This taco truck, home to ‘Sacramento’s best burrito,’ is opening a permanent restaurant

A taco truck once voted makers of the Sacramento region’s best burrito is planting its roots in Elk Grove.

West Coast Taco Bar will open a brick-and-mortar restaurant at 8791 Elk Grove Blvd. in late May, owners Cynthia and Ivan Garcia confirmed on Feb. 18.

“This right here is something that we never imagined for ourselves, but we do it with our whole heart ... because that’s how great food is made,” West Coast Taco Bar said in a social media post. “A lot of long days, creative nights and raising of two beautiful children with the tremendous help from our families has allowed us to reach the next step in our professional growth.”

The Garcias moved to the capital region from San Diego in 2019 and opened West Coast Taco Bar shortly thereafter, catering and popping up outside Sacramento-area breweries. Their rotating tacos are a mix of San Diego surf and modern inland fusion, like the Sac Town Fire Tacos (garlic shrimp in a red mole tortilla with cilantro slaw, chipotle sauce and cotija) or the Sweet P (roasted sweet potato with soy chorizo, tomatillo salsa, scallions and cotija on a corn tortilla).

West Coast Taco Bar serves just one burrito but it’s memorable. The Bitchin Cali — stuffed with shrimp, asada, fries, guacamole, cheese, pico de gallo and chipotle salsa — was voted the region’s best burrito in an October 2020 Sacramento Bee poll with more than 2,500 respondents.

Cynthia first became a sous chef at 19 years old, graduated from culinary school in 2006 and now has 17 years cooking professionally, including a handful of executive chef jobs under her belt. Ivan’s path was more circuitous: an assistant manager job at a Mexican restaurant in Tracy, then 10 years and four tours in the Marine Corps, then sous chef and chef at Seasons 52’s San Diego location.

This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 5:00 AM.