Rolandos Taco Shop

Came here on a food run for my job. Didn’t get to catch the mans name but he had a tattoo on his forearm. Great customer service! Got our order right and we had a pretty difficult order. Definitely coming back! Our food was good.

It had been a few years since I went to this restaurant and I was craving mex food other than Lolita’s so I thought I’d give this place another shot. Parking is still an issue but there’s not much you can do.
Friends and I got rolled tacos with rice and beans ($ 5), Cali burrito ($ 6) and Super Nachos ($ 8.59). They’ve raised their prices so this is no longer a cheap option for mex food. If you get combos and drinks for two it will be around $ 25-​$ 30 after tax. Everything we ordered had pico de gallo which sucked for us but oh well.
The food was pretty much the same as it was a few years ago. I would say everything tasted average. The meat was dry/​flavorless. We ended up throwing away the nachos because it didn’t taste very good. The chips themselves tasted okay, but the toppings didn’t.
I was surprised to see that they now have a salsa bar. This is a very welcome addition to the restaurant and they have a few selections for your spicy pleasure. The to-​go serving cups are fairly generous. They have a few selections on offer now.
I would say go here for drunken munchies because they are open late. You’ll also have better luck with parking at this time. Other than that I would probably head to Lolita’s and pay a little bit more for better quality.

The food was awful. I ordered the chicken taco and chicken burrito combo. The meat tasted bland and slightly off. The only edible thing was the refried beans. Those actually had some flavor. Definitely not coming back here.

I just actually finished dinner with my son right now. Bad customer service. Carne Asada tacos tasted as if they were spoiled. The horchata is water down. Churros are hard as a rock! Never again! Horrible place! I do not recommend this place!

If there is a minus star i would give it to them. There were 2 of us coming at 11:45pm. We ordered Super Nachos and really disappointed. It was a cold nachos. The cheese was not melted and stinks since it was cold. The pickle jalapeños were bitter, not sour like regular jalapeños. I think the food are old and their cooking technique

I ordered a couple combo’s with Chicken Tacos, and a
had a strange smell and taste. This was the worst Mexican food I ever had in Kearny Mesa
Never again. I’m going ask for a refund.

We came here the other night because Grandma Tofu was closed. This place is in the same little shopping plaza. The place wasn’t busy at all. They had a handful of customers eating. The place looks like a standard Mexican taco shop.
We ended up ordering carne asada fries, which is usually a safe choice. I mean how can that get messed up, right? Well it was ready and came out around the 10 minute mark and it looked okay, but when we dug in, it wasn’t very good.
The meat had a bland, unfresh kind of taste. Not sure if the meat was old or what the deal was, but it wasn’t very appetizing. I don’t think it was old, it just tasted «off». The fries didn’t taste very good either… it tasted like old oil. They probably need to change the oil in their deep fryer. Overall, it just didn’t taste fresh or good. We didn’t finish and it ended up getting tossed in the trash.
I might give this place another chance, but there are so many decent taco shops around I almost prefer to go with a safer choice versus risking another bad meal.

I’m actually at Rolando’s right now. I had breakfast consisting of ham and eggs with rice and beans and corn tortillas. It was very good. The restaurant is a bit rundown, It could use some refurbishing. But I don’t really think it’s dirty and the food was pretty good. So despite it being a little old and out of date, I’ll give it four stars based on the quality of the food. Not the best I’ve had, and I wouldn’t go out of my way for it, but it was quite tasty.

The food was not the problem and as a matter of fact it was good food, not great, but good. The reason I am giving such a bad review is that it is incredibly over priced and so therefore me and my husband couldn’t each order a combo plate as we usually would do. Instead we shared the carne asada plate for what almost came to $ 12.00. Then as if that were not enough already they hit us with a .50¢ charge for using our debit card which I believe is total crap. We also shared a large fountain drink and so our overall total for just one person came to right under $ 15.00. If I would have ordered a separate plate & drink instead of sharing we would have paid $ 30.00 for lunch. I don’t know about other people but where I live in El Cajon we could have ordered from any other taco shop and fed us both for about $ 18 & this is including our drinks. As I said before their food was good but nothing that will stick out in my memory allowing me to remember the place. Certainly not a worthy meal of what we paid either. Most likely won’t be back!

They’re open 24 hours, which is great. I came at 6am and got a california burrito and some rolled tacos. The place reeked of cleaning products and the floor was wet. I guess that’s good and bad. I mean, at least they cleaned the place. But, smelling all those chemicals didn’t exactly keep me in the hungry mood. But, since my order was to go, I stuck it out.
I’m a variety person, which is why I got 2 things even though I wasn’t going to finish them. First up was the rolled tacos. Minus 1 star already for forgetting the sour cream that I paid extra for. Two, the tacos were tiny! As for the flavor of the tacos… well, the hot sauce was good! It wasn’t hard to put down the rolled tacos. Next up, that burrito. In the words of those 2 guys from Men On Films on In Living Color… HATED IT! Again, no sour cream. Also, the meat had an «off» taste to it. It didn’t taste spoiled, but it just didn’t taste right. Also, the french fries were totally outnumbering the pieces of meat in the burrito. A complete bummer since I hardly come to San Diego and am always looking forward to good Mexican food.
Even though the cashier was pretty nice, I can’t seem to get myself to even give 2 stars. When I was ordering, the music was so loud that she had trouble hearing me.
Side note: I think this was Roberto’s in a past life. The building and signs have the looks of a Roberto’s. In fact, it’s like Coming To America in a way. You know, instead of going to McDonalds, you’re going to McDowells. And, instead of the golden arches, they had the golden arcs. You get the point…

We tried Rolandos on a whim and were not disappointed. The complimentary hot carrots are a tasty treat as you wait for your food. We ordered fish tacos and some rolled chicken tacos. While this place may not be overly appealing to the eye, the food is authentic. What they don’t put into the décor, they put into the genuine goodness of the food.
Perhaps the experiences of others justify low ratings, but not for us. We’ve returned more than once and have been pleased with each trip.
Of course your experience may be different, but I think this place is worth a try.
Recommendations:
Friendlier service
Correct the misspelling on the sign in the window. Hint: Potato not Potatoe
Add a little life and character to the restaurant. A little authentic décor could go a long way.

