Taqueria El Tapatio in Rohnert Park, California: A Restaurant Review

I spent a long time living in San Francisco and eating at taquerias there. San Francisco is supposed to be some sort of burrito haven, originating the Americanized style of burritos as big as a small melon and wrapped in tin foil to hold the contents from bursting out at the seams. Contrast this to Rohnert Park, largely considered something of a food desert with an overabundance of chain restaurants. You'd figure with my San Francisco burrito pedigree, it'd be tough to find something to fill the bill up here.

So I was pleased to find that my first burrito upon returning to the area was better than many of the ones I had down in the city! El Tapatio is a nice little hole-in-the-wall in the Commerce & Expressway shopping plaza near Safeway, and it serves up some pretty good food at a pretty decent price.

El Tapatio uses really good ingredients in general, but the key is that their meat is juicy and well-cooked, and they aren't sparing with it. A regular burrito is $5, super is $6, both are fillingly hefty. Tacos are $1.50 - they're a bit on the small side, but that's also the price that most other taquerias charge for a rice-and-bean taco, not a regular taco with meat. Tortas, nachos and quesedillas are also all solid and reasonably priced.

And they've got a "buy 10, get 1 free" burrito card that you can get stamped on each visit for extra value. The chips are a little weak, but at this price and with this good of a main course, who cares. Dinner plates are also on offer - flautas, shrimp diabla, shrimp ranchero, chile verde, chile relleno, enchiladas and chimichangas for about $7 to $10 per head.

What else can I say? The restaurant is small, but clean and pleasant enough if you want to dine in. Also never seems to be a major crunch of traffic as well. They have a good salsa bar, even a good restroom that they keep as clean as the main restaurant. I'm really glad this place is here.