El Rodeo Taco Shop

Great food and service! Even their menudo is great!(which is hard to find)…a hidden gem.

The food is fresh, the people who work here are great! House salsa for the chips is highly recommended! I had a surf & turf burrito and it was so big I had to take it home for later. I have been coming here for years. Taco Tuesdays here ain’t just for fish tacos… they serve carnitas, carne asada and chicken street tacos that are amazing!!! Honest! I need to go on a diet now cause of these guys lol

I’ve been here literally hundreds of times over the years.
Great owners and employees, great food and very reasonably priced.
Highly recommended.

This is a really great taco shop, and by far the best in Allied Gardens, or up the hill in Del Cerro/​San Carlos. Authentic Baja style food. Great carne asada, rolled tacos, crunchy beef tacos, chicken burritos. Good quality meats in general (and I’m really picky about this), good tortillas, very sweet owner and his family. Try it out you will not be disappointed.

Excellent food, good service with good parking. I highly recommend the beef taco, huge, delicious. Also, the cheese enchilada combo and my wife suggests the bean and cheese burritos. Table for two inside, very nice. A special menu for kids with modest servings and prices. We got to watch a little TV while waiting just a few minutes for out take out. Very nice people. Highly recommended.

I started coming here when the place across the street changed their meat for their enchiladas. I’ve been hooked ever since. Tuesday Tacos are a mainstay at mi Casa and they do it well. OK, not a big fan of their fish tacos but the carnitas, carne asada, and pollo adada are authentic street tacos.
If you dine in they give you fresh chips and salsa superior. Though I generally take out I get their so I have to wait, so I can eat their chips, so I can have the special salsa that makes my eyes water just a bit.
Back to the enchiladas. Ground beef! That’s all I’m saying. Don’t like the strewed beef that they do across the way. OK that’s all I’m saying.
Family owned and ran. Always pleasant always good.
¡Bravo!

These guys continue to put out good quality food with great customer service.

We pick up their $ 1 Taco Tuesday street tacos. We love them! Not only does it make dinner easy for us each week, but the flavor of the food is delicious. We mainly stick with the carne and the carnitas. I have also eaten their carne asada burritos. .. also very good.
The employees are always hard at work, yet very cordial upon taking/​delivering your order.

My biggest complaint about carne asada burritos is the quality of meat that is used. Los Panchos is hit and miss and most of the taco shops I’ve been to use grisly meat. El Rodeo is the only taco shop in my area that consistently meets a higher standard of quality than their competition. The carne asada has never once been grisly, and their chips have always been crispy and not too greasy. If you are looking for a quick and great quality meal, this taco shop is definitely the best in the area.

Your classic San Diego neighborhood taco shop. Nothing extraordinary but everything is good and the service is good. They do have decent hot sauce their Bavarian cream filled churros are quite good. Definitely worth your money and better than most in the area, but not worth a drive from far away like Nicos in OB or Las Cuatro Milpas.

This little taco shop has good food at reasonable prices. Rigo, the owner is courteous and service-​oriented. The Soups are delicious, free chips and salsa are worthwhile. Many of the items are made by or use Rigo’s wife’s recipes. This is consistently good food at reasonable prices.

One of my favorite Mexican food spots in SD. Nothing fancy, just good food, good service, at a very good price. Staff is extremely friendly, making you feel like they’ve known you for years.
Highly recommend.

The owner is incredibly kind, we came for taco Tuesday and our expectations were definitely met! The chips and salsa was perfect and the food looks delicious!

The chicken flautas are my go to ! They have the best bang for your buck.
I get rice and guac for a decent prize along with my mexican coke.
The employees are always so nice, and helpful, they even offer chips and dips while you wait for your food.

This place is so much better than the place across the street.
They are consistent, tasty, and a good value.
We quit Los Panchos, and made this a part of the regular rotation.
At least once a week, we drive past the bad place, and hit El Rodeo.

I offered to buy my dad lunch after he picked me up at the airport and I found this spot via Unilocal on the ride home. So glad we stopped in! The food is delicious and the family that runs the place so friendly and nice!
I had a two item combo with rice and beans. The beef taco was filled with shredded, tender meat that was packed with flavor, must have been marinaded and slow cooked. The chicken in the enchilada was the same way, and the red sauce complex and smoky. Rice and beans were great as well, and those red salsa clearly homemade. Dad powered through his chili relleno plate, the batter dipped fried chili stuffed with cheese and smothered with sauce.
The above with two drinks came to a little over $ 14, truly a bargain and a great value given the high quality of the fare!!!

