Tacos El Autlense

This taco truck is a hidden gem. It’s tucked in the little alley right next to Hotsy Totsy and the two have a clever partnership: if you get food, you can eat in the bar with drink purchase. If you’ve had too many drinks, you can run out and get some tacos!
We came by on a Sunday afternoon and there was a decent line for tacos around 2pm. I had a carne asada burrito ($ 7) and also tried their tacos al pastor ($ 1.50 each). The burrito was pretty hefty and had good flavor. The tacos are wrapped in double corn tortillas and are totally worth it!
My friend also got a burrito and added avocado ($ 0.50 extra) and noticed that it was hidden in the middle. My only complaint was that the filling in the burritos was unevenly distributed. The sour cream was only in the middle, similar to the avocado situation.
We got the horchata ($ 1) and it was super sweet, which is pretty typical. It was a fairly small cup, but the price was reasonable.
Overall, the food is yummy and it’s a nice set up with Hotsy Totsy. I’ll probably be back next time I’m craving some street tacos and horchata!

Hands down. One of the best carnitas burritos I have ever tasted. Also the folks are really friendly!

The ladies that do this taco truck do some of the best tacos in the area and they are fresh and they are delicious and you have a choice like you get it most drugs but at this when you get the love. They love cooking. This is my second night in a row down here for more tacos I’m addicted.

It ain’t fancy. its a food truck that lives in the parking lot of a bar. But their burritos are SOLID. Just plain good food. I stick with the steak burrito with everything on it. Nice people. On a busy night it can take a while to get your food though.

What tacos should taste like! Wish other places would get the memo, so I go out of my way to visit this place. Prices and options are great!

I have tried this place several times and really like it. The tacos and burritos are not only fresh but extremely good. The only draw back I have is that the wait time is pretty long. But I only think is because they are constantly busy. Oh and one more thing while I was here the prices just went up two more dollars! If you are every in the area and have time stop by and try their tacos especially the carnitas you will not regret it!

Had myself a carnitas burrito with «the works» and it was spectacular! The carnitas were just cooked to absolute perfection (partially pan fried I suppose), adding a bit of a crunchy note to the end of every bite. OH — El Autensle, how I love thee…

I come to this taco truck every time I go to Hotsy Totsy. They’re so amazing, I started coming here even when I don’t go to the bar. The ladies running the truck aren’t the most sociable, but hey when you’re running a super busy taco truck when it’s cold out I wouldn’t be either! Hope this truck is around for years to come. Highly recommended!

Great tacos for cheap. I’ve had the tongue, tripe, carnitas, carne asada and buche — they’re all excellent. The burritos are delicious as well — just the right balance of ingredients.
Perfect for when you’re drinking at the Totsy!

This is pretty damn authentic mexican food. Bought a chicken burrito and two tacos to go. Their horchata’s are cheap and strong as well. Some places really dilute their horchata.

This place is solid. Very delicious veggie tacos and burritos. The beans and rice actually have flavor and are moist. They are open late as well until midnight, or (12:30 but I believe after midnight it’s burritos only). The salsas are yummy. I have tried to order the ceviche numerous times but they have never had it. So pass on that until next time. The horchata is good and not to sweet. They do get backed up on busy bar nights or lunch hours, but it’s worth the wait. Best veggie burrito joint in the Albany/​El Cerrito area!

Great taco truck that parks next to Hotsy Totsy. I ordered the pollo (chicken), asada (beef), and carnitas (pork) tacos for $ 4.50 ($ 1.50/taco). All were served with onions and cilantro on 2 corn tortillas. The food is either to be eaten in the bar or to-​go, it is not intended to be eaten on premises by the truck.
All three of the tacos were great. Wonderful flavor and beautifully presented (for the price). The only thing I was not a fan of was the wait time. They provide line numbers and I was surprised how long it took after ordering to get the food. I would definitely recommend this food truck.

Stop everything you’re doing, get in your car/​on your bike/​use your legs to get to the lot next to the Hotsy Totsy bar on San Pablo and GET THESE TACOS from El Autlense. There are so many wonderful things about this gem of a taco truck. Let’s begin with price — $ 1.50/taco. Unreal. You want ceviche? A lot of it? Yes! $ 5.00 and you get a heaping pile of wonderfully acidic ceviche, fresh avocado, packets of Tapatio and tortilla chips. I can’t speak for the burritos or really anything else, because I am a creature of habit and I like what I like, so tacos and ceviche EVERY time (unless they are out). I like carnitas and al pastor especially. I a little grease never bothers me because it’s flavorful, haha. Horchata is also excellent and very inexpensive.
Probably the most amazing part? You can take your food and «eat-​in» at the bar. So, you can basically order yourself like a half dozen tacos for the price of cocktail (mind you, I love Hotsy Totsy and will gladly pay the $ for their cocktails). You cannot lose! Also, unless something has changed since my last visit, the taco truck accepts only cash money…

To think $ 1.50 tacos still exist makes me weep. I feel disgusted at myself for those times I’ve spent $ 4.00+ on a SINGLE taco. Thank you for this dose of delicious reality, Tacos El Autlense. It’s time to take off those Bay Area exorbitant food price goggles, people.
I’d probably give 5 stars for the price alone here, but that’d be misleading because they’re actually really good tacos too! My favorite so far has been the birria. So tasty and tender, but also very generous with the goat.
Will probably be back all the time now.

Price is right with $ 1.50 taco and $ 6 burritos. Bit greasy as others have said but I was able to drive 4 into the gullet with ease. For this night I tried the Carne Asada and it was pretty tender and didn’t have any noticeable gristle.
Not as good as my goto truck in SF SOMA (El Tonayense). A great option nonetheless as quality mexican food in El Cerrito is few and far between.

