Asada burrito was extremely salty and the meat was old and chewy (you know for sure when you eat it). The vegetarian burrito was worse, and tasted like some kind of surface cleaner. Probably an honest mistake after cleaning the kitchen and surfaces but the tortilla and lettuce had an overwhelming cleaning scent, like Pine Sol. Really bad experience for $30 bucks. read more

Torta Milenesa is all I have to say! Don't get me started on their salsa, best around. I was so excited to eat my sandwich I forgot to take a picture. I know they are not known for their torta, but trust me they should be. Not a great part of town but whenever I'm close I know where I'm going for lunch. Staff is helpful. Atmosphere is typical for plaza dining. Worth stopping in for sure. read more

Order their LA Estrella burrito, maybe they should call it Head & Feet because that the only part they didn't put in it. There was soo much chicken! read more

This place has horrible customer service. The register girl is just talking the whole time and I can't even place my order because she's too busy having side conversations. I didn't notice. Someone else came back because they made the order incorrect. That is due to the cashier, not taking orders correctly. read more

Come here if you want to be judged for being a mexican who doesn't speak Spanish . Thought it was one location. Turns out to be all locations. Great food though. Minus the attitude. read more

I have been coming here forever. It always hits the spot. I love their red salsa that comes on the side, and look forward to eating here every time I am in Pasadena. read more

My husband is hearing impaired. This is not the first time this has happened to him . When he gets to the cashier female he lets them know he can't hear . So he hand signs for the lady to write down the total of the order and she laughs at him... Knowing how much my husband's hearing loss affects him .. And for this employee to not have compassion and laugh at him . Is not acceptable... read more

5 STARS for the staff. A few days ago I dropped my wallet outside the restaurant. Someone from the restaurant called my office (thanks to my business cards in the wallet) and within the hour I got my lost wallet back. Thank you La Estrella. Will have to pick up some fish tacos next time. read more

Best chorizo con huevo breakfast burrito I've had. And the hot sauce is super delish... The best in town!!! read more

La Estrella Restaurant - Chorizo con huevo breakfast burrito is best in town - Mexican Near Me - Pasadena, California

See all

The food is mediocre The food takes forever Not good if you're a local with a service dog as they'll require lots of documentation Pretty view Will not go again read more

I stopped by to try the bean & cheese burrito which came with hot sauce, lime slice, and chips all for under four dollars. The flour tortilla was soft and fresh and the ingredients tasted just right, some restaurants can ruin a simple burrito but not this place. read more

La Estrella Restaurant - Good food done fast - Mexican Near Me - Pasadena, California

This is my go-to taco stand (although I usually get burritos) Cabeza and lengua are my favorites, but they also have excellent pollo and caritas. Muy grande burritos read more

Pancho V. (a great yelp author) is my light house when it comes to finding great food advice. He loves La Estrella. It was not long ago that I had a bad day. (REALLY bad day) God bless yelp. Like Prince Charming saves the day in the Little Golden Books, Pancho restored my omnipresent smile. How? With his high-caliber recommendations that spread from full belly, to ear-to-ear smiles. To spare myself from an almost inevitable spiral of depression, I tried new places to eat following sunshiny-day walks around the city. I consulted yelp's Mexican food aficionado for suggestions. What did he give me? Pure gold friends. How do I repay him? With a two star review of one of his favorites?!!! How can I be so cruel?!! Have I no heart at all?!! How can I bite the hand that feeds me like this!! How can LUKE tell YODA he doesn't know the force!! See why I want to like La Estrella? But I don't. *At least not this location. I am vexed. It gets worse. La Estrella has officially served me the worst taco that I have ever eaten to date. There are a few locations of La Estrella sprinkled around the city. This location makes the third one tried in Pasadena for me, This is the most charming exteriors of the chain so far. A cute adobe facade and a convenient parking lot, make it almost great. (if not for the food) Di' Angelo is blasting in the parking lot and a domestic dispute is coming to full-fledged blows as I walk into the restaurant. "This is going to be good." I think to myself. When a tattooed home-boy is screaming exclamations to the chef about NOT providing something in his carne asada burrito? I do a little dance. "This is going to be great!" I think to myself. I ordered three tacos and a drink for around $5, and ducked, as one customer threw something across the restaurant at the cashier and shouted: "Here is your tip a$$hole!" "This is going to be phenomenal!" I think to myself. Serves me right for loving the wild-wild west, bar-brawling-aesthetic of this joint! The tacos. The pastor, (marinated pork) was crumbly in texture and not well flavored at all. I have never had this consistency before in pastor. Zero stars. The lengua was not terrible in texture, other than the large chunk of fat that made most of the taco a no-go. (see photo) -Two stars. The tripas (tripe) *shudders* was... Look way if you do not want to get grossed out. Have you ever purchased your dog a pig ear? While I have never eaten a pig ear, I have seen how long it takes to get one of them down and it is very reminiscent of the tripas here. I chewed, and I chewed, and I chewed......... Much like an armored piece of beef jerky, it was not to be consumed. It was a stand off. The tripas was victor. No amount of chewing would have left this solid-steel tripas swallowed. Zero stars. The condiment bar? There isn't one. :-( I love to overload my tacos with free goods and salsa. I can turn a couple of tacos into a salad and make out. The salsa (they give you a little cup) Is great. Very spicy roja. Five stars. I'm ready to try the other locations of this chain to find the magic that Pancho V. finds. I know it is there. His reviews are TOO on the money and my jeans are TOO tight as proof. Pancho, please forgive me for this two star review!!!!!! read more

