City Tacos

Where Mike's leans on technique and Little Chef runs the takeout grind, City Tacos operates somewhere between craft and speed—you're not waiting twenty minutes, but you're also not getting pre-prepped proteins dumped into tortillas. The fish taco comes with strawberries, which sounds like coastal-fusion gimmickry until you taste how the fruit's sweetness plays against the batter's crunch and whatever citrus-forward sauce you grabbed from the lineup at the counter. That sauce bar is the real tell: most taco spots give you two options and call it done, but here you're choosing your own heat level and flavor profile, treating each taco like its own negotiation.

The birria holds up under scrutiny—consommé that tastes like someone actually simmered bones, not just dumped in bouillon. Fried fish gets the batter right, staying crispy even after you've doused it in salsa, which matters more in a beach town where humidity can turn fried food into mush within minutes. Pollo asado shows char marks that suggest actual grill contact, not just a flat-top sear. Prices run $4-6 per taco, so you're building your own meal math depending on appetite.

The Voltaire location has outdoor seating that pulls families post-beach—colorful setup, enough space that kids aren't climbing on strangers. Timing matters: show up around 5:30pm on a Friday and you'll beat the dinner crush; roll in at 7pm and you're waiting behind sunburned tourists and locals who just clocked out. They run beer and wine if you want something beyond a Jarritos, and the vegetarian options exist as actual menu items, not afterthoughts. Parking's Ocean Beach standard—street spots that disappear by late afternoon, so either walk here or accept the block-radius search.