El Rey Moro Taco Shop

This is my go to place for my chili verde burrito fix. Food is excellent, service is great and the burritos are the cheapest in town.

Great food and great service! Lots of dishes you won’t find at the average Mexican fast food joint. Definitely worth a visit!

Very bland. Not spicy or interesting at all. No air conditioning and hot inside. Outdoor tables need fixing.

Soooo good!!! Proportion size is top notch! Their grilled chicken is seasoned to perfection! Great food and I’m pretty picky… Try it you won’t be let down!

This was my first time at El Rey Moro Taco Shop. I came here on a sunday afternoon because I was craving some Mexican food and this was the place my boyfriend drove me to. There wasn’t a lot of customers at that time. It is located in a small plaza area by a gas station.
Ambiance/​Appearance:
Honestly the location or surrounding stores makes it feel like its kind of ghetto lol. But ayyy holes in the walls sometimes have the best tasting food. Had a few tables inside and 1 or 2 right out front. They have a huge menu on the wall and a bunch of specials posted everywhere. There is a small sauce bar/​area with 3 salsas/​sauces and some other things like green onions. They didn’t look very appealing, but I am a sauce girl, so I tried the green one which is the one I usually go with.
Service:
The woman at the counter was nice when she took my order. Wasn’t much interaction besides her taking my order lol.
Taste:
I ordered the carne asada fries without beans. It had fries with carne asada, sour cream, a white cheese, and guacamole. It was surprisingly really good. The meat was really tasty. I tried the green sauce and it was some sort of salsa with jalapenos or something. Definitely better than what I had expected.
Overall, the carne asada fries costed around $ 8 – 9 with tax. I was surprised of the outcome based on judging the location and appearance of the restaurant. Don’t know if I will come back just because there are so many other options around this area. But if you have a sudden craving and you don’t want to go far from Clairemont [although Cortixan is a few blocks away], then this place might satisfy your cravings.

I’m giving this place a 3 because the counter guy was nice and got me some fried serranos. I got the fish taco special. Fish was kind of bland and not crunchy, it had pico de gayo on it which was watery. The sauce was okay. The hot sauces at the salsa bar were mediocre.

The first time I came here I got the carne asada soft taco and fish soft taco. It was great because there were actually toppings like guacamole for the carne asada and lettuce/​sauce for the fish (a good chunk of fish I might add)
But the second time I came I got the al pastor soft taco and fish soft taco (yes again) but my goodness. The taco only had meat in a soft taco shell and oh my the fish… was literally two tiny piece of nothing on a soft taco shell like literally the size of half my thumb. Sighhhhhhhhhhh
Maybe it’s because there was different people that day cooking and taking order and maybe I got lucky the first time to get added guac or lettuce or a decent size fish the first time but please be consistent in the food you serve. This place only get a 3 because of my first visit

It’s really surprising to see how many taco shops do so well in the Clairemont Mesa area. El Rey Moro sits next to a liquor store in a strip mall right near the corner of Genesee and Clairemont Mesa Blvd. I noticed the place when I was coming out of Tecolote Canyon near by. I came by to try El Rey Moro on a Saturday night for a to-​go dinner around 7ish. This place has a small dining area inside along with a very small salsa bar (
) next to the cashier. They offer three sauces along with hot carrots, two of their sauces are not very good with the darker of the red being the best. The darker red is spicy yet very flavorful and not full of salt like the other two (
). Their hot carrots are way too vinegary for my tasting, so luckily I didn’t get many. We decided to order a burrito and rolled tacos to go. While their menu is listed on their website, they do offer special burritos which are not listed online (
). The burrito el kaz caught my fancy and I decided to go with that for my burrito.
The Burrito El Kaz (
) came with asada, eggs, hash brown, rice, guac, cheese & sour cream. For me the burrito was pretty tasty but the ratios of food were all off. They added way too much sour cream to the burrito and not enough meat. Too much sour cream means no good for burritos, no one wants to eat a wrapper of sour cream. While it was tough to taste the flavor of the meat, the meat seemed to be cooked pretty good and tasted okay. I have no clue where the hash browns were in this burrito, I didn’t really taste any. So the burrito was a bust for me.
Rey Morro’s rolled tacos (
) were quite the opposite of their burritos, they were downright perfect. Crispy rolled tacos with plenty of flavorful moist chicken inside, they really did cook these things really good. Also they had no problem with adding tons of fixings on top of these things. Cheese, guac, lettuce, tomato, the works. I thoroughly enjoyed these rolled tacos, especially with their hot sauce. We also got some guac on the side to dip our carrots in, their guacamole here is the real thing. Fresh avocados with some tomatoes mixed in.
This taco shop had hit and miss items, I’m hoping I just caught them on a off day and that their burritos do really taste better than what they put forward. El Rey Moro has three locations in San Diegos and their reviews so far for Santee don’t look too promising, I’ll have to come back and try this place again to give it any more stars.

Best taco shop ever !! The burritos are always great portion at fair prices and always great customer service!

Amazing chile verde. I come here regularly just for it. Cheap and good quality. Generally not busy so you get in quick. No salsa bar but they do have roasted jalapeños usually next to the register and bottles of red or green salsas. The jalapeños have a pretty good bite which is rare around here it seems.

This place is awesome!
They’re CHEAP.
Their burritos automatically come with beans, which you can easily switch out for rice or whatever other side your heart desires. This matters SO MUCH to me! I don’t know why people eat meat wrapped in a tortilla and call it a burrito. Burritos need more than two ingredients, including the tortilla.
Speaking of their tortillas, they taste fresher than the tortillas everyone else uses.
I have tried their chile relleno and chile verde, which are both amazing. I’ve been here many times and it’s consistent.
I’ve never felt sick or seen anything gross in my food so that’s awesome!
The lady who works there is an angel as well.

