I have found my first and only San Diego-style burrito that I have truly loved, and it is here at this unassuming taco shop co-located in a convenience store associated with a car wash, Sonora Express. Also, there was no rice or beans involved. In fact, it was just meat. Lots and lots of meat -- a combination of seared carne asada steak, spicy pork adobada, and juicy pork carnitas. They throw in some melted cheese, caramelized onions, guacamole, and chopped grilled Anaheim peppers, and WOW -- it is filled with stealth umami-amplifying ingredients, and heat, and melty goodness, and most of the stuff inside tastes of charring and caramelization from the plancha it was cooked on. It is all wrapped in a sturdy griddled flour tortilla. It can be eaten with your hands. This is the Tres Carnes (3 meat) Burrito, full of flavor, and changing my opinion of what a San Diego-style burrito is capable of.
Christian H.
I'm disappointed with the change. Seems they've taken away another great menu item, the Buenos Dias burrito (the Chilaquiles burrito gets a shout out too) which was one of my favorite things to get there. Next to the Rockefeller burrito, which upon arrival at El Costeno (I ended up not ordering and eating elsewhere) noticed there was a slight change with the removal of grilled onions from it. Pretty bummed out, doubtful I'll go here if I want some Mexican food in the future as there are other great places here in San Diego.
Kristina R.
They've recently changed their name to El Costeí±o (translates to 'the coast') and was informed they're also changing their number for anyone trying to place an order to go. This is the second time coming here and it's not bad at all. I ordered the Rockefeller tacos and boyfriend ordered the chimichanga - with carnitas. The Rockefeller has shrimp, carne asada, avo, with some caramelized onions, topped with some creamy chipotle sauce with a kick to it (between 1-5, a 3.5-4 spice level) with a couple of slices of lime on the side. The chimichanga was a little on the dry side. But I guess to balance it out they have a few of their house sauces on the side. The burrito was also fried to give it a crunch and glazed with avo sauce and sour creme and with some pico de Gallo on the side. The place has a sewage smell on the outside but pretty calm for the environment.
Doug H.
I am sitting here getting my car washed and i just finished one of the best and most original burritos ever. Ive lived in socal my whole life so thats saying alot. I am going to start a regular thing with this chilaquiles burrito if you know what i mean. It is delicious and light and fresh. Great salsas too. The service is friendly and food is made to order. We need more of this.
Jay K.
Except for the "Tres Carnes Burrito" at Sonora Express, San Diego's burritos (mostly) suck. Yes, I live in San Diego, but I'm a zealous advocate for the San Francisco Mission-style Burrito. Don't @ me on this unless you've also ever lived outside of San Diego County, because the superiority of Mission Burritos over what we do in SD is not debatable. Also, I'm biased: my birthplace is San Francisco, even if my formative years were spent in the northeast. The first burrito in my life that I had that I actually liked was a legit Mission Burrito. With its rice, pintos, melted cheese, pico de gallo, and guacamole mixed with the lean grilled meat, wrapped in a large tortilla steamed so that it doesn't fall apart, it is a full portable meal requiring no fork or knife, just as the first burritos prepared by the wives of braceros were meant to be. Contrast that to the greasebomb burros that I encountered when I moved to San Diego. Sloppy seven pound burritos stuffed with nothing but meat and soggy French fries. Provincial locals who'd sneer at me, "why would you fill your burrito with rice and beans, when you can have more meat and fries in it, bro?" Gee, I didn't think San Diego burrito joints were operating with a size limit, given that these things they serve are already larger than human infants. So, yeah, I guess you could say I am a San Diego-style burrito "hater." My favorite burrito in San Diego before I discovered Sonora Express? The "Dí¶ner Kebab Wrap" at "The Kebab Shop" with chicken, onions, tomatoes, spicy cilantro & yogurt sauce, and saffron rice. I do not jest because burritos are SERIOUS business to me, since burritos really are just very large tacos, and tacos are no joke. All of this is a long setup to affirm that I have found my first and only San Diego-style burrito that I have truly loved, and it is here at this unassuming taco shop co-located in a convenience store associated with a car wash, Sonora Express. Also, there was no rice or beans involved. In fact, it was just meat. Lots and lots of meat -- a combination of seared carne asada steak, spicy pork adobada, and juicy pork carnitas. They throw in some melted cheese, caramelized onions, guacamole, and chopped grilled Anaheim peppers, and WOW -- it is filled with stealth umami-amplifying