El Tapatio Catering

I’ve had El Tapatio cater two of my events now (a wedding rehearsal and wedding reception) and each time I am never disappointed. Carolina is so easy to work with and the entire team provides exceptional service and food! Their prices are so reasonable and the quality is outstanding! I highly recommend El Tapatio to anyone who wants delicious, affordable catering.

Excellent catering for a home party. Service great and food great. Reasonable prices.

Carolina and the entire El Tapatio catering was a dream to work with! From start to finish they handled all details and changes that came up with my party. The food was delicious and authentic. The staff the day of the event were so friendly and helpful! My guests were so impressed with the quality of the food and service. They are an affordable, authentic option for any event! Thanks again team!

We had so many compliments about the food at our wedding reception! Carolina was so attentive and helpful throughout the whole planning process. We highly recommend the beef fajitas! The staff was helpful and really cared about what we wanted on our day. We highly suggest others to use them as well!!!

The new outdoor patio is lovely but I found the food tasteless and it actually made me sick later that day.

We use El Tapatio for work related celebrations. I do not arrange anything, but know that Carolina is very willing to make things fit in with our wants and needs. They are always on time and ready to go. The food has always been excellent… from posole, to turkey sandwiches and breakfast burritos, we have never been let down or disappointed. Very professional, honest and most of all YUMMY!

Tapatio catering recently catered my wedding and Carolina was great to work with — she answered emails promptly which is great b/​c I do 99% of my communication via email on a computer or on my phone — she did not get fustrated or at least didn’t show any frustration when we changed our order like 5 times. As far the the service it was supberb — 5 stars — pricing was about $ 30 pp which in my opinion is median priced and reasonable for the wedding industry and for what was included — my guests raved about the appetizer salad. The reason I didn’t give them 5 stars was because the Enchiladas were only mildly warm when I ate them and I would have liked it to be very warm like at the tasting — the tortillas were nice and warm and so were the fajitas, but the enchiladas though very tasty weren’t as warm as i would have liked which took away from the taste. This also may be affected by the fact that my venue was outdoors without a kitchen, but they did the best given the circumstances. All in all though Tapatio catering had awesome food, great customer service, and on the day of the wedding they were prompt and professional and courteous and everything you’d want from a caterer and more. I would and already have recommended them to people to use and even to just go eat at their restaurant if anyone is ever down in imperial beach b/​c their food is delicious.

When we knew we were hosting a gathering for friends and family in our home, my husband and I both immediately thought of El Tapatio. We have used them in our family numerous times before and have always been so pleased.
Yesterday’s event was flawless from start to finish. Carolina handled all our ordering adjustments through the week with professionalism and understanding. Her staff arrived on time, setting up a beautiful display and spent the next few hours preparing and serving food in a manner that impressed our guests!
We thank you for your personable and delicious service that added so much to our time with family and friends!

Amazing food! Lots of smiles! On time and done right!
¡Perfecto!
The amazing thing is finding a caterer who has PERFECT record. But these guys totally deserve it! The taco bar was superb, with hand-​made corn tortillas (ON THE SPOT!), luscious guacamole, rice beans, carne and pollo asado, peppers, and all the rest.
I was attending an event with about 75 of my closest friends. Tapatio pulled this off effortlessly.
I highly recommend this company. Their pride shows in every delicious bite!

We had my dad’s 90^th birthday at Santee Lakes this past Saturday, and El Tapatio was one of the vendors on their approved list. We called a couple vendors off the list, but decided to go with El Tapatio as Carolina, who called me back and answered my e-​mails, was very sweet and pleasant and helpful on the phone. We had them do a taco cart and the food and service was amazing. Just what I had in mind when planning the party! I recommend them highly and will keep them in mind for any future parties or events.

El Tapatio Catering ranks at the top of all our wedding vendors, from start to finish. We had an outdoor wedding in November 2013. Carolina went above and beyond in helping us plan our menu, set-​up and following up in a timely manner. Her professionalism and warm pleasant attitude set us at ease with our wedding planning. On our wedding day, Carolina and the rest of the catering staff worked diligently with our wedding coordinator to make sure everything went smoothly. They even helped out with other aspects of the wedding outside of their catering service. The set-​up was very nice and we had a lot of great compliments on the food. I highly recommend El Tapatio Catering for any of your catering needs.

They are so incredible. Our wedding has yet to happen but the tasting, the planning the changes of menu and pricing is just awesome. I tasted a few other caterers that are on the approved list at the Coronado Community Center and they beat out some really highly regarded caterers. Filet Mignon, Salmon, Grilled Vegg. all just amazing. Carolina is fantastic and honestly can’t get much better than this!

