A Fat, Meaty Slab o' Love
Written: Dec 01 '00 (Updated Dec 01 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Incredible beans; The biggest burritos you'll get in S.F.
Cons: Uninspired Decor
|
|
|
| Mr.Eyore's Full Review: Taqueria San Jose |
Taqueria San Jose is the second best two taquerias in the entire San Francisco Mission District.
What?
It's the second best two. You see, Taqueria San Jose is really two different taquerias, both of them right across the street from one another, on Mission between 24th and 25th – the heart of the nasty section of the Mission. And it's awesome. But there's another taqueria in the Mission that's really two taquerias – Pancho Villa's – that's (that are) better. But not by much. And I'll get to Pancho's another time.
What San Jose does well is make unbelievably guyjantic, big-as-yer-head, finish-it-in-the-morning, I-shouldn't-have-eaten-so-much burritos. But if that's all they did, I might only give them 3 stars. They also stuff their burritos with deliciousness. And it's not even the type of deliciousness I normally like. I'm a carne asada and black beans kind of guy. But there's so much love in San Jose's pinto beans I just can't resist them. Worse, the nasty lookin' slab ‘o carnitas behind the counter at the west side restaurant always makes me forget that it's the carne asada I came in for.
I can't figure out what it is. How does one place make a big pinto beans carnitas super burrito and it's, you know, fine, then another place makes the same thing and it just knocks your sombrero off? It's the same damned stuff, right? Tortilla, meat, beans, guac, sour cream, cheese, salsa. It's gotta be the love. San Jose just puts love into their burritos.
They also put lots of meat and not too much rice. The rice they do put in is not that awful, overcooked, no flavor having rice you'll get at a lot of places. It adds, rather than takes away, from the burrito as a whole. If you're not a carnitas fan, the carne asada and the chicken and the fish are all perfectly good also. You can get any of these for only around four bucks. A veggie burrito is less, and Pookie says they're really good (but I can't swear that their beans conform to vegan demands).
One of the other great things about San Jose is that their tacos are actually tacos. At a lot of places in San Francisco, when you order a taco, you get a burrito resting on two really small tortillas. It's impossible to eat without a fork. And that's fine, I guess. I respect the fact that they give you a lot of product at a taco price. But when I order a taco, it's because I just want something to nosh on in the car. It's impossible to eat a non-San Jose (or, um, Taco Bell) soft taco while driving. San Jose's taco's are perfectly filling, soft little folded pieces of goodness — at like, a buck-something.
Finally, San Jose serves just about anything you could think of serving at a taqueria, from shrimp cocktail to menudo to ceviche to fat tortas. They have a wall of pictures of every plate, platter and side dish you can order (around 60 of them) and I don't think a single thing up there costs more than $8.00.
There are a few downsides to Taqueria San Jose. First, they have a really weak selection of salsas. In the west side restaurant, there are two little tubs of salsa (mild tomato, onion and cilantro, and medium tomatillo), and on each table is a little squeeze bottle of tomatillo salsa. At the east side restaurant there are several tubs of salsas and pickled carrots and the like, along with some onions and cilantro and other toppings. But none of them look too fresh, and none of them are all that tasty. Since I really love to smother my Mexican food in salsa, the fact that I love San Jose's burrito's even without the sauce speaks volumes about how good these things are ... at least to me.
Both restaurants are fairly lacking in character. They are both clean and bright inside, with pretty standard formica tables and cafeteria chairs. But compared with a place like La Cumbre, or even Pancho Villas, neither San Jose is the sort of place you're really eager to hang out in. Given it's proximity to the Mission & 24th BART station, where late night miscreants frequently congregate and sell drugs, a lot of people aren't going to want to hang out anywhere in the area anyway.
Both restaurants are staffed well, and your wait for food is bound to be minimal. The folks taking orders are efficient and friendly, and in about 20 visits so far, have yet to make a mistake in my order.
If you're in a hurry (they're much faster than Pancho's), or it's late at night (they now appear to be open till 3:00 on weekend nights), I can't provide a better taqueria recommendation than San Jose.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Mr.Eyore
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Reviews written: 129
Trusted by: 299 members
About Me:
I come for the pervasive sense of elitist self-importance and semi-witty expressions of faux camaraderie
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.