La Espiga De Oro

Before coming here, I didn’t know what pupusas were. Now I know that pupusas are life.
I’m almost hesitant to write a review about this place because I’d like it to stay a hole-​in-​the-​wall. Down on 24^th St and far removed from Mission St, this spot doesn’t get as much foot traffic as taqueria juggernauts such as El Farolito and La Taqueria. But if there’s one thing I know it’s burritos (and probably nothing else), and this is the new best. Taqueria Cancun has been officially usurped as my all time favorite
Pupusas? Get them. Not too greasy, excellent salsa, beans & cheese & pork make for one mean pupusa. The food does take a little while to come out (by taqueria standards) and the interior is a little janky, but nevertheless Espiga de Oro has captured by heart. Try it out. Actually don’t, stay away.

Wow this place is such a gem. You can’t tell from standing outside of the store that this place has amazing TAMALES. All of their tamales are made fresh here and there are so many different options! From savory meats to sweet dessert tamales! The hot sauces that they offer are perfect and super spicy for the savory tamales. The owners are super sweet here and they have amazing tamales!!! I’ll have to try the rest of the menu next time, but so far, this place hits home for A M A Z I N G TAMALES!

Hands down best tamales EVER. They grind their own corn for homemade, delicious masa. Ahhh so good! Also very impressed with their beef taco. Chips were a tiny bit over done for my taste but the salsa was excellent! Incredibly delicious food, tiny hole in the wall spot, very cheap. What a find!

Authentic. If you are looking for a healing chicken soup, look no further!
I’ll definitely be back to try everything.

Wow — this place has amazing food! The only reason I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5 is that the food took a long time to come out.
My husband and I shared four items, all of which were delicious! We had:
1) Guatemalan chicken tamale (a tamale steamed in Banana leaf) — flavorful and reasonably healthy
2) Chicken taco — great
3) Carne Asada taco — excellent
4) Pupusa with chicharrones (tasty, and we appreciated that they made this without cheese for us)
Ordering was a bit tricky, as the staff had limited English ability.
The food was very affordable, and our entire meal was less than $ 14.
Our only frustration was that the tacos and pupusa took forever to come out. Fortunately, the tamale was pre made and served right away, so we were able to satiate our hungry stomachs while we waited.
The space was no frills, but pleasant.
Overall, a great find!

5 stars for this tiny hole in the wall because it has 12 varieties of tamales from Guatemalan to Mexican and even vegetetarian. The tamales are handmade, the tortillas as well — they grind their own cornmeal in back. It’s not the most beautiful or even clean place but the place is as authentic as you can get. I ordered a Guatemalan chuchito and Mexican carnitas tamale which were delicious’

Amazing lupus as and the best service in the world! We came with our 1 and 5 year old and they took care of us the minute we walked in. You can not go wrong here. The caldos are amazing too.

Real good. Even the veggie burrito is so amazing. Like a spicy orange sauce in it and avocado too. The pork pupusa was the best, definitely order that. The tamale was good too. But the burrito and pupusa were really memorable

Cashier was super friendly and patient (she described all of the soups). The chicken soup and beef soup were amazing… fresh and didn’t taste greasy! They added a half ear of corn, tortillas, and a small side order of rice. The food the other patrons were eating looked really tasty.

No credit card and no suggestions on where to find an ATM. Was about to order food for four people so they lost out. Smelled decent and looked clean enough though.

4.5 stars. Very solid but not epic IMO, shines in some areas and falls short in others.
I had the grilled chicken super burrito. Great flavor, mixture, temperature, presentation, and fresh ingredients. They toast their burritos like Cancun so that earns it bonus points. Fresher avocado would have made it epic.
My wife had a veggie burrito and it was quite good as well. Same area for improvement as my burrito.
Salsa selection is limited to a super spicy roja salsa and a milder verde salsa.
Service was friendly but a bit slow. It’s definitely a bit run down in terms of décor but nothing more than your average taqueria. You’re not really paying for ambience anyway.
Highly recommended to try, I doubt anyone could be displeased here.

First Papusa ever! Got the Papusa y chicharron con queso
But it’s the salsa I have to rave about. I actually dream about this salsa. I have never had salsa that good and I have lived in SOCAL and been on the border… how? I don’t know…
They sell it by the tub so make sure to buy that and stock up.

