Taqueria of the Month: Taqueria Dos Amigos

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This month’s taqueria is one I’d passed by a number of times on Brannan Street. I finally decided to stop in for lunch on my way home from San Francisco Airport after a looong flight from New York.

I tend to have a rather unconventional approach to finding good Mexican food.  I wouldn’t consider myself a ‘foodie’ per se, but I normally try not to eat out of anywhere that looks like a run down hole in the wall.  That is, except when I’m trying to find a good burrito.  

For some reason, I can’t stand ‘gourmet’ Mexican cuisine.  I’ve eaten at some of the more upscale Mexican establishments like Rosa Mexicano and I find that the more expensive the dishes get, the less enjoyable they are.  Aside from that, anywhere that considers themselves too good to list a burrito on their menu shouldn’t, in my opinion, call themselves a Mexican restaurant.

With that logic, Taqueria Dos Amigos fits my necessary qualifications.  They have an entire section of their menu devoted to the burrito, and they’re a hole in the wall.  In fact, blink while you’re heading down Brannan, and you’ll miss it, it’s that much of a hole in the wall. And again, I mean that with the utmost respect.

When I walked in, I was greeted by all of the standard Taqueria sights: a counter with all of the separate ingredients waiting to be piled onto my tortilla, a soda cooler full of all the best Mexican beverages and, well, that’s pretty much it.  I was disappointed that they didn’t have an open salsa bar like some of the other places around here, but in their defense, they did offer a choice of salsa to accompany my lunch.  [More on that in a second.]

I ordered my standard Super Burrito with chicken, rice, salsa, black beans, cheese, sour cream and guacamole.  At the register, the ‘cashier’ gave me the option of hot or mild salsa (I prefer both!).  I ordered hot salsa on the burrito, so I opted for mild, and he also threw in a green salsa, which was probably guacamole, although I’m still not entirely sure.

The burrito came with a side of chips as well.  Overall, I would say the chips were pretty stale, and the burrito was only decent.  The best part of the entire meal had to be the salsa. I found myself subconsciously upset that they only gave me two small containers to compliment the fairly large meal.  I used half of each on the burrito itself, and had to conserve the rest by dipping the dry chips rather than dousing them.

If you’re in the area, I would say it’s worth a shot to try out Dos Amigos.  If, however, you’re on a quest for the perfect burrito, you’re better off flagging down Los Campadres if you can find ‘em.  So far, I consider them the Taqueria to beat in South of Market.