This taco shop has lots of bad reviews but I thought I would give it a try since I had a coupon. The restaurant only had one other customer when I visited on a weekday evening. Pricing is in line with other hole in the wall taco shops. I placed my order and presented a coupon from the entertainment book. The cashier refused to take it and only said «no, no more.» She didn’t explain why and just refused to take the coupon. This is a perfectly legitimate coupon with valid dates on it so it is poor customer service to refuse to honor it and fail to provide an explanation. There are plenty of other taco shops in the convoy area with much higher ratings so this shop needs to get its customer service act together to attract/​retain customers.

Came here late on a wkend night with some friends. I luv Mexican food but find many restaurants not so clean so rarely eat Mexican much.
I order a beef burrito but got a bean burrito with 5 pcs of tiny beef cubes. Went to cashier to c if I got someone else burrito by mistake. The cashier told me ‚” no. Its right” then I show him how little beef is in there he said that’s how our beef burrito looks like”.
I don’t know. Maybe they were out of beef that night & figure they’ll just throw in whatever random crumbs is left. So I ask, what if I order a beef burrito with no beans?
He said then he has to charge me more for beef.
Seriously? ?? So I told the cashier I want a refund. I won’t be eating here ever again.
He told me they don’t do refunds.
These guys are a bunch of street thugs ripping people off!
Just remember Rolando staff when something doesn’t go right for u. Its karma coming back to u.
U won’t be in business long. Selfish rude people will fail. You’ll see.

Carne Asada was ok. Chips n cheese cost $ 5 same price as Chips n Guac on there menu. Taste is ok. Salsa bar has Carrots and peppers, Hot Sauce and Verde. Salsa bar has no Mexican Salsa had to pay extra, that was blend as well. open 24 hours. Not to clean. Menu to pricey.

There’s a lot of things this place isn’t: clean, friendly, inviting, etc. I mean, their food is inconsistently decent at its very best.
But despite, maybe even because of these glaring flaws, this is a great taco shop.
The older reviews cite bad customer service, which was completely true. A huge Mexican dude used to work here that would make you feel like trash for ordering. He’d grudgingly whip up a plate of carne asada fries as fast as he could then go back to listening to the bilingual radio.
In a way I appreciated how no-​BS this place was. Maybe it’s the masochist in me, but past 2am I don’t expect or even want someone smiling at me and pretending to be my friend. Service was more typical during the daytime, but after hours, it was all scowls.
Then the place got new ownership. They brought the food out on plates and thanked you and without the character the food somehow tasted worse. That was maybe 6 months ago.
Recently I walked in here and there was one huge flat screen TV –facing only the cook. I was secretly elated. Maybe the guy would even cuss me out? What I found was a new guy that was still utilitarian, but also surprisingly friendly.
I ordered a carne asada burrito plate and drink with extra rice and no beans to-​go (~$ 7).
Even starving the burrito was only decent. Opening the styrofoam package I also found, next to the rice staring up at me at 1am on a cold Sunday: warm beans with extra cheese on too. I just ate around them. It was perfect.

Terrible experience
Terrible food
I asked for chicken soft tacos,
I was served greasy & cold hard shell tacos.
I do not know how to explain how
Aweful the customer service was.
No bueno

Decent parking and easy to get to… The entire time I was eating here, I was thinking I should have just been patient enough to eat at Manna BBQ located directly across the street. My wife and I were the only ones eating here… though we got our order pretty quickly, the food was just meh… It’s clean but the dining area looks like it’s had patch work done with the seats — as they don’t match and have a few seats that look like you can’t even use them based on how they are set. I will say, you can’t go wrong with a Carne Asada Burrito, drink, rice and beans for less than a sit down place would charge.

VOMIT!
This place blows. I dropped by here one day on a whim and boy was I mistaken!
The location is surrounded by dozens of places I could have eaten at, but no… I picked this fine establishment!
The interior of the restaurant was disgustingly dirty as hell. I tried to sit down but EVERY table was covered in old trash and previous patrons food. I attempted to get some hot sauce but the flies buzzing around it, made me change my mind.
I ordered a Carne Asada burrito, which shouldn’t be hard to accomplish in SD. The meat had no flavor and they filled the damn thing with enough guacamole for 3 burittos! It was like biting into a mexican water balloon.
This is also a really expensive taco shop in spite of being so low quality. Burritos are close to 7 dollars with tax. You’ll get crappy food and feel like you got robbed!
I won’t be back, and you should do the same.

I’m very disappointed!!! We ordered a California Burrito and 3 Rolled Tacos and was charged $ 16!!! Lol then the food was horrible. This place is over priced and lacking quality … P. S. the rolled tacos was lacking meat. Lol

2.5 to 3 stars. The service was quick for our bean/​cheese burrito and bean tostada, but the refried beans weren’t really that tasty in either item. But it was inexpensive so it wasn’t a big deal. But I think we’ll go elsewhere next time.