ingredients, and heat, and melty goodness, and most of the stuff inside tastes of charring and caramelization from the plancha it was cooked on. It is all wrapped in a sturdy griddled flour tortilla. It can be eaten with your hands. This is the Tres Carnes (3 meat) Burrito, full of flavor, and changing my opinion of what a San Diego-style burrito is capable of. Recently, I had the opportunity to meet and talk at length with the architect of this masterpiece, Leo Valle, a man who is no longer associated with Sonora Express (he sold it off a few months ago), and is currently the proprietor of the "Burrito Station" and "La Catrina" in North Park. Because of my love for the "Tres Carnes Burrito," my first meeting with Mr. Valle felt similar to the time I met Guy Savoy in-person, or sat next to Reese Witherspoon after being upgraded on an LAX-MSY flight. His fingerprints are still all over the menu at Sonora Express, the same as his current enterprises. He's one of a few people out there tirelessly working behind the scenes to concoct recipes that are making taco shops in San Diego better. I have more to write about Mr. Valle in a future review, I promise. Here, I've had two tacos: 1) the forgettable "Quesitos Sonora Taco," which is a bad carne asada taco with aspirations to be something else, and 2) the "Rockefeller Taco," which is genuinely good, even if it leverages cream cheese to hold the flavors together. My issue? The shrimp tasted more piscine than I'm willing to allow without comment -- as if they've b
Shantal B.
I love love love the hospitality and the surf and turf quesadilla. This place is literally a hidden gem. It's a most have!
Rick H.
You wouldn't expect a gas station/car wash/convenience store to have good Mexican food but this place is good! I had the street tacos and the flavors were impressive - carne asada, fish, and carnitas. I have also had the chilequiles burrito and was blown away. Salsas are all fresh as if made on premises and staff is super friendly. Has become my new favorite place to get my car washed and can't resist ordering something even if I just ate somewhere else. Keep up the good work!
Amber O.
The street tacos were alright. Its a gas station taco shop. Nothing special, but the lady there was super nice!
Esme Munoz
I love this place! Their sauces are delicious! I recommend the spicy red sauce. Creamy and savory. The tacos are what I go for. Great quality for gas station food :D
Johnny Bass
It's a pricey burrito for what you get...Burrito and a few chips... nothing special about what I ordered except for the indigestion I got from the pre-cooked carne asada in my burrito. I definitely won't be returning, too many better places in San Diego to settle for average mexican food.
First time, no wait, 1 pm on a Wednesday. Tried the Rockefeller annnnnnd I'll probably have some serious gas later due to the massive amount of "carmelized" onions. More like sauteed onions, but whatevs. Looked big based on cutting it in half but picking it up the tortilla was loose. Carne was decent, 3 pieces of shrimp were tasty, but then a very small amount of bacon. Hardly any avocado but plenty of Chipotle mayo. There was like half an onion in there that I just dumped out / ate around, and I left a shell of a half burrito (tortilla) with onion and sauce on the plate.
John V.
It's a pricey burrito for what you get...Burrito and a few chips... nothing special about what I ordered except for the indigestion I got from the pre-cooked carne asada in my loosely wrapped, cut in half burrito... I definitely won't be returning, too many better places in San Diego to settle for pricey, average mexican food with small servings.
Tom K.
First time, no wait, 1 pm on a Wednesday. Tried the Rockefeller annnnnnd I'll probably have some serious gas later due to the massive amount of "carmelized" onions. More like sauteed onions, but whatevs. Looked big based on cutting it in half but picking it up the tortilla was loose. Carne was decent, 3 pieces of shrimp were tasty, but then a very small amount of bacon. Hardly any avocado but plenty of Chipotle mayo. There was like half an onion in there that I just dumped out / ate around, and I left a shell of a half burrito (tortilla) with onion and sauce on the plate. Will not try again at $10.75 for this "quality". Oh and they have only two salsas: creamy spicy red which was delicious, and green creamy bland. Order person was nice though and warned me that the red was really really spicy but it was just a 5/10.
Rick H.
You wouldn't expect a gas station/car wash/convenience store to have good Mexican food but this place is good! I had the street tacos and the flavors were impressive - carne asada, fish, and carnitas. I have also had the chilequiles burrito and was blown away. Salsas are all fresh as if made on premises and staff is super friendly. Has become my new favorite place to get my car washed and can't resist ordering something even if I just are Somewhere else. Keep up the good work!
Dallas C.
