El Valle Mexican Restaurant

Love, love, love! Great tasting food, affordable pricing, fast service, and great music playing in the dining area. The chicken tacos and avocado salsa are my two favorite things to order. I’ve never had to wait long for food, and the staff has always been pleasant. I’ll visit every time I am in San Rafael!

Delicious fresh made sopes, crispy to perfection, Affordable, friendly, quick service. As a picky eater of Mexican food, this is authentic! Lots of seating and convenient downtown location.

Almost don’t want to right a review because I think of El Valle as my secret spot. Yet alas people must know this is the best burrito joint in Marin. If you are a fan of Chipotle, I don’t expect you to understand. This is the real good stuff!

I stopped by El Valle for a burrito at the recommendation of a friend and was not disappointed. I had a Chile Verde burrito and it was one of the best burritos I have ever had. I can’t comment about the rest of the menu, but the burritos are authentic and delicious. Highly recommended.

Above average, good value, good taste, clean. The green guacamole salsa is great…

This place is da bombbbbb, thank god I found a good California Burrito in Nor Cal. Almost had to move back to SD but alas there is a burrito God in this area! Home is where the cali burrito is and this is my new home. Viva la carne

I thought this place would be good from the reviews. I ordered my usual, a super carnitas burrito with black beans. It came out so GOOPY you literally could pour the inside of the burrito out like it was a cup of soupy water. All I could taste really was the guacamole and the sour cream. All the other flavors were obscured. I mean come on? It is just common sense.

Mediocre… maybe.
I’ve only been there once so I’m giving the third star as benefit-​of-​the-​doubt. The place was clean enough and staff was friendly. The burrito was ok, it just sort of scratched the itch.
I was the only one in line, ordered a burrito and it took waaaay to long to make. Beans were mushy and overall the burrito was bland. The chicken was good but a bit charred. Fortunately they have Tapatio on all the tables. Used liberally it definitely helped the burrito go down.
If this is the benchmark for a 4-​star taqueria in San Rafael, we are in real trouble people.

Very friendly and helpful staff… Food is delicious and very reasonable priced

Food is excellent, prices are a tad high for some items but worth it.

We will be back often. Honestly good food at reasonable prices. Burrito is five stars. Tostata Salad with corn tortillas and roasted chicken is also five stars.
Lost one star due to appearance of restroom.

Ended up here due to the long line at Sol Food. Extensive menu, but felt like a pupusa and thrilled it came with that oh so good vinegary slaw. Tacos good, black beans, even licuados. Chip station had those marinated carrots, could eat them all day long. No hipsters here, just locals drinking margaritas watching soccer, and so cheap. Would definitely return.

So how many restaurants do you know that would serve up tongue, tripe and beef head? Yes, you read that right, beef head. So even if you are not that adventurous, the chicken chimichanga is excellent and well worth 1 – 2 meals. The super nachos are topped with guacamole, refried beans, sour cream, and yummy cheese. Just come right in, walk up to the friendly folks at the counter, order your take out or dine in, and watch the spanish soccer game while you wait. 5 minutes later, voila, there is your delicious dinner ready for consumption. I thought it was well worth a try!

WOW. Great food. Ingrid and Alvaro the owners put their heart and soul into this place and the food shows it. From the freshly cooked Serrano chilies blistered with love in the salsa bar to the freshest ingredients in all of the items I tried. The winners? The. Cuban Sandwich and the shrimp tacos. Next time your 20^th in line for reheated Sol Food, go to the other end of that same block of Lincoln and try El Valle. You’ll be hooked

They have an awesome grilled veggie taco salad that we get every time, their veggie burrito is great too if you add the veggie mix. The veggie mix is seriously great, and not simply the typical grilled peppers and onions. The Portions are decent, the salsa is wonderful, the chips at the salsa bar are kept fresh and prepared well, they have fresh prepared habanero hot sauce if you ask for it, and their prices are reasonable.
Their service: When we asked to get ours with no cheese or sour cream the man taking our order actually paid attention to the fact that we don’t eat dairy and asked if we wanted our veggies grilled without the butter sauce they usually use. It’s great to know that the person preparing our food at this little taqueria is genuinely interested in providing good service… even after we made a few substitutions to our orders!
They’ve earned our repeat business — check them out!

El Valle is what happens when three soccer teams walk into Taqueria San Jose moments before you.
The upside: Unlike TSJ, they have black beans.
The downside: flavorless carne asada, oily chips, off-​tasting red salsa.
Burritos were half the size of TSJ’s big-​as-​your-​head burritos. I’d complain, but essentially I’d be saying they should give me more of the burrito I didn’t really care much for. No thanks, current size is fine.

We have been going to this location for several years (albeit just a few times each year) and were always delighted with the service, flavor, price. Well, they’ve raised the prices. We ordered seafood burritos california style (french fries in place of beans and rice actually INSIDE the burrito) to go, gave a generous tip– in a rush we didn’t check the bags but the cheapos didn’t even include one napkin for 4 people nor and chips, salsa, NADA… And the vegetarian burrito was some lettuce/​tomato/​onions/​beans (we put a hold on the rice) with FLAVOR sadly lacking. Three shrimps in a $ 12 burrito is poor value and disappointing dinner, especially after the hefty shrimp burritos we were used to getting here. The fish burritos were good, tasty, enough fish but then, for $ 12 without a chip … C’mon, guys, but you lost our business…

I used to stop in this place in it’s last incarnation as a Taco spot and the food was always pretty good. Today I went in, barely noticing it was a different restaurant as the décor and set up is basically the same. They still have serve yourself chips & salsa, with pickled jalapeño carrots & onions, and they still have music competing with the television (which I always find annoying), but when I took my first bit of my veggie burrito, I knew for sure this was a different place. The flavors were incredible! The pinto beans were like butter, the guacamole was tasty, the cheese was melted and the salsa was delich. My only complaint was that the burrito was HUGE and was so tasty I almost ate the whole thing. Really… I wanted to only eat half but somehow I couldn’t stop myself. I will be back!

Quick update (2013÷11÷12): I just had their chicken tacos and they were amazing!!!
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Two words: Shrimp Tacos
Seeing this joint open recently just around the corner from work, we decided to try it on a lark. I wasn’t really hungry but decided to munch on a shrimp taco while keeping company with my colleagues.
I must confess that I was completely caught off guard by how delicious the taco was; I certainly wasn’t expecting that! (and I meant that in the best possible way)
The shrimps were fat and juicy with just the right amount of crunch sear on the outside. They must have seared it at a pretty high heat for just the right amount of time as anyone who’s cooked shrimp knows that shelled shrimps can go from undercooked to chewy in a new york minute.
I was also surprised by the size of the shrimps as it must have been a «25 count» (or so): one usually gets the small teeny ones in a taco.
I returned but decided to try a shrimp burrito this time. It was good but nowhere near its taco brethren’s royal deliciousness!
So there I was again today this time deciding to stick to my favorite tacos and boy is this a keeper!!!
Final words: Shrimp Tacos!!!

Alvaro the Chef creates three varieties of fresh drinks. The other day, I had the carrot and mango drink with my Mexican eggs Benedict with Chorizo, refried beans and rice. Yummy! Price is reasonable. Stopped by today had Canella (cinnamon) and Lime with Menudo! Awesome!!! They also had Tamarind.