El Jefe’s Taqueria - Symphony

Food is a 5/5 - The plantains are a great add to the bowl. Service 2/5 - Unfortunately isn't the best and the employees are not very informative. They charged me about $2 for a side of jalapeños when I asked for them on the side of my bowl. Ambiance/Interior - Vibes around the devils hour and dead in the night.

Stopped at El Jefe's for a quick midday meal, but honestly can't I say I had much to write home about. I ordered a plate with half chicken and half steak and a few toppings. I decided to skip the rice, but this cost me. The portion was about half filled :( I was under the impression that the other ingredients would compensate for the lack of rice base. Flavor wise, the meat was very good. The serving of jalapeños, however, was un proportionate and overpowered the whole bowl. I love my food spicy, but it was a bit too much. The guacamole was tasty, but the portion was also very tiny. I won't give up just yet, I'll just know to get rice next time for a heartier portion.

My friend and I stopped here for lunch on a Sunday afternoon. I grabbed a salad bowl with carnitas, black beans, plantains, pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, and hot salsa. The lettuce was sitting in water to keep it fresh, so a lot of it pooled at the bottom of my bowl. Otherwise, everything was pretty good. They don't charge extra for toppings, which is more than I can say for many similar casual TexMex places.

Disclaimer I am not from Boston and am used to really good Mexican food so this is just not the same but for the area I think it's pretty decent.I had a carnitas quesadilla and the meat was generally good albeit a little dry. Flavor was a bit bland but there was enough moisture to where it was edible.The cheese blend and amount was good but the fajita veggies I had included were basically raw inside the warm quesadilla - that's not fajita style! Anyway they did put platanos inside the quesadilla which is hard to find these days.I had sides of guac pico and black beans. The first two were surprisingly good and flavorful but the black beans :((( tasted like they came straight from a can.Overall if you're going off of like really flavorful authentic Mexican I'd say this is a 2/5 but I'm not sure how much good Mexican is in Boston - based on other reviews it seems like this is one of the best spots in the area so 3/5. It's really not bad just pretty bland. Get some hot sauce ready!

Hot but entirely flavorless food. Two stars only because one star is reserved for eateries that you report to the Board of health. Would actively avoid El Jefe in future. Unfortunately we were in the area and famished and needed "food". This was provided. Shrimp tacos could have been a random protein. Chicken quesadillas tasted of velveeta. Never again!

I'm absolutely shocked at how much I enjoyed my food here - I was expecting it to be mediocre college food but was very happily surprised to find out that this wasn't the case. This location is near Northeastern campus, so it's busy seemingly almost any time of day. We visited for a late-night dinner and were able to order almost immediately. Our server was nice but didn't seem to understand all of my questions - luckily I was able to get some correct answers from the cashier. Not sure if it was a language issue or if it was just too loud in the restaurant, but not a huge deal. I ordered a custom bowl with steak and it was absolutely delicious. The meat was fresh, tender, and well seasoned. The toppings complimented each other very well also -- I just wish they filled the bowl a bit more! I was able to try my partner's al pastor burrito and it was also incredibly good. The meat especially was the star of the show, and I couldn't get enough. I'm sad I'm only finding out about this place now.. I'll definitely be back soon!

I used to love El Jefe's but this place has gone downhill :( it's always so busy with Northeastern kids and I don't think the employees are always ready for crazy volumes of people. They used to serve big portions, but now they only give you one tiny scoop of meat. Not worth paying $14 for just a big bowl of rice.

I was on a quest to walk the Southwest Corridor roundtrip, and had a rumbly in the tumbly, and decided to pick up some chorizo & carne asada tacos from El Jefe's--unfortunately, there was inevitably another type of rumbly in the tumbly, if you know what I am saying... :/ I kinda had a feeling after taking a look at the different proteins, toppings, etc. that it was possible the food, even though warm, had been out for a lil while. Maybe a return trip/visiting another location could yield a different result...

DONT DO IT!!!!!!Ordering online was fast, easy and expensive Literally was delivered within 25 min after ordering, HOWEVER....The $18 Burrito was COLD AND DRYWas not made w any of the stuffings I asked for.... (Sour cream or guacamole Won't be ordering from them again!!!

Great place for reasonably priced Mexican food. Friendly staff that was really patient with us cause we couldn't decide! We shared a cheese quesadilla and vegetarian nachos. Good portions for an afternoon snack, and nice roasted veggies in the nachos. Casual atmosphere and high top seating to people watch.