The standing list · maintained by Kevin Foxcroft

Kevin's top 5 taquerías

This is the list I actually give people when they ask, which is more often than you'd think. Four in California, one in Arizona, all of them earned over years of work trips out of Reno–Sparks. It's ranked, it's mine, and it's honest about what it isn't: a survey of every burrito in the West. It's the five I keep going back to.

A burrito with rice and grilled beef on a dark plate.

1 NAPA, CALIFORNIA

El Rancho Grande

Number one, and it isn't particularly close. Everything else on this list gets measured against this place, which is either high praise or a bad habit depending on who you ask. It sits on Silverado Trail — the quiet eastern road through Napa Valley, not the tourist artery — so you drive past a lot of tasting rooms to get to a Mexican restaurant, and that is exactly the correct decision.

From Reno it's roughly three and a half hours: I-80 west over the pass, then south. I have made that drive with no other errand on the calendar. Full send.

Address: 891 Silverado Trail, Napa, CA 94559
Phone: (707) 252-4495
Verified: Address and phone confirmed against the restaurant's public listings, 13 Aug 2026.

Restaurant website Directions & details

Two burritos with steak and black beans on a rustic plate.

2 SAN LORENZO, CALIFORNIA

Papa Pancho's Taquería

East Bay, Hesperian Boulevard, tucked between San Leandro and Hayward. This is a counter taquería in a stretch of road most people drive through on the way to somewhere else, and it has never once handed me a bad burrito. That consistency is the whole argument for number two. Anybody can be great on a Saturday. Being reliably great on a Wednesday at 1:15 p.m. is harder.

It's a few minutes off I-880, which makes it a legitimate lunch stop rather than a pilgrimage. Worth the detour if you're anywhere in the East Bay corridor.

Address: 15939 Hesperian Blvd, San Lorenzo, CA 94580
Phone: (510) 278-5305
Verified: Address and phone confirmed against the restaurant's public listings, 13 Aug 2026.

Restaurant's page Directions & details

A grilled burrito with steak and peppers, steaming.

3 SAN BRUNO, CALIFORNIA

Taquería San Bruno

The most operationally useful pin on this entire list. San Mateo Avenue is about ten minutes from SFO, which means this is the burrito that turns a dead layover or an early rental-car return into the best part of the trip. I have eaten here with a boarding pass in my pocket more times than I want to write down.

If you have forty minutes between the terminal and the freeway, this is the move. Don't eat it in the rental car if you can help it. I say that from experience, and the experience was my own fault.

Address: 1045 San Mateo Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066
Phone: (650) 873-1752
Verified: Address and phone confirmed against the restaurant's public listings, 13 Aug 2026.

Restaurant website Directions & details

4 RICHMOND, CALIFORNIA

Lidia's Restaurant

Nevin Avenue in Richmond, and the only place in my top five that I'd call a proper sit-down room rather than a counter. That changes the math. This is not a grab-it-and-go stop; it's a place to actually sit, order breakfast, and not look at your phone for twenty minutes. On a work trip that is worth something.

Easy to reach off I-580 heading toward the bridge. If you're staging in the East Bay before a morning meeting in the city, this is a much better plan than the hotel buffet.

Address: 338 Nevin Ave, Richmond, CA 94801
Phone: (510) 778-1895
Verified: Address and phone confirmed against the restaurant's public listings, 13 Aug 2026.

Restaurant website Directions & details

A burrito with minced meat and beans on a red plate.

5 KINGMAN, ARIZONA

El Palacio

The only non-California entry, and the reason I stop in Kingman instead of white-knuckling it through to Vegas. It's on East Andy Devine Avenue, which is historic Route 66 running straight through downtown, in a building that has clearly been standing a while. Kingman's own visitor guide calls it a downtown institution; I'll let the city make that claim rather than make it myself.

Practical note that matters more than the prose: check the days. This is not a seven-day-a-week operation, and finding that out at the door after four hours on I-40 is a bad afternoon. Call ahead.

Address: 401 E Andy Devine Ave, Kingman, AZ 86401
Phone: (928) 718-0018
Verified: Address and phone confirmed against public listings, 13 Aug 2026. Hours vary by day — call before driving.

Kingman visitor listing Directions & details

What this list isn't

Five places, four of them within a couple hours of the Bay Area, ranked by one guy who lives in Nevada. That's a coverage map shaped by my job, not by the food. There are entire regional traditions I've barely touched and whole cities I drive past. The list moves when somebody sends me somewhere better, and people do.

I also don't rule on whether anything here is “authentic.” That's not mine to hand out. These are five restaurants whose food I like enough to plan a day around.

send me the one I'm missing

Photography on this page is licensed stock. Kevin's own photos replace it as he shoots each place.