El Zarape Tacqueria

Very poor service, bland food and cashier/​server with a bad attitude!!!
Will never return to this establishment and am passing the word along.

I’m not usually one to write negative reviews. Usually I’m already too upset about the money I wasted to spend precious time writing to a bunch of strangers about the horrible time I had. But once in a while, I have the fortune of an experience so bad that I’m compelled to warn others. This is one if those times.
I used to love this place, in spite of their pretty crappy service. Their Super Nachos were the standard to which all other Super Nachos were judged. Their Sopes were piled high with tasty beans, chewy carne asada, fresh lettuce, a thick slice of ripe tomato, their delicious avocado salsa, and cheese. And their horchata was the real stuff. But that’s in the past.
I was craving flautas and on a whim my husband suggested El Zarape. He’s not as big a fan as I am (well, was), so I was pleasantly surprised that we’d be going there at his request. We arrived less than an hour before closing time and ordered my favorites: the chicken flauta plate and super nachos with carne asada.
The cashier was friendly and the food arrived at our table quickly. I eagerly scooped a fork full of beans into my mouth only to find that they were SOUR. It was as if they were doused in vinegar. I took a sniff of then and couldn’t find the culprit for the taste, but there was NO denying it. The young cashier had come by to drop off my horchata and I informed her of the awful surprise in the beans to which she responded, «They do? Ummm… do you want more rice?»
Initially I said yes, but quickly retracted my answer for fear of a plate including a «sneezer.» Given their sheer disregard for properly storing their beans, I didn’t want to find out what they would do a plate that was sent back. Still, we were hungry and we had already paid for the meal, so I ate just the flautas (only after making sure that all appeared good with them). My husband does not possess my keen sense of smell/​taste, and he insisted that the beans atop his giant plate of nachos were just right. However, a few layers in to his nachos and he finally understood what I’d been warning him about.
You’d think this would’ve been enough to make us count our losses and move on. But no, we don’t give up that easily and something about throwing away all that food over some rotten beans didn’t sit well with me. So it occurs to me that we can eat the meat off the nachos without ingesting any of the potentially poisonous legumes. I take a few small bites of the meat and deem them edible. Then, just when I’m done confidently swallowing a chip full of carne asada do I taste what I can only compare to what a really bad sneeze smells like. It was as if someone had sneezed next to an open trashcan containing a 3 day old carcass in the dead of summer– all in my mouth.
We threw way the rest and added El Zarape to our restaurant blacklist.
The aftermath…
I won’t get into too much detail here, but there is only one restroom in our house and I don’t think it’s ever seen as much action as it did tonight. Two hours later and there is still an icky sour taste clinging to my mouth that no amount of toothpaste can abolish.
To my fellow Unilocalers and dear strangers considering this place– don’t. Save yourselves the time, money, and subsequent (potentially explosive) restroom trips.

I stopped by while running errands in the neighborhood. The meat on their carne asada tacos was dry and the tortillas were the smallest that I’ve ever seen. The place was clean, but I a same bad vibe about the cashier/​waitress. From reading other reviews, my Spidey senses were accurate.
There are other taquerias in the area that are a much better value.

For some strange reason every time I come here and a certain lady is taking my order she always gets my to go order wrong. It’s happened 3 times in a row now. It’s not worth wasting my money here only to get something I didn’t order

Good experience, second time here and food is great… We messed up on our order and with a happy smile they changed it… Was Very impressed when I saw the waitress cleaning the salt shaker in detail… Over all good family place to eat…

I used this place for catering at a birthday party. The tacos were very good and all the ingredients were fresh. They arrived on time and were very nice. They left me the left over food including the plates, napkins, etc.

The service here is horrible! The waitress was on the phone the whole time she was taking my order and was not even paying attention to me.
The food here is not very good. I was hungry and needed food fast.
I knew I should have went across the way to Miki-chan’s, or if I wanted Mexican food so bad, I should have went to J&S or Ordonez haha.

I have been coming to El Zarape very often. I like the food. Not the best but it is decent and cheap. I like the special of $ 1.00 tacos every Tuesday and Wednesday after 3 pm.
What I don’t like is what the waitress does. She is a lady with curly short hair probably about 60 to 65 years old.
Here is what I don’t like:
For the third time I have seen her flossing right by the register and even taking food out of her mouth with her fingers only to attend her customers right after that without washing her hands. She also was to serve a customer his food and dropped the plastic fork on the floor. She just picked it up and put it on the plate and took it to the customer who did not see anything because he was using the restroom at the time. I have also seen her picking her nose and not washing her hands after. Who knows what she does when no one is watching.
Folks, I leave it up to you. Cheap tacos, yes. Dirty Old Lady with MOCOS, NO!!!

I found this place expensive for what you actually get. I didn’t think the enchiladas were any better than any other place. Never came back.

This place has some excellent wet burritos or flautas here. I like to get the beef flautas here or a wet burrito. Also, the horchata they serve is creamy and rich. That’s how I think excellent horchata should taste. What led to stop dining here a while ago was a lady who used to work there called me a chinito and I didn’t take that kindly. I decided to stop by this place after two years and things changed a lot where this is a spot for my flautas crave. Good place to stop by!

This place isn’t the latest and greatest and it ain’t horrible either. It’s right there at the three star range.
Located in the corner of a plaza, this place has expanded since being here forever. They have a free chips and salsa bar to the side and lots of seating now. The food is a good three stars. Nothing groundbreaking but solid. Chili relleno burritos are good and cheese enchiladas have all the way through melted cheese (that’s all I ask for). They have everything from breakfast to seafood plates at good prices for the amount.