La Estrella Restaurant - tripas and langua - Mexican Near Me - Pasadena, California

See all

Best tacos in town. Good customer service. Dinning room very clean. For sure, coming back

It's really so hard to get to a king taco and not wait forever. Here is fabulous spot. Hits the spot the way king taco does and some. I ALWAYS order an all meat burrito asada. I got the wrong order when I went a few days ago. I got try their burrito with the trimmings I had nothing else for lunch. Rice and bean flavors are ok. It's not easy to find home style beans and rice so I stand by my all meat options that I get everywhere. Burritos are hit and miss almost everywhere I go. They never put enough meat. I love tasting meat when the craving arises and I was disappointed with this one as well. Come check them out. Food is delicious. When you get someone who smiles it feels like you're going to into one of your favorite neighbors home knowing they make such delicious food. A quality you don't get at king taco. Plus you don't have to pay $15 parking ti walk 100 ft ti king taco In Pasadena. Check your orders before you leave. Blessings to those who enjoy. read more

How hard is it to get a simple order correct? This location and the one on fair oaks is always messing up peoples orders. read more

Cheap price, quality is cheap too. I ordered 2 tacos. The portions are descent but the taste and the quality is average.

I love the food here. The burritos are especially good. They are huge . And the do not scrimp on the meat. Great Mexican food.

On my last visit I ordered an asada burrito con todo and two tripa tacos to kind of chase it down with. Well, what ended up happening was that some of the tripas mixed in with the asada and a tripa-asada burrito hybrid emerged. Just when I was starting to miss Mexico, this burrito took me back. Amazing. read more

Looking for a good taco spot while visiting some family in the area. I was very satisfied with the staffing and food! The salsa was sooooo good. I would come back and recommend read more

I've been to the La Estrella on Fair Oaks a lot in the past, so when we were up in Pasadena, instead of King Taco, we decided to try it out for nostalgia's sake. The stand on Fair Oaks been remodeled, but seating was still outdoors. The La Estrella on Orange Grove had inside seating so we decided to try it. The funny thing is there's another La Estrella (I think it's #2 on their website) right across the street in the minimall that seems to serve more traditional fare like combinations, tamales, and soups. I remember La Estrella's stand with fondness. It was no King Taco, but the tacos here were pretty good, and cheaper. Long story short, I was disappointed. Yeah, the tacos were a buck each, but... I just got tired of them by the end of my meal. On first bite, they seemed good; there was a lot of meat and the pair of corn tortillas weren't overly greasy. In fact, they weren't greasy at all. The asada here doesn't have that citrusiness, but after several bites I tasted a weird beefy kick I didn't like. The texture reminded me of cube steak: not quite ground beef, but not the chewy, fiberous meat I usually associate with asada. Both of us independently came to the conclusion that this was cheap meat. I also got one carnitas taco, which was okay-ish. I seemed to get all the carmelized, translucent pig bits in my taco, more chicharron than carnitas. Some of you might like this, but I wasn't feeling it that night. We also got the nachos with asada, holding the tomato and sour cream, so our nachos only had beans, meat, onions & cilantro, and this really runny cheese sauce, its strange creaminess reminded me of Velveeta. It was a little gross to me. However, one thing about the asada nachos were that the chips were excellent; prefectly crispy, but the sum of the parts was, eh... We finished all of our food. It wasn't horrible, but although we were pretty stuffed, both of us had this vague feeling of disappointment. We needed something to erase the memory of that meal, a different taste than the one inside our mouths, so we had to cleanse our palates someplace else. Definitely NOT the way I remembered it!! I'm going to have to go to the original stand on Fair Oaks to see if the Good Ol' Days are still halfway decent. read more

