Emma’s Mexican Food

I know I usually give places 4 start but there isn’t a way to give or subtract half of a point, lol. Anyway, stopped by here for some rolled tacos because you can’t really go wrong with rolled tacos smothered in guacamole… They were tasty & hit the spot. I’d like to visit again & try different things!

Emma’s is a small little taco shop on corner of Buena Vista, tucked away from the busy Cuyamaca intersection. The menu offers your typical Mexican food including breakfast burritos. I have tried both the egg and bacon breakfast burrito, and a taquito combination plate with rice and beans. The rice and beans were very bland, almost no flavor, and the rice has quite a few veggies packed in it. I wasn’t that impressed with the breakfast burrito either; it was almost all egg and the bacon was a little undercooked. They offer take out orders here; wait time is low and their staff is friendly, however, their portion sizes and taste of the food is sub-​par. Sorry Emma’s, but there are better Mexican food restaurants worth my while in Santee.

I’ve been to 100s of mexican restaurants, sampled 1000s of burritos and different mexican dishes and this place is by far the WORST and most BLAND sorry excuse for food I’ve ever came across. I’ve tried 10 different things on the menu and EVERY single time I’ve eaten half and tossed that shit in the trash. To call this stuff mexican food is a stretch. I wouldn’t feed this food to my worst enemy, I DO NOT, AND I REPEAT DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS FOOD HUMAN CONSUMPTION.
Disclaimer: If it was possible to give these people negative stars I would have.

Amazing place, unlike other Mexican food I recently had this place well worth driving to.
You will not be sorry trying carne anything here. Love it!

I dropped in here starved for authentic quality Mexican food. I ordered a pulled chicken, rice, bean and cheese burrito with salsa Fresca and hot sauce. Omg, it’s so tasty. I will be back. Oh, and the cook and lady helping me was so nice and friendly. That’s a real bonus!

The food was fine, but EVERYTHING is an upcharge. The beef and bean burrito has beef and beans. Guac is extra, sour cream is extra, cheese is extra. Once you build a normal burrito, it’s pretty expensive for the quality of the food. Especially because the burrito was 75% tortilla.

Well I got a bean rice and cheese burrito wet and wasn’t real impressed. The tortilla was good, the beans were ok but the rice and enchilada sauce were pretty lacking. My wife went for the California burrito and wasn’t impressed either. Not bad but not good either.

This place used to be good. Staff is shitty and they are never open when they say they are.

Where do I even begin, this place is by far the best Mexican food shop in San Diego. I have been coming here for years, and not once have I ever been let down. My grandparents continue to be frequent flyers here every week, if you are looking for an amazing California burrito with awesome prices then come here. Unfortunately I moved to Washington for a year, but that doesn’t mean I won’t keep Emma’s close to my heart lol do yourself a favor and swing by there for great Mexican food and even better prices.

You never know what kind of food to expect out of places like Emma’s. While the inside is a bit bigger than most taco shops, this place has the hole in the wall vibe to it. I found this place by following some of the reviews that Dan F. had left for this place; he seems to judge these East County places pretty well. Emma’s Mexican Food is your typical divey local SD taco shop that sits in the industrial area of Santee on the southern end of Cuyamaca. Their menu (
) is pretty basic, only covering what you’d most expect to find at these restaurants. Nothing on the menu seems to stand out as special or unique, but that’s okay if they cook their food well. To the right of the register (
) is their miniature kitchen and walk in fridge, which are on the super small side for a larger place like this. The salsa bar (
) here is on the tiny side as well, as they only serve up three sauces and some pico de gallo. While their sauces are on the spicier side (not the green one though), they are far too oily for me to consider them any good. While there is nothing wrong with runny sauce particularly, oily is just off-​putting to me. The darker red sauce was my favorite out of them, even though I didn’t really use much of it.
Their rolled tacos (
) come in sets of three and five here. My order of three ran me about $ 3 and some change without the add-​ons. The reason for add-​ons here is that their tacos only come with guacamole and cheese. While some people like this, I prefer a bit of refreshing lettuce and tomato on top of mine to give it a better taste. Their guacamole was pretty good, however the rolled tacos (
) themselves lacked meat in the middle of a lot of them. They were crunchy and crispy, but mostly tortilla. Their California burrito (
) was definitely on the smaller side of things, the tortilla just appeared to be smaller than most you get from taco shops. The filling was also on the skimpier side, with a majority of it being French fries (
) instead of meat or guacamole. The burrito was supposed to come with asada, fries, cheese, sour cream and guac. The sour cream was non-​existant and the guacamole was little to be found. The carne asada its self was on the okay side, just add more! Also had a side of carrots () here, which were the only thing I didn’t have an issue with. The carrots () tasted pretty darn good and a good deal for 75 cents.
While there are a lot of great Mexican food places in San Diego, there are always the ones who just don’t bring quality to the table with their food. While the food wasn’t exactly horrible, it’s just that other places do way better for about the same price. Overall Emma’s wasn’t too good for me; I don’t think I will return anytime soon. A bit below mediocre in my opinion, they could use some help making their menu better, offering more quality ingredients and filling of their tacos. Then again, maybe I just hit this place on a bad day.

