Taqueria Guadalajara

Very average food but they did have good service.
We went for the al pastor tacos and they were disappointingly bland and dry. Their salsa was good but the chips were bad (store-​bought rather than fresh made). On the plus side, everyone was extremely friendly and the food came out quickly!

I made my order to go and purchased it. I ask for green hot sauce when I was giving my order. I was told I had to pay for green hot sauce.

I’ve been here 4 times so far. Twice for dinner, twice to pick up breakfast tacos. I’ve been satisfied every time, especially with the price.
Breakfast: The tacos are superb. I’ve tried bacon and egg, bacon egg and cheese, potato bacon and egg, and chorizo and egg. ALL are delicious. Great salsa comes with them, and way more than I am used to!
Lunch/​dinner: My husband and I are partial to the chimichangas/​burritos and quesadillas. The price cannot be beat! $ 7.50 for a huge quesadilla with beef or chicken fajita meat. It comes with sour cream and lettuce and always tastes amazing. My husband likes the chimichanga with beef fajita. He finishes his plate each time.
The margaritas are WINE based. Not tequila. They still taste good, maybe a bit of a sour red wine aftertaste. They have lots of Mexican beer for cheap.
It’s not always as clean as I would prefer, which is the reason for the docked star. I get a teensy bit annoyed by sour cream ground into the floor, cheese on the floor, etc. I just don’t like that kind of stuff under my table or near my shoes. But the service is great and it’s ridiculously low priced for good food. I may veer closer to take out in the future.

Best tacos and green salsa I’ve had in a long time! Great staff and even had live music Sunday morning when we went in!

My GF still doesn’t know how to pronounce this place, even though I am Hispanic, and have been teaching her for almost a year now. She just calls it # 3 on burnet, hahha. I’ve been coming here since i was a little kid. The staff is friendly and do their best to communicate with their patrons. Food is great, and their drinks are just as good. If you want a margarita made with wine, come here, try it, fall in love with it. See ya this saturday «# 3 on burnet»

I’ve been here several times, but only for breakfast. Their tacos are $ 1.25 for two toppings and they are very good. Today I had the bean and cheese (white cheese) and the bacon and egg tacos. The tacos never let me down. Ask for their green salsa, it comes in a squeeze bottle and it has a great flavor with a decent amount of heat. It’s perfect on those tacos.
The server was friendly and our food (group of 5) came out in a reasonably quick amount of time.

I hate to give a bad review to a small, independent place… but, oh good Lord.
I wanted to like it, and things started out ok… Their salsa was excellent. Sadly, it came with store bought chips. That was my first let down, as I live for fresh chips and salsa.
The extensive menu offered plenty of interesting choices. My daughter chose a chorizo burrito smothered in queso, it also included sides of rice & beans.
I choose one of their Platos Especial. It included enchiladas topped with queso fresco, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, potatoes, and sour cream.
It arrived looking very appetizing.
As I took my first bite of «crispy fried corn tortilla» I noted it was soggy, and burnt. It was obviously baked after being filled. I’m a cook, I understand this is common. I guess with the ‘crispy’ notation on the menu I assumed there’d be more texture. Sadly, no.
I’d ordered cheese enchiladas, but these had an indistinguishable meat filling. It was also luke warm. Scarily so. Understanding food handling procedures, this immediately set alarm bells ringing in my head.
My potato topping was also cold to lukewarm depending on the piece. The avocado, cheese, and sour cream were all cold, as expected. I took several bites, before looking up to ask my daughter how her burrito was.
When I looked up, I instantly lost my appetite! Rapidly crawling toward her along the wall was a small cockroach! Seriously, instantly I lost my appetite. Most people fear spiders… for me it’s cockroaches.
She grimaced, told me hers was «a salt lick» and «burned», but continued to take a couple more bites.
The cockroach disappeared into the empty booth next door, so I tried to move on. I just couldn’t eat, though. I imagined cockroaches in the kitchen (I have no proof of that, and when I inspected with a judicious eye as I left, everything did appear clean).
My daughter ate a bit more, then I asked for a to go container for our «leftovers» (I’m cheap, so my dogs benefited my lack of a meal).
I know I should have addressed all this with staff, but didn’t want to say hurtful or unkind things to the people working there, making a scene. (I’m new to the area & just straight up felt uncomfortable doing that).
As we were packing the to go container the cockroach came back up and over my daughter’s booth seat!!!
SO GROSS!
That was it, we both hopped up & waited at the counter to pay. I toyed again with saying something, but the servers weren’t overly friendly to begin with, the restaurant was busy, and they were reconciling the register.
I opted to just pay and go. Lesson learned.
I couldn’t beat feet fast enough!
Sorry, but there’s no way I’d set foot in this place again!