I’m so disappointed in myself for not knowing about this place sooner, and always going to El Farolito instead. I honestly think their burritos here are way more delicious — the carne asada is super juicy and flavorful. They wrap their burritos excellently — everything is even out and the flavors mixes so well together. When I don’t ask for any beans, I feel like it’s a burrito filled with 3:1 ratio of meat to rice. which is so awesome!
I highly recommended this place if you ever come to the Mission area!

In my opinion, Espiga is the most underrated burrito in SF. I wouldn’t be sad if it stayed that way either.
I had the super carne asada. Size was perfect. Tortilla was quality and heated to a slight crisp. Meat was excellent. Cheese was as good as you could ask, and was spread throughout evenly.

i’ve been here once, and i’m sold. fresh tamales at dirt cheap prices! perfectly succulent carnitas! deliciously spicy flavorful house salsa! right next door to a wonderful inexpensive mexican market and carniceria giving me ample excuse to frequent this taco joint on a weekly basis! even the beans in my taco failed to offend me, as they are want to do to any angelina worth her yucateco. (side note: WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?) cannot wait to go back!
also, rookie tip: they do not speak english here. brush up on that high school spanish to order or reply on google translate/​hand gestures to make it through. it is well worth the effort!

This place is always wall-​to-​wall, it is. That’s why it’s taken me so long to give it a try, but I was strolling on 24^th in the middle of a brisk Saturday afternoon. Truth be told, I had already had lunch in the Castro and wasn’t really hungry. Still, it was the rare sight of this place in a nearly empty state that forced my mind to go into a clickety-​clack mode trying to justify having a snack here before dinner. I had heard so much about La Espiga De Oro from various foodie blogs that I thought a little indigestion would be a worthy price to pay to get a taste of the food here. As I walked up slowly to the small order window, I began to notice how comprehensive the overhead menu was. I needed to study it and let others go ahead of me.
Ah, I see pupusas. Just one would do me, so I ordered the $ 2.99 Pupusa de Queso (photo:
). I could tell the masa was freshly made because it had a silkier texture than most, but it was rightfully blistered from being hot off the grill. The cheese was already oozing out of it from the steam. Some fresh curtido and tomato salsa made the ideal topping (photo:
). Good stuff. As you guessed, it’s a compact spot. There’s a dining counter against the wall and a few tables set further back (photo:
). I’m guessing my future orders will be to go. In case you want to know, La Espiga de Oro means The Golden Spike, which may have some historical reference, but makes me recall one of my favorite watering holes in North Beach. But that’s another story…
FOOD — 4 stars… a cheesy pupusa is all I had but it was enough to make me want to come back for more
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… tight fit in here, expect to take it to go
SERVICE — 4 stars… fast if not friendly
TOTAL — 4 stars… usually crazy-​busy but this glorified taco stand in the Mission could be worth the trouble for you

My absolute favorite burrito spot when looking for the «traditional» Super Burrito.
There’s a couple of places I’d go instead if I was looking for super chimichangas or fried stuffed burritos but for the traditional super this place does things perfectly. They have a pretty solid selection of meats and everything tastes like they make all the practical parts of the burrito to order.
The tacos are also fantastic and pretty huge for price (basically salad’s worth of topping on each shell) and do a good job of highlighting all their amazing meats offered.
They also get like a million bonus points for opening at 6 am and serve what I think is the best breakfast burrito in the Mission (AT 6 FUCKING AM! LOOKING AT YOU 11AM FAROLITO!!!)
Chicharrones are also on point, crunchy, chewy, fatty, and amazing.
One thing I gotta note is their pupusas are kinda of dry and leathery compared to the authentic Salvadorean restaurants, not a bad thing but notably different, personally I’d go to La Palma and get their pupusas instead or most of the other places that offer them. In my experience the places with lame burritos have better pupusas *shrug*
TLDR: Get the super burritos, tacos, opt out of the pupusas, put chicharrones and steak on everything.

