- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
El Sancho
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
17 reviews for El Sancho
I would go back in a heartbeat. Excellent shredded beef! Not shredded small and not watery. Very tasty!
Great menu choice in pork, beef, chicken, sausage, and tasty Munudo soup!
I give the El Sancho tee shirts 5 stars. I bought a few of these over the last two years. Looks like they stopped selling them this year, so I am glad I still have mine.
The food is very average but I give them 3 stars because they are conveniently located near the Tahoe Vista Beach. So, you can walk across the street to pick up lunch and bring it back to the beach.
Good Mexican beer selection, fun place for kids.
I love the vibe in this place, it screams summer fun and its a great dive. The staff is great, really nice people. Its so authentic that some of the employees hardly speak English. I think its the Grandpa I got this time and we spoke in sign language. Good price/value in the dive category.
Muy bueno fish tacos! We would ordinarily have flown right by this place but saw a few people waiting outside, always a good sign.
The beer battered mahi mahi fish was seasoned perfectly. The "special sauce" tasted a lot like mayo *warning all you mayo haters*, but I LOVE mayo so was pleased at the creamy coolness on top the warm fish. The shredded cabbage on top was super fresh and beans tasted so yummy. We got the fish tacos especial.
My only complaint was that the portions seemed a bit small although admittedly, I was perfectly satisfied at the end of my meal. The fish tacos are served in corn tortillas the size of dollar coins (slightly exaggerated), but I've never seen such tiny corn torts! The chips - I counted maybe 7. For ~9/order, I expect a little mas, especially from a divey joint. I mean divey in the best way. We'll be back to try the other 'especiales'.
My husband and were taking the scenic route back home from a trip to Reno on Halloween weekend. We were across the street feeding the ducks when we saw this place.
My husband is a huge fan of fish tacos, and when he saw a sign outside El Sancho proclaiming the best fish tacos, we had to try it out.
While it is tiny inside, the food is absolutely great. With the fish tacos, you also get beans, rice, and salad. The fish was a perfect, golden crispy color. The refried beans weren't greasy at all-- you can taste the beans cheese, and a hint of salsa. And I loved the rice!
Oh yeah, you can also get real Coke from Mexico with sugar instead of that fakey corn syrup stuff they give us here in America. : )
The next time we go back to Lake Tahoe, we will definitely stop here.
We loved this place. The refried beans and rice were bland, but everything else was fantastic. We will go here again.
Fish tacos are their specialty. It's a hole in the wall but definitely delicious food that can be found nowhere else in the North Lake Tahoe area. Homemade corn tortillas, deliciously fried mahi mahi, and cabbage slaw to top it off w/ their special dressing. Even if you're adventurous walk across the street to the beach and eat there.
A top choice for a good cheap meal in the North Lake area. Truly great fish tacos and most everything else you would find at a *real* Mexican joint.
Reminded me of Puerto Vallarta on the inside. Small, but has four tables or so, good for a small group or take out. Not a new or shiny place - so grandma might not like, but your bros probably will love it. Great location across from the boat launch on North Lake Blvd (the Yelp map is wrong) - if you want to take some good chow out on the lake.
It's visited by Anglo and Mexican locals alike - good sign. My husband and I went two days in a row, and the proprietor remembered us and spoke with us in Spanish. The chips are great, although the salsas are okay. The pastor is awesome - especially if you go early in the lunch hour because you get the crunchy parts. Yum. The carnitas is good; it drips with fat. The shrimp was pretty good, but it needed a different salsa because the one that works for pork wasn't working for the shrimp. Their beans are awesome - toasty and tasty. Their horchata is also excellent. I will definitely go back next year.
I gotta take a moment to defend El Sancho from the haters. I don't know about you, but after a hard day on the slopes I have neither the energy nor the funds left for some swanky dinner a la Spindleshanks. Plus, El Sancho was within walking distance of the hotel, meaning I could get there without taking the car into the blizzard of death.
It's a tiny little shack with colorful walls and warm lighting. I highly recommend the stools by the front window, where you can watch the snow fall by the neon light of the Dos Equis sign.
Maybe it's the post-ski hunger talking, but the fish tacos were two bites of heaven, and all too easy to devour in a flash. The chile verde burrito was heftier, a piping-hot masterpiece made with pork and what looked like queso fresco. A little loosely wrapped and hence messy, but still great. Best of all, it all came with hot, freshly cooked tortilla chips. Remind me never to settle for the store-bought chips again.
Indeed there can be good Mexican food in Tahoe. And why not? All you need is a good Mexican cook like the lady at El Sancho.
