La Salsa

So sad this place is closed down. :(

It’s all about the «Mexico City» tacos. Essentially street tacos with a little cheese melted beneath the meat. The carnitas is my personal favorite. I used to get these at the now closed La Mesa location, so it was nice to stumble upon this one and still have it open. The salsa bar needed more hot carrots though.

It’s a chain. They sell Mexican food. Seriously, that’s really all you need to know.
It is OK. It’s not amazing by any means, but I’m glad they had a few vegetarian options. The girl working there was super nice, the guy was kind of rude. The soda machine is COMPLETELY broken (all but the water). They do have iced tea, but it’s labeled unsweetened but is TERRIBLY sweet (not in a good way, and I’m from the south…) Seriously. So don’t even think about ordering a drink, because you won’t be happy! :)
I had a bean & cheese kids-​size burrito, and it was HUGE for a kids burrito, but tasty. The rice that came with it was OK. The chips & salsa were OK too. The avocado salsa is good, but I wasn’t a huge fan of many of the others. My husband liked the habanero salsa, but it was a bit too spicy for me. He had the cheese enchiladas, and they satisfied a craving he had, so that’s good!
Overall, not a place we’ll frequent, but we might be back. FIX THE SODA MACHINE. Seriously. Also, labeling sweetened tea as unsweetened is just mean… EW.

I confess, I really used to like La Salsa. That was before I learned what authentic cuisine was all about. This my friends is not authentic at all. I guess I would compare it to an «upscale» Taco Bell or Del taco.
On this given day I decided to go simple and go with a chicken quesadilla. This was served with pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream and a small bag of chips. A decent value for the amount of food you get. The quesadilla had somewhat of a cinnamon flavor to it that I thought was odd. The taste wasn’t overbearing but still had a strange hint to it.
While there was nothing wrong with my lunch, it really is more of a quick fix than anything. The service here is friendly enough and quick.
Nice selection at the salsa bar with a variety of salsas to suit your palate.
This particular one is located in a strip mall and can be very difficult to find a parking place and IF you do… the spaces are extremely tight and many are only 20 min parking.

I got the three street tacos with carne asada. The price isn’t that bad and the people behind the counter were friendly. The food came out at a good speed. The one thing that made this place bad is when a woman was refilling the salsa, her hand laid flat on the salsa with no glove. She just shook it off and nothing was done. Totally grossed me out when eating my food and does not seem like save practices as there should have been gloves on her hand.

I have been to better La Salsa’s and by far this is the worst I have ever been to. I was horrified at my experience here and plan to never come back to this location. I went to this place on a weekend during lunch time and it was quiet in there. I ordered my food with no problem and waited to get my order. The customer service was good but the problem was the food. I ordered a three taco combo (chicken, carne asada, and carnitas) with rice and beans. The Carne Asada taco was horrible, I could put a ton of salsa but would not make any difference. The chicken and carnitas was decent but no so great. It felt like this was made like two days ago and put in a microwave. Needless to say it was the worst taco experience I have had and I have eaten many tacos from different places and countries. This location has gone downhill and I am glad I did not get food poisoning from them. Be careful with this place if the meat does not taste good do not eat it. Throw it away.

I come here probably twice as month as I work in the area. It’s not bad for «American-​Mexican» food. If you want authentic Mexican, go somewhere else.
The place is always spotless and very welcoming. The service is pretty quick (although sometimes there is a bit of a language barrier). The food is inconsistent… sometimes I go and the food is excellent. Other times, it has been … well, not fresh testing. Sometimes, the meat will be dry, other times the chips are stale. I usually get the Grande Burrito and it’s halfway decent.
Another thing — if you go on La Salsa’s website, they’ll occassionally have a «Limited Time» food offering. For some reason, this particular location never has them, which is a bit disappointing. Also, this location is terrible for parking. Even later in the day, it can be very difficult to find close parking.

There is way better mexican food in San Diego. Besides that the wife got food poisoning there.