El Tapatio just catered my daughter’s wedding this past weekend. They were awesome! We did a taco bar with carne asada, pollo asada and grilled veggys for our many vegetarians. They were grilling out back so everything was really fresh and well presented. It was perfect! They added cheese enchiladas to make sure everyone was cared for. Carolina is a dream to work with and tended to every detail. The service was great! They took care of everything we needed — tables, linens, chairs, glassware, china and bartenders. And their prices are an incredible value! I highly recommend El Tapatio!

I just got married on September 21^st and used El Tapatio for my catering as well as all of my tables, chairs, plates, etc. etc.
I cannot speak highly enough about this company! Carolina is incredibly friendly and easy to work with — she walked me through everything. Their prices are AMAZING!!! Seriously, I shopped around and they are a steel. Then as the cherry on top, the food is AWESOME!!! My husband and I were ignoring greeting our guests because we both went back for seconds.
Seriously, if you ever need a caterer for any event, check El Tapatio out!!!

We used El Tapatio Catering for our wedding at the Coronado Community Center. We wanted good food at our wedding, not the traditional chicken and veggies. Everyone loved the food! Carolina did an amazing job and her staff and set up is very professional. We also used them for chairs, linens and bar service. I was able to rent one set of chairs for the grass ceremony and then her staff moved them inside for me after the ceremony very discretely. I also requested that a To Go platter of the appetizers that we were serving at cocktail hour was prepared for our wedding party to take on the limo while we were taking pictures. She has a tray ready for us and they were on the limo by the time I got on. Everything was delicious and the linens were gorgeous!

El Tapatio recently catered our wedding for 230 people. From the beginning, Carolina was very easy to work with, professional, responsive, and went above and beyond in our expectations. They over fed us during our tasting, and easily accommodated to our requests. They also brought all linens, cutlery, and plates and the presentation was gorgeous. They set up the venue better then expected, the presentation on the day-​of was very classy, and most importantly — the food was delicious. We had many people comment how great the meal was. I will most definitely visit El Tapatio in the future, and have them cater any events.

Best breakfast burritos in IB! This place is yellow, you can’t miss it. The food is great, and there is a lovely outside eating area. Sometimes it’s very packed, but we order take-​out at the outside window. Food was not super fast, though. Have some patience… It’s worth it!

I coordinated my first wedding, for a friend, this past weekend, June 15. Carolina and her crew were our caterers as well as linens vendors. I was decidedly nervous about the timeframe, as the wedding was to begin early afternoon. However, everything went well and without a hitch. The El Tapatio team set up everything as had previously been requested; there were a few linens that had stains, and they were promptly thrown out with new ones sent to replace. I was able to focus my attentions elsewhere while El Tapatio set out the cooking station outside. Everything looked wedding appropriate and the staff was extremely professional. Carolina stayed most of the evening to ensure the event went well; at the end of the night, two of her staff members were there to assist with full take-​down of the wedding reception. El Tapatio was amazing! Oh, and the food was delish too.

I would highly recommend El Tapatio Catering for your catering needs.
I reached out to El Tapatio while planning for an event on a Sunday. I knew the product I wanted, knew guest count attending, but was unsure on minor deals such as drinks I would be ordering and dessert.
Ultimately, I began communicating with Carolina in planning for my event. Carolina assisted in answering questions and letting me decide how I wanted food to be served and when I wanted food served to guest. All the communication I had with El Tapatio was flawless. I decided on a taquiza which included two types of meat tacos (Tijuana street style) with guacamole, cilantro, salsa etc.
On the day of the event, the setup was beautiful and professional. The staff was professional and ready to meet the needs of the guests. Everything was ready as ordered and the guests were ready to eat simply on how good the presentation was presented prior to the event.
Once guests ate the food, I encouraged them to provide feedback. With over sixty guests in attendance not one person had a complaint on the food. Everyone had a positive thought whether it was the meat, tortillas, staff professionalism, set up or the drinks. Everything went smooth.
At the end of the event, the staff from El Tapatio even offered to give back the left-​over food. I collected the left-​over food and thanked the staff for their service. I provided staff with a tip as everything went smooth with no complaints. I recommend El Tapatio for any event!
–Meat was prepared and cooked on location of event
–Salsa was prepared on location of event
–Tortillas were prepared on location of event

El Tapatio catered my wedding in July. We also rented some tables/​linens and some wait staff from them. Everything was flawless and some much more than I expected (especially for the very reasonable price). Many wedding guests expressed that they had never had such delicious food at a wedding before. I agree! Guests were also thrilled to get to see the tortillas being hand made.
We had the vegetarian fajita/​chicken/​beef taco bar. it was more than enough food for everyone. we had approx 70 guests.
Carolina is a real professional – she tolerated all of my continued, annoying questions which such patience. Everything turned out just fabulous!
Thank you, El Tapatio!