This is a family owned business and Rigo (the owner) is the best! He is very friendly and his family makes great tasting food. Check them out if you’re in the area!
FOOD
— Bunuelos (aka Cinnamon Torilla Chips): You won’t find this listed on their menu, but you will find these sweet treats (if I haven’t grabbed the last bag) to the right of the cash register on the counter top. It appears they make them daily as every time I’ve bought a bag it is always warm. These chips are soooo good! Me and my co-​worker are hooked! Be careful, you might end up eating the entire bag all by yourself (I can’t say that I haven’t been close to doing so).
— Carne Asada Fries: Yummy in my tummy! The fries and meat are cooked to perfection and the guacamole is always fresh.

So almost about a year ago was the last time I visited this place, I figured maybe some things have changed around with it since my last visit. A couple of other reviewers have left some favorable reviews, so maybe it was time to update my review? The menu hasn’t changed here since my last venture. It’s still quite small and doesn’t really sport much variety compared to other places. When I came this time the place was jumping with people and even though it was busy, they got my order out very quickly. Also the guy at the front had no issue with dumping a grip load of hot sauce into my bag. They have three different types of hot sauces here, a salsa verde, red, and hot habanero sauce. My favorite was the red (
) even though it wasn’t as spicy as the habanero, it had just the perfect flavor to add to the food.
At the suggestion from other Unilocalers, I decided on some rolled tacos here, they come in sets of 3 and 5. The 5 rolled tacos with everything (
) included guacamole, lettuce, and sour cream on top. From the picture you can tell they pile on the sour cream here, so warning if you don’t really care for sour cream. The rolled tacos were actually quite damn good, nice and crispy full with slow cooked meat. I also liked that they didn’t taste too greasy from coming out of the fryer but still were very crispy. The toppings were quite refreshing and went great with their red sauce. They make alright rolled tacos here, the only thing I would change is to add some pico de gallo to the top of them.
I also ordered a pollo asado taco (
) on the side to give their chicken a tasting. The taco wasn’t quite as large as I am use to, as other taco shops have larger soft tacos. They had some good tasting pollo asado here, it was definitely marinated well with seasoning. While I applaud the large amount of guacamole on top, I would definitely add some more onions and cilantro to them.
This time with El Rodeo, I quite enjoyed their tacos a lot more than I did their burritos last time. Some places do better at things than others. El Rodeo has good customer service, decent sauce and tasty tacos. I’m going to give them another three stars just because I wasn’t too wowed by their efforts, they still remain an alright but not great taco shop in my book.

The rolled tacos here are pretty darn GREAT! guess what? They are homemade homie!
I’m hoping Joseph Y. (mesican food effectionato dude) visits the El Rodeo again– as I read the owners changed, then changed back.
I am planning to go back to get the whole Rodeo Drive through the menu.
My rule of thumb for Mexican food for top ratings is;
–real avo smash
–creative salsas, made in-​house
–carne asada, virtually fat chunk free, but a little grease is fine
–bonus items: homemade chile rellano, rolled tacos
And beans that have a deep color (lack of fat content)
I’ll be back. Great customer service, super sweet cook and check out guy.

This little hidden taco shop was a hit for me. The area ain’t that great there’s a dirty little bar next door. But don’t mine that just go in this shop. First the service was great. The young man serving us was very polite to every customer that came in. And he was very attentive to us & asked if we were ok twice. The prices are very affordable & inside is clean.
Now the food, everything they made was fresh. The roll tacos were very good. I had tacos De Lengua & it was good as well. The taco De Adobada was nice & tender & good as well. I took a Torta De Malenesa & it was very big & filling. The beans were not great so next time I’ll ask without beans but it was still good. No salsa bar tho which is ok with me cuz they give you a bottle or pre packed cups already to go. Some people might not like that but I’m ok with that. Having no bathroom is a problem tho, especially when you got kids. But hey just take your order to go & you’ll be ok.
I really like this place & I recommend you come here instead of Los Panchos across the street. The food here is much better & fresher & the customer service is great. It’s a little hole in the wall Taco Shop but sometimes those are the best ones. And this one is one of them. I would come here again totally worth it.