Su Pan Bakery El Cajon — Restaurant in San Diego

This bakery in City Heights is one of two locations associated with Su Pan Bakery, the other one is up in San Marcos. I will not be reviewing Su Pan Bakery's Mexican breads, cakes, and pastries, many of which looked tasty, and some of which I sampled -- and I'm instead going to focus on their tacos.

Wait... tacos?! Yes, in the evenings, a taco stand is setup outside of Su Pan Bakery with its open-air grill pouring smoke and delicious aromas of sizzling meat into the neighborhood.

Their taco stand serves small street-style tacos that are similar to what is more common up in Los Angeles or down in Tijuana, a significantly different style than what you'll find at the banal X-berto's-style taco shops that dominate San Diego. The tortillas are small, but doubled-up and dipped in rendered lard before being warmed on the grill and then stuffed with meat. You are then responsible for dressing your taco, and I advise sticking with the classic toppings available within the bakery itself: onions, cilantro, and a salsa. The salsa roja in there is decent, has good body and heat, whereas the salsa verde is watery and weak. The creamy salsa de aguacate available outside at the taco stand is solid, though not at all spicy.

My favorite taco here is their "Cabeza Taco." Cabeza meat is extracted from the head of the cow. It is often a mixture of cheeks (cachete), lips (labio), and sometimes tongue (lengua) or even eyes (ojos). Typically, the cow head is slowly roasted until the flavorful meat is soft enough to be picked off. Here, the meat is put on the plancha to heat up and finish before being served in a tortilla. It was soft, rich, moist, with some texturally-diverse pieces, and all of it undeniably very beefy.

When asked which of his tacos is his best, the taquero operating the stand quickly answered "Carne Asada." I found this to be surprising in retrospect, because his cabeza taco is much better. Nonetheless it's not a BAD "Carne Asada Taco" - it's just that I have had this one before, and I have had it everywhere in fact. Half the taco shops in San Diego have a better "Carne Asada Taco," and half of them don't. I recommend you stick with the beef tacos rather than go with the "Al Pastor Taco," which was sweet, touched with autumn spice, but uninspiring. There was no trompo here, and I've yet to find any taquero capable of serving al pastor without a trompo that are at parity with al pastor freshly carved off of one.

Please be aware that the stand is setup at around 5pm, but they won't be ready to serve tacos until around 6pm. Plan...

If I'm going to pay 30 something dollars for a tres leches mocha cake then I EXPECT a tres leches mocha cake. Not a flan flavor cake, although it was good and I'll give you guys two stars for it but it wasn't mocha. Now if I wanted a tres leches cake WITHOUT mocha then I would of bought a tres leches cake from El Super which is cheaper (less than $30) and it's good. I'm very disappointed because that cake was meant for someone very special to me who's not going to be celebrating his birthday here with his family and the comfort of his home and that tres leches mocha cake is his favorite and it was going to be his surprise for his early birthday before he goes to sea. Now if the problem was because it was a last minute order, I ordered the day before I picked it up you guys could of told me and I would of understand. Lesson learned check your product before you leave. I should of known it wasn't my tres leches mocha cake because the frosting was white and when it's a mocha cake the frosting should have a...

So I have been to the location in San Marcos and was so excited to learn of this location while in San Diego. The whole family loves the Pan and Bolillos. The Puerquitos are perfectly shaped and moist. The Oreja are light & flaky and even the Mantecada have a sugar crust that give it a slight crunch. Also love the cream cheese Danish with jelly, the best for breakfast or even a night delight with a cafecito. Also finally got to try one of their Tortas, the chipotle sauce was the kind of hot that made your mouth burn with each bite. I got the Hawaiian, and the sweet pineapple was complimenting the fiery sauce. The neighborhood was a little dodgy yet you usually find gems like this place here. Also they had a taco truck parked in front of their shop so more food options. We will always stop here when coming down to SD to get our...