El Rey Taco Shop

So excited to have found an awesome taco shop less than a mile from our house! We went here a year or so ago and weren’t impressed, but it’s under new ownership/​management and you can tell! We ordered the cali burrito, tamale, cheese enchilada, bean and cheese burrito, rolled tacos with guac and a shrimp burrito (we were starving!). Each item was delicious and only made better with the salsa! Super friendly and fast customer service, we can’t wait to go back again!

Poor service,
Lady picked up phone while I was ordering my California no sour cream extra bean. Got sour cream and not the beans. If you can’t multi task well please focus on the customer right in front of you. Lots of hard inedible pieces of meat. Stomach has hurt since if you catch my drift. I am a fan of second chances so I will try again in hopes it was a bad night

Had a couple beers and got a little hungry, turned on my Unilocal satellite and found El Rey Taco Shop. The shrimp burrito sounded good. Took it home cause I wanted to enjoy it with a beer, took the first bit and I was at awe with all the great flavors that were combined with the deep fried shrimp, a mix of cabbage, rice, shrimp, and a special chipotle sauce that gives it that perfect kick so you can keep drinking beer with every bit. They give you a green special hot sauce that gives it that extra kick if you want to spice it up. Thanks El Rey for a great burrito, my new burrito joint! Can’t wait to go back and try the other burritos on there menu! A hidden gem in Clairemont. A must try!

We just found our new favorite spot… Hidden little gem in Bay Ho/​Clairemont with high quality, fresh, delicious craft menu items at reasonable taco shop prices! Ordered Barracho Shrimp Burrito (beer battered drunken shrimp) and a Carne Asada Craft Taco with a crispy mozzarella cheese shell and both were AMAZING!

I came to El Rey’s because a friend recommended it to me. I had a burrito (which was huge) and my daughter had the mini tacos there where as good as tacos del gordo! The food was incredible! It was by far the best taco shop I have been to!
It was WAY better than Lolitas, Maritzas, El Cotixan and El Portal!
I will definitely be coming back and bringing my family!

Loving it all over again!
There are just so many taco shops in San Diego .each with their own distinctive taste and style
what makes this a step above is their style and service… wish i had something like this smack dab in the middle of my neighborhood… all i have is Searsucker
keep it up…

I want to like this place because it’s close to my house but I just can’t. I go back once a month hoping it’ll be better but they always let me down. They always screw up my order. I find the quality lacking. And I can get better for the same price at other joints. Last time I went they didn’t even have the salsa I like. And they were playing some loud religious program on the stereo. Every time I go there I think to myself, «This is it, I’m not coming back.»

Got delivery service so no sure what went wrong! The driver apologized for the enchilada sauce spilling out into bag, said the kitchen over filled it!
Upon opening & cleaning up the messy containers, I found same problem with the tamales! Next to the nachos! A joke!!! Stale chips, with lettuce slightly spread over top, a side of that canned cheese sauce & packets of sauce!

I don’t even live in this area anymore. I still come down passing other taco shops because this one quite unique. I love it. Love almost everything on the menu. My favorite is the El Patron burrito, shrimp chili relleno, oh boy.
Ordering off the secret menu today — mexican omelet. Oh boy ! Love the Mexican cheeses!

So I have had El Rey Taco Shop at least 5 times in two months. Never disappointed even if something wasnt right they made it right so whatever it was the service and quality I received superseded the issue! That has earned this local business a 5 stars for me. The mash potato tacos are sooo good and love their carnita nachos and that spicy nacho cheeeese. Im a fan :-)
Thanks to the Owner, Maria thanks to the delivery guys and all your staff. You are all awesome. I’ll see you soon!

So I live in Clairemont and this place is next to my local liquor store. Often it’s a stop to buy liquor and food. Either from this place or next door at Papa’s Pizza. Mexican is my favorite so you’d think it would be an easy choice. Due to the poor service and the huuuge decline in food quality. More often than not if I want Mexican I have to drive all the way to Cotixan or stop at Burros and Fries before getting my beverages at the liquor store.
Tonight I attempted to phone in my order. Call was answered then hung up on, nice to know you appreciate my business. My order was the carne asada burrito, a staple of my diet. The meat was gross. Every third bite had gristle or something inedible and had to be spit out.
Awhile ago I made it a rule to only come here once a year unitl their food quality improves. That rule I am now amending to come here only after they go out of business and have been replaced by someone else.

