Taqueria Guadalajara

This is one of those special finds. It is cozie (yes, I mean small) but comfortable. There is nothing flashy about the buliting, in fact if you blink you’ll blow right past it. Per their recommendation, I ordered "Enchiladas Verdes". It was 2 enchiladas covered in green sauce, beans, rice and lettuce. Each bite was wonderful and had so much flavor. The spice level of this entree is pretty low. There wasn't enough to have leftovers, but I was full. The "nice" full if you know what I mean. Then came the bill. $10.99 plus tax. I expected it to be more. I spoke with an employee and they said that they want to be a place that people can come to a couple times a week, not just once every week or two. I recommend this restaurant.

Great tasting food and great value. Horchata was good too. The tostadas are so tasty. Really like the red salsa they serve you at the table. Would definitely recommend to out of towners. Recommend parking in the back.

Locals in Madison are lucky to have such an authentic Mexican restaurant right in town. I enjoyed it so much that I visited it twice in the same week. The Al pastor and Lengua tacos were both juicy and flavorful. The torta Al pastor is great as well. Definitely a spot worth returning to again and again.

No complaints. The last time we tried to come here, there was an extremely long wait so we left. But this time we came when it was less busy and were able to enjoy this cozy spot! Great service, quality, and value. Definitely worth a visit!

Honestly, it was a pretty mid experience. The food was just okay, the taco felt strangely bland. I was expecting something really great after reading some of the reviews.

Taqueria Guadalajara was the perfect spot for an authentic and flavorful meal while mama and baby got some well-deserved rest after birth at SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital. Just a short walk away, this gem serves up truly traditional Mexican cuisine. I ordered the Platillo Mi Rancho, guacamole, and steak tacos, and every bite was bursting with rich, bold flavors. The steak was perfectly seasoned, the guacamole fresh and creamy, and the Platillo Mi Rancho was a hearty, satisfying dish that showcased the depth of Mexican cooking. The warm and inviting atmosphere made for a great break during such a special time. Highly recommend for anyone craving genuine, delicious Mexican food in Madison!

Question 1: how’s the salsa. Answer: tangy, nice bite, not overwhelming. Question 2: how’s the mole enchiladas? Answer: huge plate of food. Savory mole with a nice chocolate finish. Question 3: how’s about the tacos? Answer: as good as the best tacos in town. Question 4: should you go? Answer: Yes!

Soooo good!!!!!! Best quality of beef in every dish!! Sooo soft 😭😭

Not having eaten there for about a year hopes were high that it was as good as the last meal. NOT EVEN CLOSE! Maybe they have a mew cook but the quality of our orders was terrible. My friend and I each had an enrtree that had steak, neither one of us could chew the tiny scraps of over-cooked gristle. My brother had chicken enchiladas and the chicken was tough and over-cooked. This was very disappoint ing I had bragged to my friends about how good their food used to be. That said...I will never go back an if you're looking for good Mexican food go elsewhere.

I have been trying to visit this place for a long time. They don't have a website or facebook page. I called and no one picked up. So I wasn't sure if they were open. To my surprise, they were open. I posted their current menu pics as well. Chimichanga was my favorite entree here. Flautas was my other entree. That was excellent as well. Entree comes with a spicy flavorful sauce. That's delicious. Horchata was excellent. It was smooth and had a chocolate flavor.

Oddly we were at a comedy club in Madison and the comedian asked the crowd where the best Mexican restaurant was in town and the crowd responded Taqueria Guadalajara! So I decided to try it and now I know why the crowd responded with this place. Doesn't look like much from the outside and we didn't know when we arrived what to expect but this place does not disappoint. Very friendly staff and very prompt service. Not a large restaurant but when we left there were over ten carry out sacks sitting on a counter. As you can see in the photo they present their food very well and the food tastes authentic and delicious. I will make this a monthly stop for sure!!

