City Tacos — Restaurant in San Diego

City Tacos on University Ave in North Park is a taco shop in the purest way, as they offer only one type of food item: tacos.

The "Callo con Rajas Taco" is stuffed with plump sautéed bay scallops, juiced with a cayenne pepper cream sauce, topped with leeks, pasilla chilies, and bacon bits, served on a sturdy homemade flour tortilla. This has a perfect amount of heat, and the restrained usage of bacon as the GENIUS ingredient to this taco that puts it over the top. I'm not a "rah-rah" bacon guy, but the bacon really helps here. El Zarape's scallop taco is the closest I've had in this city to this level of quality. Theirs is a great scallop taco, but not as nuanced as this. City Tacos' Callo con Rajas may be in the top 2 or 3 of all tacos I've had in San Diego.

City Taco's vegetarian "Chile Relleno Taco" features a beer-battered chili pepper with melted oaxaco cheese, cotija cheese, and pico de gallo on a flour tortilla. This was the first taco I had from City Tacos, and it was love at first bite. The flour tortillas here are tasty and have a nice, firm texture. More impressively, this taco avoids being a gooey mess, it is a precisely-engineered taco with clean, distinct flavors.

Their "Mahi Al Adobe Taco" is a nicely grilled mahi-mahi fillet that absorbs a smoky, spicy avocado cream sauce and is topped with mango habañero salsa. Any taco that can effectively combine sweet, smoky, spicy, and savory like this one is worth having, and if it is in City Tacos' heavenly flour tortilla, it will be extra special.

Finally, the "Chroizo Asado Taco" delivers a sloppy amount of delicious chorizo with caramelized pineapple over melted oaxaca cheese on a corn tortilla. The pineapple is not very sweet, which is awesome. Its minimally intrusive presence is just enough to cut through the spicy and heavy flavors of the chorizo. This taco uses a corn tortilla, which is needed to deal with the heft and grease of the sausage.

These are not regular tacos, these are tacos with soul, conceived and served by people who are fanatical about tacos and dedicated to introducing a new style of tacos to San Diego for people who enjoy craft and subtlety...

My stop #2 in San Diego to inhale as many tacos before heading back to Toronto. And this place did not disappoint.

I came here on a random Wednesday lunch and didnt have to wait at all to put in an order. Though it does have a few patio seating, it has more seating indoors. I often wondered why every picture on yelp for City Tacos looked like it was taken in the dark... well, it is small and dark inside. Fairly clean and not a lot of light but that didnt matter to me as I had their tacos and horchata to sink my teeth into.

Service here is pretty quick as we got our order and then tacos only 5+ minutes later. The staff taking my order was helpful in deciding which ones I wanted. I had to get the baja fish (mandatory if Im in SD!) and their portabello because the gentlemen said it was the best veggie one.

Baja Fish Taco - Ohhhhhh this was good. The batter was light, crispy, and hot. Great crunch as it gave way to the tender white fish inside. I found this to be the most flavourful Baja I tried on my trip as it had pickled onions, fresh cabbage, haberno chilies (I didnt die from this!) and chipotle cream sauce. I would have even said bring on more heat! It was pretty mild. Just loved this 4.5/5

Portabello Taco - A nice juicy vegetarian taco. I would say my favourite still was at Puesto but this one is in the running for top fav veggie one. I like how it had sweet corn, soft black beans, and a few other fresh vegetables. Not a lot of heat or spice this one so if you're not liking chillis, great option. 4/5

Horchata - This was a truer version of the horchata.... light, refreshing, with a good kick of cinnamon. This had much less sugar than the version at Puesto and I much prefer it this way. 4/5

It's a small place but it gives big flavour on the tacos. I liked it and there's so much more to try if I were to come back here. It is not super conveniently close to gaslamp where I stayed but definitely worth the drive from my time spent in...

The first time I came here I wasn't that hungry but a friend kept raving about it so that's where we ended up for dinner. The boyfriend ordered two pulled lamb tacos. I just ordered the michelada (spicy beer) since I've always wanted to try it. I'm not a huge fan of lamb but took a bite of the taco (I only wanted one bite). Then I took another bite. My boyfriend looks at me and says "you might as well finish it". So needless to say...it was pretty darn good! This isn't your local hole in the wall taco place. It's more on the gourmet/creative side. Even though they put interesting ingredients in the taco the flavors all work very well together. No need to put additional sauce on it. The michelada was whatevers. I guess I'm not into spicy beer.

I came here again with different friends a second time and ordered the El Especial (various seafood) and Borrego (scallops). Again, amazingly delicious! Btw, I can never say no to seafood tacos. My friend all ordered something different but they were also very impressed with the food. The tacos aren't very big but they put a good amount of stuff in it so I was satisfied with just two. I could eat 3 but then I would be way too stuffed! Also, they have jicama at the sauce bar which I like. Add lime + tajin seasoning + jicama = NOM.

Other notes: very small place, reasonable price ($3.50 per taco), friendly staff, slightly slow service, and indoor and outdoor seating. Overall, love the food. Will definitely be...