Tuetano Taqueria - San Diego

These were the most delicious tacos. Service was great and food was amazing.

The original location in San Ysidro was one of 34 San Diego restaurants to receive a mention in the 2021 Michelin California guide. The Michelin guide highlighted the homey spot and concluded that with Tuetano 's portions, flavors, and prices one need not go across the border to have an authentic Mexican birria taco. The same cannot be said for this new location. I 've been to both. Michelin got it right for the San Ysidro location. The prices were reasonable, you could see a couple Mexican women in their small kitchen cooking with love, and the menu was decent. So, based on this I was happy to give them my business. Today that changed. As other Yelpers complained, the prices are steep and the birria is on the dry side. It is no longer a homey place either. It 's more like a shared cafeteria setting with an equally overpriced seafood truck/restaurant $18 ceviche). Naturally, the prices has to be steeper as rent in Old Town is as high, if not higher, than downtown or other central locations. But the service didn 't make up for it. Indeed, the service was the worst thing. I ordered tacos without certain ingredients and they served them anyway. I asked them to remake me a plain taco and said I was willing to pay for it but they insisted that I didn 't. They just took away the topping from the surface. For those of you for whom cilantro tastes like soap, a superficial scraping of the cilantro on top doesn 't cut it because you 'll still taste any cilantro left in between the pieces, that 's what happened here. So we had to throw those away. All in all, is you really want authentic but don 't want to cross the border, head south to Chula Vista for a mom and pop shop. But if you want convenience, and to try birria for the first time, AND have $6 to spend on one taco or $10 for one quesadilla, go for it.

Went to the soft opening in Old Town. Tried only the Bone marrow. It didn't disappoint my craving for bone marrow. Will try the berria taco next time with the bone marrow.

This review is for the old town location since they closed the spot in San ysidro. The location is nice and plenty of seating compared to the old spot. Two bathrooms available. It was a soft opening this weekend and I know there are things that still need to be done to put this place together and have things running smoothly. Menu felt a little pricier than before NGL. We spent 90 on 4 tacos, consomé, 2 sides of tuetano but were charged 11 each vs the tuetano solo side because they ended up doing the tuetano tacos, 1 quesabirria taco and 2 beers. I was a bit confused on the receipt. As the tuetano side said 7.00 on the menu and I had planned to just add that to my regular tacos. We didn't count but one of our tacos was missing and by the time we noticed, we didn't bother mentioning it. For all of the food we ordered we only received two salsas which is a bummer. On our second order of 50 bucks, yes second order (lol) we ordered 4 more tacos and two beers because we were still hungry. Only got one salsa for 4 tacos and told they charge for extra. Tacos seem a lot smaller in size and not as much carne on them. It's still delicious and one of my favorite Birria spots but it's definitely taking a bite at your wallet now at this new location. Traffic can be annoying in Old town but where this is located there's plenty of parking a block away. Nice walk. Friendly staff. And like I said, plenty of seating.

I enjoyed their tacos, but the customer service is why I only gave them 3 stars. The owner, or cashier just didn't seem to care and a bit arrogant. Nothing personal, just business wise I would have appreciated a more genuine interaction. Not very professional