This place is absolutely amazing, I've eaten here maybe 15 times now and I've never gotten something I didn't love. The 3 meat burrito and the Rockefeller tacos are my favorite though.
I have found my first and only San Diego-style burrito that I have truly loved, and it is here at this unassuming taco shop co-located in a convenience store associated with a car wash, Sonora Express. Also, there was no rice or beans involved. In fact, it was just meat. Lots and lots of meat -- a combination of seared carne asada steak, spicy pork adobada, and juicy pork carnitas. They throw in some melted cheese, caramelized onions, guacamole, and chopped grilled Anaheim peppers, and WOW -- it is filled with stealth umami-amplifying ingredients, and heat, and melty goodness, and most of the stuff inside tastes of charring and caramelization from the plancha it was cooked on. It is all wrapped in a sturdy griddled flour tortilla. It can be eaten with your hands. This is the Tres Carnes (3 meat) Burrito, full of flavor, and changing my opinion of what a San Diego-style burrito is capable of.
I'm disappointed with the change. Seems they've taken away another great menu item, the Buenos Dias burrito (the Chilaquiles burrito gets a shout out too) which was one of my favorite things to get there. Next to the Rockefeller burrito, which upon arrival at El Costeno (I ended up not ordering and eating elsewhere) noticed there was a slight change with the removal of grilled onions from it. Pretty bummed out, doubtful I'll go here if I want some Mexican food in the future as there are other great places here in San Diego.
They've recently changed their name to El Costeí±o (translates to 'the coast') and was informed they're also changing their number for anyone trying to place an order to go. This is the second time coming here and it's not bad at all. I ordered the Rockefeller tacos and boyfriend ordered the chimichanga - with carnitas. The Rockefeller has shrimp, carne asada, avo, with some caramelized onions, topped with some creamy chipotle sauce with a kick to it (between 1-5, a 3.5-4 spice level) with a couple of slices of lime on the side. The chimichanga was a little on the dry side. But I guess to balance it out they have a few of their house sauces on the side. The burrito was also fried to give it a crunch and glazed with avo sauce and sour creme and with some pico de Gallo on the side. The place has a sewage smell on the outside but pretty calm for the environment.
I am sitting here getting my car washed and i just finished one of the best and most original burritos ever. Ive lived in socal my whole life so thats saying alot. I am going to start a regular thing with this chilaquiles burrito if you know what i mean. It is delicious and light and fresh. Great salsas too. The service is friendly and food is made to order. We need more of this.
Except for the "Tres Carnes Burrito" at Sonora Express, San Diego's burritos (mostly) suck. Yes, I live in San Diego, but I'm a zealous advocate for the San Francisco Mission-style Burrito. Don't @ me on this unless you've also ever lived outside of San Diego County, because the superiority of Mission Burritos over what we do in SD is not debatable. Also, I'm biased: my birthplace is San Francisco, even if my formative years were spent in the northeast. The first burrito in my life that I had that I actually liked was a legit Mission Burrito. With its rice, pintos, melted cheese, pico de gallo, and guacamole mixed with the lean grilled meat, wrapped in a large tortilla steamed so that it doesn't fall apart, it is a full portable meal requiring no fork or knife, just as the first burritos prepared by the wives of braceros were meant to be. Contrast that to the greasebomb burros that I encountered when I moved to San Diego. Sloppy seven pound burritos stuffed with nothing but meat and soggy French fries. Provincial locals who'd sneer at me, "why would you fill your burrito with rice and beans, when you can have more meat and fries in it, bro?" Gee, I didn't think San Diego burrito joints were operating with a size limit, given that these things they serve are already larger than human infants. So, yeah, I guess you could say I am a San Diego-style burrito "hater." My favorite burrito in San Diego before I discovered Sonora Express? The "Dí¶ner Kebab Wrap" at "The Kebab Shop" with chicken, onions, tomatoes, spicy cilantro & yogurt sauce, and saffron rice. I do not jest because burritos are SERIOUS business to me, since burritos really are just very large tacos, and tacos are no joke. All of this is a long setup to affirm that I have found my first and only San Diego-style burrito that I have truly loved, and it is here at this unassuming taco shop co-located in a convenience store associated with a car wash, Sonora Express. Also, there was no rice or beans involved. In fact, it was just meat. Lots and lots of meat -- a combination of seared carne asada steak, spicy pork adobada, and juicy pork carnitas. They throw in some melted cheese, caramelized onions, guacamole, and chopped grilled Anaheim peppers, and WOW -- it is filled with stealth