Calafia Taqueria — Restaurant in Alameda

I finally gave Calafia a second try, after having them give or six years ago and being totally underwhelmed. Unfortunately they are still operating at the same caliber and I won't be returning again.

I typically leave the island to get Mexican cuisine as I want OG seasoned food, not tamed down for American tastes. I went in close to 8pm on a Saturday to grab a carne asada super burrito, only to be told they were out of that meat. Really? One of the most popular proteins, and you're out of it, on a Saturday night? Wow, ok. I switch gears and go for lengua, thinking it'll be a tasty second choice. There was one dude eating indoors and the kitchen was quiet- bad indications of slow business. I didn't see anything behind done after I put in my order and paid, and it was perplexing. After perusing their salsa bar and deciding on what to try, about 8 minutes later a woman comes out of the kitchen with my tortilla and fills it with meat, beans, cheese, guacamole and sour cream, all items from the steam table to the left of the cash register.

What took so long? What was happening for almost 10 min in the back of that quiet kitchen, when all the ingredients to fill my burrito were up front? Does it take that long to steam a flour tortilla up to make it pliable?

When I got home I looked at the measly packet of tortilla chips they gave me. I laid them out on my plate- 11 broken chips. Not even one chip per bite of burrito! The only thing they were generous with, was the salsa bar. I'll get to the salsa in a sec. The burrito was so plain and flavorless, the lengua was waterlogged and did not have ANY hint of seasonings or spices. I've made poached chicken with more flavor- so sad. I paid over $15 for a burrito that was so disappointing.

The salsas were the only redeeming thing, but even that came to haunt me. I tried the light, medium, and green salsas and they were all at tolerable heat levels (I knew better than to touch the dark one!) but the next day when I went to get the other half out of the fridge, the darker red salad container was bulging and full of gas like it was fermenting.

I'm not usually afraid of fermentation, it's not MOLD. But this gave me a little hesitation. I decided to go ahead and eat it anyway, as the burrito was so plain- I ended up adding some TJs sweet & hot jalapeños to give it some dimension.

Unfortunately, the next few days my gut has been rocked by their food and I'm never returning again. Not sure if it was the lengua that had probably been sitting there at the steam table for FAR too long, or the fermenting salsa, but the fact that my stomach has been messed up for two days is enough to say I'm driving an extra 1.5 miles to get food in East Oakland that has never given me...

The last time I went here on May 16th, 2022. I would come here constantly when I was younger, but haven’t tried this place in years. It seems to have gone downhill. I ordered and paid online around 6:20 and came in about 7 to pick up my order. The cashier gave me the run around because my order didn’t print out of their receipt machine, something I as a customer have absolutely no control over. She persisted that they were not going to make my order unless it printed out of the machine. My friend and I argued with her in English and Spanish for about 5 minutes until we asked to speak to her boss. He came out of the back and checked their online ordering app on the store iPad and confirmed that my order was there and they had checked it in already but there was no order made or given out. It seems like she was waiting for us to accept that she didn’t see our order and just leave empty handed. It was $33 for a super burrito, a small burrito, a cheese quesadilla, and 2 drinks. Not cheap and wasn’t worth the money or effort we had to put in to get our food. I wanted a refund, but they made the order instead and it was worse than subpar. Only positive I can give is that it was warm, not even hot. The carne tasted like chicken; my bean, cheese, rice, add sour cream burrito was missing rice; said burrito was sloppy, soaking wet and burnt tortilla, fell apart when I tried to pick it up (which seems like it was on purpose considering we gave the cashier a hard time about not bothering to find our order), and the chips taste like old oil. You will be better off ordering from the ‘Mexican’ fast food location down the street that doesn’t wear gloves. Never coming here again. So sad because the inside of the place is beautiful and spacious! Hopefully they get back to how they were a few years ago; who knows maybe the tamales...

I saw the owner of this place at a wholesaler. I saw he had packed his platform cart with a whole bunch of halal meats and I got super excited thinking this man has a halal restaurant. I proceeded to notice he had refried beans and other foods that are served at Mexican restaurants. I took a closer look at the refried beans to see if they had lard and they had none. I approached the owner and verified if he indeed had a halal Mexican restaurant and he confirmed. He gave me the restaurant info and even recommended a halal Mexican place closer to my home. I felt that was very nice of him. Normally you don't send potential customers to other restaurants but he was very nice. I checked the reviews that evening and they all looked great. We finally made it out tonight.

The place was nice with a lot of seating. The food tasted amazing and service was excellent. We ordered soft tacos: beef, chicken and fish all three were super amazing. The seasoned the meat just right. Beef Tamales were bomb. I was super excited to try the enchiladas however was disappointed because I did not like the red sauce. In the restaurant's defense, I have always had white washed/Taco Bell Mexican food so I was expecting taco bell style red sauce. This sauce was authentic and I am sure it is wonderful but just not what I was expecting.

Before leaving we were asked about our experience and I gave feedback. I was impressed that they cared enough to ask and they made suggestions as well. We left very happy and I was expecting our bill to be way higher and to my surprise it was not and was very reasonable. Will be coming...