The Burrito Blog
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Welcome To Roberto's
Roberto's has an interesting history, similar to the familial feud behind Anna's and Boca in Boston. Local San Diegan burrito expert Paco explains:
Since you are sort of a burrito historian, you'll appreciate the Roberto's / Alberto's longstanding blood feud and its subsequent cascading effect on 95% of the burrito purveyors of our fair city as witnessed by the fact that most taco shops in town are named with infinite variations of the suffix "berto" no matter how ridiculous.Obviously, this was a place I had to visit.
The Roberto's / Alberto's rivalry started when two brothers by those names inherited the original "Roberto's" chain, the granddaddy of all taco shops, from their old man. The younger brother, Alberto took his share of Roberto's restaurants and renamed them after himself. As the older brother expanded his number of shops, the younger brother followed suit.
Soon, both shops could be seen all over San Diego County. As the expansion grew to the point of diminishing returns somewhere in the mid eighties, they both began to sell off their less popular shops. Not to lose the drawing power of the Roberto/Alberto name the new owners of these shops began renaming them in a similar fashion to the point of lunacy. It started innocently enough with Gilberto's and progressed to such ridiculous and obviously made up names such as Adalberto's, Filiberto's, Hilberto's, Ediberto's, and my personal favorite Ramberto's...etc, etc, you get the picture.
This entry is filed in Roberto's.
Monday, April 03, 2006 by Jonah.
Comments
Don't forget Royberto's!!!!
Posted by: r-neg at April 4, 2006 12:39 PM
I understand that ur quoting Paco on this
"It started innocently enough with Gilberto's and progressed to such ridiculous and obviously made up names such as Adalberto's, Filiberto's, Hilberto's, Ediberto's, and my personal favorite Ramberto's."
Im just correcting his statement cause all of the names are real(sadly), except for rambertos(that i know about)
Posted by: hector at April 5, 2006 06:10 PM
in phoenix there was a spot that just said f--- it and went with "Ertos"
Posted by: Serg at June 5, 2006 12:55 AM
Ramberto's exists! It's out in Spring Valley on Jamacha. The one place you HAVE to check out is Azteca, on 13th and Imperial, just outside all the Ballpark development. At least I pray it's still there, haven't been home for awhile. Anyways, it's been there forever, and they had a catering truck that would come over to the produce warehouses where I worked for my dad as a kid. Best damn carne asado burrito I ever had, that's for sure.
Posted by: Gonzo at June 6, 2006 05:35 PM
I can attest to Ram and Roy, and after reading this - I miss being back in SoCal.
SoTex is not bad, but I am missing the Carne Asada burrito with the side of roll tacos with the nuclear green guacamole.
Posted by: Ryan at July 13, 2006 08:42 PM
TACOS ARE GOOD THEY ARE GOOD FOR MY BALLS
Posted by: TACOS at May 7, 2008 09:38 AM
Robertos is horrible! Its the perfect place fro the midwest transplant to San Diego who cannot find real authentic Mexican food and must look to the clean, crowded, corporate taco shop for their fix. Tiny burritos and frozen microwavable chile rellenos call this place home. If a taco shop has a kids meal and only one type of red sauce, there is defibetely a problem.. Try Karinas, Juanitas, Asadas, Lalos, yumm. thats the real deal, but most transplanted midwesterners probably couldnt find them, and its better that way.
Posted by: TACOKISSES at September 18, 2009 10:32 PM