Food was nice, in a cozy spot on Park Street. I got the burrito mexicano, a burrito with your choice of meat inside and melted cheese, sour cream, and guacamole on top. The tortilla and toppings were creamy, flavorful, and added to the overall burrito. The chicken could have been more seasoned, but was overall a great combo with salsa or any hot sauce. I also got the gordita (with chicharron) and I faced a similar experience with the meat. However, the overall taste was great. The customer service was definitely the best part of the entire experience. Our server was kind, funny, and was extremely accommodating during our visit. I was with a large group and he efficiently took our orders, instantly gave us our drinks, and offered free refills as well. The customer service definitely made this a 5 star experience.

Customer Service By far the best customer service I have received in all of Madison. Everyone here treats you like you are part of their family, which means they go above and beyond what is expected. For instance, I got to have breakfast with the staff. We had different backgrounds but we sat alongside each other and talked while we ate. Food Absolutely delicious! This is authentic Mexican food that is GOOD TASTING. I tried the enchiladas verdes with chicken and they were fantastic. The portion size was good, lots of food and the price is just right. Even though I was a little dissatisfied by the mildness of the salsa, I understand that they have to tone it down a little because of the population they serve. Did not detract from the flavorful taste of the meal! I will be back here again.

The food is absolutely amazing & authentic & the salsa & chips are fresh & delicious! Great atmosphere it's feels like you're in a small town in Mexico. Staff is friendly & attentive, we really enjoy it each & every time we visit.

Hair in food!! And a fair bit of it. Cactus salad was pickled not fresh but good. Service was nice enough so is ambiance, used you be my favorite but won't be coming back too unsanitary. Yuck:(

Taqueria Gaudalajara is a decent spot for affordable Mexican food in the Madison area. The service is incredibly quiet and efficient. I have never had an experience with an employee that was unpleasant. The menu is expansive and offers a variety of options. My go-to is a burrito or the quesadillas. I also recommend the gorditas! Most options on the menu are $9-12, which is an incredible deal for the amount of food you get. Most main dishes are paired with rice and refined beans, both of which are quite flavorful and filling, Bathrooms are clean and the atmosphere is alright, though this is more often a spot I rely on for takeout rather than dining in. Overall, would recommend a stop here.

Everything was so good. The amount of meat we got for the price was super generous. We both got plates which came with a variety of sides which were delicious. Both my partner and I are from socal and this is the best Mexican food we've had since moving out to the Midwest.

Insanely good food! These guys know what they're doing!!!!! Got torta and tacos and horchata and it changed my life!!!

Classic hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. Very unassuming, but the food is excellent. Well spiced and tasty. Friendly staff. Sadly, no Margaritas (beer only).

Authentic Mexican food! I can't say enough about the quality of Taqueria Guadalajara. The food is incredible. My first bite of the guacamole had me questioning every other time I'd ever had guacamole. Rich and creamy, flavored perfectly with fresh and ripe avocados. The salsa was similar. You could tell that the food was made minutes before in the kitchen. The restaurant has plenty to look at inside with bright colors all around. Overall, it's the definition of a hole in the wall as there isn't much room, but that adds to the great character of this place. Our service was quick and helpful. I love this taqueria and can't wait to come back!

We have been searching for decent Mexican food in Madison since we moved here two years ago. Others had recommended this place but it was not convenient to where we live. Finally we were nearby during lunch so we swooped in. It is a popular place. As others have described this very basic and very tiny joint can really crank out authentic Mexican food. We ordered their enchiladas verde - one with cheese and one with chicken. Both were very good as were the sides of rice and refried beans. The prices are a real bargain for what you get. We opted to take ours to go versus to eat in their small dining area. Service was fast. We will return to try other dishes because this is good eats.

We love this place. It's family run and as authentic Mexican as you get. Right sized portions and reasonably priced. Good service and you're always greeted as you enter from the kitchen as you pass. Don't expect fancy ambiance but it's clean.

