El Nopalito

El Nopalito is quite a place, where carne asada, fresh tortillas, and Coronas are the orders of the day. At this popular spot, customers—mostly men, mostly appearing to be manual laborers—order steaming platos and speak Spanish. This isn’t fast food like a typical San Diego taco shop, so expect to wait a little while for your order.

These here may be the people who work the fields and the greenhouses that you might see along the 5 up north as you go. They might also work on the mansions that vie for those squeezed agricultural lands. This place seems to be their place to relax when they are not working, where they mingle and wait with a few cold ones.

Although El Nopalito sells burritos, it’s about the platos of traditional Mexican fare: chiles colorados y verdes, carnitas, birria, and so on, kind of like a less urban version of Super Cocina down south. It’s definitely more on the Mexican side of the Mexican-American spectrum. Missing from the menu are many of the combination plates that you find at a typical San Diego taco shop. There sure as snot is no California burrito.

I stood out from the crowd with a tray full of burritos and Negra Modelos. But if you do order a burrito, expect a good one, if a bit smaller, slower, and pricier than its southerly cousin.

They get the carne asada burrito right. It’s a well-toasted tortilla filled with chunks of marinated skirt steak and a generous dab of guacamole. That’s it. Very few taco shops in San Diego actually serve the more expensive skirt steak. What makes the carne asada burrito here—I’ll say it: excellent—is that all of the ingredients are of great quality. All together, the sum is greater than the parts.

Other burritos served here are less impressive, though good, simple, fare nonetheless.

There are beautiful murals of brick walls with arched windows looking out on what appear to be North County beaches on one side and scenes from the old country on the other. There is also a money-order kiosk inside that sells phone cards.

The other noteworthy thing about El Nopalito is the salsa bar. The salsas are all very good and some are memorable. I liked both the chipotle- and the tomatillo-based salsas, and most orders are served with chips to ladle these up with. There are pickled jalepenos and carrots too.

El Nopalito also sells prepackaged salsa, guacamole, tamales, quesos, crema, tortillas, and more—truly a one-stop shop—as well as the best carne asada burrito I’ve had in North County.

 582 Santa Fe Dr., Encinitas

You know you want it.