La Esquinita

I'm giving 5 just for the salsas, kudos to the prep cook! Fresh and zesty, not just spicy. The Morita salsa with the Caramelo is a highlight.Not only is the food great, they've got unique plates which are hard to find elsewhere. Some of these dishes like the Vampiro Taco I haven't seen outside of Mexico before.

Ordered takeout and I liked my tacos but my husbands burrito had a penny inside it which made us a little concerned about the preparation. So I have to dock a star for that. From what I ordered though I liked the chorizo taco best of the pollo and crispy beef tacos. The flavors were good of the food we had just feel conflicted about the penny

We decided to try La Esquinita on a whim. My partner has seen in while passing by before and thought it was cute so he suggested it as lunch today. I was feeling for some tacos so this was perfect. There's not much seating indoors from what I remembered, but plenty of seating outdoors. It can get kind of hot though, so just an heads-up, a cap would be useful, or it would have been nice if they provided umbrellas or something for shade. Food has to be ordered at the counter first, then you're given a table number, and food will be served when they're hot and ready! For myself, I ordered a Carne Asada Taco and one of their Sopes (omitted cheese) that was on their special menu. The rest of my party ordered a Veggie Poblano Taco, two Lengua Taco, a Chorizo Taco, another Sope, and their Horchata. Food came pretty quickly. I like that they have different toppings for all the tacos. I believe my Carne Asada came with just onions, cilantro, and their house made salsa, but I saw diced yams on the Poblano I believe. It's also nice how you get different tortillas for different taco fillings. Mines look similar to maybe a blue corn tortilla, but I'm not entirely sure what made the tortilla brown instead of the usual yellowish color. My taco was pretty darn good though! The meat isn't too fatty, good amount of filling, and flavor was there! I enjoyed it. I sampled a Lengua and that was deliciously tender as well. As for my Sopes, I kind of wish they asked if I wanted to omit sour cream since I asked to omit cheese, but it's okay. The Sopes came loaded with toppings. It's similar size to a taco, but it's almost like a little circular pie crust. It came topped with some of the garnet yams, plenty of meat, beans, cilantro, and sprinkles of other ingredients. I thought it was pretty good. Flavorful and delicious, but I feel the masa base was a little too crunchy/hard. It was a bit difficult to cut through. It's definitely fun, and messy to eat, so do expect to get your hands a little dirty. Aside from that, my partner also loved their house made salsa and their Horchata. All in all, a good Mexican place. Expect the price point to be higher than your normal street taco. All of our tacos was about $5-$6 each, but I suppose in exchange, you get a little more variety and their twist on Mexican food. There isn't much service since it's kind of self serve for water, utensils, etc, but based off of our limited interaction with them, they were friendly people.

I ventured here for their popularized wet burritos. You cannot miss this joint, near Broadway with an outdoor patio blasting with heaters and barbie pink pillars. Their burrito was so deliciously hardy, I saved half for later. I love that the wet sauce is like a broth versus a thick sauce. It wasn't too salty, and it wasn't too spicy, it was perfectly done.

This is one of my favorite veggie burritos in Oakland! I feel like a lot of places that are highly rated generally don't have a good veggie option, that is not the case here. The staff is super friendly and it's cute little restaurant with outdoor seating.

After our nearby hike, our group came here for lunch after a group member suggested this newer Mexican restaurant. Arriving around 1:45 and after finding parking in the neighborhood a block away, we arrived at the restaurant at 1:45. I recall this was the former location of the Filippo's restaurant. Inside there is two 4 seat counter seating. Outside, there are about 8 tables of two that can be combined if necessary. Menu consists of tacos, burritos, specials and seasonal items. After ordering at the counter, we got our water and utensils at the station and went outside to combine two tables. The server brought our orders served on round metal pans. I got two tacos:Pescado, with battered and fried fish and salsa veracruzano consisting of tomatoes, capers, olives, parsley and lime on a soft blue corn shell. The fish was moist and the salsa was tasty and complemented the fish well.Crispy beef, which has shredded beef marinated in guajillo puree, lettuce, shredded cheddar with a cucumber and tomato salsa in a crispy shell. This was good but did not wow me as much as the pescado taco.With friendly service, the food here is fresh and tasty. Would like to try other tacos and a burrito in the future.

Excellent tacos! WOW! I ordered the poblano and it was unique and filling. And fast service order at the counter service. Cute corner stop.

5400 College AveOakland, CA 94618La Esquinita is a small neighborhood restaurant located in Oakland's Rockridge area. I have enjoyed the food here twice now, and have found it to be fresh and delicious. I expected to like the food since I read that the owner of La Esquinita is also the owner of Xolo in downtown Oakland. So far, I have tried the Crispy Taco, Fried Camarones Taco, Carne Asada Taco, Carne Asada Burrito, and Breakfast Burrito. The only complaint I have is the carne asada meat is a bit chewy and fatty.

La Esquinita is unlike any other taqueria I know of. Delicious fresh food!!! Unique menu. Unique fare, nice proportion size (meaning I am satisfied w/ 1 item for lunch), great service and they use real plates, glasses, cutlery - so it seems like they generate very little trash - especially plastic

This is a hidden gem in Rockridge. The food is excellent: my BF gets the yams and poblano burrito and I get the vampiro taco with chorizo. My favorite is their sopas nicely seasoned and large portions. On the weekends they have churros which are delicious.They don't have a ton of seating, and most are outside tables. The service is great. You order at the counter and the young woman will bring it out to you.