Taqueria El Balazo

This location is CLOSED. So we turned around and went to the market place location — ordered a Jerry’s burrito (with sauteed cactus!) and a chile verde, $ 7.50 each — they come with some chips and a cup of cabbage salad. Not exciting or anything, but it’s good and we felt full and satisfied when we left. Salsa bar has 5, 6 choices of salsa and onions/​limes. They are good. The restaurant portion is behind a large sports bar — so if you enter from the bar, just walk straight through the bar area you will see the restaurant. There is an entrance on the restaurant side too.
Nice interior, bright and spacious. Stand in line, order as they assemble your food, and pay at the cashier.

This location (which we referred to as «Mini-​Balazo») has CLOSED, as of about about a month ago. They decided not to renew their 5 year lease (due to increased rent, proximity to other El Balazo locations, etc.). This was a good location for a quick burrito to go, but I must admit that their food (& cleanliness) had gone downhill over the past 2 years.

El Balazo is what about you’d expect for a taqueria in Danville — expensive and kind of blah.
We paid $ 3.25 each for a chicken taco and a carnitas taco, which I think is kind of pricey for something that probably cost about .50 to make. The carnitas was tasty, but didn’t have any of those little charred bits that I treasure. The salsa «bar» consisted of two large drawers of ice that had small plastic cups ½ filled with salsa tossed about. C’mon — where are my radishes, lime slices, jalapenos and 3 – 4 kinds of fresh salsa?
Don’t think we’d go back. Service was sullen and quick.

I love El Balazo! That is all there is to say really. I’ve been going to the various locations for 10+ years, I used to work at Warehouse music next to this location back in the day when they still existed and I was fresh out of high school and I would go here for lunch often. They are fairly priced, they give you huge portions, it’s fast, and the food is delicious! I love their cheese enchilada’s platter or the Carnitas burrito. yummm!

Almost walked out due to the smoke. They need some ventilation help.
Customer service is good. Food is good. And whoa… the salsa verde is hhhhhhhhhhhhhot!
I ordered the shrimp quesadilla, and it rocked.
Aye!

Not as crowded as the location at Market Place and Hopyard locations, and there’s no bar here so you don’t have to wade through a bunch of drunks. We usually go out of our way to come to this location because they don’t run out of the grilled vegetables as quickly as the others do. The Bob’s burrito, vegetable nachos, and chicken burrito are my favorites. I’ve been known to shell out almost $ 8 for a plain quesadilla because the cheese they use is so good. If anyone knows what brand they use, please tell me so I can save some cash.
This is going to seem weird, but their Coke machines have a really good calibration/​formula/​whatever you call it. The parking sucks here just like it does at the other locations I mentioned. I think crappy parking is a requirement for El Balazos, only the one by Wal-​Mart has decent parking.

Sometimes I dream about El Balazo’s pork tamales. They are really good. I always get one A La Carte tamale for lunch and rarely can I finish the whole thing. I know, that sounds strange– but please take into consideration that:
1. I am a small, and
2. the tamales are really big.
Plus, they load you up on cheese and chips and salsa. It’s a perfect lunch that always has me leaving in a happy daze.
Also– a note to the weirdos like me. Do NOT drop your business card into the «Win a free lunch at El Balazo for you and 10 co-​workers» bowl. They will call you– and by ‘they’ I mean some other company trying to sell you something, NOT El Balazo. So please, unless you want to get a call every day for 2 weeks straight about when you can set up your «appointment,» just don’t drop it in there!

El Balazo left me with no dinero!
I kept reminding myself after getting my bill that this is San Ramon, not Mission. For a party of 4 I spent close to $ 50.00, 47.83 to be exact! (Shoot! I think I forgot to tip) And just so you get an idea, we had 3 super burritos, 1 carne asada plate and 4 drinks. I couldn’t believe their canned soda was $ 2!!! Que what!?! Mind you this place is a fast food restaurant.
On the plus side, their carne asada was very tasty. But not tasty enough for my value meal budget.

This is a lesser-​known satellite of the bigger «Taqueria El Balazos» in the area. Every time I have been here the lines are short and fast. I like the fish taco platter because they bread it & fry it while you wait. Takes a bit longer than their trademark «fatty hand rolled burritos» but worth the wait. The serving sizes on almost all items is generous, but be ready to pay $ 7 – 10 for a filling lunch. The burritos are huge, but maybe because they’re overdoing it with rice/​beans. You can say no rice & beans if you like more meat.
They also have different fresh mexican style juice, like watermelon or cantaloupe and lots of bottled mexican sodas. No beer on tap like the Market Place location but do have bottled beer. Make sure to hit the salsa bar, if you like more flavor. The only thing that sucks is the parking can be a pain, it is right next to a Starbucks. Oh well, go with it & take an Americano back to work to help ya stay awake with your full belly!
The 4 stars are for the quantity and convenience, you can find more authentic Mex food but you can have it your way & watch them make it and it is tasty.