Popular Mexican restaurant offers a taste of home in Fresno. Check out this ‘amazing gem’
The sweet smell of handmade corn tortillas, fresh vegetables and juicy beef wafted out of the kitchen at Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante in Fresno on an August afternoon, for the customers it felt like home.
Fuego Taqueria, which opened seven months ago at 4631 North Fresno St., specializes in authentic Mexican cuisine such as tacos, quesadillas, mulitas and enchiladas.
The restaurant prides itself in giving its customers the family treatment.
“We want everyone to feel like family and eat some delicious food,” said Javier Ramirez, co-owner and manager of the taqueria. “They are our clients. We don’t turn them away.”
How did Fresno Mexican restaurant start?
Ramirez launched Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante on Jan. 17 with his sons, Aldo and Anton. The restaurant occupies 2,800 square feet of space and has five employees.
Javier Ramirez owns another business on Fresno Street, Princess Dreams Bridal Quinceañera & Wedding Dresses., with his wife, Lorena.
“We had been wanting to open a restaurant for quite some time,” said Aldo Ramirez, co-owner and front-of-house manager at Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante.
The Ramirezes said they were looking to open a restaurant that felt like a home to the Latino community. In addition, they wanted each customer to have a unique and personal experience while eating the food.
“We wanted to create a restaurant that was unique but also authentic and more traditionally Mexican that served fresh food,” said Anton Ramirez, co-owner and kitchen manager at Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante.
Ramirez said his love for travel and passion for food inspired him to create the menu, which features dishes from various regions of Mexico.
His favorite dish from the restaurant is taco belicon, featuring a corn tortilla topped with juicy ribeye, avocado and chiltepin, a chile pepper native to the Mexican states of Sonora and Durango that packs quite a punch.
His brother Aldo Ramirez, said his favorite dish at Fuego Taqueria is taco perron.
The taco, which is native to Tijuana in Mexico, features a flour tortilla topped with arrachera — flavorful, tender skirt steak — as well as beans, cheese and guacamole.
What is on the menu at Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante?
According to Anton Ramirez, all ingredients used in Fuego Taqueria’s food are fresh and prepared in-house. Nothing is pre-made, he said.
In addition to tacos, burritos, tortas and quesadillas, the menu includes papa locas — loaded baked potatoes — as well as mulitas and vampiros. A mulita features two corn tortillas stuffed with melted cheese, while a vampiro is a grilled tortilla topped with cheese and other ingredients.
Customers can also order a Fuego bowl, which features rice, beans, salsa, meat and grilled veggies.
Other menu options on the menu include quesabirria, a favorite of Lorena Ramirez.
Popular in the Mexican state of Jalisco, the dish features a red corn tortilla with cheese and birria. Normally goat meat, but at the taqueria the quesabirria is prepared with beef meat.
The taqueria also serves dishes such as el nopal montado, featuring prickly pear cactus roasted on the grill and served with cheese pico de gallo and arrachera. That’s Javier Ramirez’s favorite plate.
Side dishes range from guacomole and chips to french fries.
Drinks include Boing juices and agua fresca in flavors including jamaica, horchata, cucumber and lemon.
The taqueria adds new food items to its menu approximately every three months.
It currently offers about 50 options including family meals and a kids menu.
How much does food cost?
Prices for the main menu depend on the kind of protein featured in each dish.
Regular menu items, featuring protein options such as carne asada and grilled chicken, range in cost from about $3.50 to $13.50.
Premium protein options include carnitas and shrimp, and bring the price to about $5 to $17.90 per menu item.
If you want to upgrade to ribeye, considered a prime protein option, the cost goes up to about $9 to $29 per dish.
What do customers say about Fresno business?
Customers have been raving about Fuego Taqueria & Restaurante since it opened, the Ramirez family said.
“People from all over the nation have stopped by,” Javier Ramirez said. “We have had people from Kansas, Sacramento and even New York. People find us on Yelp and they want to try out our food.”
Yelp user Long L. of Fresno praised the business as an “amazing gem in Fresno.”
“The owner and his son are the nicest people and shows they love what they do and strive making their customers smile,” Long L. wrote on the popular review site. “That’s unlike many places that just throw salt on to cover up the lack of quality and culinary details.”
“The service was great. The workers were so attentive,” reviewer Axel O. of Fresno wrote on Yelp, describing the staff as “very friendly.” “The asada was seasoned and cooked well. The handmade corn tortillas were great ....”
Customers Reynaldo Perez and Isabel Valencia, who were dining at the restaurant also had high praise.
“They have really good service and great food,“ said Isabel Valencia
The handmade corn tortillas — commonly available in Mexico but harder to find in the United States — have also been a big hit with customers, the Ramirez family said.
Will taco restaurant open another location?
Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante has plans on expanding to more places in Fresno and across the nation.
“Lots of people visit us from Clovis, Madera and Kings Canyon,” Javier Ramirez said.
“We definitely want to open another restaurant,” his son, Aldo Ramirez said, “but we feel we are not quite ready. We really want to get everything perfect before we decide to open up another place.”
The business doesn’t currently have a website and relies on Instagram and Tik Tok to share posts about its most popular dishes and upcoming events
“In September, we want to do something to celebrate Mexican independence,” Ramirez said.
The taqueria is also launching a catering service on Saturday. Its first job will be serving tacos at a quinceañera.
“We feel it is a way to give back to the community” Javier Ramirez said.
Eventually, Anton Ramirez, said, the restaurant plans to open up another location in California or Florida
The business is also exploring with different food fusions such as Venezuelan and Colombian cuisine, and even bringing in meat from Argentina such as churrasco.
What are open hours?
Fuego Taqueria & Restaurante is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday
This story was originally published August 28, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Popular Mexican restaurant offers a taste of home in Fresno. Check out this ‘amazing gem’."
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