umami-amplifying ingredients, and heat, and melty goodness, and most of the stuff inside tastes of charring and caramelization from the plancha it was cooked on. It is all wrapped in a sturdy griddled flour tortilla. It can be eaten with your hands. This is the Tres Carnes (3 meat) Burrito, full of flavor, and changing my opinion of what a San Diego-style burrito is capable of. Recently, I had the opportunity to meet and talk at length with the architect of this masterpiece, Leo Valle, a man who is no longer associated with Sonora Express (he sold it off a few months ago), and is currently the proprietor of the "Burrito Station" and "La Catrina" in North Park. Because of my love for the "Tres Carnes Burrito," my first meeting with Mr. Valle felt similar to the time I met Guy Savoy in-person, or sat next to Reese Witherspoon after being upgraded on an LAX-MSY flight. His fingerprints are still all over the menu at Sonora Express, the same as his current enterprises. He's one of a few people out there tirelessly working behind the scenes to concoct recipes that are making taco shops in San Diego better. I have more to write about Mr. Valle in a future review, I promise. Here, I've had two tacos: 1) the forgettable "Quesitos Sonora Taco," which is a bad carne asada taco with aspirations to be something else, and 2) the "Rockefeller Taco," which is genuinely good, even if it leverages cream cheese to hold the flavors together. My issue? The shrimp tasted more piscine than I'm willing to allow without comment -- as if they've b
I love love love the hospitality and the surf and turf quesadilla. This place is literally a hidden gem. It's a most have!
You wouldn't expect a gas station/car wash/convenience store to have good Mexican food but this place is good! I had the street tacos and the flavors were impressive - carne asada, fish, and carnitas. I have also had the chilequiles burrito and was blown away. Salsas are all fresh as if made on premises and staff is super friendly. Has become my new favorite place to get my car washed and can't resist ordering something even if I just ate somewhere else. Keep up the good work!
The street tacos were alright. Its a gas station taco shop. Nothing special, but the lady there was super nice!
I love this place! Their sauces are delicious! I recommend the spicy red sauce. Creamy and savory. The tacos are what I go for. Great quality for gas station food :D
It's a pricey burrito for what you get...Burrito and a few chips... nothing special about what I ordered except for the indigestion I got from the pre-cooked carne asada in my burrito. I definitely won't be returning, too many better places in San Diego to settle for average mexican food.
Restaurantji Recommends
First time, no wait, 1 pm on a Wednesday. Tried the Rockefeller annnnnnd I'll probably have some serious gas later due to the massive amount of "carmelized" onions. More like sauteed onions, but whatevs. Looked big based on cutting it in half but picking it up the tortilla was loose. Carne was decent, 3 pieces of shrimp were tasty, but then a very small amount of bacon. Hardly any avocado but plenty of Chipotle mayo. There was like half an onion in there that I just dumped out / ate around, and I left a shell of a half burrito (tortilla) with onion and sauce on the plate.
It's a pricey burrito for what you get...Burrito and a few chips... nothing special about what I ordered except for the indigestion I got from the pre-cooked carne asada in my loosely wrapped, cut in half burrito... I definitely won't be returning, too many better places in San Diego to settle for pricey, average mexican food with small servings.
First time, no wait, 1 pm on a Wednesday. Tried the Rockefeller annnnnnd I'll probably have some serious gas later due to the massive amount of "carmelized" onions. More like sauteed onions, but whatevs. Looked big based on cutting it in half but picking it up the tortilla was loose. Carne was decent, 3 pieces of shrimp were tasty, but then a very small amount of bacon. Hardly any avocado but plenty of Chipotle mayo. There was like half an onion in there that I just dumped out / ate around, and I left a shell of a half burrito (tortilla) with onion and sauce on the plate. Will not try again at $10.75 for this "quality". Oh and they have only two salsas: creamy spicy red which was delicious, and green creamy bland. Order person was nice though and warned me that the red was really really spicy but it was just a 5/10.
You wouldn't expect a gas station/car wash/convenience store to have good Mexican food but this place is good! I had the street tacos and the flavors were impressive - carne asada, fish, and carnitas. I have also had the chilequiles burrito and was blown away. Salsas are all fresh as if made on premises and staff is super friendly. Has become my new favorite place to get my car washed and can't resist ordering something even if I just are Somewhere else. Keep up the good work!
This place is absolutely amazing, I've eaten here maybe 15 times now and I've never gotten something I didn't love. The 3 meat burrito and the Rockefeller tacos are my favorite though.