Came here on a Monday around 12:30PM. Parking wasn’t too bad to find on 24^th St, since many people hate paying for parking. The place was a bit empty when we first walked in.
Ordered a carne asada super burrito and my friend ordered some tacos. The wait for the food was a little longer than I expected since there was not many people there… I think we waited 10 – 15 minutes for our food. Finally got our food and the burrito was solid, it wasn’t bad nor did it have a wow factor. The carnitas in my friend’s tacos were dry and they got one of her tacos wrong (she ordered a super taco and instead she got the regular — only a $ 1 difference so it wasn’t a huge deal). Plus, the pickled peppers on the tacos were slimy which was off putting. Our food came with 1 small bag of chips and 1 salsa cup. There was no salsa bar but two bottles of hot sauce out, a salsa verde and salsa rojo.
The cashier who helped us was nice, I would come here again only for the burritos.

Returned with a friend who was visiting from NYC where we all know there’s no good burrito. This time I got the super carnitas burrito as recommended by BurritoEater but couldn’t resist getting the chicharron papusa.
Big mistake.
Those papusas are pretty big. Enough for a light lunch. I thought I wouldn’t be able to eat my burrito at all but I toughened up and pushed on to finish at least half.
Pretty good burrito. Pretty wet and tasty. Unfortunately wet doesn’t translate to good leftovers. By the next day it was kinda a soggy mess. Still yummy as long as I didn’t think about the cold mushy tortilla wrapped around the filling. It was worth it though since most burritos are kinda dry. No need for hot sauce for flavor or to help digestive juices with this one!

Girl at counter is super nice, but knows about 2 works of English! It was fun trying to figure out how to order with her.
No wait to order, but our food took a while. We had to ask them for extra bowls/​spoons, but they were super nice about it — a bit understaffed with what seems like 1 chef, 1 girl at the register, and 1 other girl as an in-​between.
Cost: About $ 33 for 1 soup, 1 pupusa, 2 tacos, 1 quesadilla, and a small horchata.
Must-​haves: Pupusas! Chorizo taco!
* Sopa Caldo de Res (pork rib soup w/​veggies. $ 9.99) — 4 stars
pic:
A simple & good comfort food — huge chunks of fatty soft pork rib, potato, some sort of radish, carrots. All came in a giant bowl that easily split into three. My mom really loved this — reminiscent of our homemade pork broths. The corn tortillas were thick and had a homemade feel, but were a bit dry. The little container of rice was actually quite flavorful & moist too! Also came with red pickled onions and cilantro. I wasn’t really sure how to eat everything together but
* Pupusa De Revueltas (beans, pork, & cheese. $ 2.99) — 5 stars
pic:
Yum! Still the best I’ve had in SF. Thick, crispy outer layer. Inside gooey and warm, w/​plenty of filling, good ratio of beans to pork to cheese. Came with salsa and
* Taco Chorizo, Super ($ 3.49) — 5 stars
pic:
As before, love the crispness of their chorizo, and their sharp seasonings — great flavor! I have to qualify this by saying that my bf found the meat dry though. And we got the super, but I really am not sure what makes it super as it was mostly chorizo and cilantro.
* Taco Carnitas, Super ($ 3.49) — 3.5 stars
pic:
I found these carnitas to be quite dry and tough, but my mom and bf both really liked it. Maybe I tend to like very tender & moist carnitas but this is just a different style. I think super means that they added pickled green beans on top — I really didn’t like this at all.
* Quesadilla, Tortillo de Harina, Carne Asada ($ 8.99) — 4 stars
pic:
I like that this wasn’t your typical pressed-​flat-​covered-​in-​melted-​cheese quesadilla. It was a fresh flour tortilla wrapped around the meat & cheese — and there was a good balance of both. It was the fattest quesadilla I’ve ever had — a good, large quantity of food. I thought the beef was soft and flavorful (I do have to say my bf thought the meat wasn’t fresh, was too heavy/​greasy, and that this was his least favorite dish). On the side were avocado slices, sour cream, & diced onion/​tomato/​cilantro.

Uno de mis favoritos en la Mission, quizá también porque está a una calle de mi oficina.
Los tamales son superiores a los que se encuentran en carritos por los alrededores; sin duda más higiénicos.
Si se desea entrar en las honduras de un sabor mexicano… y disparar por un día su consumo de calorías a niveles estratosféricos, pruebe las carnitas. Son buenas. Dan fuerza a un crudo.
El caldo de res es servido con abundancia, aunque el bastimento de tortilla que incluye sea escaso.
Favoritos:
Las flautas.
Tamales de elote –dulces.
Champurrado.
Excelente atención, todo el año, de Amparito y demás personal.