Soooo I come here when I’ve had a long day of work-​too tired to cook and this is the only taco shop on my way home. I’m a big fan of their Carne Asada because it just taste different than the others I’ve had. I think it’s marinated oppose to just salt and lime. It’s definitely different, but it’s good different.
I would really like to give this place 4 stars but 4 out of 5 times I’ve had not the best customer service. One of the girls that work there is nice. enough. nice enough, but incredibly unprofessional. She bitches and complains in front of patrons to her other coworkers and is very loud and impatient. I called in for an order from the moment I left work in Del Mar and she said 25 minutes. I got their early cause surprisingly there was no traffic at 6pm– crazy right… So I get there and obviously my food isn’t ready and I know this cause I’m early and I’m okay with that. BUT! The nice fellow working the cashier asks the girl about my order and rudely/​loudly said «I told her 25 minutes». Mind you that I was standing right there, intentionally wanting me to hear that. My god, calm your shit. I understand that you were the only one making the orders and no one helped prep of ingredients– yes I know this because I CAN HEAR YOU and so did everyone else. Blahhhhhhh. Good thing I only come here once every 2 – 3 months.

Good food.
Portions are big. Good quality.
Green sauce spicier then red but both good.
Great menu selection.

I’ve lived around here for about two years and have been going to El Rey at least every couple weeks for lunch. It was awesome — the employees (possibly former owners) knew my name and always made great food no matter who was working.
However, it seems that there are new owners or something because I rarely see Christina and her husband anymore.
I still come here often but the food quality has taken a toll. Ingredients in tacos always differ with each order and quantity is inconsistent. The food is always late, even after calling ahead and arriving five minutes after their estimated time. Their debit/​credit card machine is ancient, so wait times for card processing are around two minutes. Also, their guacamole sauce (which was famously tasty before) isn’t fresh anymore, which signifies their surplus of sauce seems to be stored for later sale.
I don’t know. I think twice before coming to El Rey, and that breaks my heart. This taco shop held many conversations and memories for my friends and I — saving us from hangover days. It was also my go-​to place when I didn’t have time to make lunch.
It was once ‘El Rey,’ but now it’s only ‘el taco regular.’ I hope this restaurant can revert back to its old quality of service someday.

Best carnitas I’ve had in a very long time. Friendly staff, amazing food, wonderful salsa!

Came here for lunch. It’s a small taco shop in a neighborhood of homes across the street. Looks like it was busy when we walked in.
Hubby had buy one get one free for this place. I went with carne asada fries with a Diet Coke. Once we placed our order, it took 30 minutes for our food to come out. The guy at the register apologized but we were sitting there hungry! After 30 minutes, the guy calls out our order.
I must say that the carne asada fries were good and filling. They make the food fresh! There was fresh fries on the bottom, Nacho cheese, carne asada meat, guacamole, sour cream, and shredded cheese on top. I got the mild green tomatillo sauce and topped that on my carne asada fries. Yum! As I used my fork to dig in the massive fries, I just saw each layer come into place. Lots of the nacho cheese sauce came dripping all over those fries. They use skin and all. The slices were sliced fairly thick. So good! The food made up for the slow service. The guys working there were nice.
This place is a hidden gem. Food was hot and delicious!

Good but not great. Food was fine, but didn’t dazzle us and they got our orders incorrect (all of them).
The guacamole is packaged avocado from Costco… don’t waste your money on the side of guac.
It’s perfectly fine for a quick bite, but don’t expect anything out of this world.

I have to say I liked the beef tacos from her, mostly because they were not previously frozen, but the braised shredded beef was freshly placed into a fried tortilla shell, the way it should be. I ordered two beef taco al carte for $ 4.95, which is a pretty good deal.
The beef inside each taco was juicy and savory. The meat was tender and its seasoning was on point. It also had a great flavor from the herbs and stewed tomatoes and peppers. The tacos came generously topped with shredded cheese, fresh shredded lettuce, and chopped tomatoes. The fried corn tortilla shell was good. It was crunchy the way it should be and had a good corn flavor. In the end, more juicy beef in each taco would would be nice.
I tried tow salsas: the jalapeño and regular red medium heat sauce. They were both very good, but I was especially fond of the jalapeño sauce. It had more layers of flavor and packed good eatable heat that did not interfere with the flavor of the tacos.
The employees are no nonsense, friendly, and are there to serve you. It does not mean that they do not have a good sense of humor, because they do. It’s just that it gets busy around lunch time and they want to get you served. There are only a few tables inside, no seating outside, and it appeared that they conduct a lot of to go business.