Ok, so to start things off, I'm a kind of a vegaquarian, I mostly eat vegetarian, but sometimes I'll enjoy fish, dairy, eggs, etc. Just no meat, so I'm not reviewing the dozens of different meat centered dishes on the menu, just the fish tacos. But the fish tacos at this place are huge, and extremely delicious and satisfying. And frankly, the price is right. I brought home 3 giant fish tacos for dinner, and a side of radishes and some salsa in the little cups. My wife, our roommate and I all had a single large fish taco, and these things are easily two or three times larger than your standard fish tacos that you get on the street in Ensenada or somewhere south of the border, and they are battered and deep fried, with cabbage, onions, cilantro, and salsa and limes on the side. The manager was also very accommodating to make us one fish taco without the batter as a special order, because my roommate cannot eat any wheat. All in all, some of the best and biggest fish tacos you'll get anywhere, 10 times better than anything Wahoos or Rubio's can come up with, and a single one is good for a meal unless you have a really big appetite. I will admit to eating two sometimes when I am really hungry. At $3.59 each, plus an extra $1 because we ordered three orders of radishes, the three of us had dinner for $12.80 including tax, and we are very happy and satisfied. Thanks LA Estrella! read more

The best Mexican food in Pasadena! Whatever you order from here you will not regret. Everything is seasoned to perfection and not greasy at all. You walk out of here always wanting more. And the prices! You can not beat! The service is awesome. The staff are super friendly and hard workers. The only down fall is its location. It's not located in one of the best neighborhoods in Pasadena. But it still does not stop me from coming to eat here! read more

La Estrella Restaurant - Mexican Near Me - Pasadena, California

======Fish Taco Review Only ======== So weird. I remember having these amazing red snapper grilled fish taco's here before. Came back recently and the cashier says they have no such dish. Anyway, the fish taco http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-estrella-restaurant-pasadena?select=yOHXFmfefG9Ms1hD5IlGuQ#nXaeK6oSjCi8ZnHLvG1HyQthat did have was decent but I'd be hard pressed to say it was authentic. It seemed to have like a cutlet crust and for $3.59 it really wasn't worth the price. I'm pretty sure this is the right place since I remember eating out on the patio with my coworkers but the dish is nothing like I remember. :'( tear. read more

La Estrella Restaurant - Fish tacos - Mexican Near Me - Pasadena, California

Horrible, if I could give this place zero stars I would... this is a metal piece from the dish scrubs read more

La Estrella Restaurant - Mexican Near Me - Pasadena, California

Honestly ; can never go wrong with sopes They're the best I've tried and I love that 95% of the menu is prepared & cook there. read more

Horrible service the cashier was moody and they took too long to give me 4 tacos. And it wasn't busy at all They just have 2 diferent kind of meats. I wouldn't go back at all. read more

Customer service was ok but they gave me a hard burrito shell . Hard as in stale ! The meat (carne Asada) was not hot .This place use to be one of my favorites but they definitely slacking now ! The food is good just cold! Parking lot small ! I went to the one on the corner not in the shopping center ! read more

Call in your order!!! I went with my bf without calling in an order and there was 5 different people who came in to pick up their order before us. We waited almost 30 mins! Food is great but it's ridiculous having to wait so long for some tacos. read more

Deserves 0 stars if that was an option: I'm Hispanic myself and my tacos didn't taste right when I asked for new tacos they demanded me to pay for new ones and I begged to get my money back. The "management" went to another customer and talked shit in front of my face thinking that I didn't know Spanish... I just wanted better tasting tacos that I paid for. No one deserves this level of respect I got at all. I understood everything he was saying in front of my face and I understand this restaurant is open 24 hours but no one deserves to ever be treated the way I was. I just wanted the food I was paying for. When I asked to talk to management the cashier lady told me he won't come out and to deal with it the next day. I've been working restaurant/fast food my whole life and no one deserves service like that. Piece of shit whole... I saw him spit in my food. I talked to them like a normal human being and got super disrespected. It's cool because it's 24 hours but believe the wanted sign that's been there all year... I've never been so disrespected my whole life. No scene was caused I just wanted my proper food. Be careful what you pay for and what your putting in your bodies. This piece of shit whole in the wall literally cooks your food and spits in it. Good luck! Ps: first review ever. No need to ever post one and I just used to check in. But I hope anyone newly visiting knows what they are getting themselves into... read more

