Tacos El Patron — Restaurant in San Francisco

Delicious tacos and a cozy interior.

This restaurant has mostly small tables and two big ones with benches. There is no restroom or WiFi. The prices here are actually slightly lower than nearby restaurants selling similar food. Also, it's well known and is praised by food writers.

I ordered two tacos for dine-in, one was al pastor and the other was de lengua. My total after tax was $9.42 and I paid with a mobile wallet. I got salsa and chips for free and helped myself to the free water. My food was brought out about three minutes after I ordered. Both tacos were phenomenal, with juicy, tender, and flavorful meats on top of a single, thick tortilla. I feel like the fillings were slightly better than similar places, but the single tortilla was what made the taco better. They were sturdy, but soft, and added a little chewiness to the taco instead of just being a place for the fillings to sit. I don't know exactly how to describe it. They were objectively better than most other tacos. It was like eating correctly-cooked pasta for the first time after only eating overcooked pasta before. There wasn't too much filling and utensils were provided.

To be honest, these were the best tacos I've ever had and I understand why it's on the lists of local food critics. Also, you can leave feeling full for less than $20. When you're done with your meal, there's a public restroom less than a block away if you want to...

I love this place but I feel it’s gone downhill in the past few months, which seems to be echoed by recent reviews on Yelp.

Firstly, online orders take unreasonably long. I had a 45 min wait for a small order. I showed up like 15-20 mins early and in that time, I watched several people walk in, place an order, come outside to wait for like 3-5 minutes, and then their order is ready. So make sure you come here and order and don’t order online.

Secondly, the customer service is getting worse. I still see this woman all the time who wears doc martens, she’s super nice, enthusiastic, and does a great job. Everyone else is eh. They seem very irritated and flat out rude. They forgot my drink for my order and when I told them, they acted very irritated and skeptical of it, and closely examined my bag and receipt for a while like I was lying or something. Seriously?? I don’t appreciate being treated as if I’m trying to rip you guys off when I’m being polite and YOU made the mistake. I understand holding up the business but it’s not like you guys are gonna lose money over giving me an extra soda anyway lmao.. when that’s not even the case at all. So lame and rude.

And lastly, it seems like the quality of the food is a total hit or miss now. It used to always be good, but this last time the meat in the birria tacos was not as flavorful as usual and was very dry. I’ll still keep coming, but you guys gotta do...

Wow, totally blown away by creativity and flavor of everything we tried here, further elevated by the warm hospitality of the staf. We started with some chips and salsa and you can immediately get a sense of the freshness of the ingredients. We asked for more chips and salsa and they quickly replenished our basket and salsa cup. Next up was the shrimp taco patron which was flat out epic: it's perfectly seasoned shrimp in a grilled taco with extra cheese and guacamole, just hella good, son! Best thing l've tasted ina long time. Only problem was was now pretty full between the chips and salsa and the massive taco, so could only sample my veggie burrito -andit was epic too! Incredibly fresh seasoned veggies, all grilled to perfection inside a crisp burrito shell. Yum. My wife had the choriqueso, which is chorizo plus a queso fundido and it was decadent. So much rich flavor, and think they make their chorizo too because it tasted otherworldly good with their fresh tortillas. Not to be left out, my daughters plain quesadilla was phenomenal too: loaded with generous portions of cheese and their homemade tortillas grilled perfectly. finished her leftovers at home, this was definitely not going to be left behind. Can't wait to go back here and sample more things, great addition to this stretch of...