City Tacos is a popular taquería servings creative tacos and craft beer.
I’ve heard so many good things about City Tacos recently. I’m a fan of the so-called “hipster tacos” movement. I think it’s good to experiment and I like seeing creative and non-traditional takes on tacos and don’t mind paying a little extra if the quality and flavors are there.
The tacos here are all $3.50 each. We chose some of the more popular ones to share. We were also able to redeem a free quesadilla by checking in on the Yelp app.
Callo con Rajas
Sauteed bay scallops, leeks, chile pasilla, bacon, and cayenne cream sauce. Of the ones we ordered, this was my favorite. I enjoyed the tender scallops and found the flavors well balanced. Scallop has such a delicate flavor and can easily be overpowered but that didn’t happen here.
El Especial
Being a seafood lover, I was most looking forward to this one. It’s loaded with octopus, squid, shrimp, oaxaca cheese, tomato concasse, panko fried snow crab, serrano chiles. However, I didn’t really enjoy this one as much as I thought I would. The tomato conasse reminded me of a spaghetti sauce and didn’t seem to mix well with the other ingredients.
Borrego
Pulled lamb with wild mushrooms, cotija cheese, tomato, cilantro and fried leeks in a chipotle cream sauce on a house-made corn tortilla. While this taco looked mouth-watering, the flavors seemed a little muted for me. I did enjoy the fried leeks though.
Oaxaca Cheese Quesadilla
At the time we went, they had an offer with the yelp app where you can check-in and get a free oaxaca cheese quesadilla. Mr. K ate this one as I don’t really like quesadillas.
Overall, we had an alright experience here. I know a lot of people love this place and while we didn’t really find any fault, I just don’t think the flavors were to our liking. I do enjoy the creativity though.
City Tacos
3028 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104
I’ve been here a couple of times, once when they opened last summer and more recently last month I like the creativity with their fillings and actually enjoyed the mixed seafood taco and their chile relleno taco. I like the tacos here much more than Tacos Perla, another hipster taco place. The salsa bar here is also very good with lots of choices for customizing your tacos.
It was super packed when we visited so we sat outside. I didn’t actually play with the salsa bar at all. I’ll have to try it a few more times. i actually liked the flavors at Tacos Perla a little better.
I found the more traditional meats of carnitas and chicken to be quite tasty here, as well as the mahi tacos, during the Taste of North Park events. I haven’t ventured off the beaten path yet but the Callo con Rajas sounds worth a try for our next visit. Scallops!
thanks for the recs!