Taqueria Los Rayos

Greasy tacos. Carne asada quality subpar (too much fat). Like the outdoor patio though.

Ehhh this place is ok. I was expecting better because of reviews I have read. I have tried their steak burrito, ceviche tostada, and chicken taco. Food is allright. Steak burrito is huge. Filling for cheap. I like steak burrito best at La Costilla across the street (double the price though).

This place is so great! Not only is the food authentic and cheap, it is good quality and delicious. While I did have to order in Spanish, it only added to the authentic feel of the restauraunt. Meat tacos were great, but for vegetarians the mushroom or vegetable tacos were delectable as well.

Cheap Tacos. Simple yet good. Service can sometimes be lax but this business is more of an order your tacos and eat them place vs a sit and be served place.

Seriously, probably the best tacos I’ve ever had. The tortillas are fresh, the meat is incredible. I suggest asking for one of their roasted jalapeños as well for those of you that like spicy. I cut mine up and put it on my tacos. Amazing! The chorizo was out of this world. Next time I will definitely be trying the Lengua.

Ok so I went to this place bc I wasn’t able to attend the UYE here recently. I was very excited to try it out, and couldn’t wait to get my food home. I asked the server what she would recommend, and she told me that the cabeza was good. I ordered the cabeza in a burrito, and my beaux ordered a chicken taco and something with shrimp. By the time we got home, which is only a 10 min drive at best, her shrimp dish was soggy. My cabeza was far too chewy for my taste, so I couldn’t stomach it. Also, our tacos were as dry as my azz, but I still attempted to eat it. We had tomatillo sauce in the bag, but it was not enough to help with how dry these tacos were. I thought that we had just gotten a sad trick played on us. I was so disappointed, as this was my first Buford Highway food experience. I do want to try again, but I will be dining there. I really want to try the torta the next time that I go. I also want to try the horchata again, which was really good.

Good Tortas and Carne Asada, restaurant is very clean and service is fast. Will be going back for more.

Came in here with a big group of 16 or so people. Place is set up so you order at the counter, but they had someone actually wait tables and she did a really good job. Better than some high end restaurants.
Place is known for their tacos. Specifically the Al Pastor which is a steak and pork taco. They have a bunch of other tacos you can order such as chicken, steak chorizo, and pork. But they also have some weird toppings like chitlins and cow’s tongue. All are around $ 1.75 to $ 2. They also have burritos with the same toppings. You can get this with just meat and cheese or you can add rice and beans.
I ordered an Al Pastor taco and a steak burrito. The taco was alright. Nothing to special. The burrito was much better. It’s about a foot long and stuffed from top to bottom with meat, beans, and rice. My girlfriend had the shrimp fajitas. They give you plenty of shrimp and veggies. Taste was just ok. The guacamole is pretty decent. Loaded with tomatoes. The chips are really good; definitely homemade.
This place is open super late; Till 1am on weekdays and 4am and 5am on Friday and Saturday, respectively. This place would make a great spot for late night eating if you’re near Buford. Or even if you just want some cheap Mexican.

Came here for Daniel B.‘s UYE #51. I’ve been here before but only to pick up late night burritos after midnight and for some reason, they tasted so much better. Typically you order at the counter when you walk in but since we had a large group, one of the staff members took our orders at our tables.
She was fantastic and took great care of us. I can’t say the same about my steak burrito and chorizo taco that I ordered. It wasn’t anything special but I just came from volunteering at Open Hand Atlanta that morning and skipped breakfast so was famished. I ate everything I ordered but if you’re looking for quality over taste, then you’re better off elsewhere. This place is cheap, has quick service and you definitely get what you paid for but it’s nothing special.

Decent tacos. Corn tortillas are a little weak and I don’t know enough about how tortillas are prepared to offer an opinion why.
I had three tacos — chorizo, lengua and barbacoa. Chorizo was the best. The other two, particularly the lengua, were a bit bland. Beef tongue isn’t the most exciting taco meat to begin with, so it generally needs help. Three tacos make a good meal for an average person.
Two very popular squeeze-​bottle sauces at the table — one mild green sauce, one somewhat hotter red sauce.
Hard to judge the service. I was there with a party of about twenty Unilocalers. Our server did well to handle us all, efficiently taking orders. The food came out fairly quickly, as I’d expect from a BuHi taqueria.
No one was sure how we were to pay, so we all eventually queued up at the register and told the server what we each had. Maybe with a normal size group they deliver the check to the table. You can get take-​out at the register, but otherwise it’s regular table service. Or sit at the counter.
Overall, not bad. I could see stopping in again if someone I was with wanted to check it out.

