Tamiko Fletcher

We really enjoy Valerie's Taco Shop. We've gone numerous times. My husband likes the 5 rolled tacos. He has a healthy appetite but finds those filling. My go to is the cheese enchilada plate with rice and beans. The sauce is great. I really like scooping some on my rice and beans. When I'm not eating the enchiladas, I opt for the crispy potato tacos. It's a hard shell taco filled with seasoned potatoes. They are topped with cheese, sour cream and cabbage. They are very good. But the taco shell and potato are fried so it's an occasional versus a regular treat. We also enjoy the Agua frecas. Watermelon or Cucumber lime are my husband's favorite. He's also a fan of the Horchata. I prefer the Jamaica.

Eric Johnson

OMG wow wow wow! This place is 10/10 🔥🔥🔥. If you enjoy good Mexican Food with a California twist on some things then this is your place! I’ve eaten here now 3 times in 7 days and every single time it was outstanding! From the creamy green salsa to the Cheese fries topped with Chorizo all I can is NOM NOM NOM! My 🛹 preferred the Rolled Chicken Tacos over the Flautas

+2

benabercrombie09

My fiancee and I really enjoy great, late night food. Fresh Mexican street food? Open 24 hours? We were amped. The first thing you'll notice about Val's is the drive thru, and how no one would respond to our polite "Hello?" greetings. Cool. We'll go inside. There was a large, room-temperature puddle in the middle of the dining area. There was an impressively silent employee up front (this man would remain silent for MOST of the encounter, confirmed though, he's not mute). He was wearing a drive-thru headset, which was very funny. He took our order wordlessly, said, "thank you" for the tip, and when I asked if he had some salsa, he pointed at the salsa bar, again, wordlessly. Now, I believe in being generous, in giving folks the benefit of the doubt, but at this stage I felt like his pointed finger had a tone to it. The lighting in this place is crazy. Brighter than an operating room. So bright, and so quiet (there was no music playing) you could hear the chef's knife slicing white onion. This ambiance added up to an almost liminal space. The food took 10 minutes to prepare. Super reasonable wait time. While we waited, though, two other customers got their feet wet in the puddle. I think they tried to go through the drive thru. When we walked out, we said to each other, "It will depend on the food, but let's not come back here." We both got quesabirria tacos, and they were SUBLIME. Perfectly cooked, layered with bright, fresh flavor. Really wonderful, especially for late night grub. We're going to come back here a lot now, which is unfortunate.

I just started a new job in the area. After working 13 hours, I wanted some breakfast. The first two times I went the food was great. The third time, I went, I received bad service when it came to the food. The girl working the drive thru took my order once again, but judged me and thought I was stoned because my eyes are red due to the cleaning products I had been using all night. Before I ordered, I asked if the breakfast tacos were stuffed since they were $5+ each, she said yes. I received the skimpiest taco. She was insecure and thought I had a different motive aside from getting the food. She did not hand me my order or take my payment. A gentlemen did and he was polite and kind. I knew something was wrong with my order. I decided to test the theory. I went to a different location 10 mins way. Ordered the same thing. Sure enough the food was stuffed, hot, and tasted amazing. I wanted to become a regular, but was judge by the drive thru girl and I just wanted quick service without any additional assumptions. I tried to call the store, but the phone is out of service. I believe the same gentlemen was at the second location. I'm tired from working all night/morning, but he was kind. I won't be back to this location as writing a review can impact my quality of food more if I'm already receiving bad service from doing absolutely nothing. God bless.

tony toscano

This is my first review for any restaurant. I first went this place last week with my son. We got the al pastor burrito and california burrito. Al pastor was good and california wasn't bad other than I asked for no sour cream but they added it anyway. No big deal, we delt with it and my son actually liked it (he was the reason for not having the sour cream). Fast forward to today. We went again a little after 10pm. We sat at the drive through speaker for about 3 minutes and figured it was broken so we went to the window. When we pulled up to the window there was a shorter guy at the register counting money and plugging numbers into his phone. For the next 3 minutes i will give him a little bit of credit and say he might not have seen my waving at him thru the window, again ok,maybe he didn't. Then a taller guy comes to the same register looks at me and tells the shorter guy who then looks and goes back to counting money. At this point I'm a little disappointed but we were hungry so we parked and went inside. We followed another couple in and stood behind them at the counter only to be completely ignored for another 5 minutes, without even a hey we will be right with you from either of them. They just continued counting money. Again, this is the first ever review I have written and I feel bad for doing it but this was extremely rude and I'm hoping he wasn't the owner and that they understand than I am probably not the first person this has happened to. *UPDATE: I went again for lunch a couple days later because I really miss so cal mexican food and it was a complete 180. With 3 cars in front of me it took less than 10 minutes to order and recieve an al pastor burrito and 3 rolled tacos. Food was good and service was alot better. Maybe i just hit them on a bad night and the wrong time.

