Pica Taco

Washington, DC, United States

3.3

Open now

21 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 202-518-0076
Website:
www.pica-taco.com
Address:
1629 Columbia Rd NW, Washington, DC, DC, 20009
b/t N Harvard St & N Quarry Rd
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
350 ftHarvard Street
0.2 miEuclid Street
0.3 mi14th & Irving Sts. NW (Columbia Hts.)
Categories:
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
No
Delivery
No
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Lunch
Parking
Street
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
No
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Divey
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
No
Outdoor Seating
Yes
Wi-Fi
No
Has TV
Yes
Waiter Service
No
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 8:00 am – 9:30 pm
Open now
Local time (Washington, DC) 6:57 PM Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Business hours

Monday 8:00 am – 9:30 pm
Tuesday 8:00 am – 9:30 pm
Wednesday 8:00 am – 9:30 pm
Thursday 8:00 am – 9:30 pm
Friday 8:00 am – 9:30 pm
Saturday 8:00 am – 9:30 pm
Sunday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Your home to authentic Mexican cuisine.

Family-​owned and operated, we welcome you to taste traditional Mexican flavors in a comfortable neighborhood setting.

We handcraft all of our food and five unique salsas.

Our staff takes great pride in using only the freshest and finest ingredients from our specialty suppliers.

Come on in and be a part of our family.

We look forward to serving you.

At Pica Taco, it’s seriously good food!

History

Established in 2009.

Pica Taco’s Flagship Location

Meet the Business Owner

Maria V.

Business Owner

Mother of Pica Taco & mother of 3, Maria came to the United States at the age of 17 from a little town in Mexico called Sallitrios close to San Luis Potosi Mexico (Northern Mexico), with nothing more than the cloths on her back and some change in her pockets. Bouncing around from job to job she eventually opened up her first restaurant in northern Georgetown (Glover Park) called Margaritas Restaurant. She ran this location for several years with great success but then decided she wanted to go another route and try more authentic Mexican food catered more toward fast food Tacos & Burritos, which was how Pica Taco was born. Pica Taco has now been up and running for a couple years and Maria couldn’t be happier. Pica Taco is a family run business (not a chain) with Maria’s two sons Patrick & John. Pica Taco is fairly new with only a couple years under its belt but is very eager to grow and to succeed. Maria does everything she can please the customer and this is how it will be as we grow.

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Vicinity

Near this location:
110
ft
Comida Truck
1600 Columbia Rd NW
140
ft
Rabaut Park
1613 Harvard St Nw
220
ft
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220
ft
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TW Brown Photography
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21 reviews of Pica Taco

