Ah-Jijo

It’s depressing walking this part of town. The food is even worse. A Round Table in an unwelcoming abandoned strip mall, Pooplantation a mile away, and a Weevil fifteen years past its hey. So any life is viewed with some optimism. Formerly MXN (the name change occurred most likely due to ethnic uneasiness), Ah-​Jijo! offers, if not crave-​inspiring, at least comforting taco shop staples.
Aside from slight food poisoning on several occasions, I’ve found solace in my log sized burritos. The shining exemplar has been the pollo asado California burrito. Replete with all the accoutrements that make up your average burrito with the «California» addition of fries. The fried potatoes add a textural counterpoint to the other mushed together gloppy supporting cast. The chicken is grade Z school cafeteria gristle, which is to be expected. But it does add a charred smokiness that combines nicely with the avocado tinged salsa found at the salsa trough.
Once the tipping of the plastic mini salsa containers for every bite (known as «masking») gets in full swing, you will begin to enjoy a monotonous rhythm. Three-​quarters of the way through the bacteria-​infested torpedo, a joyless contentment will emerge, in the belly, the senses, and the mind. Rationality might slip away to the point that you hazily contemplate ordering potato rolled tacos. Don’t do it.
An added bonus for my little ones is seeing the trolley whiz by from on high. Just have your anti-​diarrheal meds at the ready is all.

Definitely a five star taco shop, wish if they serve beer, but it is OK, there is a liquor store next door lol, very good food and very clean location, I think used to be MXN restaurant before, and love their salsa bar, absolutely the best, whenever I am in la Mesa, me and my coworkers love to stop here.

I ordered Carne Asada fries and a Carne Asada quesadilla that I shared with my brother. I thought both were very good and would rate solid against many taco shops I have tried. The big problem that stood out to me about this place was the hotsauce. I would say one of the worst hot sauces and I have tried many taco shops. Full of water and no pepper taste. Is a shame because I believe for a taco shop to be great they have to have great food and hotsauce. If they fix this problem by making real hotsauce or finding someone that knows how to make it, I will update my review with four stars.

Delicious breakfast burritos! Very clean and they’re salsas are amazing… Definitely will be my go to burrito stop on way out of town

Better than MXN, but mediocre food at best. The avocado salsa is quite good though… I would love to see that stuff elsewhere; but there’s no way I’d go bad to Ah-​Jijo again because my achiote chicken was not flavorful and was not high quality chicken… certainly nothing compared to the divine achiote chicken at Matador off Morena Blvd.
My wife really hated her meal here, I just thought mine was mediocre. It didn’t make either of us sick and we both finished most of our food eventually so three stars it is.

Love everything about this place! Bomb food, friendly service, great location, cheap price. Oh and their achiote sauce yummmmm! #buenobonitobarato

Cali burrito w/​no salsa!
Supposed to be 1lb, I only weighed because it was listed as 1lb. Actual weigh… 15.9 oz. close enough, I ordered without salsa! Fries were small fries, I have to admit, very quickly made and probably the best Cali burrito I’ve ever had! Fries added allot. Easy to fully cook small fries completely and therefore desired texture quickly. Hot sauce!!! Eh! I have had worse, I have had better. Daughter had bean and cheese burrito and said it was ok, same opinion of hot sauce. Order was 100% accurate. Hard to mess up, but it was customized order. I have to try other things in menu to give 5 star, even with a great burrito. Also, carne in burrito had a great taste all by itself, not just sliced meat.
After the Initial review I have eaten multiple times here, California burrito every time! They have never failed.
Yum!

Very clean place, with easy parking and friendly staff. Very nice salsa bar with peppers, carrots, radishes, lime, green onions and onions, etc. I got a California burrito which was very filling and had lots of fries and cheese. The meat wasn’t gristly but it was a bit tough. I got carnitas chips for my husband and the portion was huge with lots of meat.
Ok, but a bit of a drive for me so it won’t be our go-​to.

This place is bomb. Found it during a late night Unilocal.They’re open late — 3am, I believe. Cooks are chefs here. I crave their fish tacos, which are big and just a few bucks each. Easily beats out any taco truck in the area.

