Taqueria Arandas

This is my favorite restaurant for tortas and much more. Small place but the food is so good. The waiters are always kind and helpful.
I’m glad a found I found this restaurant.

This is my go-​to place for good cheap Mexican food. This place is no frills, but I don’t particularly like fancy or pretentious mexican joints. Not much English spoken here, but don’t let that deter you if you can’t speak Spanish! (Who wants a bunch of white people cooking up your mexican food anyway?!) Great chips and salsa when you sit down. I’m all about the Al Pastor tacos and any of the breakfast tacos. The verde chicken enchiladas are excellent as well. They have the REAL stuff too, like Menudo! Check it out, it won’t break the bank!

Always friendly… always courteous… food is authentic, consistent, good and cheap! Restaurant is always clean… and every time I walk through their doors, I am greeted with a friendly, «Hello! Have a seat anywhere!» They’re just nice folks!

Legit Mexican food at awesome prices. Their quesadillas, fajita burritos, and al pastor tacos are choice. The salsa is one of my favorites in Austin.
In the fog of tex mex restaurants in this city, arandas is a breath of fresh air.
The staff is always on point. Always super friendly. One of my go-to’s when I’m in the area.

Awesome local joint. True Mexican cuisine. Everything was authentic and tasty. The environment was very clean and though they were busy I still received my order quickly.
The servers were all very friendly and ilI cam not wait to return to try something else!

I have only tried the breakfast tacos, they are ok. Really nothing special but I think it was 3 for $ 3 so you can’t go wrong if you are nearby (which I was). I wouldn’t go out of way for them.

Good food, quantity and price — can’t beat it.

Best breakfast tacos in town! Awesome migas, too. Plus, the people who work there are super friendly.

We’ve been coming here for almost 10 years. Over the years, we’ve seen the prices slowly go up (common with time), but for the quality of food, the prices just don’t compare. The staff is wonderful (esp. Vicente)! I just don’t quite crave this place like I use to… better options elsewhere. I usually order their Torta Cubana with avocado and my husband will order the barbacoa Torta. It’s hit or miss… bread is too thick or too much grizzle on the barbacoa. Other times, it’s perfect. I will remain a loyal customer, however, they won’t see me as often as I have slowly moved on to better Mexican food.

I had previously left this restaurant 5 star reviews. My boyfriend and I used to eat her all the time, we live just up the street. I deleted my previous reviews after the experience we had this evening.
If I could leave zero stars for this place, I would.
Our chips were served so stale they were chewy, my queso was lukewarm and lumpy, and they served both of our entrees cold and without tortillas. The salsa was about to go rotten, it even smelled gross and old.
Spend your money elsewhere. I will never eat at this restaurant again.
Disgusting, awful food.

This place is terrible! We got some soup and it was contaminated. It intoxicated my dad and he got a stomach virus.

I’ve eaten here exactly once, and the place didn’t really impress me. But it was also the first time I’d had a breakfast taco in nearly 4 months. FOUR MONTHS! This gives them an immediate skewing upwards.
I can’t tell you if the breakfast tacos were good because of the aforementioned absence or if they stood on their own merits. Regardless, they were not bad, and certainly cheap. The place is rather dirty and chaotic, but the best places are. The parking lot sucks, so if you’re not there early, find somewhere else to park-​and don’t be tricked into being one of those poor fools who gets trapped in.
I don’t live in Austin anymore, but I know that breakfast tacos are always waiting for me when I go back and Arandas has good cheap ones.

Awesome… don’t ever again do drive thru breakfast at some fast food corporate joint again with mystery products. Instead, call in your taco order before you leave the house and in less then 10 minutes your food will be waiting for you at the front desk! Excellent food at awesome prices im lucky to live five minutes away from this place and you can catch me picking up breakfasts tacos for my crew and I at least 3days a week.

This is the place for quick, cheap, and delicious Mexican food. I like how straightforward it is. There’s no gimmicks or flashiness it’s just good Mexican food. When you walk in you quickly realize this place is either going to be amazing or horrible. There really wasn’t an atmosphere– plastic booths and yellow walls– defiantly not fine dining. The staff didn’t speak much English but we had no problem ordering. The food was good. But being a vegetarian you’re pretty much limited to cheese enchiladas. I was told the meat dishes were amazing.
My boyfriend got pastor tacos and loved them. His only complaint– the portions. He’s an active guy who needs a decent amount of food to satisfy his appetite. 2 bowls a chips and an entrée later, he was wishing he ordered another plate.

So good… my experience here was fantastico… the tacos I ordered were the beef fajitas and barbocoa. I liked the salsa and ice tea.

A pretty typical Mexican joint. The chips were stale when we went, but I didn’t see that in anyone else’s review, so it must have been a fluke. The torta cubana was solid. Staff was very extremely friendly. I’ll definitely go back.

I had high hopes given this place’s favourable reviews. Let’s just say they steered me wrong. Enchiladas were bland and carne asada was so tough it was almost inedible.

Caldo de Pollo

Taqueria Arandas has a ton of perks: friendly staff, affordable prices, easy no-​frills Tex-​Mex and it’s always FAST. But generally speaking, nothing on the menu stands out to me as being spectacular. It’s just basic Tex-​Mex that can find at lots of places across Austin.
I will give it to them that their salsas are not for the weak. I have a tendency to hiccup every time I eat something really spicy and I couldn’t stop the whole time we were there.
The breakfast tacos are simple, hot and fast, so I’d say that’s the best meal of the day, but if you’re looking for anything more complex, I suggest Taco More on Riverside.

I had always picked up takeout, and now I wish I had just kept doing that. We decided to eat there once and the all around dirtiness, service, even the patrons smelling of stale smoke and BO that surrounded us at 2 of the 3 tables near us was just too off putting. There are so many Mexican joints around here, it now appears I will get my tacos elsewhere.
My 2 pennies