Half price breakfast tacos after 11am all day, homemade salsa and homemade chips. Fantastic refried beans and rice, and pretty great flautas. Open till midnight! Love this place!!!

Good mexican Food had a great experience breakfast tacos are so good get before 11 so you can get the special Good service very fast and for a very good price.

The food here is NOT authentic. The breakfast tacos are horrible! They don’t make them right they just throw the egg in a store bought tortilla and throw a little piece of bacon on it and that’s it!!! Taco Cabana serves better tacos than this

A great, inexpensive neighborhood place. Friendly staff and large portions. Wait until you’re really hungry and get the carne asada. Fresh, basic Tex-​Mex done just right!

I like the combination plate. I get the barbacoa and al pastor every time. The salsa is great. The beans are great. Usually its not too crowded. Service is usually good. Bathroom could use a facelift.

Amazing
Get the carne guisda w cheese and 3 enchiladas w red sauce
You will love it. Real Texas Mexican food $ 9
Hot sauce was as good as it gets.

I ordered chicken tacos, but they brought me cow tongue. I got them to correct the order, but then the chicken tacos had bones in them. Not cool yall. Not cool at all. You should be ashamed!

The staff seemed earnest but we’re not particularly service oriented. Slow to take order, slow to bring drinks, never brought refills, never brought a ticket, had to go to register to get bill and check out. Very little English.
The food was decent but not amazing and had some off putting quirks. Their home made guacamole was excellent, their salsa and Verde not so much. The tacos we’re seasoned well but didn’t feel fully cooked. Enchiladas used nacho cheese instead of queso.

The food was good and decently priced however the service was poor when we went. This could have been a one time thing. I will try the place again and update if the service is better. The nachos were extremely good and the burritos are very large and very good.

So many good things to eat at this place. My absolute favorite is the chicken tortilla soup. Best I’ve ever had! That broth is so flavorful and the avocado they add just makes this dish incredibly satisfying! Mmm. Mouth began watering just now. Sorry. For those of you that are looking for some good menudo, this is the place to be. It is made flawless. Nice chile flavor, tender menudo. Make sure to ask for the homony otherwise they dont include it. It is so good, highly recommend.
The staff is always friendly. The prices are incredible. The only thing I would say that I dont like, and it happens every time, is that they bring one dish out first and sometimes take a long time to bring the others. This makes it a bit uncomfortable because you want to start eating but dont want to be rude to those you are with. Just bring it all out at the same time and problem solved. Everyone is happy. Otherwise, everything else is on point. Check it out!

Food is okay. Ladies waiting on you irk me every time I done there. When I do get food to go I always talk to the super nice older man named Armando. He’s my favorite there. The Horchata is good. The Pastor could be better.

My son and I go here for breakfast almost every Sunday because it’s cheap authentic mexican food.
It’s now our tradition. We’ve had alot of items from the menu and never have been disappointed. Especially, with portion sizes. Not thrilled that drinks are free refills but thats really the only thing we complain about. 2 thumbs up! We will cont our Sunday traditions, here.

Good authentic traditional taste. Not expensive and the service was friendly. Looks a little dated but no complaints.
Needs some improvement in areas, but overall it was a good lunch!

I don’t like leaving bad reviews, but I can’t not put my 2 cents in about this place. Maybe it will help management improve.
Had a really bad meal here. The barbacoa tasted off and like no beef I’ve ever eaten. It was terrible. The texture was super fatty as well. The fajita chicken was so overcooked and under spiced… no flavor at all. None of the waitstaff said anything to me after I left most of my meal uneaten, and I could tell they noticed. My bad for not speaking up but… how odd.
The salsa and my husband’s chicken enchiladas with green sauce were ok, but both of us felt sick after eating here. Will not be returning.

