Cotijas Taco Shop

Not at all impressed. I ordered 3 rolled tacos and 2 nacho Supremes. I was also wanting to order flan but the guy said they don’t have it. it was in the menu. anyways. so to start off with the rolled tacos, they tasted good, however, there was a heaping pile of shreaded lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and cheese. I have never had rolled tacos that you pick up and all the toppings just fall off of. They where eh. Nothing special. Now for the nachos. They got the order right as far as one having no beans and no guac but when I order nacho supreme I expect them to have everything on them. However, this was not the case! There where chips, very good chips might I add, a heaping pile of shreaded lettuce Tomatoes, sour cream that was stuck to the top and cheese on top of the sour cream. What’s wrong with that might you ask? Well here’s what’s wrong… there was NO meat! I have never had nachos supreme with NO meat. Mind you… one of the options for nacho supreme is a vegetarian nacho supreme and I surly didn’t order that with my beef rolled tacos! I didn’t even bother to check my food before I left and didn’t notice until I got back to work to eat. Anyways everything tastes good but I have had way better food across the freeway at another Mexican food place. I won’t be going back! Plus I felt like the guy at the counter had a bit of an attitude.

We were excited to find a Cotijas closer to home. We should have driven to Santee. Ordered carne asada chips with no onions. At first it looked fine, but found onions buried under the meat. The meat tasted like half carne asada and half fatty pot roast. Chips were so coated in oil you can imagine how they tasted as they were a to go order so they were eaten immediately. I looked down to the corner of the plate to find a pool of oil. After that I was done trying.

I love to visit San Diego and bring Mexican food back home to my family in Los Angeles. The shredded beef taco shreds. But the side of beans are better at sombreros. They come with cheese there. This place is pretty top notch still. Next time I’ll have to order the side of beans with queso. This is the first place that doesn’t do it automatically.

The Cotijas Mexican food chain has been expanding in San Diego, with this newest location off Magnolia right next to the Bradley exit on the 67. This shop seemed to be a lot smaller in terms of a dining area, it definitely strikes as more of a takeaway restaurant. The menu at this location is relatively the same as the rest of them, with a few additions. Things like mini tacos and create your own breakfast burritos are a couple things that they have added. Their prices here seemed a bit on the pricier side of things, most burritos will run you about $ 7 with tax and combos/​specials close to almost $ 10 per plate. The salsa bar here is a bit different from the rest of the bunch in that it doesn’t feature their thick spicy red sauce or mild guac salsa that most the Cotijas restaurants share. Instead their salsa bar (
) features two semi spicy distinct red sauces, one weird tasting light colored sauce, and a green sauce. Pickled hot carrots and onion& jalapeño mixes are free with bags up top. Place was completely emptied when I showed up here and the staff seemed to have a hard time with getting the order done right on the register and knowing what was in the food. Even getting past all the buzz at getting my order in, the food came out quickly and correctly.
Their #1 special comes with a beef taco, rolled tacos and one bean tostada along with a drink for about 9 bucks with taxes. The plate (
) looked pretty good when opening the box, they added plenty of toppings to everything. They seemed to use lots of jack cheese and cotija cheese here as toppings as opposed to cheddar. The taco shells were quite crispy and not very greasy at all. They added plenty of shredded beef to the tacos along with a nice heaping of Mexican guacamole to the top of the rolled tacos. The bean tostada was also tasty with their creamy seasoned beans and lots of cheese. I really like how much lettuce and tomato they added to the top, gave it a very crisp refreshing texture to the food. I also decided to try out one of their burritos while I was here. First I noticed about their California burrito was, it was quite big and bulky which makes the price easier to justify. The burrito (
) was wrapped in a slightly crispy tasty tortilla that was stuffed to the max with asada, cheese, fries and sour cream (no extra charge). They added tons of meat to this thing and went light on the fries. No one is ever going to complain about too much carne asada, but their meat here tasted a bit dried out and almost like it had been sitting on the grill in water all day then just warmed up. Not a very appetizing California when the carne asada was stale tasting. Tortilla, fries and sour cream were good, but the meat was just gross.
The hot sauces here was just okay, I really wished they went with the same recipe for sauces as the other locations use and I know I would enjoy them better. Their pickled veggies were really good and spicy, I would definitely snag some of those if you come here. Overall this is a new place that just opened up and you can tell from some of the shortfalls. Hopefully they begin to get a bit better at entering orders and making their food fresher, this place is literally surrounded by other taco joints and I’m sure people wouldn’t put up with stale asada in their burritos. Like some other reviewers have said, it’s hard to beat the Cotijas off Mission Gorge.

Great food. Fast friendly service. I call ahead so I can just walk in and grab it. The hot sauce is good too!

I love that we have a new Cotijas near us. Good food and the place is very clean. Cotijas seem to always have a great stander when it come to what they serve. This one is no exception

I always like a good carnitas burrito, and when I read Cotijas makes their own via an old family recipe, well I just I had to try it.
The burrito was of good size and came generously filled with the tender shredded carnitas. The burrito also came with pico de gallo and guacamole. The home recipe carnitas were no doubt the star of the burrito. The carnitas were very tender and juicy and the house seasoning were fantastic and elevated the natural savory flavor of the pork meat. It was also heated properly, where certain pieces were crispy and others simply tender.
The pico de gallo was fresh and quite tasty. The guacamole was good, lightly seasoned, but I would have to say the burrito needed more of it. There was just a little of it around the ends of the burrito. The flour tortilla they used for the burrito was of good quality and had that nice butter texture and tasted dam good.
I tried the red hot sauce with the burrito which was good. It had a nice balance between tomato and red pepper flavor and a good mild heat that lingered a bit on the tongue.
Some great carnitas served with friendly service and a side corn tortilla chips for a round $ 5, yes of course I am a fan.

I have been going to Cotija on Mission Gorge all my life, so when they opened this location on Magnolia I was happy because Magnolia is closer to home for me.
I ordered a Carne Asada Burrito and it took 25 minutes to make it. There was only two people ahead of me. Also the meat did not have the same taste as at the Mission Gorge location.
Summary:
The Magnolia location sucks! Mission Gorge can be packed full of people and you can order anything on the menu and get it in 5 minutes.

Ordered chips with American guac and a beef taco. Took over 20 minutes. They didn’t give American guac, then when I called she said they never asked for it, which they did. The beef taco was fried to a crisp, and chips had regular guac. No flavor and to top it off had a wonderful hair on it. Person who answered phone tried to act like she cared (I could tell the sincerity by the way she was talking to others while I was talking). She offered store credit, no thanks. That would require me to come back. Don’t waste your money

Love their tacos! They are loaded and are decent in price. I’ll be a frequent customer.

This place rocks ! Awesome customer service and the food is delicious. I really enjoyed my meal and their salsa bar has amazing hot sauce. I’m stoked about this place.