Taco Rey

OK no joke. This place is super good. Really I can’t believe how good the food was. I seriously think this was the best meal I’ve had in a very long time. The place was closed for a while for renovatio but luckily they just reopened.
I had this place on my option list for lunch while I was in San Diego for the marathon. Luckily I decided to go here after my run and I am so glad I did.
I had the carnita burrito, Carne Asada fries, and chips.
Carne Asada fries: I opted to not take the included beans, guacamole and sour cream. I just took the fries, cheese, Carne, and added jalapeños. Oh man oh man these were crazy good. The Carne was nice and crispy but still easy to chew. It was very flavorful and they don’t skimp on the portion.
Carnita (pork) burrito. Dang this thing is huge!!! Filled with fries shredded pork, guacamole and Pico de Gallo. Man this was so good! Very juicy and tons and tons of flavor. The oily and spicy fried pork was balanced by smooth guacamole. So good it’s crazy.
The chips: just a side order of chips. A huge portion for the 1.50 or whatever the low cost was. Crispy, thick, well seasoned.
This was way too much food for one meal but I am glad I ordered it all.
Really — if you have a chance to stop by given it a try. The staff was very friendly. Just get it to go since they are just a walk-​up on the sidewalk. BTW you can order online or on the phone so you don’t have to stand there waiting while they cook it up.

This place is NOT closed. They reopened today after a remodel. Great place to grab breakfast or lunch. Walking distance from work we love it!!!

I had the worst shrimp burrito in taco ray! It was really wet and it has nothing from the ingredients listed on their menu!

I hate giving bad reviews, but this place has the potential and so many opportunities to be an amazing taco spot because deep down it is one.
The very first time I had Taco Rey was amazing! I was so impressed with the size of the tacos and how they put so much meat on it with guacamole and pico piled on. My boyfriend and I decided that we have to come here again and try different things! And so we did…
Every experience after this became worse and worse and worse. (Cold food, order wrong ect.). Little things that didn’t matter enough for us to make a big deal about, but our order today was not good at all. My boyfriend ordered our food online, and I really wanted to try the shrimp burrito because the ingredients sounded so good (shrimp, rice, cabbage and tartar sauce). We also ordered rolled tacos and a side of rice and a side of beans.
My boyfriend walked around the corner to pick them up, and when he got there to pay for it, they almost forgot to give us one of our sides. No big deal at all; they just put it in the bag.
I was so excited for my burrito, but when I bit into it I was not excited anymore. The burrito had shrimp, rice, onions and bell peppers only on it. I’m very mildly allergic to bell peppers, so I just picked those out and continued to eat. I was pretty disappointed that it didn’t come with the ingredients that it said it would come with on the website. I’m a big onion fan, but I honestly couldn’t take the onions on it either, so I picked those out too. As I was picking out all the onions, I saw a little curly black hair just hanging out on one of them. That was pretty much the last straw. It just made me feel sick to my stomach, so we threw it away. Super disappointed because we heard it was a really good burrito.
It just seems like the workers there just do not care about the quality of food going out, and if they just put that extra effort in, this place would be the top spot in San Diego.

I know this is going to sound crazy, but hear me out. Get the cheeseburger. It’s a little nuts that the best thing in the menu here is decidedly untacoshopy, but it is. Something about this burger makes me crave it something fierce. I hear the enchiladas are good too. Parking sucks, but it’s bankers hill, so that’s to be expected. Call I your order to go and eat it at the beautiful (and nearby) balboa park

Fun little counter to get a quick bite. I got the cheese enchilada plate that was a perfect portion. Rice and beans were also pretty good b

Super cute little whole in the wall place!!! Came here for lunch with my little one. Their outdoor setup consists of tables and chairs respectively.
I ordered their Cali burrito which was huge, amazing and had great flavor for the price of less than seven bucks. And for my daughter I ordered her the chicken quesadilla, which was 5 dollars and some change. I thought that was really pricey until I seen the box that it came in!!! It was a hugeeee quesadilla consisting of 4 giant slices (literally the size of a slice of pizza from costco) and she barely was able to finish one piece.
Parking I recommend parking around balboa park since it’s free and you don’t have to waist any coins to the meters. It is literally 2 blocks down.
Also there is a hospital across the street, a dental office at the corner across the street and then a yoga studio. You know just in case anybody was wondering or looking for something to do after being at any of those places, might as well have some lunch at Taco Rey.
Can’t wait to try their tacos next! Also they do phone orders so if you’re busy just call them and pick it up 5 mins later if you are unable or incapable or waiting.

Not good at all! Cold fries, chile relleno with no seasoning on the sauce.
Burritos with 3 pieces of meat an like pound of rice uugh no, not good at all
Never coming back sorry
Its like bad tex-​mex food

I’ve never had worse chicken tacos in my life, and to add to the disappointment is they cost same as some taco joints around SD would charge you for an awesome fresh/​raw tuna tacos. I will never come here again.

Maybe I like a different type of Mexican food because I can’t understand how some restaurants in San Diego have better ratings then Taco Rey. My husband and I had pretty much given up on Mexican food here until we stumbled upon Taco Rey. Don’t let the outside fool you, we love this place! We get the shredded chicken tacos and they are by far the best in town. The salsa is really good too, green is where it’s at.
If they sold margaritas we would probably never leave.

Stopped here for a taco. The food was fresh and hot. There is only outside seating so no salsa bar. This place is pretty close to what a Taco Shack should be.