(#84)Well…the first thing I had to do when I got home is pan thru the reviews wondering how this has 4 stars… this was a Flat Line on Flavor from the moment the Salsa and Queso hit the table… Lets start with fact I had to add salt to the Salsa… Zero flavor… Queso was Simple Nacho Cheese, I would assume Canned… Now for the food… ONLY thing was a + was the quantity on the plate, But with out Quality what do you have… Not Much… We break down our meals when we eat Mex/​Tex Mex… How good are the tortillas, the meat, the sauce, etc… Looking for layers of Flavors… and there was just NONE… This was one of the biggest disappointments on our Quest to #100…Im lost at the 4 star rating this place has… ON to the next Adventure.

The Good:
Traditional Mexican (Not Tex-​mex). The food was pretty good. The price was cheap and we left full and everyone was pleased over-​all. The staff was very friendly and attentive.
Needs Improvement:
The décor is very dated, hole wall at best and could use a good cleaning.
The menu is impossible to read for a gringo. It’s in Spanish. Most of us Texas can at least translate food, but there were several things on the menu that I had no idea what the were. Having an description in English would have been helpful. The young lady that waited on us and the gentleman behind the counter also did not understand questions we asked. Like I said above over-​all the experience was good.

Best. Chicken Tortilla Soup. On the planet.
Okay, maybe you mom’s is better — there’s some truth to the fact that the main ingredient in soup is love — but still. I would travel across states to eat this soup, and be happy about it.
I usually order the chili relleno, but I always forget that they don’t deseed the polbano pepper before making the dish, which makes for a quite a surprisingly spicy find halfway through your meal. The boy usually gets the Arandas burrito, which is *always* too much for him to eat, but he loves that it’s got all the beans and queso and everything else on it.
Everything is less than $ 10 here, and most of it is closer to $ 6 or $ 7. Super-​cheap eating, and quite filling. It’s not fancy, but it’s plentiful, filling, and downright tasty.
This place is quite an amazing find. A jewel of taquerias. Fantastic, authentic, Tex-​Mex. But it’s not La Condesa, so don’t get confused, foodies.

Excellent food. Service was kind of off. I got my food about 5 min before my girlfriends food came out.
Absolutely no wait time to sit. Food came out quick. The migas are bomb! The pastor taco is so delicious. I recommend coming here. For 2 people it was $ 15. Not bad at all!

I love this place so much… probably my single favorite place to eat in Austin.
The food is cheap and delicious. I highly recommend the carne asada and tortilla soup. You can’t go wrong with a torta cubana, either.
They’re open til midnight and the day and evening staff are both wonderful. I love the micheladas, too. Yum yum
Go check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
Update April 2015:
They’ve changed their michelada recipe… way way too spicy. I love spicy and it’s just too much. Burns my mouth. Their margaritas are so bad. A Beerita is better. The micheladas were half the reason I went before, and without a good drink to accompany my food, how good is this place, really? Looking for a new Mexican place…

So I guess this location recently switched names from Taqueria Arandas to Taqueria Guadalajara. That is good because this awful location was tarnishing the good name of the rest of the Taqueria Arandases.
I LOVE the other locations of Taqueria Arandas (*See my 5 star review for the location on S 1^st and my 4 star review for the location on E 7^th) but the food at this location is pretty horrible.
They have basically the same menu as the other locations only their ingredients are poor quality.
The other night I ordered fajita beef tacos and the beef was huge hunks of chewy fat that had to be spit out. Inedible and disgusting.
They only get an extra star because of their late hours. There aren’t many restaurants that stay open past 9 or 10 in this neck of the woods so if you’re starving they are always an option. However, I would suggest delicious Taco Bell before heading to this horrible restaurant.

As far as taquerias go, I find that this one was quite the hidden jewel. My boyfriend and I happened to be QUITE hungry and on Burnet. We were in the mood for a Taqueria and this place didn’t disappoint.
First of all, their chicken tortilla soup is OFF the charts. I was half tempted to order a pozole but, am quite glad I went down the other route. The cheese melted perfectly and the tortilla was sparse which I enjoy (other people pile it on). The salsa was on the spicy side and the Carne Guisada came out piping hot and was served in a way that I had not had it in a while. It was a happy lunch for me.
I wouldn’t order their margaritas and I wouldn’t order their horchata. There are other places which serve it a lot better. It’s fantastic and delicious and heavily on the cheap side.

