El Fogon

Live just around the corner and LOVE this place.
They’ve got a great chile relleno that is hard to pass up.
Good daily specials and combos. Everything has been delicious.

The food is great only one problem they need a new cashier. The girl (skinny girl with long wing eyeliner) is so rude and purposely tries to ignore customers when they try to order.

El Fogon has pretty decent Mexican food for Riverside. I love their tacos on Tuesdays, their carne asada fries, and their burritos are decent too. But I’m here to write about the fantastic job that Liz (I believe that’s her name) does every single time I go in there. She is always doing anywhere from 3 – 5 times at once whenever I go in. Taking peoples’ orders, ringing people up, delivering food to tables, helping other employees to make sure to understand what they need to get done. She always is super friendly and takes care of the customer as well. I hope that she is being paid enough and receiving enough praise. She does an amazing job and has excellent multi-​tasking skills! Props to you girl. Keep it up!

Great fish tacos. They only costd 99 on Fridays. Great flavor and 3 was enough to keep me full. The service is really good too. Really nice staff. The place is small so be prepared to wait for a table

I love El Fogon. Everything is prepared fresh & presented beautifully. They are reasonably priced & have great daily specials. Burritos are massive & delicious. The Pozole is the best I’ve ever had in a restaurant & it is like a work of art when it is served to you. Plus they have 3 different salsas to pour all over the best nachos in Riverside !!!

My wife and I come here regularly (1 – 2 times per week) and usually have no problems with El Fogon. The food is great, the servers are nice, and even with sitting down to have lunch, we’re always able to get in-​and-​out in 45 minutes.
Today, however, was a completely different story…
We sat down a couple minutes after noon and our server (a new girl neither of us recognized) took our order (taco salad with asada and a chimichanga with asada) around 12:05 PM. We got chips and salsa a few minutes later, which would be the last time our server would even remotely acknowledged our existence. A server that recognized us walked in around 12:20 PM and asked if we were drinking water.
That’s right, in 15 minutes, our original server (the aforementioned new girl) couldn’t even manage to bring out our drinks.
Finally at 12:50 PM, we got fed up and went to the counter to see what was going on. As it turns out, the kitchen never made our order because they focused on completing all of the to-​go orders.
Not only did we sit there for 45 minutes waiting for our food, we waited for food that was not even being prepared! My wife and I weren’t the only ones waiting for our orders as there were three other tables (2 – 3 per party) that were complaining amongst themselves about how they had been waiting so long.
To make matters worse, NOT A SINGLE PERSON BEHIND THE COUNTER REMOTELY CAME CLOSE TO APOLOGIZING.
El Fogon, you guys make great food, but you’re going to have to get your $hit together.

Recomendado Del 1 al 10 es un 100, Comida Autentica Mexicana, Saludos para Don Mario Nevarez y Doña Chela

I have to disagree with most of the reviews here. The food is bland. The service is ok. During rush times the staff is unorganized and do not have specific roles. One person should be serving tables. One person should be bussing. One person should be at the counter taking to go orders and expo-​ing.
The food is my major issue. Nothing here tastes like it is made from scratch and it is not cooked with the nuance that comes with a lifetime of experience. I’m sure you are nice folks, but after a handful of visits I feel like two stars is a generous evaluation of the business as I experienced it.

Since I moved to Riverside, I’ve been to this place a few times, tried a lot of their menu and never been let down. From combination plates to enchilada and the tacos, I’ve always been satisfied.
The price is fair, the quality above average and the service is great.
It is easily accessible, with abundant nearby parking.
It gets crowded on Tuesday when they have their specials $ 1 taco.
They also have plenty of other specials.
I would recommend this place to anyone.

Went here for Taco Tuesday and got 4 carne asada tacos. They were pretty good for the price (99 cents) and the chips and salsa come with the dine-​in. It gets fairly packed on Tuesday but there’s enough seating if you come as a pair.
The place is nice and clean. The staff is nice and fast. Overall my experience was great there.

I’ve only gone here twice and I can’t die that way — I have to go back at least 1738 more times.
First time I had gone, it was Taco Tuesday so I had gotten 3 — 2 el pastor and 1 chicken — and it was pretty good. If I were to go again I would go for the el pastor completely because the chicken was dry to me (and only get 2 because they’re surprisingly filling). A downer is that they don’t have avocado or salsa in their tacos as a standard but the sauce they give you on the side is a good substitute!
Second time I had gone it was a Friday so that entails Fish Taco Friday’s! The fish is fried and topped off with lettuce and a cream based sauce which was good but too heavy and creamy in my opinion. I would prefer to go with their standard tacos.
Other than that, I took a few sips of my sister’s horchata and it was decent in short, but could be better. That day I had it the drink was really thick and had a powder-​y consistency.
Their service is alright too — there aren’t that many servers walking around taking orders so it can be a little slow especially if you go during rush hours. Be patient! This place is worth it!

Normally come here for their taco Tuesday’s! Their tacos are okay, not great, but not bad either. It’s better to sit in rather than getting togo here because when you dine in, they serve you chips and salsa! And their chips and salsa are amazing! It’s soooooo good! I can never stop myself from eating more.
Their customer service lacks a bit. They don’t have many employees running the tables so the service is really slow. They seem to never have napkins on the tables when I get seated so you have to ask. Which I don’t think is very convenient. They’re very nice people, but service is just not fast enough especially when the restaurant itself is pretty small.

