Taco Baja

My boyfriend and I came to have dinner. We both ordered the tacos mixtos and did the beef. They serve them on soft corn tortillas which I like but we thought they were hard tacos. $ 9.95 each plate and all you get are 3 tacos no rice no beans. We are Spanish but if you don’t speak it good luck explaining yourself. Heck the Spanish didn’t even help.
When the bill came we were both floored at the price for a bottled coke…$ 4.95! Like WHY?
The bathrooms are tiny and dirty with fake soap.
1^st & last time here.

Scary place… very very scatchy… i walked in, and walked out… and will never come back again. This place seemed like a secret place for the scary gangs or somethingg… Cant really picture anyone dining out here.

Food ⁴⁄₅: I had the tacos al carbon platter with cow tongue. Food was good but I was expecting it to be a little cheaper given the atmosphere. Tongue was tender and everything seemed fresh.
Experience ²⁄₅: my waitress Deborah was very very nice. Enjoyed having her around. That being said I was surprised I could hear her since the music is so damn loud. I would go back but maybe with some ear plugs. Not my style.
Value ³⁄₅: food was good but I don’t know about the price. Two flour tacos, a side of beans and rice was $ 10. Dos equis was $ 5. That’s Arlington prices for a dive joint.
All things being equal: ³⁄₅.

Excellent food! We were craving some Mexican food like what we use to get from just about and where in San Diego and this place fits the bill –although not cheap. The rolled tacos were fantastic and I want to know the secret to their beans. Yum! We Also enjoyed The carne asada. The location is jot the most welcoming but don’t let that jeep you away!

Food is good and authentic, definitely get bang for your bucks. Got the fajitas platter and was able to spilt between two people easily. The music was a little loud and obnoxious at time though.

I give it 1 ½ stars.
Iv’e driven by here on my many journeys to and from Great Wall Mkt and surrounding Merrifield. Iv’e always stopped by too early to eat here. But today i went early afternoon, they were open.
You can’t see into the place from outside because the windows are tented. I really like hole-​in-​the-​wall taco joints, but was a little skeptical. We walked in to «Rave Club Eardrum bursting Latin music». No B.S., i could’nt hear my friend across the table from me. I asked if the music could be turned down and it was actually turned off, i only said «down». Inside was kinda ok beer joint layout. As others said before, young guys drinking corona and hanging at the bar flirting with the scantilily clad waitresses. We were the only Gringos.
We ordered off the menu, we got papusas, tacos, rice and beans. 25min later our meal arrived (we were the only ones ordering food). Big portions and cheap.
Salsa w/​chips very watery and forgettable. Papusas were good and freshly made. The tacos were served on flour tortillas and not corn (?), although the menu made no mention of either so i assumed it would be corn. I guess we unknowingly ordered from the «Gringo» menu. What a disappointment.
The meat was ok, not seasoned enuff for my taste. Beans were ok, but needed more spice.
I’ve spent way too much time on this review, but to conclude:
Best things were the salsa slaw and green sauce that came w/​the tacos.
I read a single Unilocal review before going in. One 5 star review. My mistake, it seems this place has been posted on Unilocal twice w/​6 other less than 2 star reviews. Lesson learned.
I cannot recommend this place.
2 pics attached.

The wife and I were out running shopping errands on a federal holiday, and stopped by here on a lark shortly before lunchtime, thinking that a little mom-​and-​pop hole-​in-​the-​wall place like Taco Baja might have some good authentic Mexican fare to offer. (I’ve lived in El Salvador and the Philippines and other less-​developed places, so it didn’t strike me as particularly scary.) Like ALL nominally Mexican restaurants run by Salvadorans, they get the Salvadoran part right but miss the mark on the Mexican food. Anyway, the pupusas were very good. We chatted up the sweet little waitress in Spanish (although we’re Anglo), and were made to feel welcome. The worst thing about the place is the same thing that plagues every restaurant in El Salvador — way too much noise. Although the place was empty, for the first half of our meal, they had a TV with some kind of Jerry-​Springer-​type family reality show going — in Spanish — with the volume turned up all the way. Then they turned on a jukebox that was even louder, with some of that oom-​pa polka-​sounding Mexican music; we actually had to yell to communicate with the waitress. (Again, this was like 11:00 a.m., with an empty restaurant.) I wouldn’t mind stopping by there again sometime to get some pupusas to go, but I guess I’d give it a pass in terms of a sit-​down, eat-​in experience.

