Taqueria El Favorito — Restaurant in Sebastopol

My job takes me all around the Bay area and I eat at a lot of taquerias. I'm writing this mostly as a record for myself but hopefully it'll also help you.

The non-edible parts: Located right along a main street with substantial free parking. Favorito had an unassuming external facade with a dated and with decor. The inside doesn't fare much better and reminds me of a repurposed 70's burger joint. All the tables still have scraps of meals past on them. If cleanliness is important to you, knock off a star. Personally, I don't care so off we go to the important things, the food!

Chips: They're not free but .75 is reasonable and they give you a fair amount. The chips appear store bought and cold. However, they are thicker than average, lightly salted, and not greasy. I'd buy them again.

Salsa: I have a soft spot for salsa bars and this place had some pretty solid options. I grabbed all 4 because why make a decision when you can have them all? Thank you salsa bar!

Habanero salsa: spicy and smooth-tasting with a distinct lack of that fruity quality when biting into a habanero. It was good but somewhat flat and like it could use some more salt or tang? Tiny bubbles were forming in the salsa. Leads me to believe that it was in an early stage of fermentation. Not sure if intentional but feels novel and totally a plus in my book. I went back for more.

Salsa roja: VERY spicy and I think that I have a decent tolerance for spice. The flavors were bright and rich with chunks of chopped chilies present. One of the best red salsas I've had although I may be giving it more credit because any salsa that makes me sweat gets extra points. I went back twice more, a real winner.

Salsa verde: not sure why it didn't have the semi-translucent liquidy-texture I'm typically use to seeing and is instead opaque, somewhat white and creamy. Strong earthy flavor with grassy notes. Actually "grassy" was all I could think of to describe this salsa. Enjoyable but not my jam. I would put it in The middle of the pack of verdes I've had but I'm not crazy about them in general. Very very mild.

Salsa fresca: Good. The tomatoes didn't strike me as very fresh but it is November which may play a role. I can taste the onion and herbs but they didn't stand out. Mild.

Al pastor super burrito: I always start with the super pastor. Why? I dunno, gotta have a baseline I suppose and I like pork. Slightly above average in size but crazy cheap, at least from my Bay area lens. Overall an excellent value.

See my cross-section for visuals on the ingredient ratio. Plenty of meat and beans with less rice than I typically see; no complaints there. They didn't ask what type of beans I wanted and gave me pintos. I would describe them as uninspired. Nothing stood out to me about them, they are beans and fulfill that role admirably. The pastor meat was finely chopped pork. I didn't notice any charring from the grill. The meat was quite fatty and reminded me a bit of bacon. When I are the meat separately, I was unable to notice anything that really stood out about it's flavors. About half an avocado was present along with a healthy portion of chopped tomatoes.

The only aqua frescas were strawberry and horchata. No further comment.

It was a good burrito overall, largely saved by the excellent salsa. I will definitely be back but will try a different meat and beans,...

Not really very good. Rundown, dirty dingy dated building and furnishing. Staff walked right past food garbage left on a table from a previous v patron multiple times. My chile verde, and carnitas both had so many large pieces of straight up fat, like bigger than the biggest chunks of meat big, make you gag it you didn't catch it and it made it into your mouth big, that once pulled out of both entrees, was a pile of fat that could have passed for an entree itself. Super unappetizing. Also, I think in places like these the cook rarely tastes the food, resulting in too salty, or badly flavored items, which was definitely the case with the Verde, and also with the hot hot sauce. Both just wrong. The hot hot sauce tasted fishy, and the Verde was like vinegar with no other flavor. And last but not least, my credit card was charged more than I authorized when I signed the slip. Only by $0.09 mind you, but still, accuracy, customer experience, doing a good job, is just not something they are able to do here. I don't know who's Favorito this place is, but it...

I don't understand why the chicken was so spicy but the rest of the food was delicious. I got chicken super nachos, a regular maiz quesadilla for my kid, and 2 bottles of jarritos. The nachos were a mess and I wouldn't recommend getting it with chicken because the chicken made the chips soggy almost immediately. I shouldn't have to eat nachos with a fork. The chicken was so spicy I couldn't eat it so I scrapped all of the chicken off to save for my husband. However after scrapping off the chicken. There was almost nothing left. I wasn't satisfied at all so I ordered a 2nd quesadilla for me, a side of refried beans for my kid, and a plate of platano frito. Man they absolutely redeemed themselves with that platano. I was so full after eating it I had to take the quesadilla to go. Also the amount of beans as a side was so much. You get a lot of food for your money, and if you like spicy chicken, my friend had it on tacos and he said they were good. There's also tons of seating and the employees were really nice and food came out...