Stopped in today craving for a chicken burrito and this place delivered. Burritos will cost you just under $5 and its accompanied with fresh tortilla chips. I usually enjoy grilled chicken in my burritos but here they use shredded stewed chicken which I must say, is pretty tasty. Splash a bit of limon before each bite and your good to go! I definitely enjoyed the salsa roja and verde which was spicy and had great roasted pepper flavor. They even offer you a free tasty appetizer of chips topped with beans, salsa roja, and Mexican crumbled queso while waiting for your order. SCORE! read more

Every single time I want to write a review for La Estrella, I get too hungry and have to go eat there. WELL, I've foiled this plan by writing my review at work (shh!) but oooooh boy, am I craving tacos! I always get the asada tacos (heaven) with everything (meat, onions, cilantro, hot sauce that isn't too hot) and add sour cream and cheese. These babies are a buck a piece plus some nominal charge (.35) for the cream and cheese. 3 fill me up! They have pork, chicken, tripe, and so forth. The fish tacos are HUGE and are supposed to be killer. They have $4 burritos (also HUGE) and quesadillas that l haven't tried yet but I will next time since the guy next to me ordered one and I was instantly envious. Also, get an order of chips ($1.50). They're made fresh and come with some delicious salsa/hot sauce hybrid thing. I would take away one star for not taking credit cards but at least they have their own ATM sitting right by the counter. (P.S. Was that an over use of parenthesis?) read more

Eating tacos two nights in a row - this can't be good for my body. :( Ordered the taco special - 2 tacos, rice and beans for 3.99 I surprised at how much they gave me. It was quite a bit - two tacos filled me up AND I was satisfied. I totally underestimated the two small tacos. Dare I compare it to King Taco's tacos? I think they are comparable - but I am a novice when it comes to tacos. I think for the price, they offer a good portion size and flavor. It was also very quick - i am all about being efficient. read more

There salsa is amazing! They used to have better meat quality, but not it's not the best. Their food is decent. It's not the se as before though. read more

After living in the LA area for years, there is no where better than La Estrella for amazing tacos. Unlike King Taco, LE's tacos have more tender meat, have better salsa (watch it, it's spicy), and got me loving fish tacos. You CANNOT get better tacos than La Estrella - i would bet my life on it. I've brought tons of friends here and they all love it. Recommendations: anything with their Al Pastor (marinated, sauteed pork) and Fish Tacos (ensenada style). And it's always better with Horchata (rice milk) to cut the spice. They recently moved...across Garfield into a newer building (the old place looked like an old laundromat) which is bright orange and less sketchy. read more

Oh my god. Best nachos I've ever had in my life. Smothered in sour cream, onion, cilantro, tomato and delicious porky goodness. They didn't skimp on the meat one bit. Mmmm, al pastor your happy porky tastiness makes my little heart beat faster. My chicken taco was also excellent, again totally stuffed with meat. And I got both for under $6. This is totally 5 stars in the cheap, tasty eats department. It is not fine dining. Totally different scale! Food is totally fast, but not "fast food" like at all if you get what I mean. read more

I miss you! I'll be back soon to eat you! al pastor and cabeza for the win! read more

La Estrella Restaurant - Mexican Near Me - Pasadena, California

The amount of stars needed to review this place is in the name itself "la Estrella." Went there and the cashier right away gave attitude. Is not only with me because past reviews state the same. You can tell which one because she has a ####ing resting face. As for the food it's ok. Nothing special. Wouldn't come here again. read more

I've been loving their food since 1993....have they been open that long ??!!?? Needless to state every now & then they will have a non English speaker answering the phone and or someone gets you order wrong for the lack of English communication ... But the food is hittin!! read more

To begin with, this review is for the La Estrella in the strip on the southeast corner of Orange Grove and Garfield. I've never understood why there is another one across the street. But, with that said, I am a faithful patron at La Estrella! I usually get the 2 taco special (2 small but plentiful tacos and rice and beans for $4). I prefer the salsa verde, and they are always happy to accommodate. Once in a while I'll mix it up with a burrito and those are sizable and tasty as well. In general, the ingredients always seem fresh and the workers are friendly. Oh, and the horchata is tasty too. I've brought so many people to this place and they all love it. It's simple but just right for the price. read more