Like Taqueria El Rey Del Taco, Taqueria Los Rayos is a good late night option for authentic and inexpensive Mexican food on Buford Highway. Unlike El Rey, Los Rayos is located deeper ITP (inside the perimeter) near Buford Highway and Clairmont Road. While the business address is on Clairmont, the restaurant actually has two entrances, one on Buford and one on Clairmont.
At the time of writing this review, Los Rayos’ business hours are as follows:
Monday to Thursday — 9am to 1am
Friday — 9am to 4am
Saturday — 9am to 5am
Sunday — 9am to 3am
Like popular El Taco Veloz up the road, Los Rayos has drive-​thru service. Inside, the restaurant has eight four or five-​top tables, three two-​tops, and a bar that seats eight for an approximate comfortable seating capacity of 50 customers. There’s also a fanned, covered patio outside featuring a half-​dozen circular tables. Parking isn’t an issue as there’s plenty of space.
This is very much a casual, no-​frills Mexican joint. There’s a big TV at the bar and a smaller one facing a dining area off to the side. The small restrooms are clean. You can place and pick up your order at the counter or you can sit down for table service.
Los Rayos specializes in their version of al pastor, which is marinated and sauteed pork *and* steak (in many cases, al pastor is prepared only with pork). It, along with other meat options, are offered in taco, burrito, platter, and torta (sandwich) form. Along with al pastor, meat choices include:
Bistec — steak
Chorizo — Mexican sausage
Suadero — «flat meat» (thin slice cut between belly and leg)
Pollo — chicken
Cabeza — cow’s cheek
Lengua — cow’s tongue
Barbacoa — made with goat here
Carnitas — pork
Tripa — pork chitlins (intestines/​bowels)
Tacos run from $ 1.75 to $ 1.95 each, quesadillas $ 3.00 to $ 4.50 each, burritos $ 4.50 each, tortas $ 5.00 to $ 5.50 each, special plates $ 9.00 each, and fajitas $ 9.95 each. Seafood is offered Friday through Sunday and includes items such as campechana (shrimp cocktail) and ceviche made with red snapper and lemon juice.
The tacos look great. Each is served with two filling corn tortillas. After all the juices and sauces soak into the tortillas, one tortilla isn’t strong enough to hold a single taco together. Each taco comes with chopped cilantro and white onion. Marinated onions and a lime wedge are served on the side.
Taste-​wise, I think the tacos are OK. I’m not a huge fan of the somewhat dense tortillas and I think some of the meats could be seasoned better, but that’s what the salsas are for. The carnitas (pulled pork) are partially chewy and dry. Lengua (tongue) is probably my favorite and the bistec (steak) is satisfying. The lengua texture is smooth and soft. Cabeza (cheek) isn’t bad, though it’s a bit rubbery and bland. Tripa has an expectedly unpleasant flavor/​odor. I like tripe, but not in this form. Overall, the ingredients seem sufficiently fresh.
There are two salsas, one red and one green, available in squeeze bottles. Both salsas are tasty. I prefer the green salsa. It’s milder in both spiciness and tanginess.
I’ve also tried the al pastor special plate. The specials are served on metal plates that are pretty much like hot skillets. Corn tortillas serve as the base and are topped with bacon, melted cheese, fresh tomato, avocado, and white onion slices, a whole cooked jalapeño, and the meat of your choice. Additionally, each plate comes with a side of hot corn tortillas (wrapped in foil) and lime.
While it looks terrific, the al pastor special is simply too heavy and greasy. It’s delicious for several bites, but the excessive oil makes it a difficult entrée to finish. The savory yet fatty bits of bacon only exacerbate the issue. The extra tortillas aren’t really needed for this dish unless they’re intended to sop up the fat.
Try a Mexican beverage with your meal. The horchata (sweet rice drink) is good and isn’t overly sweet nor chalky. They’ve also got juices (e.g. jamaica — hibiscus) and Jarritos Mexican soda.
Service is fine.

Genuine and delish! I don’t remember how I got here but if i ever make it back I’ll eat there again. hahahaha… This place was really good all jokes aside.

This was the weirdest lunch experience I ever had.
It’s 42 degrees in ATL right now (and I just left the restaurant). It was not much warmer inside. My lunch group was guessing it was in the 50’s inside. Luckily they had scented candles inside that I used to warm my hands.
I ordered the shrimp fajitas. My side dish came out first and the beans were room temperature. Refried beans are not meant to be served cold.
My shrimp fajitas still had the peel on the them. I’ve never had shrimp fajitas that required that I peel my own shrimp. Wow!
It was cold inside and some of my food was served cold. Neither are deal breakers but expecting me to peel my own shrimp for my fajitas was just too much. On the positive side, my friend ordered the pastor burrito and was very pleased.
Update: I spoke to some of my Latin friends. They said the shrimp definitely should have been peeled.

