Fresh, Bright Farmers Market-Driven Street Food - Guerrilla Tacos (the Brick & Mortar) - Grand Opening! [Thoughts + Pics]

I dropped by Guerrilla Tacos earlier and was underwhelmed given the price. :neutral_face:

I’ll follow up with pictures and a more detailed report later.

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Hi @Srsly -

That exactly what we did. :slight_smile:

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Hi @moonboy403 -

Me too. I’m relieved you felt that way too. I hate being a hater. :relaxed: I think @Chowseeker1999 had the better meal on opening day. When I post my photos I think you can even see the difference.

TBC…

I don’t enjoy being a party pooper but my experience tonight was underwhelming to say the least. :slightly_frowning_face:


My significant other and I visited around 7 tonight. The line was short when we began lining up but got much longer as we waited.


Busy! Busy! Busy!


Octopus Quesadilla | oaxacan cheese, chile morita, red pepper escabeche, cherry tomato, arugula, chives
I had high expectations for Guerrilla Tacos given the high praise, but we started with a dud. :neutral_face: If you didn’t tell me that there were octopus in the quesadilla, I wouldn’t have known. I tried my best to detect any sign of octopus flavor or texture but I gave up eventually. Heck, I even tried looking INSIDE the quesadilla hoping that I was mistakenly given me a straight cheese quesadilla but NOPE. I did see octopus in there even if they were used sparingly. Essentially, I spent $13 for a mini cheese quesadilla.


Potato Taquitos | Yukon gold potatoes, avocado tomatillo salsa, cotija cheese, aged cheddar, chives
Crispy texture of the taquitos contrasted well with the mashed potato’s soft and fluffy texture. The avocado tomatillo salsa added another note of complexity.


Lamb Shank Taco
The braised lamb shank was tender, juicy, and pleasantly gamey. The other elements got lost since they couldn’t stand up to the strong lamb flavor.


Beef Brisket Taco | chile de arbol, pickled onion, cilantro
Very nice beefy flavor and the pickled onion cut through the richness. However, I find the brisket on the tough side…


Sweet Potato Taco | roasted sweet potato, almond chile, feta cheese, fried corn, scallions
The softness of the (mashed? couldn’t really tell) sweet potato contrasted nicely with the crunchy fried corn but it tasted just like any roasted sweet potato would. I detected the mild chile but not the almond flavor that was advertised.


Baja Fried Cod Taco | tempura battered ocal rock cod, chipotle crema, Pico de Gallo, japonese, cilantro
Cod was cooked perfectly with a light crispy batter. Creaminess of the crema nicely flavored the fish while the tomato added acidity and sweetness. This taco might’ve been the most successful flavor pairing of the night.


Hamachi Tostada | hamachi, uni, chile del valle, salsa bruja, seasonal stone fruit, micro herbs
I know quality hamachi isn’t cheap but this is one SMALL tostada given that I paid $15 for it. Adding insult to the injury, this pairing didn’t work for me at all. Hamachi was fresh but needed acidity. I could see the stone fruit (is it plum?) but I couldn’t taste it even though I tried really hard. The $3 optional uni added sweetness to my bite but was its oceany flavor was overpowered by the rest of the components since the uni to everything else ratio is off.


Overall, with the exception of the fish taco, everything else needed work. They were all very busy with many components but none of them combined to be greater than the sum of its parts. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t bad with the exception of the invisible octopus. However, when it cost $65 for 2 people with perhaps 8-9 bites of food, the flavors should be refined and not muddled. :frowning_face:

Leaving Guerillas Tacos with a bad taste in my mouth, we went on taco run #2.

Enter Carnitas El Momo:


Everything’s chopped to order.


Fine dining with my significant other!


Pork butt (left) and pork skin (right)
Pork butt was super juicy and tender while pork skin was fatty, silky, & gelatinous. The cilantro, par-boiled onions, along with lemon and lime wedge gave the porky goodness the acidity and lift to cut through the richness which also applies to the next two tacos. Great stuff with focused flavors.


Pork stomach (left) and everything combined (right)
Pork stomach is slightly less fatty and gelatinous than the skin while being snappy. It’s very porky bite. On the other hand, the combination of pork stomach, skin, and butt had a lot of complexity and combined to be more than the sum of its parts. This was what I missed at Guerrilla Tacos!

Best of all, Carnitas El Momo doesn’t skim on portions. Each tacos lasted me a good 4 bites while the fillings were spilling out left and right. These great tacos cost me a mere $10 in contrast to the $65 I paid at Guerrilla Tacos.

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GT is the taco version of Jitlada - some highs, some lows, always expensive.

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Fuzz. Bummer about your & @TheCookie’s experiences at the new location.

Out of curiosity, did either of you happen to see if Sergio, aka Chef Wes, was in the building?

