South Bay Food Crawl - Chula Vista: El Ranchero on 3rd

A few miles down Orange Avenue, we hung a right onto 3rd. Right before you hit Palomar, make a left into the Foodland parking lot, which used to house the OLD Seafood City before they moved to the bigger and better location. Up a tiny hill, past the gas station is a little run down strip mall.  This is literally down the hill behind Gunco Ramen/Kanpai.

El Ranchero Factory Taco Shop has three locations. This is their location on 3rd. I've been to the one on Palm Ave several times for their barbacoa burritos. The same friend who recommended Don Vicente's highly recommended this location. Another friend of mine said this is the place she goes when she doesn't feel like making barbacoa herself.

Originally I wanted us to try the special on 3 barbacoa tacos (only $3.49). There were two meat choices: Barbacoa and Cabeza.

Having never tried the Cabeza before, I figured, well here goes!

And there they are in all of their glory. Three soft tacos chock full of soft and tender beef cheek meat! These were ordered with "everything", meaning chopped cilantro, onions, and tomatoes.

OMFG, look at that! I can't believe I waited that long to try Cabeza tacos!

Looks like I will be coming here again with Bert and TC!

Here is my previous post on their Palm Avenue location where I had the barbacoa tacos...

Now, this wasn't a lot of food despite the three places we'd already gone to. The visits were actually nicely spaced out due to the driving time and looking around at the different markets.

Up next...another place I hadn't been to...

"Be vewwwy quiet...I'm hunting Wabbits" (say in an Elmer Fudd voice)