This place is not good at all. Uninspired, tasteless meat with boring beans and rice. I know Atlanta has a low bar for Mexican, I get that, but this doesn’t even qualify as Mexican.
Do not go here if you enjoy good Mexican food.

I tried this place out because I was craving for Tacos for some odd reason. I checked out the review for this place and it seem pretty good, so why not try it out. This place wasn’t that far from my place so I try it out and it open until 1AM, so that’s pretty good.
This place is pretty small and the good thing about coming here is that they have sits outside. It was kind of hard to see where you can park at night time, so I just park wherever.
I came in and asked the worker what’s good here and she was really nice to help me out. She tell me they are known for their steak taco, pork, pork and steak taco, so I listen to her and order what she said. I got my food to go, so I can eat at home with my BF.
I came home and realize that they only give me two orders, «no wonder it was only $ 3.94 for my order, so am guessing the waiter only ordered me 2 tacos. When I checked inside both of the tacos, one of my order was steak and the other well let just say I didn’t order CHICKEN. I wasn’t please to get chicken b/​c I don’t care for it.
I try both of the tacos and I really only liked the steak. The steak needed a little more salt and it was a little dry, at least the steak was better than the chicken. Chicken was a little flavorful but it was really dry. This is the reason why I never liked to order chicken when I go to a Mexican Restaurant.
I got to admit, this place have really good tortilla Their tortilla for the taco is soft but flavorful. I kind of liked eating just the tortilla than the meats.
Out of all this place it OK. Yes it’s really cheap but I wish my meal was pretty. Maybe it wasn’t my night to come here and maybe I will give it a try one more time before I can really judge this place.

Great tacos for $ 1.75 — you can’t go wrong.
It was empty for lunch although the drive through had a big line. Don’t let the lack of crowd worry you, you are in for a treat no matter what you order.
I get tacos al pastor and with chorizo and they are fantastic.

We tried the drive through and a woman came outside and took our order at our car window.
She was really nice and I made the effort to order in Spanish and it totally helped!
Thanks to Unilocal we decided to order tacos– 2 steak, 2 chicken, pork, goat and 2 Al Pastors. It was barely $ 20 and the Coca Cola is served in a glass bottle (amaze-​balls)!
We waited about 10 minutes, nothing shabby!
Authentic tacos! No idea which ones were which – but they all had great flavor. I loved the side salsas, green was my favorite.
Not a huge fan whatsoever of corn tortillas but theirs were awesome! Very thin so they save you two layers per taco.
A satisfying meal but not out-​of-​this-​world gotta go back tacos. Worth a try if you like to ore Buford or get a serious hankerin for muy delicioso cheap authentic grub, then this little drive through might almost make your day.

Houston, we have a taco (that is almost good enough to compete with those offered in your TexMex haven)!
After living in Texas for the past two years, and Los Angeles for many years before that, I was a little leery of indulging in very many tacos in ATL. However, this place was very highly recommended on Unilocal,and the boyfriend and I were starving.
The good news. Tacos are indeed cheap and yummy: we split 5 tacos between us for less than 10 dollars including tax. The better news: yeah, home girl got full off of two tacos! Boyfriend got full off three!
(perhaps even better news if you are a night owl: they are open late… till 3am on a Sunday, which seems pretty uncharacteristic of an establishment in the South)
Definitely get the al pastor if you go. Carnitas are a solid choice as well; chicken is mediocre and dry. The goat was pretty unremarkable. But hey, if I have at least two types of tacos that can satisfy my cheap-​quick-​tasty-​Mexican craving, that’s good enough for me! Especially with the yummy green and red salsas that come standard with the meal.

Thank goodness for taco places open late — that aren’t Taco Bell.
And the tacos here are pretty damn good, and cheap. Much cheaper than any Tex-​Mex place you’d find in town, and I love the presentation, it looks so authentic — it is authentic. I decided on the chicken taco and the barbacoa (goat) taco. The chicken was dryer than I’d like, but it was well seasoned enough, as for the barbacoa — I’m in love. I can’t recall ever trying a goat meat taco, but this is good. It’s super flavorful and perfectly tender — I know what my regular order will be.
I also got to try the BF’s steak and pulled pork tacos, both well cooked and tender. Next time I visit, I’ll work up the courage to try the lengua!

Incredible tacos! Authentic Mexican BBQ, featuring choices that are hard to find.
Don’t miss the goat, cabeza and linguas!