El Tonayense

El Tonayense is a family taco-truck business in San Francisco's Mission District whose trucks have parked around Harrison Street since the early 1990s and are best known for their salsas.

History

The San Francisco Chronicle has described El Tonayense as a Mission standby dating to 1993. Its best-known truck parks on Harrison Street at 14th Street, in front of a Best Buy store, and the company has also used spots on 17th and 19th streets.

In 2011 Mission Local reported that the business had left a building at 3150 24th Street, where it had been on a month-to-month lease for about three years. Owner Benjamín Santana said the site needed repairs he would not undertake without a long-term lease. The company opened a restaurant on Marin Street in the Potrero area and moved its catering kitchen to Carroll Street near the Bayview.

Menu

The Chronicle's food-truck guide singled out the pollo asado and lengua tacos and the spicy red salsa, and noted that the trucks are smaller and plainer than some of their Mission neighbors. A separate Chronicle guide to the Mission said the salsas are the main reason to visit, and described a long-running neighborhood argument between fans of El Tonayense and those of the El Gallo Giro truck a few blocks away.

Reviews

See also

• El Gallo Giro
• Salsa roja

References

1. "The 20 best food trucks in the Bay Area". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
2. "The Mission's best Mexican and Latin American restaurants". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
3. "El Tonayense Leaves 24th Street Taco Base". Mission Local. Retrieved 2026-10-10.