Wow, hands down «The Best Green Sauce» anywhere Period. Best service Period. Breakfast Burritos Very Good, Carne Asada the best in The World. Good Carrots, Rolled Tacos, Flying Saucers Done Very Well. DONT CHANGE A THING.

I went to the Santee drive in and wanted to pick up some food to take in. I went here based off the reviews as I live in Oceanside, and am not familiar with this area. When I pulled up there was not one person inside, I should have gotten the hint. I ordered nacho supreme, and a carne asada burrito. It came to $ 16.00. Seemed expensive but I was excited due to the good reviews. The nachos were disgusting. The chips were stale, the cheese was canned nacho cheese and there was about 6 tiny pieces of carne. The carne asada burrito was ok although really small and not much flavor.

I absolutely love this place. The California burrito is my go-​to. The chorizzo and egg burrito is also on point. Fave spot!

Great prices and good food. Big Burritos!

My family has been coming to Emma’s for at LEAST 15 years. When we lived in San Diego we would come every single Friday and they knew my entire families order by heart. I’ve lived in Arizona for eleven years now and every time I come into town thwy STILL know my family & our orders.
Emma’s holds a lot of sentimental value for me and I reccomend it to everyone in the area. I will never stop coming here.

I’m sadden to write this, but I won’t be returning.
I’ve been coming here for 5 years. I only order an egg & cheese burrito. It’s not that big, but it’s really good. But after today getting charged $ 4.75 for it, I’m done. Other shops charge anywhere from $ 2.50– $ 3.25, and they’re good too.

Just yes. I’ve been going to this taco shop for YEARS AND YEARS when I was younger they knew my name and my order. They would always correct me if I forgot to mention something in my order, that’s how often I went here! I actually ended up moving right down the street from this place so I find myself here more often than I’d like to admit. Emma’s has even become my boyfriend, our friends and my dad’s favorite taco shop. I’ve never had bad food from here, ever. The employees are awesome and nice and the place is always clean. Even around the salsa bar there’s never a mess around it. I just love this place. I’ll keep going here as long as it’s open.

Best taco shop in East County! Food is good and fresh, they’re super quick and friendly. I go here at least once a week. My go-​to burrito is the bean, rice and cheese. I love their red salsa with the onion and cilantro mixed in. Perfection!

I don’t understand why this place gets such great reviews. I tried this place after seeing the reviews, and I won’t be going back. It’s not that it was bad or that there was anything wrong with the burrito, but there are better Mexican taco shops nearby.
Let’s talk about the food. I use the California burrito as my metric when trying any new taco shop. Here, it comes with lots of fries, sour cream, and guacamole, wrapped up in a lackluster flour tortilla that could have used more time on the griddle. No pico de gallo, but that’s not a deal breaker. Plus they have it at the salsa bar so you can add it if you want. The carne was thin, flavorless, and grey — no seasoning or spices. The fries, though plentiful, were thin and crispy, but again mostly flavorless. I like my fries thicker and more potatoe-​y. The guacamole was the one good thing this burrito had going for it — good and fresh, great flavor. Sour cream was standard, and they didn’t overcream.
Salsa bar: three selections, plus the aforementioned pico. The pico was very good, and seemed freshly made. The two red sauces seem very similar. Both are very watery, but have a decent kick. I would like them more if they were a little thicker and not so watery. The green was less spicy but also brought some heat. It was a pretty good green sauce, nice pieces of tomatillo and peppers.
The prices were fair and less expensive than lots of other taco shops, but based on the quality of the burrito I had, I can’t give more than 2 stars.

I had a very nice breakfast for a very good price here. I had the Huevos Mexicanos with rice and beans with four corn tortilla for $ 4.96 including tax. (
) The scrambled eggs came with tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions.
The scrambled eggs were great. All the ingredients were fresh and well seasoned. I used the very good corn tortillas, (
) to make breakfast tacos, some with the red sauce and others with the green. The red was my favorite because it had better flavor, and had a better kick. (
) Great breakfast tacos.
The re-​fried beans were great. They well very well seasoned and had dynamite flavor. The rice was good, but it was a little bland. It could of used some salt. (
) The people who work here are very friendly and polite. They were very happy that I enjoyed the meal.
I can’t believe that the meal was only under $ 5. Great price and some very good food is a winner in my book!