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Place rating: 5
Columbia Heights, Washington, DC
I’m Mexican and constantly yearn for some good tacos. This is my go-​to place in DC! Recommend the pastor tacos, barbacoa enchiladas or any of the tortas. They also have a variety of Mexican sodas, including my favorite Sangria Señoral. HIGHLY RECOMMEND
Place rating: 3
Washington, DC
I’ll start off by saying that I LOVE this place. The food is awesome and authentic and delicious. Just what you’d want. The food is 5 stars.
HOWEVER, they’ve priced themselves out of my regular rotation. I used to eat there 3 – 4 times a week (at least!), but not any more. My usual order was a barbacoa burrito with avocado (no cheese because they charge $ 1 for a sprinkle and it’s not wroth it or necessary). The total was $ 9.90 — pretty steep but it’s delicious and my local spot, so it was worth it.
NOW that same order is $ 11.55. That’s ~15% increase and we’re just talking about a standard burrito with some avocado! Sorry, but that’s too steep, especially for a burrito that can be inconsistent with meat portions. It’s a shame, they were my favorite place to eat but the second price increase in a year (and a whopper of one) is just too much.
Place rating: 3
Washington, DC
Probably cause I’m from California, but I was pretty disappointed by the breakfast burrito given the other reviews on here. The base price for the breakfast burrito is $ 5.50. It was $ 2 to add a meat (chorizo) and $ 1.50 more to add avocado. So the burrito ended up costing me $ 9.90 which is a little pricey for a breakfast burrito in my opinion. I’ve had way better for way less (but again, that’s California).
The burrito itself wasn’t bad, but it’s more of a hungover option than a get your day started option. It leaves you feeling heavy and lethargic.
Place rating: 1
New York, NY
My boyfriend and I just ate here… we both had fish tacos and now we are both alternating to use the bathroom. Food poisoning.
I feel really sick. Do not recommend this place.
Place rating: 4
Washington, DC
This tiny witto joint is a very reliable source of Mexican food. We live around the block and it is by far the closest food option to us, thus, I have a feeling we’ll frequent this place in the future! Sadly this location of Pica Taco does not serve steak :(so instead I ordered al pastor tacos and they were great. They come with two sauces, one white, one green, both spicy! Beware! even the white one had quite the kick! Very friendly ladies working there and they make your food in a jiffy! Thumbs up!
Place rating: 2
Washington, DC
Ok: Good tacos, but just on’t expect them to open on time. Went there at 9:15 on Fathers Day for breakfast tacos. They are supposed to open at 9. We were told to come back in half an hour because they just got there and needed to heat the grill. Not the first time this has happened. Suggestion: either get to your store on time or change your hours so customers don’t make wasted trips.
Place rating: 5
Washington, DC
I just went for the first time and was excited to find this place. Excellent food, reasonable prices, and friendly service. I love the black bean burrito — glad they have good veggie options!
I enjoyed the outdoor seating at this location as well.
My one piece of advice to Pica Taco is to offer a veggie burrito that has a plantain filling. (I like that you can order plantain as an appetizer here!)
A veggie burrito w/​plantain filling is extremely tasty and rare (I believe the only place that offers this is The Little Chihuahua in SF).
It would be unique to DC and something none of your local competitors have!
Place rating: 5
Linthicum Heights, MD
Best tacos in DC. Chorizo is almost always on point. The white sauce is really, really good. I think about stealing a bottle every time I go there. Funny, it never crosses my mind to ask if they’d just sell me a bottle. Overall my favorite Hispanic food in DC. Only thing that could make it better is if they sold Tecate or Pacifico. Unfortunately no booze to be found.
Place rating: 4
Bern, Switzerland
I’ve been here once and if they perform as well the next time, they’ll get five stars. Why was I so happy? One, a great menu. Any place that offers spinach enchiladas and beef tongue tacos is fine by me. Two, great service. I called in my order for the aforementioned enchilada as well as a fish burrito supreme. It was ready in 15 minutes but unfortunately I was not. When I picked up my food, was it kept warm in the oven? It was. Did I encounter smiley cheery faces when I paid? I did.
My friend and I took our dinner home and marveled at a) the yumminess and b) the quantity. Oh, and the hot sauces (green and red, both fabulous). My enchilada was packed with tree-​hugging spinach and my friend made two meals of his burrito.
I will be back.
Place rating: 2
Donostia-San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa
De esos lugares en los que paras cuando tienes mucha hambre. Paras, comes y te vas. Quizas los mejor sea su terraza para el verano. Sin tener una comida exquisita… desde luego… quita el hambre de una forma económica. Sin más…
Place rating: 5
Washington, DC
Get the burrito bowl. It’s a little bit more expensive than Chipotle, but way, way better.
Place rating: 4
Los Banos, CA
IT’S GOOD… DUH
Pretty close to California, though not. However they know how to add spice. just add on some of that green sauce in the bottle. I love their burrito bowls the most. Also, a word to the wise a burrito supreme isn’t like Taco Bell’s burrito with everything in it; rather it is a fairly large enchilada — you’ve been warned. Enjoy!
Place rating: 4
Washington, DC
I live pretty close by to Pica Taco, so I’ve had an opportunity to sample a lot of the menu. From best to worst —
