass of meat. It’s the only thing I finished.
Without the pool of sauce, though, the rest of it was really dry and tough. There was only one meat that jumped out at me as having a good flavor (my guess: barbacoa) but it was scarce and I only got a bite of it every once in a great while, and not at all in the gordita.
The tortillas were obviously homemade, but it seemed like they had been left out for awhile, as they were cold and a bit stale.
Also, on the drink menu, they were out of all the good stuff (they’d just crossed it out on the menu)! No horchata or tamarind? Just regular sodas? Aww.
And, cheap? I don’t think so. $ 10 later, at the end of dinner, I was still hungry.
They get the second star because our server was extremely friendly and helpful and her intention in putting all the meat together was good, I’m sure.

Language barrier! Thank god for that 1 semester of high school Spanish, and all the rave gigs all over the Yucatan in the 90’s, seriously though someone should translate the menu.
Regardless of the menus, this place gets 4 stars in my book, why you ask?
First of all its amazing to find a good «cheap» restaurant in Boulder.
Second, everything was fresh and seemed authentic enough, Lengua was great, my wifes burrito was huge.
Third, Cokes in glass bottle, my vice, and I like Mexican Cokes a lot, less sugar, and more like European ones, and not in the anorexically small US bottles.

Really hate to write a bad review of this place but after our last meal I can barely give this place two stars.
Chips arrived cold and seemed stale.
Tamales were barely warm, really bland, greasy, and the greatest disappointment was the density. Really dense. Like greasy cold old cornmeal. Chicken gordita — bland. Beans were bland and too waterey
In fairness I have had good taco meals here and plenty of people were enjoying the menudo as a Saturday special.
They had one poor confused waitress working on a crowded busy game day and I felt sorry for the people waiting endlessly for their take out meals.
I will try again but for now my taco orders go to Paupusas.

Just got back from dinner at El Rey.
Loved the homemade chips and salsa. Perfectly un-​salty yet full of flavor.
Chile Rellenos Plate was divine. I chose the green sauce with mine. Refritos… perfect. Rice… just right. Nice fresh lettuce & tomatoes too. Also tried a pollo taco, and it was mighty tasty with a generous squeeze of lime, the cilantro it came with, a few bits of tomato, and some of El Rey’s delicious homemade salsa. I added a bit of crema too.
I don’t feel full, don’t feel hungry, just feel right. Balanced.
Friendly helpful service for my lst time here at El Rey. Diners at other tables were friendly too, and a soccer match was on tv. I enjoy soccer.
The décor at El Rey is bright and cheerful and I especially like the artful booths!
$ 10 for my entire dinner with tax and everything.
I shall return…

Living in Longmont, I have lots of great, cheap taquerias within a 2 mile radius of my house. But we were in Boulder and wanting a cheap meal. I had this place bookmarked for quite some time, so it was time.
Definitely a hole-​in-​the-​wall taqueria, which is a good thing. Guess what? Mexican people work here and eat here, not just college kids. The menu is entirely in Spanish.
I found it more expensive than the taquerias in Longmont (1.99 for a taco as opposed to 1.50; 8.95 for enchiladas instead of 6.95). The chicken enchiladas and the tacos were super tasty, but I really wasn’t into the rice and beans. Just tasted a little off.
If we still lived in Boulder this would definitely be the place we’d come for tacos. They were authentic — soft corn tortillas with the meat of your choice (many, many options) and onions and cilantro. Yum. My husband tried chicken, carne asada, and barbacoa with the first two being excellent and the barbacoa just not being quite to his taste (but that had to do with the type of meat, not El Rey.) I would love it if this place were close to my work. I’d get tacos all the freaking time.
The interior is brightly lit and with colorful tables, but very bare bones. The television was showing some Spanish-​language soap opera, and our waitress, who was quite friendly, was eating her dinner and watching TV in between serving us and another couple.
All in all, a fairly solid taqueria in Boulder.

This is the most authentic comida mexicana in Boulder, and also one of the cheaper restaurants in town. Although the décor is plain… that’s good! It has just enough south-​of-​the-​border kitsch to make it real.
Also a great place to pick up fresh, local tortillas, as you might expect.

Been looking for great Mexican food since I moved to Boulder. Our offices just moved in near El Ray so naturally I went to try it out. Awesome. Love it. The Carne Asada is very good.
For those used to massive burritos and tacos, the size will appear small, but it’s just the right amount.

Dear White Boulder,
Kindly disregard this review.
Warmest Regards,
Terry ;)
Alright, everybody else, this place is great if you understand what you’re there for. You know that tortillas are made from corn and only corn. You know that beef comes in several varieties, and all contain some sort of tough gristly fat. And you know that speaking English is only the second best way to order your food, or get a detailed question answered. You also know not to ask detailed questions.
And you always order the Negra Modelo. ¡Sí, lo tengan!
My wife is from LA, and knows a Good Taco. I’m from Indiana and have recently been educated in the way of the Good Taco. Good Chorizo. Good cerveza. Comida buena.
Like the first reviewer, we were looking for some decent Mexican food in Boulder, and were thrilled to find this place.
Just one block south, you’ll find what we call Calle Daigon (Like Daigon Alley in Harry Potter, where you have to hit a secret brick to find it, only it’s a calle, not an alley. Get it? Oh, nevermind. It’s funny to us).
It is here you’ll find una carneceria autentica, some fabulous clothing stores, and all sorts of other places that cater to the discerning Latin consumer in Boulder. We recommend the grocery. Once I look up their names, I’ll be posting reviews.
You have to look a little harder, but there IS culture in this town. And it’s definitely worth seeking out.
For the vegetarian, I recommend anywhere but here. It’s for your own good. For the novice, I recommend carne asada tacos or huevos con chorizo. For the adventurous, I recommend Menudo (only served on the weekends). For everyone except recovering alcoholics, I recommend a Negra Modelo.
¡Salud!