Los Caporales Taqueria — Restaurant in Livermore

Most disappointing tacos I've ever had. My first (and last) visit.

I love discovering "hidden gems." Tacos are my "litmus test" for taqueria, and it's always been worth the $10 risk.

It was mid afternoon, mid-week. Place was empty except a couple at a 4-top and a person waiting for to-go at the other 4-top as the woman at the register waited silently for my order.

Prices for tacos were listed on the wall menu at $3-5. Entrees, and many of the "super" burritos were $20+. The images looked appealing. House-made fountain beverages were listed, but the fountain area was unappealing as I walked by, so I looked to the selection of sealed bottled beverages behind the counter.

I ordered 2 tacos, one each of carne asada, grilled chicken, and a small Jarritos (because they didn't have small bottles of real Coca-Cola).

The woman at the register asked if I wanted all the toppings on my tacos and I replied an enthusiastic yes, and avocado and pico please.

I had an assignment to edit and had planned to do it as I ate. Unfortunately there were only (very tiny wobbly) tables available barely big enough for a plate, beverage, and the small bottle of Tapatillo next to the napkin dispenser, and it was too cold to sit at a larger table outside overlooking Railroad Ave and the strip mall parking lot, so I set down my soda on a ‘wobbler, and headed for the salsa bar in the corner.

I heard a spatula flipping something on the grill as I chose my levels of heat, a couple of lime wedges, pickled carrot/jalapeno, and raw radish slices after trying a (stale unsalted) chip and deciding against more. (There was no cilantro or pico).

It was just after 3 pm. I took a good hard look around as I headed to my tiny table. The salsa bar, fountain area, windows and walls looked like there were years of greasy buildup. The entire place was filthy, including the tables, chairs, self serve areas, and the restroom where I’d opted to wash my hands was the same.

I was wiping my table with some napkins when the woman at the register put my plate on the table about 4 minutes after I’d placed the order. I complemented her on the quick timing. No reply.

The tacos looked appealing, covered in green salsa, raw onion, and what I thought was cilantro...that turned out to be chopped parsley. The avo and pico I’d asked for were missing.

The tortillas underneath were cold like they were right out of a bag. Both sets of small meat cubes were unseasoned (not even salt), tasted like pure fat, and were so tough and full of gristle they couldn't be chewed. The green salsa on top was very bland so I tried adding salsas from the bar to amp up the flavor but each of those tasted like they were from a can as well, so I reached for the Tapatillo, and that also couldn't hide the fatty lard taste and awful texture of the plain meat (?) that was more like trimming scraps to be thrown away than what anyone would serve paying customers.

I cook at home and have enjoyed hundreds of street tacos out. I know what they should taste like. These were an insult.

I couldn't force myself to get through half of what was on my plate and spit my last bite into a napkin I put in the trash as I left.

I looked closely at my receipt later, as my digestive system confirmed I’d made a huge mistake. The 2 tacos came in under $10 as expected, but the total bill was just under $16 (plus the tip I’d left in the jar on the counter for a total of just under $20). There were seperate charges for the missing avo and pico, and my single (small) bottle of Jarritos was as much as an entire 4-pack at Grocery Outlet next door 😡

I want to support “local” but I could have eaten a far better meal at competing cheap taco chain that was far cleaner for less $$...and avoided the digestive upset I experienced later.

I'm surprised this place is even open based on my experience, and am left wondering if the health inspector is a family member, because there's no way this place would...

I truly wish there was a way of giving negative stars and warning the public. I'm Salvadoran and grew up on pupusas. I've eaten them all over the bay area. My husband works nearby and asked if we might want to try some here for dinner. He placed the order for a pick up hours from then. I've never in my life paid more than $3.50 for one single pupusa. This establishment charged him $6 plus tax per pupusa although there is not one place within the business that states the price per pupusa anywhere and I know with certainty that my neighbors were charged much less at the same place. I contacted the restaurant within 15 min of him placing the order to cancel as soon as he told me the cost at which time I was told that they could not refund him over the phone. 4 hours later after work he comes in for the refund and they REFUSE!! They stated they had already made 16 fresh pupusas within the 15 min from him placing the order and me canceling and were just going to let them sit there for hours and hours until the scheduled pick up time. He left with no pupusas and no refund. I'm so disappointed that a business would do this to a family and that they would take full advantage of him being unaware of what the cost of a pupusa should be even at the most highly regarded pupusa restaurants. This business should be ashamed of themselves and now we are left to take the time to dispute charges with our credit card. Customers beware please. I would never want this to happen to...

Food is very good, atmosphere is decent, has a private area in the back, not good service though. On one occasion I ordered the molcajete to go, but it was very little, it usually was larger than that so we called the restaurant, we asked to speak to the manager, and they passed us to the chef, we were trying to be nice and understanding, but the chef was kind of rude, he told us that if we didn't like the quantity we could order elsewhere next time, we then tried to tell them if we could speak with the owner but the chef told us that he was the owner. One of the family members got mad so they went into the store, they came back 20 minutes later and they gave us a molcajete as a sorry, on another occasion, we called to order but we got put in line because the lady said that we needed to wait for her to take everyone's order that was in line, we waited in the call for 20 minutes, so we decided to drive there, when we got there the lady had forgotten we were...