OK, now that’s a tiny bit more like it.
Trying to find tacos of similar astounding excellence as SD/​TJ tacos in the Bay Area, I was beginning to feel like Ponce de León looking for the fountain of youth. Is it really out there? Does it really exist? Hoping to produce better results than thus far, I went back to the well. Albeit a well I hadn’t been to in a while. The taco truck parked right next to Hotsy Totsy (which I also hadn’t been to in a while): Tacos El Autlense.
I knew I liked their tacos, but it had been long enough that I didn’t remember exactly how much I liked their tacos. I arrived 7:15pm on a Wednesday & parked in the lot behind Hotsy Totsy. There was a line to order that took 15 minutes. I ordered the standard tacos for this taco comparison study: 2 Tacos de Cabeza & 2 Tacos al Pastor. I also ordered 2 Tacos de Lengua & mixed things up a bit with an Asada Quesadilla.
The food took an additional 15 minutes, for a total 30 minutes wait from arrival to food in hand. Now, if you’re inclined to enjoy a beverage or 2 every now & again, the Hotsy Totsy is conveniently close by. That’s what I did while I waited for my food. & again after for a 2^nd round with my food. It’s a beautiful symbiotic relationship as food from Tacos El Autlense is welcomed in Hotsy Totsy.
Scarfing down what I got (the ½ hour wait primed my appetite), it was immediately evident that Tacos El Autlense did produce different results. The Cabeza was delicious & tender, 1 of the better Cabezas I’ve had on this recent voyage of taco discovery. But there were some small white chunks of solid fat mixed in with the delectable moo cow face flesh. I did find that off-​putting. I’ll go with a 3.75 out of 5 rating.
The Pastor. Finally, a decent Pastor. The 3 previous Tacos al Pastor all lacked flavor & were dried out/​overcooked to varying degrees. The Tacos al Pastor here were solid. Not the best I’ve ever had, but both flavor & texture were just plain better than the other 3 Pastors I’ve had recently. I’ll give the Pastor from Tacos El Autlense a 3.75 out of 5 rating.
Along with the Tacos al Pastor, the Tacos de Lengua here were better than any I’ve had amongst my Bay Area taco samplings so far. Super tender & flavor-​packed, the Lengua was their best taco of the evening. I’d rate that 4.25 out of 5. & finally, the random wild card, the Asada Quesadilla. Mind-​blowingly awesome. The Asada was cooked perfectly & tasted like it came off a well-​seasoned grill. The tortilla had the right balance of grill crunch & soft chew. Flavor off the charts. 5 out of 5 rating.
Altogether, the average rating for what I ate at Tacos El Autlense was higher than the previous taco trucks recently visited (just under 4.2 out of 5). It showed a glimmer of hope that my search for stupendously fabulous tacos around the Bay Area might yet bear fruit. For the overall rating, I’ll go with a 4. The Hotsy Totsy is right next door, which is cool. The ½ hour wait, not so cool. Tacos El Autlense, I am a fan. But the search still goes on…

My $ 6 burrito was full of disappointment. I waited 45 minutes for a surprisingly greasy chicken burrito. For six bucks and that kind of wait I honestly expected more. I also paid extra for avocado, started eating my burrito, assumed they had forgotten it, but no, there was one slice at the very end of the burrito. Wow. Totally worth the extra cost on top of the base six dollar price. Really. I’ve had better food from trucks in LA so maybe my standards are higher, but this place was very meh for me. My friends ordered the tacos, and they looked ok, but nothing worth waiting that long for. If I had to go back I’d get tacos instead, but I probably won’t be back.
Average food, above average cost, absurd wait time.

Oh my gosh, what can I say about this place. I’ve heard a lot about it since it was so close to campus and I wanted to give it a try. I can’t believe how good their tacos and Tortas were. The carne asada is nice and soft, their tripe is deliciously crispy, and their pastor mixed well with anything.
Hands down one of the best taco truck experiences I’ve had in a while. Catch the horchata when you can and get the same experience I had! Also, park across the street so you won’t get ticketed.

This is a solid truck! The tacos are perfect with great flavor. And at a $ 1.50, see my updated pricing, how can you go wrong? Oh, make sure that you get the horchata for $ 1.00 It is homemade! And it is a $ 1. She is losing money on this one, so get it before the price goes up. Matter of fact, don’t. I am going to buy a gallon of it next time and use it with my cereal in the morning.
I do think that the winning dish today was the ceviche. This tasted so great with a plentiful amount of fish. Too many times I get the ceviche and it is sprinkled with fish and mostly onions. Not here. They have the ratios down right. Next time I am in the neighborhood, I am stopping in here.
What did I learn today? Get out the Rosetta stone. This place is so authentic, you might have a hard time with the language barrier.

What I ate: tacos!
Visit date: November 8, 2014
First time? No.
Hell yeah! (Can I say that on Unilocal?) Street tacos!
Now that I’m an El Cerrito-​an, I pass by Tacos El Autlense on a daily basis on the way home from work. I think it’s safe to say that fight the urge to get tacos on a daily basis. I usually get the beef and chicken tacos and ask for bonus pickled jalapeños. The meats are flavorful and juicy (the chicken tends to be a little juicier but just add more salsa and its a party in your mouth!). The heat from the salsa is just enough to get your nose running but still allows you to taste all the flavors. Note that the default is red salsa; you can ask for salsa verde when you place your order.
This place is perfect for late night cravings, and it’s now on my list of places to take visitors.
Note: Their prices have increased, but they still serve the same quality foods and it’s definitely still worth it. Good street tacos are hard to find!