Tacos Tortas & More

While Little Chef feeds the takeout-exhausted and Sine Wave obsesses over rosemary syrup, this place traffics in fundamentals — birria that people text their friends about, tortas built thick enough to require two hands, pozole that hits after midnight when nothing else will. The kitchen runs a straightforward operation: meat cooked right, tortillas that taste like corn, salsas with actual bite. No Instagram setups, no fusion experiments, just the kind of Mexican food that makes Ocean Beach locals stop naming their "authentic" favorites and admit this one's good.

The birria's the anchor — consommé rich enough to justify the drip, cheese pulling in actual strings on the quesatacos. Carne asada shows up properly charred on both tacos and tortas, though one review's right that the tortas can run bean-heavy depending on who's building them. The homemade jamaica tastes like someone's abuela made it, which in a beach town full of concentrate means something. Portions skew generous for the price point, the kind of place where one plate stretches into tomorrow's lunch if you pace yourself.

Service runs warm even during the late-night crush, which matters when you're the spot feeding people after the bars close. They've got outdoor seating for when the marine layer hasn't rolled in yet, takeout that actually travels well, and the kind of operational consistency that turns first-timers into regulars. Skip it if you need white-tablecloth service or innovative takes on regional Mexican cooking. This is the joint for when you want birria tacos at 11 p.m., a torta that requires strategic eating, or pozole that reminds you why the dish exists in the first place.