Pretty standard Mexican fare, I had the Quesadilla Mexicano with carne asada which came with pick de gallo inside and rice, beans, guac, and sour cream on the side. My wife enjoyed her burrito Mexicano with vegetables. They mercifully don't overload you with too many free chips before your food comes. Service was fast and our meal came out quick. Prices are very reasonable for what you get, our meal was just over $25 with tax. Portions are good too, not gigantic but definitely enough to leave you full.

Chile Relleno... Most excellent. I can't wait to to come again. This place is small and not fancy, but I'm not here for fancy. Real authentic.

So far, I think this is the best taco place in Madison. I will give this place 5/5 since it is hard to find good taco place in Madison. But it's probably 4/5 if it were in bigger cities like Chicago. Their tacos have really good flavors. Nevertheless, the al pastor tacos could be enhanced with some pineapples in them.

Taqueria Guadalajara is great for authentic mexican food. They serve food in their small restaurant/grocery store combo. I can order and freshly cooked amazing food will be ready in 15 minutes. I've grabbed a dozen tamales here and there. Delicious veggie tacos, À la cart or three with rice and beans. The Carne Asada is amazing. Taqueria Guadalajara staff is friendly and helpful. I highly recommend this business.

The only place in the Madison area that rivals this spot for authenticity is el primo is sun prairie.

Great taco plate, reasonable prices, and just off the road. Can't ask for much more! It seems to be a real family run establishment as well!

Easily the best Mexican restaurant in all of Dane County. I've got Taqueria Guadalajara on speed dial and each time I call they are ready to crank out my order for pick up. The al pastor chimichangas are top tier and go especially well with a cup of horchata. Though I've not dined in at the restaurant, I can assure you that if the take out is amazing, it can only be better by being served in the restaurant. At the time of pick up, employees are always hard at work but very attentive to every customer and making sure everyone is taken care of! Hopefully soon I'll have a picture of the chimichangas to supplement this review.

I just moved here from LA. I was desperate for good Mexican food and was coming upshort. The Mex food I was finding was OK but not great. Then I found TG. Terrific food. The Mole is excellent; not sweet just excellent! Moles are not supposed to be sweet. Everyone that I have taken there is very impressed. Try it!

I have been to this place a few times, and I am sad to say that every time I have picked up food there, or actually sat down to enjoy a meal, the staff has been dismissive and rude. Unfortunately, customer service is not one of their strengths. In regards to the food, I cannot vouch for the entire menu, but I can say that their steak tacos are a 5/10. I don't think I will be choosing this restaurant again. 3 strikes and out.

Iconic. Lively service. Food came so fast. Excellent food I couldn't get enough of. New fav spot in town.

If I wasn't a Mexican food snob, I would have liked this place a lot more. But I eat Mexican food like 3x per week so I have pretty high standards. This seemed like an Americanized Mexican place, lots of cheese on everything and crema. My daughter liked her taco well enough, the service was fast and it was ok. But not great.

Taqueria Guadalajara is serving very delicious foods at an affordable price. I visited one Friday evening and got the asada and pastor tacos served with rice and beans. The asada was pretty average, but the pastor was exceptionally delicious. The rice and beans were also very tasty which were included on the side of the plate. The taco meal was around $10 before tax which was reasonable for the portions given. I also tried the hibiscus agua fresca which was very tasty and was around $4. Overall, really liked the food and the host was super nice.

Always great food here! The horchata is amazing and the best priced I've seen in Madison.

I love the steak taco dinner. Such a reliable eatery honestly especially for quick eats. Food is done in a timely manner and I love the service and the environment.

