Anna’s Taqueria

YUM. One of my favorite burrito spots, al pastor is the best. Cheap quick and good! A billion times better than chain burrito places!

This place just raised all its prices quite a bit. But on the other hand, they do seem a whole lot slower.

This Anna’s is located inside the MIT Stratton Student Center. Burritos for like $ 5 – 6, you can’t really argue. You’ll get your choice of tortilla, meat (or meatless), some choices for veggies, hot sauce, cheese, etc.
They’re pretty quick to assemble up a burrito. It’s cheap (for those on a budget), filling, tasty. Nothing superlative to write home about.

Best burrito in Boston for an even better price! I would recommend finding parking through the SPOT app. It saved me the headache of expensive garages and impossible to find meters. Download the app here:

There is just something about Anna’s…
I have a soft, nostalgic spot for Anna’s, but I honestly think it’s legitimately good. It is fast, not expensive, and some items make it stand out from other burrito joints.
The breakfast burrito is good and different. Real scrambled eggs, potatoes and carnitas hash, freshly chopped saugsage, salsa, red beans, hot sauce. Sound good? Well, it is. Freshly squeezed OJ also available.
For the regular burritos I like to order them with carnitas, but honestly having tried all of them everything is pretty solid. They even have lengua, which works better in some tacos. Make sure to get your burrito with cheese, guacamole, sour cream, and all your favorite toppings. Unlike some popular chains… they don’t have unreasonable extra charges and they actually assemble the burritos keeping in mind that someone is meant to eat and enjoy it.
Now here’s the tip of the review. If you are feeling particularly hungry and don’t mind a few extra calories, go ahead and try the quesadilla. It is not your regular quesadilla, it is essentially a burrito wrapped in a quesadilla. Again, sound good? Well again, it is! Make sure to try it with Al Pastor pork and add everything you would add into your burrito.
There aren’t too many standout food choices near MIT campus, but Anna’s is solid.

Surprising fresh, and tasty even at 10:30pm. The shredded pollo is my favorite, and the carne Asada is a close second.

Decent Mexican food.
Can’t compare to chipotle or bean town taqueria.
Convenient location though.

Great Mexican food. Especially the breakfast burrito is great, as well as the Mexican plate. There is a large variety of options that you can have, however, there are only soft shell tacos. The service is good and the food is made right before you and fast.
The quesadilla is a bit different then one might be used to, because it is more like a burrito, just that the tortilla is fried, but is just as tasty.

The Brekfast Burrito was of a significantly lower standard than the other food provided in the surrounding area. However, Annas Taqueria is still a good option for a lunch.
The burritos are good, especially the sour cream and the chicken.
The air conditioning could be a bit cooler too.

I look forward to coming here every time I return to Cambridge. Simple tacos with good ingredients for a reasonable price.

The burritos here have a bit of a rustic, «rough-​around-​the-​edges» taste, and I kind of like it. They put a whole slice of muenster (I think) cheese on the tortilla before steaming it, rather than using bland shredded cheese, and it definitely packs quite a bit of flavor. The carnitas and other meats are cut right when you order, and the salsa is fresh. In general the burritos are full of flavor but not overly seasoned — you can clearly taste each ingredient when you bite into it. I ate here 4 times in one weekend because of a competition in Rockwell Cage, and yet I still grabbed an Anna’s burrito to go as I was on my way out of Cambridge because I knew I would miss it.
If you’re up early, their breakfast burritos are awesome also — eggs, rice, potatoes, and your choice of either sausage or chorizo, salsa optional. And they’re open at 7am — earlier than Dunkin Donuts!

I went to the Anna’s in Beacon Hill once and got the vegetarian platter to go and was extremely disappointed. Boring!
I finally went back, this time in the MIT student center, and got the vegetarian quesadilla with vegetarian rice. I don’t know why they call it a quesadilla… they melted cheese and then made a burrito out of it. But a good burrito! Usually I’m not a big burrito person, but this one had a good mix of vegetables /​beans in every bite. Vegetables tasted fresh, the salsas were good, and I liked having a warm tortilla with melted cheese (even if it wasn’t what I was expecting).

The lines get retardedly long during lunch hours.
Otherwise I would have given a 5 star.
Burritos are the best in the business.