Eaten here a few times when it was MXN and a few more times since it changed hands.
Never been disappointed, almost always get the carne chips or fries, had a surf and turf today it was one of the best ever. Will be hitting this place up regularly now!

I used to believe other places are better… until I moved near by this place so I have been eating here. Now when I go back to the other places I realized that this place is really good. Not sure if they got increasingly better or the other places got worse. But I’m happy!

This place is amazing! I came in on a Tuesday night around 11:30pm after finding this place on Unilocal.I felt that the food was very good and the cook/​cashier was very nice and helpful. I got an order of carne asada fries and my friend got the surf n’ turf burrito. We got the food in about 5 or 6 minutes which is a great turn around time and it looked amazing… I went to their salsa bar and had no idea which salsa to choose so I got a little bit of all of the choices and my favorite one was for sure the light red one. The other ones were not bad but this one was great! The fries were great and my friend said that the surf n’ turf was also very good. We will definitely be coming back here because it is one of the only Mexican food restaurants in this area and also because we were very satisfied with the outcome of the food.
Another thing that was great about the placers that it was absolutely spotless and this worker was not only great at making food but he was cleaning on his spare time.
Food quality:10/10
Speed of service:10/10
Friendliness of employee:10/10
Cleanliness:10/10
Overall great place and I will be back in no time.
I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO ANYONE!

Let me start by saying that this review is in NO WAY a reflection of their food. I honestly think that food wise, this is a great, easy place to eat. The food is always fresh and oh so tasty. It’s definitely my go to place but I much rather order in advance and pick up and eat at home due to the lack of customer service. Now usually I have the pleasure of dealing with this young lady who frequently works the register. She is always very friendly, attentive, professional and very clearly meant for a front line position due to her seemingly naturally kind nature. When she is working, my experience is AMAZING! However, when my boyfriend and I went in to this restaurant yesterday afternoon, we felt anything but welcomed. There was no greeting when we walked in the door, the guy at the register just stared at us. No big deal, maybe some places don’t do that. That’s fine, I don’t really mind I guess. So as time goes by we get our food, and I take a picture of my food specifically for Unilocal because he told me it came with a side of chips. I GOT 5 CHIPS. 5 measly chips. (see image) Still, I remained positive. But he happened to catch me taking the picture of my food and then frequently stared at us while we ate and talked. THEN, he picked up his cellphone, called someone, and disappeared for a while. So 5 minutes later a gentleman walks in and stands patiently at the counter for a while before he decided to yell for someone to come out. Not only was this guy on his own personal cell phone at work, BUT HE TALKED ON HIS PHONE WHILE HE TOOK OTHER PEOPLES’ ORDERS! (see image) Can you believe the nerve? He couldn’t even be bothered to put the phone down. It amazes me that people want $ 15 and hour yet treat customers like this. Unacceptable!!!

Found this place via Unilocal.Do not usually find myself in this part of town but hungry and running some late errands. Open late with plenty of parking. I think they are currently open till 2 am or there abouts. Place is cleaner then most late night taco joints I have been to. Cook doubles as cashier at night or at least the night I visited. Food overall is average. Ordered beef taco and rolled tacos. Rolled tacos buried in cheese. Regular soft beef taco good size. Meat ok. Could use more flavoring. Used a lot of salsa to add some kick to it. I would probably eat here again if I was in rush and nearby but the mall is not that far away for greater range of options.

I really love this place! Food is really good and fresh. The salsa bar is always clean and stocked with carrots. If you make your meal a combo it comes with rice, beans, chips, and a drink for only like 2 dollars more which is awesome. The young lady who works here is super helpful and friendly, really all the employees are nice. I am very picky about carne asada and theirs is on point! Beans are great too. Okay everything is good try it!!!

This was my first visit here with my girlfriend; and definitely not the last. We ordered the chicken flautas, a California (carnitas) burrito, along with a grilled fish taco. The carnitas were a little on the salty side… but I would order them again in a heartbeat. My girlfriend liked her flautas and the grilled fish taco hit the spot.
I have to say the service was on point and what drove me write a review. The restaurant is very clean along with the bathrooms as well. Employees are very friendly.

