On the Richmond Burrito Trail: 23rd Street’s El Mexicano Deli y Taqueria
On 23rd Street, El Mexicano Deli y Taqueria delivers a heavyweight contender: the Super Carnitas Burrito. This neighborhood spot caters to hearty appetites with a burrito so packed with pork, rice, and beans that it’s a struggle to conquer.
In the middle of the day, the cars whizzing by become less frequent, and the lack of people milling around can make 23rd Street feel quiet and lonely. But walking through El Mexicano Deli y Taqueria’s door delivers you to another world. It’s a sensory immersion. The music hits you first, loud and in Spanish, filling every corner of the space with upbeat rhythms and lyrics. All the signage, from the menu to the handwritten specials, is in Spanish, too.
Inside El Mexicano Deli y Taqueria, the atmosphere is as robust as the burritos. Big, heavy wooden chairs surround sturdy wooden tables set against a backdrop of terracotta tile floors and brick walls. A large, colorful mural with burritos adds a vibrant touch to the taqueria.
Online, customers claim El Mexicano has the best carnitas in the Bay Area, so we already knew what we were ordering. Not long after putting our order in, we heard a heavy wack-wack-wack of a meat cleaver from behind the partition. Someone was chopping our carnitas.
Shortly after, we were handed a massive foil-wrapped creation, which we eagerly hauled back to Grandview Headquarters.
El Mexicano’s burrito is the traditional meat-beans-rice style we’ve come to expect from 23rd Street taquerias like El Tapatio, Los Primos, and Tacos La Raza.
Soren Hemmila
Soren Hemmila
Soren Hemmila
It’s built on a foundation of earthy, shredded pork—packed with big, porcine flavor, though slightly dry in spots. But that’s where the hot, vinegary red salsa steps in, cutting through the richness and waking up every bite. Rice and beans round out the experience, bringing the burrito’s weight (literal and metaphorical) to its peak. We ordered a Super Burrito and found a dollop of guacamole and another of sour cream in the sea of rice, beans, and meat, but it wasn’t enough to balance the other ingredients.
Finishing the burrito is its own challenge. About midway through, we encountered a pocket of melty cheese (good), but three-quarters of the way through, we got bogged down in a quagmire of refried beans (not good), which made us call it quits. We were also bested by EL Chaparro Restaurant's Hidalgo-style Barbacoa de Borrego burrito.
Soren Hemmila
At 814 grams, this super slab was one of the largest, meatiest burritos we’ve come across on the Richmond Burrito Trail. The total for one burrito was $15.30, and it comes with chips and salsa.
Let us know where to eat next, and check back next week for another stop on the Richmond Burrito Trail.
The Grandview Independent has been embarking on a culinary adventure to explore every taqueria, food truck, and restaurant in Richmond. This initiative, dubbed the “Richmond Burrito Trail,” aims to showcase our city’s diverse and delectable burritos.
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