Jaliscos — Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe

Imagine you had a long day at the beach. You just finished your third (maybe fourth?) White Claw surge. Not drunk, but wouldn’t pass a breathalyzer. You decide that tacos are what will satisfy the hunger that’s been building since your $22 avocado toast that morning. Sheepishly, you and your friends decide on Jaliscos. It’s walkable from where you were and well, it does serve those tacos you’re after. Upon entry you’re met with the classic taqueria vibe. “Bang!” you think, “this has to be a winner”. The man at the cashier is eager to take your order. “It even has a salsa station!” you think to yourself. You and your friends made a great choice. Time to plow through some food. You order an assortment of different tacos, not giving it much thought because they must all be great… right?

And then they come out. You can feel the overwhelming excitement and joy flush out of your body with extreme speed. Just a few sad corn tortillas that may have been sitting behind that kitchen window for days. Months even. The proteins that you picked? Even sadder. The chicken looks similar to something you’d see served in a small English village before a Mexican spot in California. Not even a pity splash of salt and pepper. Only the whitest, most bland looking chicken you’ve ever seen. Are you sure it’s even chicken? It could pass as tofu. Perhaps even cardboard painted off-white. The taste is exactly as you expected. Not much more to say there. The other tacos were fine - but you can’t help but feel robbed of what should have been an incredible...

Not sure why this place has more than 1 star reviews. I was recently in Lake Tahoe for vacations with my wife and decided to give Jaliscos a try after reading the high rated reviews. Being a Latino and living in Houston where some of the best authentic mexican restaurants can be found Jaliscos was a big disappointment. We ordered three kind of tacos and all of the meats were dry and unflavored. The guy at the cashier (latino), I am assuming is the owner, was very rude to us. He had us waiting there because he was having a long conversation with a Caucasian customer that was there before us. After he was done talking, he just looked at us without saying anything so I decided to greet him and he didn't reply back. This guy really gave me the vibe that he is only interested in Caucasian customers because 95% of the people that go there are Caucasians which is great but the owner seems to take advantage of the people that have not had good Mexican food. While sitting at our table a lot of Caucasian customers walked in and the owner was very polite to them greeting them with a big smile and having friendly conversations. But honestly the food was the worst that I've had. I don't recommend this restaurant to anyone that's in Lake Tahoe...

Most of the taqueria in the area closed quite early, so you only have a few options to choose from after 6 pm. I like to try out new taqueria each time I'm here, and this was the one on the list. I didn't have too high of an expectation since this is more of a tourist area. The tacos were okay, I had birria and carnitas for the meat. The carnitas were pretty dry and flavorless in the mouth, so I had to drench it with sauce, which I don't like doing if the meat itself is good. The birria taco was also dry and not much flavor to it, which is surprising since birria should be the most juicy out of other meat options.

The burrito was huge, and I would say it was at least a pound worth of food. I asked for no rice, and the inside felt like it was mostly filled with sour cream and lettuce. The asada didn't have much flavor or texture to it.

I would say this place is reasonable priced and the portion is good. If you're just looking for a place to fill you up, then this place will do the job. If you're looking for some tasty tacos and burrito, then you should look elsewhere. There are parking spots out in the front, and Google maps will only guide you to the parking lot entrance. So you have to keep going all the way in, and it'll be...