This is the spot even though it’s a cross the street. The food is always bomb and very fulfilling. They are open all hours until 3. .. LoL but that works for that late night mission. The service is very friendly and the food is cooked to perfection and fast.
That is the spot like I said.

I’ve never been a fan of the local MXN chain, so I was happy to hear that Ah-​jijo replaced this location in eastern La Mesa next to the trolley tracks. It doesn’t seem like they changed much from the original MXN restaurant that use to be here. They pretty much used the same colors and design for their outside. Inside the restaurant is ample dining if you wish to sit in, except they haven’t taken down all the previous restaurant signs (
). To me their menu (
) looks pretty much the same with their 1lb veggie burrito, mush quesadillas, etc. The salsa bar (
) features five different sauces with pickled carrots, radishes, limes and onions. They provide bags so you can take as much as you want. The lighter red sauce tasted the best to me and the darker ones were a bit too strong and not enough spice. The green sauces had a very salty after taste.
Interesting enough, they had some machaca beef tacos with chipotle sauce (
) on the menu, it sounded like a good combo. The meat tasted okay but they dumped them in that chipotle sauce and the sauce was pretty bad tasting, way too much salt. I couldn’t even really finish one of these tacos because the sauce was so bad. So I really advise against getting anything here with their chipotle sauce. Their rolled taco (
) orders come in 4s. They give you the ability to add all the fixings to the top for a bit extra. The rolled tacos were crispy and had plenty of meat inside. I enjoyed their guacamole here, although its very creamy it tasted decent. I like taco places that pile tons of stuff on their tacos.
The California burrito I had here was just on the okay side. Although they used a big tortilla, it wasn’t really stuffed to the max (
). Here the burritos come with meat, cheese, fries, and pico (
). While some people seem to absolutely hate pico in their burritos, I enjoy the freshness of it myself. The burrito had a pretty good meat to fry ratio however I didn’t really care for the taste of their carne asada. The meat was on the bland side and seemed a bit tasteless. The burrito was basically just meh, it wasn’t horrible but it definitely was not on the better side. Maybe they should season their meat a little more.
Basically Ah-​jijo had some hit and miss items for me. The menu doesn’t really have anything that sticks out compared to other taco shops. The salsa bar was kind of cool with all the sauce options and tasty onions but nothing else really sets it apart. I would put this place down as mediocre really, they definitely have a lot of stuff they can improve on. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit this place.

Ah-​jijo is located in the old MXN location. I stopped in during breakfast and ordered the chorizo burrito without potatoes for $ 5.99. The burrito also came with scrambled eggs and cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla.
The burrito was good and of good size too. The chorizo and eggs were not scrambled to a fluffy consistency, as I would of liked, but they tasted good. Some of the chorizo was over done and had a tough texture. There was very little cheese in the burrito, just a little bit along the center of the burrito, and definitely could of use more. The flour tortillas was fantastic and had a warm buttery soft texture. In the end, although good, the burrito would of benefited from more cheese and better scrambled eggs and chorizo.
They offer a great salsa bar, where they not only offer house made salsas, but roasted seasoned peppers, grilled scallions, hot carrots, fresh radishes, and lime wedges. It was a nice set up. My favorite was the avocado salsa and the deep red hot sauce.
I could not check in to this place because I could not find it on the app.

Not too many taco shops in walking distance in the area. Fortunately not only is Ah-​Jijo in walking distance, they are open till 3am! I’ve tried to few of the menu items like the Cali, bean and cheese and fish burritos. All were great! The refried beans. Wow. I wouldn’t normally mention something as standard as a refried bean, but wow does this place have great refried beans. Get it as a side and tell me i’m wrong.
I love the salsa bar. Everything I have tried has been good. The staff has been friendly even at 2AM. This is my new walking spot.

Exelente Comida mi Favoritha, y la verdad Muy buen trato la Cajera muy amable y sonriente Jocelyn se llama muy simpatica exelente lugar muchachos tengan por seguro que regrazare.