On Tuesday through Sunday, La Salsa is an over-​priced, sub-​par Mexican fast-​food joint, with super nice employees.
On Mondays, La Salsa is a very cheap, good-​tasting, Mexican treat for a larf.
So. If you go on Mondays, you’ll pay $ 1 for a taco (with chicken or pork), which comes with two tortillas (so you can make it two tacos), onions, cilantro, a handful of tortilla chips, and as much of the salsa bar as you like.
Any other day, these tacos are $ 3 each. The rest of the stuff on the menu is $ 5 – 8 and generally underwhelming.
As a bonus tip, if you plan to come on many Mondays, you can buy their hard plastic «Go Green» soda cup for $ 3 and then fill it up for $ 1 each time you come (compared to buying a soda each time for $ 1.75).
That’s the scoop on La Salsa. Go on Mondays. Any other day, look at one of the other 1,000,000 Mexican options in San Diego.

This was my first time ever as I remember that I’ve ever eaten at La Salsa.
Now coming in here I really didn’t expect anything spectacular from a chain Mexican restaurant.
Walking in, it was very white and clean. I decided to try their «Original Chicken Gourmet» burrito. It was fairly large, I picked it up and it was like it was panini pressed burrito.
The tortilla had a great butter smell to it, and the ever so important first bite was full of everything. Always a good sign.
All in all it was a great burrito, the chips that came with it were warm and fresh. And I decided to try ALL of the salsas that they offered at the bar. Stand outs were the mango salsa, hot salsa and the medium avocado salsa.
Will try this place again, but I won’t go out of my way to go here. Great side note, the bathroom’s were very clean.

Definitely better than Rubios or Baja fresh. I love their salsa bar. Very good portions (usually leave this place VERY full). Their jalapeño sauce is S-​P-​I-​C-​Y!!! I usually go here with my coworkers and always leave satisfied. Only negative point is that their parking lot is ALWAYS full during lunch.

Well I went there today because I was in the area. I don’t think I have ever been to a La Salsa before. Being half Mexican and living here in San Diego my whole 22 years of my life, I have become dependent on good mexican food.
I’m not gonna lie. I do enjoy the «taco bells» and the «on the borders» of the world also. Im not a picky eater. Anyways, back to La Salsa. It is identical to Baja Fresh, which im a big fan of. But the La Salsa was a little under par. The burrito was «ok» and the salsa bar was filthy. The lady at the counter practically yelled at me when I didn’t pick up my order at first because I was at the soda fountain. Chill out seniorita!
Next time I get the munchies for a fast food burrito, im going to Baja Fresh!

I think the thing is… this is Mexican food for people who will pass on authentic & tasty but maybe scary looking establishments and would like to eat their burritos/​tacos/​quesadillas, etc. in a clean brightly lit modern enviornment. There’s nothing wrong w/​that attitude, nor is there anything wrong w/​the food at La Salsa.
It’s just paying for that atmosphere seems ridiculous to me. Maybe if we were further away from the border, not close to alternative & much better Mexican food (not to mention cheaper), I could give it a better rating.
But for the over-​pricedness, the comment Mike D. made about the soap dispensers and the corporate feel of the place… eh, I’ll give it 2 stars.
The food and salsa bar are definitely good however.

I was craving mexican and being really undecided. The lady over charged my boyfriend. $ 7 for each plate? yea right… It said 5 on the menu! It’s too restaurant-​ie for mexican food. I like their little salsa stand. I like their carrots b/​c I can get as much as I want!!!
I didn’t really like my tacos, I didn’t really like my rice (I usually LOVE my rice the most) hmm… I wouldn’t go back. Not even for the carrots. Okay, maybe for the carrots… not the food. I like my Cotija’s!
Not worth the price! But their friendly, they keep it clean… FROM WHAT I SEE… I know restaurants do dirty work haha

La Salsa is the best of the fast Mex chains, in my opinion. Love the mango salsa.

I think I only come here for the salsas– I swear I have like 8 cups of different salsa and have a field day. I love playing with my food and mixing different flavors– Screw the burrito, I’m here for the salsa. :-P
The chicken fajita burrito was not that great. I liked the mild salsa, the pico de gallo, and the habanero salsa. I was sad that they replaced the mango salsa with some cranberry salsa– hopefully they will bring them back when it’s not close to the holidays. There are also spicy carrots w/​garlic and onions. :-) This place reminds me of my undergraduate years…

Like Baja Fresh, but not as tasty nor as fresh. Every good business idea seems to have lots of nearly identical clones lately. I’ll likely come here again though only due to it’s close location to people I’m currently working with. Be sure to visit the salsa bar, it’s the redeeming quality of this place. With some fresh mango salsa, fresh jalepeno’s and some pickled hot carrots and onions i was able to add enough flavor to the pinto beans and rice to make them edible.