El Tonayense 3150 24th St. (between Shotwell St & Van Ness Ave) San Francisco, CA 94110 Phone: (415) 550-9192
Cuisine: Location:	Mexican Mission
Star Rating:
Cost:
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It was a dark and foggy Dia de Los Muertos and the mission was alive with skeletal revelers. A few of us were looking to scratch a mean burrito itch and remembered seeing the Mexican restaurant El Tonayense over on 24th. Based on experience with their small fleet of taco trucks (notably the one by the Best Buy in SOMA), we decided to try our luck with this Mission based restaurant. El Toyanese restaurant didn’t seem to be expecting the influx of customers that the Day of the Dead had lured into the Mission, but they were working fast and extremely friendly. The space inside this San Francisco Mexican restaurant is fairly small – about 10 tables, only 4 of which could comfortably seat more than 2 people and the décor is nothing notable. There are a lot of burrito joints in San Francisco, and especially in the Mission, but this taqueria does set itself apart. Three of us ordered: A carne asada burrito, burrito al pastor, and a plate of chile rellenos. The al pastor was average (a little on the greasy side), the carne asada was delicious (see photo of “PB” enjoying it), and the rellenos were awesome. The rellenos came on plate with refried beans, rice, sour cream, lettuce, guacamole, and extra tortillas. There was also a small salsa bar with five different choices – all were great and definitely enhanced the meal (we were pressured to like the green one the best by a fellow burrito-eater, but we all decided that the dark red mixed with a little of the chopped up peppers was in fact superior). If I knew how to pronounce or spell the name of this taqueria "El Toyanese", I would come back even more often to the Mission. Luckily, I know where it is.