Oh Anna’s…why do people rave about this place? I’ve gone back several times in the hopes that I’ll eventually have the experience everyone hypes it up to be. Nope… always the same.
Ordering is a major hassle here. The staff is very apathetic. They ask for your order but aren’t actually listening. They sort of just give you what they want to give you and your order is handed over to the cashier before you even have a chance to say which toppings you’d like.
Speaking of toppings, it all costs extra (e.g. sour cream). The prices seem low at first but they quickly go up when adding toppings. The portions don’t make up for it either. On my latest visit I tried the grilled chicken Mexican plate. Dry flavorless chicken on dry flavorless rice with a side of beans and salsa. I certainly won’t be going back after that one.
There are much better Mexican restaurants to try just a few blocks away, like Beantown Taqueria and MexiCali. Dare I say that even Chipotle would be a better option.

Healthy and delicious! I like the plates or burritos. Usually go for steak with fresh veggies… Yum!
The employees are nice too! You can’t go wrong here.

Oh Anna’s, how you’ve helped me endure stressful evenings of last minute cramming, unrequited love, and post gym noshing. During the youthfully exuberant (and youthfully reckless) days of my younger days, Anna’s was the go to panacea for everything wrong in my little collegiate world.
I went back recently to Anna’s recently and was happy to see the menu hadn’t changed for several years (except for the prices of course). I ordered my usual Super Quesadilla $ 6.25 with a mix of the Chile Verde and Grilled chicken, and it was exactly as I remembered it (oily but comforting). It wasn’t as mind blowing as some of the burritos I’ve had in California, but it was just the thing to bring me back to nostagia and days gone by.

Enough said about the burritos… I’m mad at Anna’s chips tho!
The paper bag is a little grease stained giving you the impression that you are getting the delicious /​«judge the quality of a mexican restaurant by» hand fried corn tortilla chips… Y’all know what I’m talking about.
Except its like luke warm Tostitos?! Not sure where the grease is coming from. The chips salsa is better than the burrito salsa tho, go figure!

Right in the heart of the MIT campus, across from the Kredge auditorium and at the very edge of the Stratton student center lays this Anna’s Taqueria location. And like any other location, it’s an affordable, quick and convenient place to swing by in order to get a quick burrito or quesadilla.
There’s really nothing unique or special about this location. The décor is non-​existent but there’s a few windows so you can sit and people watch. They also now accept credit cards, which is something that they hadn’t done in the past and that aside, it’s clean and their food selection is decent.
This is a nice alternative to getting food at LaVerde’s market or any of the restaurants in the area like Flour where the lines are insanely long. That being said, there’s nothing exceptional about their Mexican fare. It’s decent but far from great. If you’re hungry and in the area, sure, check ‘em out but if you have time, definitely seek other options out and definitely don’t make a trip out there just to eat here.

Good and convenient. Is in the center of the campus. If Alpin grill is closed this is a good choice.

I have friends who love Anna’s, but I just never had the chance to try it myself. So, I’ve heard that their quesadillas are strange in that they look very much like burritos, rather than the flipped over half moon thing normally served.
Peeking at their menu, I noticed that they offer something called al pastor… what’s that? Well, according to Wikipedia:
Pork is marinated over one or two days in a combination of dried chiles and then slowly cooked with a gas flame on a vertical rotisserie called a trompo (lit: spinning top), very similar to how shawarma is cooked, with a piece of fresh onion and a pineapple on top.[2] The juice from the pineapple contains an enzyme called bromelain, which breaks down protein and makes the meat very tender. When ready, the meat is then thinly sliced off the spit with a large knife. It is served on small tortillas, with finely chopped onions, cilantro and a small slice of pineapple, and usually topped with some lime juice and hot salsa.
Mmmm… they also serve lengua… that’s tongue for those of you who don’t know. Tongue is a wonderfully tender meat when done right, but just a warning that the lengua served by Anna’s still has taste buds attached.
So, for $ 6.90, I got myself a taco al pastor for $ 1.95 (vs $ 2.85 for all other taco options) and a lengua quesadilla regular for $ 4.50. I finished both, but felt quite full… probably should have just had the quesadilla…
The Taco was a pretty fat little foil wrapped package — two would have probably been fine for a light/​just right lunch. The taco al pastor had a bit of a kick. Tasty… but not my cup of tea.
The quesadilla began as a flour tortilla grilled open faced while the cheese was melted in the center. It was then topped as you wished, bundled up, foil wrapped, and packed into a plastic baggie inside the long brown paper bag. Good idea on the plastic — my lengua wasn’t well drained, so there was a pool of murky liquid left once I had finished eating. Probably would have been less messy if it was tighter wrapped, but a tasty meal nontheless.
Note:
Cash & Tech Cash Only at this location
Mexican rice made with chicken broth
Horchata includes milk & peanuts
Guacamole made with sour cream