Until recently there was also a Taqueria Guadalajara in Waukesha WI which is close to where we live. We ate at that restaurant 2-3 times a month and it was our definite go to for top notch Mexican cuisine. Unfortunately they closed within the last couple of months. We've been wanting to try this place and also have been wanting to go to the Dane County Farmers Market so we made the drive to Mad City and accomplished both feats this weekend. We were meeting my son and his roommate here for a birthday celebration lunch and we arrived about 45 minutes early. The staff was totally cool with it and we relaxed at a table chowing on tasty warm complimentary chips and salsa. We all ordered our "old go to's" from the Waukesha restaurant. Chicken Mole enchilada dinners for my wife and I and Desayuna El Compadre breakfast specials for the guys. I'm not going to compare to the previous place in Waukesha other than to say the dishes were very similar. The Mole enchiladas were fantastic. The refried beans were creamy and tasty and the rice was hot and fresh. Their mole is among the best we've ever had. The guys really chowed on their huge breakfast platters. The homemade hot sauce on this is pretty spicy so if you're not a fan of the really hot stuff make sure to request the hot sauce on the side or downgrade to mild sauce. The staff was fantastic and happy to chat and discuss why the Waukesha branch had to close down. This was a really great meal and we will be back again soon!!

Service was great but food was not even close to as good as Texas Mexican food. The hot sauce wasn't like what we are used to in Texas. I'll stick with Texas Mexican food.

Great Food, good service, cheap prices. The best food come from places like these. Highly recommended

Friendly service and delicious food. If you're looking for good authentic Mexican food in Madison, then this is your spot.

Great vegetarian and chicken tacos. Served quickly. Nice salsas too! Easy to get take out.

Very good tacos, not many options from the bar they only have beer but no hard liquor. Atmosphere is kind of underwhelming but they make up for it with the food if you want authentic cuisine.

Ok if you can get past the sh*t show at the front door, you're in for a treat. But to be honest, the crowded entryway is just proof of how good this place is. We went around 1:30 on Saturday & the place was packed! We only waited about 10 minutes though, I think they move people through pretty fast. Chips & salsa were great, the salsa was so fresh! We ordered the Mexicali burrito & the chicken chimichanga. Yuuuuuuuuum! is all I can say. Highly recommend!!

Was craving a burrito and I was in the neighborhood so finally decided to try Taqueria out. I was very pleasantly surprised. I called for takeout (no dine-in during covid) and the woman was so nice over the phone! I ordered the burrito w/ marinated pork ($6.50, super cheap!) And she said it would be ready in 10 minutes?? Just hearing that, I was nervous about the quality. I mean how fresh could it be made in 10 minutes? Spoiler alert: Very fresh. My burrito came hot and still soft from rolling in under 10 minutes! It was delicious, and the pork was so well cooked and seasoned. I normally get chicken but there didn't seem to be a chicken option for anything besides the taco pollo, so this was a nice trip out of my comfort zone. The tortilla is thin so you can actually get the filling and not a mouthful of bread your first few bites. There was a lot of lettuce and the innards weren't mixed as other reviews mentioned, but still enough meat+beans to make up for it.

I am Mexican and i grew up eating Taqueria Guadalajara ever since I was a child, before the building was extended in the back. The food never disappoints. I keep coming back for more. I love the authentic taste of la horchata and all the Mexican options they have available. The service is quite fast even tho they're always piled up with orders which I do greatly appreciate. Taqueria Guadalajara, please don't ever relocate, I doubt you will ever go out of business

Second best Mexican food in Madison. Highly recommended. Every dish is worth sampling.

