A large carne asada fries—more than a pound and a half of food from Lolita's Mexican Food

The decor around me says "fast casual." The unselfconscious pile of meat, cheese, and fries in front of me says "San Diego taco shop." The writing on the wall as I walk in the door reads, "Patience is the essence of fine Mexican food."

This is a visit to Lolita's Mexican Food in 2024, and I can't help compare the experience to what it might have been in 1984. That's the year husband and wife Joaquin and Dolores “Lolita” Farfan opened their original counter shop,on Telegraph Avenue in Chula Vista. Now operated by their children, Lolita's is currently celebrating 40 years as one of those archetypal, California burrito-totin' taco shops for which San Diego is justly famous.

Not only is the original Lolita's still at it, but it has also been joined by four others over the years: three in South Bay, and one in the Convoy District. (Apologies to that overlapping demographic of San Diegans who revere both the Padres and large burritos, but the Lolita's next to Petco Park closed last year.)

I won't pretend to know what the original shop looked like, but I'm fairly certain it was not much like the Farfan family's businesses look now. Particularly those in Kearny Mesa, Bonita, and Eastlake, which flash the combination of design elements I'm used to spotting in equity-funded fast casual chains: polished woods, Edison bulbs, subway tiles, and pithy quotations on the wall.

The contemporary San Diego taco shop

Let's not overlook the new ordering tech, either. These days, you can order Lolita's rolled tacos (and other things) online before you stop by and pick them up. And if you didn't think that far ahead, you may place your order via touchscreen on a digital kiosk off to the side of the service counter. It all depends how determined you are to avoid human contact.

What brings me to the Bonita shop today is more of a late-20th Century technology. Lolita's has claimed to be the first—or among the first—Mexican restaurants to serve carne asada fries. And it was sometime in the 1990s that french fries were first served nacho-style: smothered in carne asada beef, cheese, guacamole, and sour cream.

A touchscreen to order carne asada fries, rolled tacos, California burritos... the classics

Depending how you look at things, carne fries are either an ingenious, Mexican-American twist on poutine or a California Burrito missing its tortilla. Either way, carne fries hold a substantial spot in local food lore, as much a mascot for our city as the San Diego Chicken or dudes with chin-only goatees. (I'll have to circle back to that 1980s innovation, the California Burrito, at a later date, when I revisit some 60-year-old San Diego chain.)

Patio seating beside the Bonita location of Lolita's Mexican Food

The most glaring change customers will notice at Lolitas 2024 versus Lolitas 1984 has to be price. And that seems to be the one thing 40-year taco shop veterans gripe about most — that prices have gone up. But, since nobody who's been eating carne fries for 30 years is in any kind of shape to remember what they paid for food back then, I took a look at Lolita's earliest reviews on Yelp (est. 2006) to get a sense of changing prices over time. Sure enough, I found a Yelper from 2007 complaining that Lolita's carne fries cost $6.79. Given that I understand how inflation works about as well as the average American, I figure that means the 1990s price must have been roughly 23 cents.

When I plug that $6.79 into actual inflationary calculators online, they tell me those carne asada fries would cost about $10.64 today. Lolita's is charging $11.55 for a small order, so a little relative increase. But I've got no complaints here. In fact, I paid $16.25, opting for a large order of Lolita's carne asada fries, and happily so — it turned out to be more than a pound and a half of food! Do the facetious math on that, and it comes to the same price by weight as a McDonald's Quarter Pounder. Ergo, cheap.

An adobada taco (front) and pollo asado taco

But that's not why I think paying 2024 prices for Lolita's is still worth it. Nor is the reason the brand's polished new look, or its shaded dining patios. We all know Mexican food has been historically undervalued in the dining sector. And, though it doesn't always look good in photos, we in San Diego all absolutely know that Mexican food is the world's best-tasting cuisine. The American Dream means any taco shop that has succeeded for 40 years — competing in the restaurant industry — has earned my respect, my business, and my hope the next generation gets enjoy the prosperity of profit margins.

So, keep ringing me up, Lolita's. And add a couple of tacos to my order while you're at it.