Sergio was in the building.

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Interesting. Thanks for confirming!

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Yup.

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Tried their new shop.

It’s no surprise about @moonboy403’s experience.

Given that Guerilla Taco’s prices have not changed much since their food truck days, it’s to be expected the Q in the QPR would suffer a bit.

While not a 1:1 comparison, the lobster quesadilla from the truck seemed like it was stuffed with an entire lobster tail. The octopus quesadilla we tried from the restaurant was much like @moonboy403’s experience. Like a grilled cheese tortilla sandwich.

One could forgive things like this from a taco truck, maybe even find it endearing and quirky in a way. But from a place that has tables, a full kitchen, and a bar, expectations are just going to be different. And rightfully so.

For now, this is a hard pass for me.

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Truer words were never spoken… Except you forgot SLOW, very, very SLOW (for Jitlada).

GUERRILLA TACOS

We didn’t take a lot of photos. @Chowseeker1999’s were perfect, so I gave St. Husband a break from having to wait for me to get the right photo angles.

Selections, Starting w/Cocktails:

Old Fashioned

L.A. Don’t Play:
Delicious flavors, but too sweet.

Hamachi Tostada w/Uni:
Fine until I bit down on a piece which was really a big glob of silver skin & connective tissue. :tired_face: Told server, but she just nodded, half smiled and took the plate away. Normally I would discretely inform a manager, but everyone looked a bit overwhelmed.

Fried Oysters:
There was nothing wrong with them and I love oysters, but prefer them lightly dusted and pan fried, so…

Lamb Shank Taco:


Couldn’t get a straight answer from the friendly server as to what was on it, but seemed like sweet marinated onion, possibly sundried tomato in oil and a sauce. It was all that @moonboy403 said, but I thought the lamb could have been seasoned better. This was a bummer for me because I rarely eat lamb and it was not good enough to break my rule over. Positive note: my husband really enjoyed it.

Sweet Potato Tacos


This had the best flavor combinations. The fried corn gave the creamy sweet potato nice texture and feta cheese the perfect tangy-ness. Note the difference in presentation compared to @Chowseeker1999’s.

Baja Fried Cod Tacos


Very good

Albondigas:
Not for us this hot day, but come to think of it I’m not sure it was even on the board - maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong.

Tortillas: You asked about tortillas @JeetKuneBao? They had standout homemade flavor, but most were cold. This is what I was talking about earlier - making tacos is all about timing the components exactly.

We arrived a little past opening, no line until later. The friendly counter helpers were not prepared to answer questions from the board, which had no descriptions and no menus on the counter until later. This was difficult when ordering cocktails. I mean I definitely agree that “Brown is Beautiful”, but what’s in the drink? Fortunately a manager was walking by.

This is a hard review for me and why I rarely go some place when they first open. But my husband is a taco man and could eat them everyday, so off we went - plus we had great luck on Bavel’s first week. I think Chef Avila probably needs to get his sea legs back after running the truck for so long. But with his credentials and the amazing fare he put out from said truck, I have no doubt he can do it. We will definitely return at a later date.

Happy Taco Seeking!

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Oh sorry, I meant the board on the wall behind the counter. The menus were put on the counter after we already ordered and were seated.

Jitlada’s not much more expensive than Luv2Eat.

It was such a hot day that it would be crazy to order it anyway. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

There was also only minimal AC there. I was sweating profusely the whole time. LOL.

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Nice report - and purple camouflage on the SO.

Sorry to quote myself here. I was rewatching one of the Netflix shows that featured Guerrila Tacos’ Uni/Hamachi tostada. Interestingly, chef Wes used fingerlime for acidity in the show but it’s somehow missing in the ones that are served in the restaurant??? Also, sliced avocado was used in place of the current stone fruit to add creaminess which makes more sense.

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Hi @TheCookie, @moonboy403,

Thanks for the follow-up reviews; this is quite sad to hear! :frowning: I totally agree that your pictures of the food you got looked nothing like the dishes we got on opening day. Pretty shocking.

One thing we noticed was that Chef Wes was mainly facilitating (with a few jaunts behind the stove). Was he mainly just facilitating / inspecting plating as they went out? Or cooking?

The other thing that’s concerning is that on their Instagram feed, they are still actively hiring / asking for cooks (not a good sign during your Grand Opening week). In an ideal world it’d be great if the main / head chef was always the person cooking for you, but we see that’s rarely the case as restaurants open, expand and grow.

One can only hope Chef Wes straightens out his team and gets things to better quality and execution when he was personally cooking every dish during a night at the taco truck.

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Even before the brick-mortar I still feel GT was/is inconsistent. They are unique, yes. I’ve had more misses than hits. I am going to back off this place for awhile. Damn look at that menu, that is a lot for these cooks to get right and maybe too much going on imo.

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