Tacos: The Chorizo taco is awesome. Order a side of sour cream with it– it’s perfect. The chicken and fish tacos are also delicious. The white sauce on the fish taco is perfectly spicy. Beef and pastor tacos are pretty good too.
Torta: Very good. Again, Chorizo is the best.
Spinach and Cheese Enchiladas: Delicious and very filling. They take a few extra minutes to bake, so you may want to call ahead.
Burrito bowl: Great proportions, very tasty.
Shrimp Burrito: It was tasty, but a little over priced given that it was made from frozen microwaved shrimp (I saw them do this).
Burrito: Ok. The tacos are WAY better.
Wish they were open late night, but then again, I’d probably get fat quickly! I highly recommend a trip to Pica soon!
Place rating: 4
Washington, DC
Excellent tacos!!! And the service is quick and friendly. What else would you want from a local taco spot. Get the barbacoa burrito!
Place rating: 4
Washington, DC
Tacos redeem this gem of a find, which occupies a closet sized basement in an apartment building and offers an eclectic mix of tacos, copying services, and jarritos.
The tacos are by far the saving grace here. Decent price for DC, and done well. I recommend Barbacoa and al pastor. I have been consistently unimpressed with the burritos here, which brings the review down a star. But seriously, what was I thinking. Who orders burritos at a place with taco in its name?
Place rating: 3
Washington, DC
Pico Taco is the dive bar of Mexican food.
Basically a hole in the wall between Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights, Pico Taco dishes out fantastically affordable tacos, burritos and enchiladas. These aren’t the most amazing tacos I’ve ever had, but I can look past that for a quick fix of tacos.
Personally, I enjoyed the Languas and Pastor. The fish tacos looked pretty decent too. The burritos rival the size of Chipotle.
Be warned, there is a $ 7 minimum so either bring cash or prepare to eat more than 2 tacos.
What surprised me the most was that Pico Taco had a breakfast menu including a bagel with cream cheese. Guess they try and do it all. Well, almost — would have been slightly better if I could have paired my tacos with a imported Mexican beer. Just saying.
Place rating: 2
Beverly Hills, CA
Terrible carnitas. Bad fish tacos. Decent barbacoa .
Overall, a big meh.
Place rating: 1
Washington D.C., DC
There were 2 positives about Pica Taco: generous helping of meat and good salsa.
Unfortunately, these were some of the worst tacos I’ve had in DC. I tried the Barbacoa, Carnitas, Pollo/​Chicken, and the Carne Asada tacos. Every single one of them was bland. The barbacoa one looked like it would be delicious. I was amazed at how flavorless it was despite the coating of red marinade/​sauce. Should I be glad that I was given generous potions of bland food?
Lastly, it took me 14 hours to realize what the worst thing about Pica Taco is. To put it succinctly, I am now in discomfort.
Place rating: 3
Washington, DC
This place was pretty middle of the road for me. I had three tacos here (barbocoa, pastor, and chorizo) and they were decent, but nothing awe-​inspiring. They were each around $ 2.5 which seems to be pretty common for the area, but sour cream was an extra $ 1.5 which I was NOT happy about.
One problem with this place is it’s hours. It closes at 9 PM Mon-​Fri so that is not bad, but I wish it stayed open another hour. However, on Saturdays it closes at 8 PM and Sundays it closes at 6 PM. I have tried coming here at least 5 times (I never learn) on my way home from the metro and last week was the first time I got to Pica before it closed.
At the end of the day there was nothing wrong with the food here, but it was just OK so I will probably go to Super Taco next time I am craving Tacos.
Place rating: 4
Washington, DC
I can’t believe it took me this long to finally give Pica Taco a chance, I have literally walked pass this place on my way home for close to two years before I finally decided to give it a try.
Definitely not much to look at, this is a little hole in the wall place that seems to be connected to an apartment complex.
I had the chicken burrito, the size was huge, definitely will keep you more than full. All the ingredients were fresh and well prepared. The chicken was tasty and flavorful, the beans were nicely prepared and cooked well. My only issue with the burrito was that it wasn’t that well put together, it fell apart while I was eating it but wasn’t a huge deal.
Definitely worth a visit if you want a burrito and you’re near Columbia Road.
Place rating: 1
Washington, DC
I wanted to like this place. I really did.
I ordered the chicken enchiladas thinking that I would be given a plate of enchiladas verdes, or if lucky enough, a plate of enchiladas suizas. Instead I got a casserole of a tomatoey red sauce (not tomatoey enough to be entomatadas, not spicy enough to be enchiladas rojas, not complex enough to be a mole sauce) topped with shredded yellow cheese. I get it that the costs might be too high to incorporate queso chihuahua/​menonita, ranchero, or even just queso blanco, but seriously, shredded yellow Kraft-​like cheese. Awful.
They don’t make their own corn tortillas and I won’t knock them for that or for using mass produced store-​bought corn tortillas. There simply aren’t any tortillerias in the DC area making homestyle tortillas, so just a fair warning for anyone wondering about the tortilla situation.
They don’t make Mexican rice and instead offer a tasteless plain white rice that honestly tasted like it came out of one of those instant rice packets. The beans were also pretty bland. I don’t ever really find the need to salt food when I eat out, but this was one of those few exceptions.
All in all, this was a huge disappointment. (Oh yeah, the prices were high too). If you don’t know any better and are looking for a Mexican style food option (this isn’t even Tex-​Mex), you might enjoy it here. Otherwise, I’d say move on to your Plan B.