This place rocks. It was super cheap and so tasty. Kind of hard to find but so worth it!

I have seen this place several times it being across from my Dr. Office so I decided to try it since I was very hungry.
I ordered a chicken burrito. She asked me if I wanted shredded or grilled. I asked for shredded. The burrito comes with just chicken and rice. I asked for sour cream and they charged me 0.89 for it. I asked for spicy carrots (which are usually free at Mexican food spots) but not here. They told me its $ 1.83 extra so I said never mind.
I waited about 5 minutes and got my burrito. I started to eat it and there was no sour cream in any bite. I was a little upset because I paid for it. I brought the burrito and showed the woman that there was no sour cream. She took my burrito and brought it over to the chef and they opened my burrito only to bring it back to me and tell me there was sour cream in it. I said well can I get a little bit more because there isn’t much on there. She said yes but we’d have to charge you.
After that I was like wow OK. I just wanted a sufficient amount of sour cream since I paid extra for it but they are so stingy they didn’t give me any more. I said fine and went back to eating.
The burrito was too juicy from chicken juice and wet but not a lot of flavor. I only ate some of it because of how hungry I was. I’m really dissapointed with the lack of customer service and how they want to charge you for every little thing. Seems like they really take advantage of their location– the fact that their downtown they feel like they can overprice cheap and disgusting food and get away with it! I will never return.

Their burritos are equivalent to a small child. You will get a food baby for sure, but a delicious food baby. Great, quick, cheap place to go for lunch. We got there right before a huge line popped up out of nowhere. So, if you are going for lunch hour– make sure you get there a little early to snag a decent spot in line!

I’ve got to give this place a 3 star. Until a few weeks ago, I would not have hesitated to give it a 5+ star. The food is great. I love the carne asada tacos and the rolled tacos. This place is always busy.
I work near the taco shop and from where I work I can clearly see the taco shop’s building. And I was so surprised, disgusted, disappointed to see a man urinate on the roof of the taco shop.
I realize it probably has no affect on the quality of food there, but I have not returned to the taco shop since I first saw this. Several people I know have seen the same: a man sits in a chair on the roof top for hours. Sometimes he urinates on the roof itself and sometimes he urinates in a beer bottle.
It’d be great if they’d just get this guy off the roof. I might eat there again…

A man hangs out on the roof of this restaurant (everyone in the medical facility across the street can see him utilizing «facilities» into a cup-​above food prep through the numerous windows offing a birds-​eye view). I called the place to inform them what happens regularly and the response was, «yes we know– that’s the owners son» then to be «thanked» with a laugh. Gross. It’s unfortunate because their food is decent but I can’t stomach that this behavior is «ok». I’ll walk a block further to the next shop.

Taco joint near the hotel we stayed. People kept lining up outside so I had to try it out. Many options from tacos, nachos, plates, burritos, etc.
I got the carne asada nachos and the pollo tacos. Both delish!

Isn’t it amazing how hard it is to find some decent carnitas in San Diego?! Well, I finally found a spot that actually satisfies my need for carnitas and other traditional Mexico food.
The carnitas are juicy and have just a little crispness to the outside. Now, that may not seem special but it really is tough to find decent carnitas in a city that is so close to Mexico. Anyway, I strongly suggest their carnitas torta. If it weren’t for my friends trying other plates I may have never ventured away from that carnitas torta.
If you’re sick or simply in the mood for soup, they have a variation of chicken noodle soup that was absolutely delightful. Today I went with the breakfast burrito, of course with carnitas, and I was very satisfied. The burrito was huge, the taste was on point, and I will certainly return for breakfast at some point. The portions for everything here are quite large so I have never left still hungry.
They have free roasted peppers which is awesome. They’re red and green sauces are great here so make sure you leave with a couple extra containers. All in all, Taco Rey is just a little taqueria that offers solid Mexican food, and that’s all I’m really looking for.

I ate here on 3÷20÷2015.
I ordered the fish burrito, and had not eaten anything else that morning. (Our whole order was large, as we ordered food for six people)
The burrito and other food was really tasty, however what followed was hours of diarrhea, stomach cramps (the kind that make you feel like someone put a knife in your stomach and they just wont stop turning it), vomiting off and on for 2 days, nausea, and a nice clammy fever feeling. AKA Food Poisoning. All things I would not wish on my worst enemy.
One other person in our party only had diarrhea, so they got lucky. So my suggestion is avoid the fish, or prawns –and you should be A okay… Or you can go to one of the other million taco shops that is cleaner and avoid the risk all together.
(P.s I hate writing bad reviews, in fact I have only ever written one other bad one. In general I try to only share good experiences. But this, this was a real crappy situation, and getting sick while on vacation blows)

I had just come in from Mexico (Guanajuato) yesterday, but being in San Diego, I couldn’t pass up the chance to have Mexican food here too. I’ve always thought that San Diego does California Mexican food right!
I was famished, so I ordered 2 pollo asado tacos and the carne asada plate. Omg, it was a lot of food! I didn’t realize the tacos would be that big! I thought they would be simpler. There was way too much guacamole for my taste, but the chicken was well seasoned and it was overall a good taco. I only put a little dent in my carne asada plate. So far, I thought the meat was a little dry and lacked a little bit of flavor. Their salsa is amazing tho. The green is my favorite. It’s hard to say whether or not I would come back. I wasn’t blown away, but I didn’t think it was terrible. Perhaps if I’m in the area. But I wouldn’t go out of my way for it.