Beto's Grill - 5818 East Temple City Blvd Temple City 91780

Beto's is one of the Mexican restaurants that we visit on a semi-regular basis (every other month or so). It is located just south of Las Tunas Blvd on Temple City Blvd. 

On our last visit we noticed a sign for $1.00 tacos on Tuesdays and Thursdays and thought that would work perfectly for our next "cheap" lunch review.

We have always liked the food at Beto's.  It is tasty and reasonably priced, but the one area that is always  lacking is the service. There is usually only one waitress working at a time and that one person just can't keep up with all the orders: serving food, refills, etc..

Our visit today was about the same as our previous visits. We had our daughter with us, so it wasn't exactly a date, but it was good to relax and have some family time. The weather was nice and sunny so we decided to sit outside at one of the two tables on the sidewalk. We arrived at noon and there were only 3 other parties inside the restaurant.

Right after we sat down the server came and took our order. In the spirit of our low cost dining experience we decided to stick with the $1 tacos. Daniel ordered three tacos (pollo, asada and pastor) and an iced tea. I ordered two tacos (pollo and pastor) and a side of beans. We ordered Emma one pollo taco.  Neither of us were brave enough to try the lengua (tongue) tacos, but they are available for one dollar. The server didn't write down our order and seemed to get confused at exactly how many tacos we wanted.  We had to repeat our order a couple of times, which could easily have been remedied if she would have just written the order down.

I tried to go cheap and order water, but the tap water tasted horrible and I ended up ordering an iced tea as well. Both Daniel and I enjoyed our tea; it was brewed not a mix. Daniel is becoming a bit of an iced tea snob and tries to avoid the mixes.

Chips and salsa were promptly brought out. The chips were good, warm and not greasy. We really like the salsa at Beto's, it is tomato sauce with green onions, cilantro, and chiles. It has just the right amount of kick to it, but not enough to burn your tongue.

After the slight confusion over our order we only had to wait a few minutes before our tacos and beans were brought out. The tacos are served on Beto's house made corn tortillas with onions, cilantro, lime wedges, and  salsa verde.

The pastor (pork) taco was very good and Daniel liked this taco the best.  The meat is slow cooked in a red sauce with onions and is very flavorful.  Likewise the chicken tacos are also good. They appear to be slow cooked in a chili sauce and I like these the best.  The steak (asada) tacos were our least favorite.  While the meat had a nice flavor the steak was overcooked and dry.  The beans were pretty standard Mexican restaurant fair.  They tasted good and were great for dipping our chips in.

Pork, Chicken and Steak Taco

Unfortunately, after the food came out our server became non-existent.  We had to go inside twice to request refills and order another taco for our daughter.  *On a side note, our daughter liked her chicken taco so much she asked for another which is rare.*  That is one of the bad parts of sitting outside.  You run the risk of being forgotten and in this case it felt like we were.  We think we saw the owner inside checking on the regulars (or people he seemed to know) bringing them their food and refills but we didn't see him checking on the other patrons.  As we were getting ready to leave he did come outside, say hi, and ask how our meal was.

Much like our other experiences at Beto's Grill, we found the food to be good and the service to be okay.  The server looks like she could use some help.  By the time we left, the restaurant was almost full and they needed more people working the floor.  For the price we would come back; all three of us were able to eat for $15.30 and we definitely left with full bellies.

One more side note.  Last time we ate at Beto's Grill they were offering a lunch buffet for $8.95.  Neither of us are big fans of buffets; the price is usually high for mediocre food.  But at $8.95, that price is less then the majority of their combo plates and the food was both good and the selection plentiful.  Beto's has fish tacos available on Wednesdays for $1.75 so we think we might have to come back and try their seafood. We will keep going back to Beto's and we will also keep hoping for the service to improve.

Now Go Fill Those Bellies...