El Favorito Taqueria — Restaurant in California

I found myself back in the suburbs of upper north El Dorado Hills. I was with a group of hungry peeps. We wanted something yummy, moderately priced, casual counter service, plentiful & easy accessible parking and large enough to comfortably accommodate eight of us. El Favorito Taqueria hit the mark. I have dined here before.

On my last visit, the service was friendly. The cashier was super helpful. Our orders came out fairly quickly and close together. So no awkward moment of waiting for that one last order. I ordered the steak rancho plate with flour tortillas. I debated between that and the carne asada plate. The cashier explained the difference. The steak rancho is the asada sliced with jalapeños, tomatoes, and onions while the asada was unsliced pieces served without any vegetables. The steak rancho was tasty. They weren't kidding about the jalapeños... there were lots of 'em. But the asada slices were a hodgepodge of sizing. Lots of tiny chopped pieces more suitable for a taco than a plate setting. Those were placed on the bottom and more suitable for spoon scooping than using a fork to eat. Other items that I have had here is the menudo, which they serve with crispy tostado shells; and asada tacos. This food is ok.

The complimentary chips are self serve. They were light and crisp. But not too thin to fall apart after biting into them. Darn good chip! The salsa bar had quite a few options. I was absolutely digging the sliced cucumber and red onions seasoned either tajin. Salty, lime, and mild chile pepper flavors. Yum. Plus that red salsa ... fill 'er up, that's...

Between the 4 different orders we got was 2 different type of tacos along with a super burrito and a tostada. They were getting out the food at an amazing speed until I looked in the back through the serving hatch and realized they microwave to heat up almost all the meat. Sadly the meat was not the only thing and included the fish, which was also heated up in the microwave which were for the two different tacos we ordered. Next to the cook I saw what seemed to be a manager next to him talking to him and drinking some sort of canned beverage right in the kitchen. Along with all of that the fish tacos which I ordered might as well have been called a salad with a side of some underwhelming fish. Seeing the taco reminded of the Lazy Dog restaurant when they first opened which they would pile up with carrots but instead it was shredded lettuce for this place. The fish which I ordered which I mentioned before was underwhelming, I couldn't find any seasoning of any sort on the fish not even pepper and if it did have flavor it was lost when the fish was reheated from it's frozen state. Overall if you want to pay 3.50 for a mediocre fish taco this is the place. The only thing that made this a 2 star is the fact the lady at the register...

Ordered through door dash so can't attest to service or atmosphere. I rarely do negative reviews but the food was so terrible and after looking at other reviews decided to add mine. I was craving some good Mexican food and it's my fault for not reading the review first. The food was so bland and absolutely not authentic at all. The guac is frozen puree and almost no flavor, the tortillas for the quesadilla are cheap grocery store quality and also no flavor in the quesadilla. The nachos were same quality and bland as well. I get better Mexican food at Lazy Dog or The Cheesecake Factory. Seems like it was made quickly so maybe if you want fast food service but don't care about quality Mexican food you might go there. I don't eat taco bell but you would probably do better from Taco bell and it would be cheaper too. Wasn't really over priced but it was definitely unedible. I took three bites of each and threw the rest out....