Given that there are already over 200 reviews for this place, I doubt I will add anything of value. That being said I love this place and would like to support it's fantastic food and service in any fashion possible. I've said it in other reviews, unfortunately there isn't a depth in diversity of dining in Madison. This is one place that helps solve this issue. Taqueria Guadalajara offers authentic Mexican food in a laid back atmosphere and with warm, friendly service. As many reviewers have already elaborated, this place is packed at peak times. Luckily service is so fast that waiting doesn't exceed past twenty minutes per party. When I do go here, I have a tendency to order the same thing over and over again, the steak chimichanga. I see a lot of people order variety though, including a various assortment of foods with Verde sauce, breakfast, etc... All food is made fresh and to order. This is a point of distinction between this taqueria and others in Madison. A clear example is that the steak is made for burritos, tacos, etc. in small batches to satisfy the orders needing steak. At other places, the steak will be made every few hours and will be allowed to sit around. This makes all the difference in taste of freshness and providing restaurant quality. The produce is also prepared in fresh as well every few hours. The tastes are very reflective of going to a classic place in Mexico and asking for a particular food. The price, friendly staff, and great quality simply has no rival in Madison. Oh and they also have Mexican cokes, horchata, Jarritos, and a few beers for selection - a nice touch.

I usually do not eat chimichangas but I wanted to try it and it was better than I thought it would be. I got the steak chimichangas with rice and beans. I enjoyed the avocados and the cheese and sour cream. Taqueria Guadalajara has great food.

Food was great, but my family has gotten food poisoning here twice so far in the past couple of years. We are done. Why doesn't this place get checked out by the health department? Get it together people. You are in the business of creating food for humans to eat, it needs to be NOT poisonous.

Exactly what my wife and I were looking for in a Mexican restaurant. I got the mole, she ordered the huaraches. Both were excellent. And while I am in no way qualified to judge the authenticity of the place, it at least felt to me like what a real, local Mexican restaurant should feel like.

The most authentic Mexican restaurant we've found in Wisconsin. The special meals are the best. We especially like the lingua. Only place we found it. Great staff and hard working cooks. Looks like a little old house but is clean. We go every time we drive to Madison.

Love getting takeout from here. I ate inside a couple of years ago and really liked their food. I started getting carry out a couple of weeks ago and have been very happy with the food, the employees, and the cleanliness of the space. I highly recommend the tacos. I'm going to branch out next time and try the enchiladas again. I remember them being very good.

Best Mexican restaurant in Madison, hands down. They make their own mole. Everyone else uses the same mole from a can.

Its great food! Service its good fast Grilled Steak Tacos Platillo Guadalajara great portion of food

Dam it, I picked another place for lunch which was very popular and a line waiting to get a table. We would wait about 25 minutes while watching how the well oiled staff handled the onslaught that was in full action. The place is small with a bar area in the front and a small dining room in the back. The place had colorful fresh looking walls with open duct work on the ceiling. The tables and chairs are cheap cafeteria style placed in the room. I was worried when I opened the menu and nothing it was more than $11 and change. I would have the taco dinner for a whopping $7 which was steak and pork with a Negra Mondelo. The chips and salsa were complementary and filled at least twice while we were there. The salsa was standard but the green was the hot one with better flavor. The chips were commercial tri color but did do the job. The tacos were very good I must say for $7. They were my kind, meat, cilantro and onions. The corn tortillas had great flavor and cooked perfect on the flat top grill, just in the middle of soft to hard with flexibility left in them. The steak was flavorful and slightly seasoned. The pastor was melt in your mouth tender, i sampled the meats before I put the salsa on them and ate them. The beans were thick and lumpy with onions in them which I liked. The rice as usual does nothing for me. Not one mystery gristle or fat chunks in the meat so they trim the meat well. Over all for price vs quality this is a solid joint. The tacos were very good and I can see why people wait in line for the place. We had to wait in line to pay on my way out so line in and line out. For price vs quality vs value there cant possibly be anything better and my only problem was no margarita on the menu to complete the whole experience. I wish this was in my neighborhood because I don't anything even close but I'm glad I we stopped by.

After much hunting for the best Mexican in Madison...this MIGHT be it. The tacos have tasty meat and the rice and beans were perfect. The salsa was a bit hot for my preference but good nonetheless. Will be returning in the future to see what else to try on the menu.

We came here once before we were going on a flight and the food is delicious! Perfect for lunch or dinner. Everyone loved their food and the veggie torta is especially good :) 5/5 would recommend to all!