A Taste of Tradition, Family, and Passion
Nopalitos was born from a dream—and a deep love for food, culture, and community.
Our story begins across borders and generations. I’m Milton Guevara Navas, born and raised in El Salvador before moving to the United States as a teenager. In California, I discovered the bold, vibrant flavors of Mexican cuisine—especially the legendary Mission-style burritos from San Francisco’s Mission District. I fell in love with the food, the culture, and the energy. I even had the opportunity to work at a Mission-style Mexican restaurant, where I learned the ins and outs of daily kitchen operations—lessons that still guide me today.
My wife, Dora Guevara Gonzalez, is a proud California native who brings her own deep roots to Nopalitos. Her family hails from Zacatecas, Mexico—an area known for its rich culinary traditions and its love of bold spices and flavors. Growing up surrounded by that heat and heritage, she developed a deep appreciation for authentic, home-cooked food. Together, we blended our experiences and cultures to create something truly special.
In 2019, with love and passion, we opened Nopalitos—a Mission-style Mexican kitchen with a Baja California twist. Our goal was simple: to serve food that feels like home, made with real ingredients, bold flavors, and a whole lot of heart.
In 2023, we relocated to a new home inside the vibrant 29th Street Mall, where we continue to serve our community with the same spirit that started it all.
We are a family-owned and operated business, rooted in tradition and built with care. Alongside my wife and our longtime friend and business partner, John Volkmar, we’re proud to welcome you into our story—one plate at a time.
Our menu features more than just burritos. We offer a full selection of flavorful tacos, customizable bowls, nachos, and quesadillas. One of our proudest highlights: our beer-battered fish tacos and chipotle adobo shrimp tacos, packed with the bold, coastal flavors of Baja California—crafted to transport you straight to the beaches of Rosarito.
To round out the experience, we serve a variety of house-made salsas, refreshing margaritas, and cold draft beer—perfect for pairing with any meal.
Whether you’re stopping by for a quick bite or sitting down to enjoy the full experience, you’re always welcome at Nopalitos.
Our Food, Our Ingredients
At Nopalitos, we believe great food starts with great ingredients, but what matters just as much is what you do with them.
A lot happens behind the scenes in our kitchen. Our team spends every day roasting, seasoning, marinating, cooking, pickling, prepping, and even rolling every single flauta by hand.
We believe those details make a difference, and we're proud of the food we put on every plate.
It Starts With the Tortilla
We use all-natural flour, whole wheat, and corn tortillas. A tortilla may seem like a simple part of a taco or burrito, but when it's holding everything together, quality matters.
Our Mexican-style chorizo is also locally sourced, giving us the quality and traditional flavor we're looking for while supporting a local producer.
Fresh Meats, Our Recipes
Our meats arrive fresh and are seasoned, marinated, prepped, and cooked in-house using our own recipes.
Whole dried chiles are at the heart of many of those recipes. We use real chiles, spices, and our own preparation methods to create the individual flavors of our grilled al pastor-style chicken, carne asada, barbacoa, and cochinita pibil.
Each protein has its own recipe and preparation. We don't want everything on our menu tasting like it came from the same seasoning or marinade. Each one should have its own character.
Real Roasted New Mexico Green Chile
Our green chile begins with roasted New Mexico chiles.
Those roasted chiles are the foundation of our recipe, giving our green chile the deep, roasted flavor and character we're looking for.
It's a good example of how we approach our food: when an ingredient is responsible for the flavor of a dish, we want to start with the real ingredient.
Our Queso
Our queso is about finding the right balance of creaminess, chile flavor, and consistency.
We start with a premium foodservice melting cheese, specifically selected for its smooth texture and exceptional melting qualities. It gives us the silky, creamy base we're looking for without overpowering the other flavors.
Then we make it Nopalitos.
We add toasted whole dried chiles, bringing another layer of deep, roasted chile flavor to our queso.
The result is a queso that's smooth, rich, creamy, and full of real chile flavor—prepared our way, right in our kitchen.
Real Guacamole. Just 3 Ingredients.
Our guacamole is exactly what we believe guacamole should be: simple, fresh, and made with real ingredients.
We make it in-house using just three ingredients. That's it.
No fillers. No unnecessary ingredients added to stretch it.
Good guacamole doesn't need a complicated ingredient list. We keep ours simple and let the real ingredients do the work.
Real Pacific Cod & Chipotle Shrimp
We put the same care into our seafood.
Our fish tacos are made with real Pacific cod, which is prepped and cooked in-house. Our chipotle shrimp is seasoned and prepared right here in our kitchen as well, bringing a smoky chile flavor that fits perfectly with the rest of our menu.
Just like our meats, our seafood is prepped in-house, giving us control over the quality, seasoning, and flavor of what we serve.
Flautas Rolled One at a Time
Our flautas are truly made by hand.
Every single flauta is individually filled and rolled by our team in our kitchen before being cooked until crispy.
There isn't a machine rolling them for us, and they aren't pre-made frozen flautas coming out of a box. We roll them one by one, whether we're preparing them for the restaurant or making hundreds for a large catering event.
It takes more time and more work, but to us, that's what made in-house is supposed to mean.
We Make the Little Things, Too
Some of the ingredients we're most proud of aren't necessarily the biggest things on the plate.
We make our own pickled cactus and pickled red onions in-house, along with many of the components and toppings that bring our dishes together.
Those little details add freshness, texture, acidity, and flavor—and they're another opportunity for us to make something ourselves instead of simply buying it already prepared.
Consistency Matters
Making food in-house doesn't mean it should taste different every time you visit.
That's why we use McCormick spices throughout our kitchen. We chose a trusted, consistent spice brand because quality and consistency matter when you're preparing recipes from scratch every day.
We want the carne asada, al pastor-style chicken, barbacoa, cochinita pibil, chipotle shrimp, green chile, queso, and guacamole you love today to have the same quality and flavor the next time you come back.
Made the Nopalitos Way
At the end of the day, our philosophy isn't complicated:
Start with quality ingredients. Use real whole chiles. Keep simple foods simple. Prepare our meats and seafood in-house. Roast, marinate, pickle, season, and cook with care. Make real guacamole without fillers. Roll our flautas one at a time. And don't take shortcuts where flavor matters.
Doing more of the work ourselves takes more time and effort.
We think it's worth it.
Fresh ingredients. Real chiles. Real food. Made the Nopalitos way.
Bienvenidos a nuestra familia.
– Milton & Dora Guevara