Jake Royer

Food was pretty above average! Nothing crazy for my breakfast burrito. The best part was the tortilla. But the meat and eggs could’ve been better seasoned in my opinion. It just tasted kinda bland outside of the tortilla. I’m giving it an extra star thought bc the size is massive

Alaina Valentine

They charged me $3.75 to add sour cream to my tacos. That is the same price as an entire new tub of sour cream from the grocery store. The tacos were really big, so that’s one good thing. But they drowned my tacos in the sour cream and even with the creamy green salsa the tacos were bland and in desperate need of seasoning. Just a little salt and pepper would go a long way. I usually really love Valerie’s but this location was a miss for me. These are easy things to fix though and I am sure they are doing their best and nobody’s perfect. It’s really nice that they have a drive through as not everyone has time to go into a restaurant on a busy work day.

Ive always enjoyed the food and when I think taco shop I think Valerie’s ! Last night 02/27/2026 8:00pm , I opted to order online for the first time and had my son pick up my order. My bean and cheese burrito kids meal was not provided. Instead I got just the burrito for $7.49, very disappointing. The LARGE horchata I ordered was unavailable so my son opted for a pineapple. He was instead given a medium/small pineapple. The flavor change is ok but why couldn’t the cashier read that it said Large not small? I called the store and immediately a girl answered with a bit of an accent. She said she could refund me the kids meal and placed me on hold for five minutes, I’m not exaggerating :/ I tried calling back multiple times that night and next morning. Instead of someone picking up, I continued getting a prompt that said “ that voicemail is full and not accepting new messages” I’m pretty sure my number was just blocked. :( or phoneturned off ? I’m very disappointed.

Decided to stop for a breakfast burrito, which is one of my favorite things in the entire world compound that with the fact that they have a Machaca burrito very excited to have breakfast here. When I got my burrito, it was obvious that the Machaca had been frozen and was now microwave thought cause there was water running out of my burrito. The shell was so soggy. I couldn’t eat it and there was not one sprinkle of salt or pepper or any other seasoning anywhere inside that burrito I think they forgot my cheese. Only reason I gave him mini stars is because they’re salsa bar is actually not bad.

Barry Burkhart

I make no claims about being a trained food critic, but I do have experience enjoying many types of Mexican, Latino, Hispanic foods since moving to Carlsbad, NM in 1963. Altogether, I have lived in cities and states that are highly influenced by Latin cultures since that time. I absolutely LOVE giving great, happy, and fully satisfied reviews. Few things make me more unhappy to give unsatisfied reviews. All that being said, I will just say that I was left completely and totally let down after being swayed by a true Latino acquaintance who filled me with high anticipation to immediately go to Valerie’s…. Post haste!!! Never again! And I tried three different menu items. Neither my wife or I were compelled to finish our meals. So terribly sorry to be the bearer of this kind of news. I do so hope that your experiences are completely different than mine. I wish no ill will on this restaurant and do hope they prosper in our community.

Karina Umana

Got the quesadilla it’s literally plain no lettuce, guac or sour cream at all . For some reason My orders never come with salsa.not sure if I’m supposed to request ??? You Can’t really expect much from a spot out here and open 24/7 lol I’ve gotten fajita nachos before and they forgot the fajita :(

Eric Williamson

I live 7 minutes from Valerie's Taco Shop, so everyday for the last 4 months I couldn't wait for the opening. Unfortunately, my excitement turned to disappointment. I will say, the customer service was top notch, however everything else was sub par. The guacamole was bland and tasted like it was more like a paste out of a jar vs. Freshly made. The Elote was super salty, the Fish Tacos were under cooked. I so wanted it to be great due to the proximity of my home. On a positive note, the Queso and chips were actually pretty good. My overall experience was 2 Stars, at best:(

+6

They are absolutely sleeping on the job and getting paid for it. I tried coming to this location between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. for the last week and every time the lights are on the menu is lit up but no one is taking the order even though the sign that says 24 hours is lit up. One of the times that I came in at 5:15 a.m. they said they were cleaning the grill and that seemed to be the only time that they were at work because the other three times no one came to the intercom and when I pulled up to the window and waited the lights are on but no one came to the window. If this place is going to advertise being open 24 hours they need to adhere to that and be open 24 hours. If for some reason they need to close they should not have everything lit up as if they are still open. It is very disappointing because with my work schedule that is the only time I could try to grab food and I'm counting on this place to be open giving their advertisement, but being disappointed the last four times they should probably rethink their hours if they're not going to truly be open until 6:00 or 7:00 am. Hopefully their owners or management is seeing this review and is able to address the problem.

They recently raised their prices over 50% on most menu items!!! Owner thinks customers won't notice, but they will. Too many other Mexican restaurants have better food at lower prices.

I’ve noticed they often don’t prepare orders correctly when using Uber Eats. I ordered the street tacos with everything, but they arrived with no sauce or pico de gallo. When you dine in, however, the experience and attention to detail are noticeably better.

Alex Lopez

My experience was disappointing, especially considering I was the only customer in the restaurant. The chorizo con huevo taco was extremely oily and was clearly prepared using the 'lazy' method: the chorizo was added on top of the cooked egg rather than being scrambled together. ​I also ordered papas con huevo but instead received an egg with french fries mixed in, which was not what I expected. The al pastor taco was nearly inedible due to the excessive amount of grease. ​The one highlight was the aguas frescas; they were good, although I'm not convinced they were freshly made. Overall, the quality of the food was poor, and I won't be returning.