Taco Centro Brings More Mexican Street Food To San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter

November 27, 2022

Now open in the space that long housed Berkeley Pizza in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter is Taco Centro, a modern taqueria offering a new take on the Mexican street food experience.

Taco Centro is the product of Adrian Gutierrez, whose family has been involved in the restaurant business for decades with a proven track record of ownership and management of traditional fast food taco shop businesses. The Mexican eatery is now open in the quaint downtown space previously occupied by Berkeley Pizza.

“Taco Centro is a new and improved Mexican street food experience, focusing on providing the freshest ingredients, premium top-grade meats, and beverages,” explained founder Adrian Gutierrez. “Inspired by the market food stalls and street food vendors during our trips and adventures to various cities in Mexico, our concept is taco-centric based on the traditional taco stalls found all over the country, and we wanted to bring this experience to the heart of San Diego. We wanted to revive the traditional food stalls of local markets found in the city centers/downtowns (CENTROS) and popular streets/neighborhoods all over Mexico, but with a modern look and feel.” 

Taco Centro has an exposed, open kitchen and floor-to-ceiling windows with a design implementing common traditional Mexican colors from popular food stalls, and both indoor and outdoor patio seating. The all-day menu is centered around popular Mexican dishes like tacos made with hand-pressed corn tortillas, specialty burritos and taco bowls. The menu also includes birria, smothered fries, quesadillas, vampiros, mulitas, avocado tostadas, elote corn, chips and other side dishes, as well as desserts like hot churros with chocolate, flan, and Mexican paletas (ice pops). In addition to the food and dessert menu, Taco Centro offers a variety of popular Mexican bottled soft drinks, fresh fruit beverages, Micheladas, and 10 taps with a rotating selection of Baja and local beer.