Bay Area Reviews e-mail

A Caveat We stopped at Cancún Taquería in downtown Berkeley for dinner before a movie in November 2004. We hadn't been there before but were quickly impressed. Cancun is quite nicely set up, with a large open counter where burritos and the like are assembled, a little ‘salad' bar with a plethora of different salsas, a soda fountain, and crowded tables and chairs throughout the place. You can separate them a little for a bit of privacy (or choose the ones by the window) or get them together to dine as a group. The walls are painted with pleasing Maya-style designs. The taqueria is clearly family friendly; there are high chairs and we saw several happy children. The menu features burritos, quesadillas, tacos, tostadas and salads. The selection of meats is limited (carne asada, chicken, carnitas, chile verde, chorizo and al pastor - no innards) but there are many vegetarian and seafood offerings. In addition to the basics, Cancún offers mole and pipian sauces as well as nopales. Burritos range from $5.10 to $8.80. Plates range from $8 to $9.50. I got the Cancún Flour Quesadilla ($5.50), a grilled flour tortilla folded in half and filled with jack cheese, carne asada, guacamole, sour cream, salsa fresca and grilled tomatillo sauce. It was delicious; all the ingredients tasted very fresh and the carne asada actually tasted like grilled meat. I would definitely order it again. Mike had the Super Burrito ($6.35) with carnitas, jack cheese, pinto beans, rice, sour cream, salsa fresca and grilled tomatillo salsa. The burrito comes with guacamole which he got on the side for me, which was good, but I would have liked more lime and fewer peppers. Mike loved the burrito and he also felt all the ingredients were very fresh and very tasty to boot. The accompanying tortilla chips weren't that great, though. Too thick and hard for my taste, and perhaps a tad overcooked. We didn't try the salsas, so we can't comment on them. We were extremely impressed by how quickly the burritos were assembled. They were ready by the time we walked to the soda fountain and got our drinks! If you're looking for a quick bite, this is definitely it. The one misstep was that they didn't ask Mike what kind of beans he wanted in his burrito (choices, according to the menu, are black or pinto). It didn't matter to him but might matter to someone else. In all, we had a very good experience and are somewhat saddened to say that Cancún Taquería is better than any of the more authentic taquerías we have in San Leandro. Cancún 2134 Allston Way Berkeley, CA 510-549-0964