Taqueria 2 Potrillos — Restaurant in Riverside

This place has potential. Cafeteria system works great if order flow is improved. Unfortunately bottle neck is right at the beginning when ordering. However they move on it quick so this is more a logical issue than quality of work or service attitude which imo was top notch.

I ordered a tacos Al Pastor plate and my wife went with Chicken. The food looked surprising however the flavor was lacking. Pineapple component to an Al Pastor was well represented, better than most I've tasted, but the lack of that classic combination of guajillo chili, cumin and garlic was missing. Even the salt level was subdued so you didn't get that salty sweet impact when you bit into the taco.

The chicken was also bland. I'd at least expect a little onion or garlic powder and salt let alone some roasted Pasilla or Anaheim chili to elevated the poultry.

The big win was the agua fresca. An entire bar of options. This was well done and spot on. I chose Jamaica and my wife ordered the pumpkin spiced Horchata (she's big on both Horchata as well as the fall pumpkin season).

We also ordered chips and salsa which came in packs vs being fresh. This was a "meh" given that the chips had become stale.

Finally the atmosphere has a stylish cafeteria spread that is popular in the restaurant industry these days. There was outdoor seating as well.

The music was too loud. A mistake made way too often these days. The type of music along with the volume is too aggressive even if intentionally done to rush guest into eating more quickly.

Given the number of orders on the go it isn't necessary to try and chase table campers out the door.

Also it isn't important for the workers to listen to "their" music at a volume that clears the noise of the kitchen thus blasting the guests.

So spice and season up the meats a bit, turn down the volume, change the aggressiveness of the music about and finally set up a second grill to speed up the a la minute orders to improve line flow and you're a five...

5 Stars all the way around! Well maybe Cali locals have better places I'm sure BUUUT this was just a last minute thing after helping my Boyfriends mother and being in the area..I had ordered an Al Pastor Quesadilla and it was so delicious..as I was in line watching the Quesadilla being made; the lady (who's name I'm sure everyone would remember lol) Selena was making the tortillas and hand me one.The warmness from the tortilla was just everything! I didn't order a drink as I had my water so the drink I honestly am unsure of the taste but they did look very refreshing 😀.. The Quesadilla on the other hand 🤤 BOMB so good i couldn't eat it all because I purposely wanted to have some for later at home (which is Nevada) .AND if you a big with salsa and love it being spicy o definitely recommend the red ,, I usually go for green but this time I changed it up and tried red salsa and that was my favorite I'm from New Mexico so i LOVE anything spicy and this definitely brought that Nuevo Mexico feeling to my taste buds ...Kinda wish Nevada had one of these considering most places out here (no disrespect) have that white chili ; No flavor,No spicyness ...But if you are in this area OR by a Taqueria 2 Portillos make sure you take 20 mins off your time...

3 star explanation: opportunities for improvement due to heavy traffic. They only have two registers and when it's busy they need twice as many registers. They need more staff to keep the restaurant clean. They don't offer fountain drinks but they do offer bottle and can soda drinks. Service line is slow because they only have 2 cooks and, as previously mentioned, and only two registers. Unfortunately, due to its popularity, parking is severely limited. Now the good: the food is fantastic with a great veriety of tacos, tortas, burritos, mulas and sopes (think a taco on an English muffin). Many different meats to choose. Cheesecake and other desserts are available. Several Aguas frescas, natural fruit drinks, to choose from and they are made fresh throughout the day. Fresh guacamole, although it's made with too much lime, because you can't taste the actual avocado. Once they get that figured out, I'm sure it will be great like everything else. They also have a great salsa bar with a variety of fresh toppings. This place is great but I'm going to wait until the crowds die down before returning again. Protrillos is a great addition to Riverside. Try it, I'm sure you won't be...