This place is pretty solid. I actually come here quite often for their deals, since they have some deal like 1 dollar hard or soft tacos on Tuesday or Thursday, and like discounts on burritos on other days or fish tacos, yea I don’t have the exact schedule but you get the gist.
I like the tacos here, and I usually get a plate of 6 or so on Tuesdays/​Thursdays. They have choices ranging from El pastor to ground beef, to chorizo, to even potato, which I thought was strange at first. I’m usually a carnivore, but I opted for a potato taco to see how it was. I was not dissapointed, wow it was good, yea If I were to become a vegetarian, I think my sad existence would be made a little happier with these potato tacos. However if I were vegan, my life would stay sad because I wouldn’t be able to eat them because there has to be butter in this mashed potato like filling…
Anyway, I like the tacos here, although the chicken one for me is usually pretty dry, so I usually just get more of the al pastor, which I like a lot.
Another huge plus for me is… those tortilla chips and that salsa. Idk, but in my opinion, after trying like 9 mexican places in the area, I still find El fogon to make like the best chips and salsa. You might disagree, but I love the freshness of the tortilla chips, the satisfying crunch, and the just made warmness of it all that is accompanied by some delicious salsa. Idk, I really like their chips and salsa, so feel free to dine in and share a basket of chips while you wait for you food. The wait can be rather long sometimes, but it’s OK, I’ll just get another basket or two of chips.
The customer service here is good too, friendly and my water was filled frequently even though they are usually quite packed.
Overall, I will be here again throughout this year, which will probably lead to my senior 15, but let’s not taco bout that…

In a dark cool place between the county mental health facility and a sleazy tired laundromat I enjoyed a delicious meal for a fair price. Sound scary yet? Luckily there’s solace to be found in this dark interior. The sweet gal who served me on both visits made the experience all the better. The house made chips and salsa are equally impressive, far superior to anything to be had at Tios Tacos downtown. Fresh and crispy chips meet spicy but uniformly consistent salsa with its fine minced onions and roasted peppers. Free refills too!
On my previous visit I tried the carne asada burrito and really liked it. This time I was craving for a wet-​style chimichanga because the crisp texture balances whichever sauce is applied along with melted cheese. The waitress suggested that I should try the shredded beef inside, and that their salsa verde was just spicy enough to make a statement. My order came quickly and if you look at the photo you’ll see the nice presentation.
Taste: I found a new place to eat! The beef wasn’t too dry and had loads of flavor, as did the salsa. Further, the extra spicy chili sauce augmented the experience when carefully applied to select small areas. A real winner!
Rice and beans were good and fresh, which is another high mark. I’d say 4.5 stars based on two visits. Next time I will try something completely different, perhaps with shrimp or chicken?

Taco Tuesday was pretty amazing… you can’t go wrong with dollar soft tacos!
I had four Carne asada tacos, one chicken taco, and a chorizo tacos. The Carne asada tacos were really juicy, the chicken was pretty decent, but the chorizo was a bit salty. The tacos come with a lot of meat (I had the constantly scoop up meat because it kept falling out). And they provide two syrup containers full of green and red salsa on the table – unlimited sauce without having to constantly pester the waiter – SCORE!
Additionally, the server was extremely friendly and they give you free chips with unlimited refills. Overall, awesome taco Tuesday deals (only soft tacos), but apparently there are hard shell taco thursdays! It’s a bit difficult to spot, so be on the lookout!

Unilocal 2015 Challenge #67
Wowsers to say the least. I was in Riverside on a Thursday and I was visiting a friend. I wanted to eat something that was not Sushi Asahi, as I had just done ayce sushi earlier in the week. So my friend then decided to go to this place because, you know people are always down for Mexican food: P Plus it was closeby to the UCR campus, and that was a huge plus. I can’t really say I know where it is because of the fact that I was momentarily lost with life, but y’know. Close to campus. :D
Walking in, I was also confused as to what to do with restaurant etiquette. Do I sit down? Walk to the register? Whaa? It turns out, if you are doing for here and dining in, you wait for a waiter and he seats you. YES. REGULAR. Okay maybe I wasn’t as confused. xD But yeah. That’s what you do. You get menus, but since it was a magical Thursday, there were hard tacos for 99 cents. YES. 99 cents.
And it wasn’t even Taco Tuesday.
What!!!
TACO THURSDAY?
Best. Words. Ever.
So they have 4 flavors that are 99 cents. You can choose from chicken, ground beef, beans, and potato. Ya wanna know how I felts about em? HERE YOU GO!
I only ordered 3. All the tacos had cabbage/​lettuce, cheese, and some salsa, and came with red and green sauces, one of which burnt my tongue and one of which that didn’t burn as much.
Ground beef– Eh, it was alright. I’ve had better seasoned ground beef and it was totally the cheap kind. Eh.
Beans– Yes. Beans in a taco. Like the bean and cheese potato but even better.
Potato– Mashed potatoes in a taco– I think they had garlic or herb or butter or something. Omg this one was the best. Would totally recommend this haha. :)
And lunch for 2, 6 tacos, was ~$ 7. Not too shabby ;) Really cheap.
They have other options too but I didn’t look at them haha. Come and try them out, esp if you are a Highlander! And I know they have Taco Tuesday. I wonder if there’s fish…