Really excellent little place –which was about 22 miles out of my way but I had to check it out due to all Unilocalers mostly positive reviews. I read they did a video on YouTube on how to make rolled tacos, I thought, they must be good! I did watch the video too for fun.
The rolled taco order of 5 is only $ 4.99 and I got everything but the pico. {grew up on Spaghetti with meatballs, red sauce… enough is enough!}
I started to order extra sour cream and the owner said, «are you sure? we put plenty on» so I took his word for it {and ordered it on the side!} He was not kidding.
I like my rolled tacos more or less like a taco salad with a lot of lettuce avo-​smash and sour cream.
The lettuce is freshly cut, the avo-​smash is the real deal! the whole avocado! and they were generous with the cheese. I have been on some weird Mex-​kick. Maybe it’s the full moon, but nothing was stopping me from my journey to PB/Clairemont.and I live closer to mid-​town!
The owner is SUPER sweet. Just a great guy, attentive and kind.
The beef in the tacos had a homemade stewed or roasted flavor — this is the difference when you seek out the homemade type! So worth it.
Now, I have to give plenty of bragging time to their excellent signature green sauce. Is it jalapeño?
roasted Chilies with avo? I’m not sure. Judging from the consistency, heat and texture I’d have to say there is ample garlic, some avo and blended chilies. There are dark flecks that look to be authentic charred tiny bits of skin from roasted chilies. It is slightly thick and creamy then it takes a sweet turn, next it develops into some med. to hot heat. Just perfect.
I will definitely be back! Thank you Mr. El Rey!

While cruising around the Clairemont area, I came upon this place and decided to bookmark it for later. I come back and grabbed some takeaway for dinner that night. This restaurant is a very small hole in the wall place with an even smaller menu. This place perhaps has the smallest menu I’ve ever seen for a San Diego area taco shop, but that’s okay, small menus are good sometimes, especially in the case of El Rey.
The woman inside this place was very friendly and told me they have been in business for about four years. They decided to make the menu so small because large menus seem to overwhelm people with too many choices, They had a specials sign out front (
) which featured a burrito of the month and their «loaded» option which they tout all over their menu. The moons over my carne burrito is simply a California with two fried eggs inside, sounds very tasty, too bad I didn’t find that out until after I ordered my food. Even though their menu is small, they’re willing to almost whip anything up if they have the ingredients.
I decided to try out one of their combos, the four rolled tacos, quesadilla and beans and rice combo (
) which came with fully loaded rolled tacos and a simple quesadilla. The quesadilla wasn’t anything special really, kinda of greasy really. But the rolled tacos were quite exceptional, they were crispy, fresh and the meat inside was great. They loaded up the top of them with fresh guac, tomatoes, cheese and lettuce just the way rolled tacos should be. The beans and rice were flavorful and seasoned spot on.
On the side, I decided to venture with some tacos with their «loaded» option. I ordered two pollo asado tacos fully loaded (
) with guac (which is extra). You can tell from the picture, these tacos are LOADED. They came with beans, rice, sour cream, guac, cheese, meat and one large corn tortilla. These things were freaking MASSIVE tacos. They were so delicious though, even after the drive home, everything tasted fresh. The pollo asado meat was cooked amazingly well and seasoned. Perhap some of the best tacos I’ve had, quite good.
Another upside to this place is their Jalapeño sauce (
) which is one of their specialty’s here. The lady said the sauce was really spicy, it wasn’t the too spicy for me but it was definitely good. I really wish I had got more of it to go. Their red sauce (
) isn’t too bad either, but the Jalapeño is way better.
El Rey Taco Shop is a great small family business, its good to see they’ve been in business for the last four years and hopefully they continue to do good, they make really good food here and hot sauce. I will definitely come back and try that Moons over my carne burrito someday.