My daughter and I have a weekend tradition of menudo on pretty much a weekly basis. We’ve just recently moved to town so we’re on the hunt for our new go-​to taqueria. Taqueria Guadalajara won’t be it. This is the kind of menudo that gives menudo a bad name. None of the tripe was honeycomb; it was all that floppy, furry kind. The soup had a thick layer of grease. And the whole thing had on off odor. My daughter asked if someone tooted shortly after we started eating. She hadn’t figured out it was the food yet. But it did have kind of a poop aftertaste to it. Two bites and we were done.
The rest of our family had enchiladas. They were all right but my sons said Taco Cabana was better. All in all, a bust. The search will continue.

Super happy to have a good, inexpensive Mexican place nearby. It’s not the best Mexican food in Austin, and not exactly a «date night» place. Just a good place for quick, cheap, good food.
Breakfast tacos are super cheap, which is awesome. They seemed to vary in size though. one morning I ordered tacos and they were TINY (but at less than a dollar each, I wasn’t complaining). The next time I ordered tacos, they were HUGE. So this makes it confusing in figuring out how many to order, but I’m not complaining.
I’ve also had their enchiladas. Placed a to-​go order and brought them home. They were hot and delicious (I was a little worried how they would turn out since I’ve seen mixed reviews on here, but they were good).

This place is trash. Place is filthy, falling apart. Service is ok, not good or bad.
The salsa gets them 1 star. Ordered chips and queso, horrible. Consistency of chunky curdled mushroom soup. I ordered the chicken enchiladas with green sauce and a topo to drink. My topo Chico had a ring of either food or rust on the rim, the cup they gave me was filled with ice I don’t think I could trust.
Food came out and was horrible. The tortilla the enchilada was rolled in was cold, the chicken had cold and hot pieces in it. The sauce it was drenched in was sour tasting. Just terrible.
I will never come back and don’t understand how people enjoy it. I would suggest taco cabana over this place.

Happy birthday, dear friend! She wanted Mexican Food. and so she got it!
I turned to good olé faithful Unilocal for a place nearby neither of us have ever been to. Much to my surprise, I learned that Taqueria Guadalajara was akin to Taqueria Y Restaurant Guadalajara in Elgin, Tx (you can read my review for them, here:
) as well as others in the area… apparently there a 5 locations, I believe he said.
So, needless to say, I was more than pleased and eager to give them a try. We did. and had a wonderful time. The staff was friendly, although our waitress apparently appreciated magic… especially when we needed something. The food; however, made up for the not-​so-​great disappearing act from our waitress!
We both ordered the Burrito Guadalajara hers with chicken, mine with beef. They were delicious. The meat is the winner for me. More often than not in Mexican restaurants I find the meat to be flavorless, dry, or of cheap quality. This meat, at both locations, was great! Full of flavor, very moist, and «meaty» not crapola mashed in a tortilla! Thanks for that!
The chips were warm and crisp, the salsa packed a mild punch! The guacamole, to some, could be described as bland, but I enjoyed it. I prefer the taste of the avocado not be overpowered by salt and lime, so it was rather enjoyable to me.
Interior. Meh. Its the norm. Nothing fancy, for sure. There were a couple of soccer balls placed on the mirror, which I found somewhat amusing since the rest of «décor» was stick on fiesta decals (brightly colored) and those were the only 2 in the entire right section!
Over all a nice lunch. Ill be back the next time there is a calling for Mexican food!

Good, cheap, Mexican food. That about sums it up.
This seemed to me like authentic Mexican food. Not too spicy. Loved it!
We came in for lunch on a Thursday afternoon around 1. I ordered the chicken burrito (massive) and a side of aguacate. To drink I had horchata which is now my favorite drink. It was served in a gigantic cup and tasted heavenly. I only wish we could get this more easily here in NY.
Our waitress was kind and attentive. I enjoyed the opportunity to use my Spanish since I don’t get to do that much at Mexican places here.
I would definitely come back and try some other dishes! I can’t believe how inexpensive this place is! It’s great!