Came here because my friend has a store in this plaza and I was very hungry. They have a «B» rating so I was kind of scared to eat here but the chinese place right near it also has a «B’ rating. Not the highest quality of ingredients for sure but taste was decent. Inside its pretty old and kind of run down looking which usually does not bother me but coupled with the B rating and food quality it certainly does not make me really want to come back here again. As a last resort I would probably come back but that would be the only reason.

So I have a taco man/​stand that I LOVE down in East LA off Dozier and Gage. However, if for some weird reason he is not open that evening, I will head to El Zarape for their lengua tacos (which I did yesterday evening).
I’ve tried a few types of meat (I’m a taco lover). But I don’t bother with anything else because in my opinion their lengua is the only thing that is good. Carne asada… eh. Carnitas… eh. So go there if lengua is what you’re craving. That’s about it.

So I was starving and hungry and I needed a quick fix. Mexican sounded pretty good at the moment and I decided hey why not give this place a try. It didn’t look that bad at all. Clean and the seats looked really interesting. So I came in and decided to order the super nachos I think they were called or whichever nachos they had.
I got them with Carne Asada and everything on it. No substitute. When I got the nachos they were huge a very large portion of heavy food! So I gave a few bites a try and was shocked to say that this didn’t have much flavor at all. It tasted like I was eating nothing.
Maybe the ingredients weren’t fresh or maybe it was the overload on beans they had in here. But than I can’t hate on the salsa, it was pretty good. But man those Nachos should be better!
One tip I would suggest trying something else besides nachos here. :) Oh the horchata tasted really good like it might of been home made.

What we ordered:
— carne asada soft tacos
— carnitas burrito
The food was totally mediocre. In a city full of Mexican food joints, you can’t serve food like this without expecting criticism.
The food is cheap, and they give you free drinks with all of their lunch specials, but the food wasn’t remarkable — carne asada was dry and rubbery. The carnitas burrito had more beans than meat, and the pork was very dry and had this gamey taste to it. Bleh.
I’m never going to cheat on Armando’s again!

Okay so I have noticed being an OC resident for almost 7 years the white folk do love them some Mexican food. By the way the mexican food where I live SUCKS!
So I was at a party for my daughters cheer squad and lo and behold there was a taco guy in the back cookin up a feast! Chicken, Carnitas & Carne Asada on the grill! They had some refried beans with wwhhhut? lard I see and some spanish rice YUM! I was so excited!
The smell of this food was making my mouth water and yes it was good! It was a great party, great food, cooked right in front of us and I of course had to research the price on this (so cheap!!!) because you best believe my next party I am hiring these guys to come to my house!!!

For cheap eats. not bad, but not the best. Huevos Rancheros is basically 2 sunny side eggs with salsa with rice and beans. It was OK in a pinch but I could have made better at home.
The Flautas was corn tortilla with a choice of chicken or beef with rice or beans… hmmm if that was their idea of flautas what is a taquito?
Would I come back. sure…but not my favorite mexian restaurant

PARKING: Private lot in a plaza
PRICE: OK
SEATING: Large seating areas
SERVICE: OK
There is a small area on the right of the cash register where you can get free fresh salsa and chip.
I enjoy their sopa and chicken burrito. The reason why i like the chicken burrito is because the green/​red bell pepper & onions are grilled and stuffed inside the burrito.

El Zarape saved my sorry butt on New Year’s Day!
Me and my bright ideas…
The entire clan was coming over for our usual New Year’s gathering. This year I suggested that we veer away from our usual Asian food extravaganza and have a South of the Border Fiesta instead. Everyone was enthusiastic and looking forward to it.
Two things essential for a Mexican feast are the rice and beans. If those two items aren’t done just right, forget it. I didn’t want to chance it so I ordered trays of rice and beans from El Zarape. They were one of the few restaurants open on the holiday and the quality is always consistently good. I was more than happy to pay $ 15 per tray for perfect rice and beans.
When my younger son was attending the high school up the hill, El Zarape was one of his friends’ main hangouts. They’d usually order one or two plates of Super Nachos and enjoy them at the tables outside. Since I usually had to pick him up from there, I’d go in and order some take-​out for the family. So I’m very familiar with their food.
We eat there more often now because they’ve expanded next door and it’s not a cramped atmosphere anymore. They even occasionally have a musician/​singer on the weekends. He was so loud the first time we encountered him. We’ve done take-​out since if he’s there. Not disparaging his musical skills; just saying that he was too loud! At least it wasn’t a whole mariachi band blasting their trumpets in your face. But still, I find it hard to enjoy eating with loud music in your ears.
Over the years, we’ve gone through most of their menu and can say that we’ve always been happy with their food. The prices are moderate. Another plus is their tortilla chip/​salsa bar. I love their salsas!

I had probably passed by this place a million times without even noticing it. It’s down the street from my high school and didn’t even stop in once. Ahhh, all those times wasted.
After reading the reviews on this place, I had to try it out. I just finished dropping off a package at the postal office and remembered Abbi C.‘s review. I ordered the Huevos Rancheros to go. While waiting I got some salsa from the salsa bar and watched power puff girls in Spanish. Abbi’s review of that dish was spot on! The sauce was really delicious. And adding some of their salsa just gave it a nice kick. Good food, cheap prices, I’m an instant fan of Zarape’s!