I'm from LA, where good mexican food is easy to comeby. Tahoe however, is a different story. Think of El Sancho as a "diamond in the rough." It's got the authenticity/deliciousness of a "hole-in-the-wall" joint minus the dirtiness. I wish I would have discovered this place sooner. All winter long I've been driving the opposite direction (towards tahoe city) to eat overpriced american crap. Luckily, I had the fish tacos 3 days in a row and left tahoe on a great note. Thanks El Sancho!
I really like this place as opposed to what others have said. I give it four stars not for the service, which is lacking (a young boy taking orders and his mom in the back cooking) but for the food and atmosphere.
I wouldn't recommend the burritos because they are kind of soupy like super burrito in millbrae and I prefer burritos from Pancho Villa. The carne asada tacos are pretty good, the meat is a little dry but good flavor and of course their homemade tortillas rock! what I recommend is the fish tacos. they're so good. I love rubio's fish tacos but these are a little better because they aren't so greasy and they have really fresh tomatoes on them. The sauce is really close to what rubios tastes like, the fish is good, crispy(the beer batter) and not too greasy and the best thing is the yummy homemade tortillas. the fish tacos come with rice (this time my rice was under cooked so it wasn't very good) and refried beans which were good. Very filling after a day in the snow or a day of hiking!
The place itself I think is so cute. It's very small and kind of like a hole in the wall but I love finding places like that so I personally like it. You have to sit at their window seating so you can enjoy your fish tacos while looking right at the lake. It's right across the street from the lake with nothing obstructing the view. BEAUTIFUL!
One warning, don't get chips and salsa. It was like 3 bucks, I had to ask for it twice and the salsa wasn't very flavorful and barely any chips...disappointing.
So to sum up this novel, if you like finding local yummy hole in the wall places, this is the place for you. If you want to sit in a big spacious comfy restaurant with four star service, this isn't the place for you.
The place is small, brightly colored and had a menu written in spanish on poster board. What a great start.
There are neon signs for beer, but I guess they have new owners and don't have a liquor license yet - so no points off, but really they shouldn't have the signs in the window turned on.
I orderd from a friendly gentlemen who informed me that the only "choice" of beans I could have was pinto. And then I got scared.
Then the food arrived.
I have never had a more bland and tasteless burrito. The food here is so unremarkable that I wonder if the staff even eat their own food. I understand that I'm in Lake Tahoe and not on International Blvd. in Oakland, but I have to say that I've had better mexican food in Montana.
I eat at Sanchos at least 2 times a month. Very nice people. Open when others are not. Nice lakeview. Great free salsa & limes. Very nice owner.
We stopped here because after seven days of cabin food I was ready to eat a meal that I didn't have to do dishes for. Plus I was craving some enchiladas. This place is tiny but great. The service was friendly, and when we ordered the guy pointed out a cheaper combo that had an extra taco. Bonus! It's more of a takeout place, but we ate on the tiny little counter looking out onto the lake. The carnitas tacos were great - just the right amount of hot sauce, onions and cilantro. And the chicken enchiladas were perfect, covered in crema fresca and queso blanco instead of the usual goopy cheddar. The chicken was roasted, not boiled. Even the beans and rice and chips on the side were tasty. Wash it down with a Bohemia and you almost feel you're in Mexico. Well, the closest you're going to get in the Sierras anyway.
We ordered take out from El Sancho because, quite frankly, it's pretty small and people are usually packed into the handful of tables and stools there. Although you can get a seat at the counter looking out at Lake Tahoe if you time it right. The food was solid. I had the pork tamales with rice and beans. My wife had the fish tacos and gives them five stars on their own merit. If you're looking for reasonably priced, home made, authentic Mexican food in the North Shore area of Lake Tahoe, this is a great choice.
I'll be honest: The only reason I ate at this restaurant while on vacation is because I had a BOGO coupon. However, I am not one to turn down possibly authentic carnitas burritos, so I decided to push the "Can there be good Mexican food in Tahoe?" thought out of my mind. This place is tiny, but not smaller than the 10-year old boy running the restaurant. He took orders and brought out the food, all the while watching The Disney Channel on full blast. He certainly had his own technique: he brought out the burritos one by one and then the drinks in the same fashion. My husband and I both ordered the aforementioned burritos, and they were decent. I practically rendered my coupon obselete because I placed all of my change into his tip jar. I like to think that I'm contributing to his college fund.
If you are in Tahoe and in the mood for authentic Mexican this is your place! It is a small place that doesnt look like a normal Tahoe place however it is very popular with the locals, so much so that they serve cabeza. The burritos are good, tacos are fantastic and I am looking forward to trying more items on the menu this weekend when up in the mountains.