I went there after being told it was the best place for tacos in San Diego.
It was satisfying, but nowhere close to being the best.

My carne asado taco was really yummy. I agree with other Unilocalers that the burrito was largely tortilla, however it kept it from falling apart which is another complaint of mine. I do wish they had a salsa bar. I would go back. They have some specials I would like to try that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

The flavors of the food are pretty good but every burrito I’ve seen come out of that place is at least 40−45% tortilla. I’m not into that.

So many taco shops. So little time.
Picked up some snacks to go, but no drive thru window, so I had to park and get out of the car — Boo. Pretty extensive menu board, but I stick with something familiar with carne asada and some rolled tacos with guacamole.
Brought home stuff to share:
++ Carne asada chips. Good portion and a fair ratio of meat to chips. The shredded cheese had melted nicely. Thankfully no nacho cheese sauce. Wifey still prefers the ones from MXN because they taste better and also because they do half-​orders.
++ Carne asada burrito. Pretty good spread of meat and pico, but I was hoping for a little more guac. Needs more guac!
– Rolled tacos. Crispy, but so little guacamole or cheese. There’s not even anything I can scrape off the foil that covered the little styrofoam plate. Disappointing. It’s not like there’s a shortage of avocados this season.
Decent neighborhood taco shop. You had me at good carne and lost me at bad rolled tacos. Maybe I’ll give them another try… maybe. Something else, some other time.

The 10 words or less review:
Cheap Mexican in large portions? Cheap Mexican in large portions!
3 Positives:
–This place has to be recession-​proof because the food here is priced out really well. $ 4.50 for a tasty torta? Done. $ 2 for a large carne asada street taco? Boo-​ya. $ 6.50 for a crazy large Surf «n» Turf burrito??? Friggin’ A!
–With that said, you know what you are getting here as far as a meal goes — greasy comfort food. That’s what established Mexico as a powerhouse country, wasn’t it? The ability of their cooks to make meals that instantly make you want to take a nap?
–The salsa here is a tad bit watery, but it has some good kick. They give them to you in mini containers to take with you. I currently have about 40 of these mini containers in my fridge. Also, the flour tortillas are really good. Their cooks know how to prepare the tortilla properly enough to where the contents of the burrito don’t come spilling out the bottom of it.
1 Negative:
–The seating is a little cramped in here. You almost get a bit claustrophobic. Plus, the chairs are oddly large and tall for such a hole in the wall.

El Rey Moro spells out the definition for an average burrito. That said, it has a lot of perks about it that allows it to stand out in the midst of taco shop giants such as Cotixans and Robertos.
Considering the food, I found their Carne Asada a little too peppery which distracted from the meat’s fatty goodness. I think they use fresher (or different) tortillas than other taco shops since they’re a lot softer and have an interesting flavor. Anyway, as I said before, the food’s very okay.
The main factor in a four star review is that El Rey Moro is DIRT CHEAP. When I went a couple weeks ago, I got a Carne Asada chimichanga for $ 4.50, which included sour cream, cheese and guacamole. Burritos around the same price. In addition, they take credit card unlike Cotixans.
I think El Rey Moro would truly stand out if they were open late, but alas they close at 9pm, which is way too early for post-​Thirsty Thursday raging.
In sum, it has pretty good food and bad hours, but it’s STUPID CHEAP and takes credit card. Give it a shot when you have a hankering.

I previously liked this place because of some coupons I got in the penny saver but they have stopped sending those out. Too bad, there is no reason to go there without them

Best burritos in the Clairemont/​University City/​La Jolla area, hands down! Having recently moved to the UTC area after being spoiled by delicious burritos right next to where I used to live, I spent several months exploring every possible taco shop within a 10 mile radius. Vallarta, Cotixan, Rigoberto’s (both locations), El Portal, Mestizo, and even chains like Los Primos. Once I tried El Rey, it was love at first bite. Ok, so I must admit that my yardstick is the California burrito. Every place makes it differently, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Even though I know what I like in mine (well seasoned meat, not-​too-​crispy fries, fresh pico de gallo, and a healthy dollop of home-​made guac), if a place can make a delicious variation then I’m not opposed. Well, the Cali here is among the best I’ve had, and even rivals the legendary Cali from El Azteca in La Mesa.
Who honestly cares what the place looks like, or the layout or atmosphere. It’s a taco shop! As long as its delicious and only rarely poisons you (hasn’t happened to me here yet), that’s all that matters.
The people that work there are all very friendly. And they even have birria de chivo! Although I haven’t tried it yet, that stuff is hard to find!

Wow, carne asada that has flavor! What a concept! After some pretty bad, bland carne asada at Lolito’s (Kearny Mesa) and Papa Chito’s, El Rey Moro is a refreshing change in an area not known for delicious Mexican fare.
Made to order burrito (fried) with fresh guacamole and fresh salsa. Huge burrito especially for $ 4.25.
The layout is awkward… very cramped with huge chairs. Definitely not a first date place.
I also ordered another side of chips. Though I prefer white corn to yellow, these chips were just what I needed for dinner (spicy tuna on tortilla chips). Yellow corn tortilla chips generally are stronger and can hold up well to things placed on them. I need something with a stable base that’ll last (TWSS).
If you live or work outside a 10-​minute radius, I don’t that it’s that good…