My husband sort of likes the tacos, so we’ve been here a couple times. I on the other hand agree with the other reviewers. This place is very run down and the food is not for me, all deep fried tacos (think bready, greasy tacos) which are good for some, not for others.

This was a bad place for me to take my wife! But I wouldn’t mind brining co-​worker here for the sheer scary-​ness of the place.
We’re asian, so when we walked in looking for some good mexican, we felt like we were transported into a den of Mexican cartels. We clearly did not fit in!
A lot of young guys hanging out having beers. Probably day laborers. And yes, scantilly clad waitresses. the fast paced music was way too loud for the number of people in the room.
We took the orders to go and my wife pressed closer to me as we waited for our food.
As ex-​military, I’d travelled to seedy places such as this and found them really interesting. Again, I’d love to bring my white-​shirt and tie co-​workers here. Have a few Coronas and watch them squirm.
obtw. The food was OK. Inexpensive, but decent. Not the best tacos, but good enough. I like the shredded beef tongue. The salsa was heavy with cilantro.
I left the waitress a nice tip. She probably wastn’t expecting it. I’m sure the dudes hanging around didn’t appreciate I was altering her expectations.
I’d go here again and bring friends!

I thought it would be hilarious for me and my buddy (both of us white) to roll into Taco Baja one Friday evening. I knew how sketchy the place was, and heard it was probably a whorehouse, but we went in anyway because it may have turned into a good story.
The previous reviewer was correct. Armed guard, 100% Latino clientele. We ordered 2 coronas and tried to act natural while people belted out karaōke in spanish. Looking around, one could not help but notice dozens of girls with whore-​ish clothing on … standing against the back wall with forlorn looks on their faces.
I’ve never felt like I’ve been mistaken for a cop once in my life, except for at this place. Man it was rough. Luckily we broke out of there before someone killed us.

Stopped in on my way home from the gym and thought, this place might have decent taco’s and I am starving. HUGE mistake.
First the place itself is sketch, kind of like a bar where people go to die. «sometimes these places have the best food!» I mistakenly thought to myself. So I pushed on and ordered some Tacos «A place called Taco Baja has to have good tacos!» Wrong again.
I ordered a few to take home, 2 beef, 2 chicken and a machana… Inedible would be a compliment. Rancid would probably be a little more accurate.
Stay away, far far far away.

This place is great. I don’t post much but after a few visits here i had to post. The food is very authentic and good. The pupusas were awesome, especially the queso con loroco ones. The tongue tacos were tender and flavorful as were the steak tacos.
The place isnt fancy or anything but the food is very good and resonably priced.

this is sort of a scary place. on a sunday evening there was a security guard in uniform with gun in holster manning the place. once seated i ordered beer and some finger foods. when i looked around the establishment i saw nothing but latino males in their 20s to 40s and a whole lot of waitresses. i think the waitress to customer ratio was 1 to 2 or so… and they were dressed in short shorts and low tops. but most of them were kind of chubby and short. i do not plan on going back here.

It’s small and dark and has a jukebox that plays all the time. It’s pretty authentic Mexican and Salvadorian including the patrons. Bring a friend who speaks Spanish and the time spent there will be more enjoyable. Between my Gringo Spanish and the waitresses bad English, we ordered dinner.
The patrons were nice to us even though it was clear we did not belong in there. We recently moved to the neighborhood and wanted to enjoy the flavor.
I gave three stars instead of four because the waitress purposely did not return my change and I had to ask for it. Then I left a nice tip (over 20%).