El Taco Llama
24374 Main St, Santa Clarita, CA 91321

There was already a queue when I arrived at El Taco Llama.

Saturday afternoon.

Lunchtime.

And a steady flow of customers coming through.

Always a promising start.

A place keeping this many people fed clearly has a following.

Now it was time to find out why.

The burrito cost around $13.50.

A reasonable price for a good-sized carne asada burrito.

It wasn’t ridiculously oversized.

It wasn’t trying to intimidate anyone.

It simply looked like a properly proportioned burrito packed with the usual ingredients.

Carne asada.

Rice.

Beans.

Pico de gallo.

Everything needed to make a serious Burrito Belt attempt.

But one issue appeared as soon as I opened it.

The tortilla was already starting to come apart slightly.

Not completely.

This wasn’t a full structural collapse.

But the warning signs were there.

The filling itself looked much more encouraging.

The rice appeared evenly distributed, and the carne asada wasn’t buried beneath huge pockets of cheaper ingredients.

The burrito looked balanced.

The tortilla just needed to hold everything together.

The opening signs cost El Taco Llama points.

The tortilla was beginning to separate when I first opened the burrito, making the entire thing slightly more difficult to manage.

A Burrito Belt contender needs a wrap capable of going the distance.

This one looked vulnerable early.

Strangely, it performed better after the reheat.

The tortilla seemed to hold together more effectively the second time around.

A respectable recovery.

But not enough to erase the first impression.

The Tortilla Trial: 6/10.

The carne asada was good.

Clean-tasting.

Flavorful.

And, importantly, not fatty.

There were no chewy pieces or large sections of fat getting in the way.

That made the meat one of the stronger parts of the burrito.

It wasn’t quite dominant enough to become the standout of the entire entry, but it contributed to a balanced filling and kept El Taco Llama moving in the right direction.

The Carne Question: 7/10.

No major investigation required.

The rice was evenly proportioned throughout the burrito.

No giant pockets.

No bites suddenly taken over by rice.

No evidence of an ingredient trying to seize control.

That balance allowed the carne asada, beans and pico de gallo to appear in the right proportions more consistently.

This is exactly what we want to see.

El Taco Llama avoids a serious Rice Crime and earns a solid score.

The Rice Crime: 7/10.

This is where the burrito lost its biggest opportunity.

El Taco Llama had a self-serve salsa counter with two choices.

Red.

Green.

I tried both.

Unfortunately, neither worked for me.

There is no need to overthink it or speculate about the setup.

Purely on taste, the salsas weren’t strong enough.

That was frustrating because the rest of the burrito had created a solid foundation.

The carne asada was good.

The rice was balanced.

The portion and price felt right.

A stronger salsa could have lifted everything.

Instead, this became the category that held the burrito back.

The Secret Sauce: 6/10.

The reheat test brought better news.

The burrito handled it well.

More surprisingly, the tortilla seemed to hold together better after reheating than it had when first opened.

That helped recover some of the ground lost during The Tortilla Trial.

The meat still tasted good.

The rice remained evenly spread.

And the burrito continued to feel balanced.

It finished better than it started.

The Last Burrito: 7/10.

I can understand why El Taco Llama was busy.

The burrito was a good size.

The carne asada had good flavor without any fatty or chewy pieces.

The rice was evenly proportioned.

And at around $13.50, it felt like decent value.

This was a solid Burrito Belt entry.

But it also felt like a missed opportunity.

The tortilla struggled slightly at the beginning, although it recovered after reheating.

The much bigger issue was the salsa.

Neither the red nor green option added enough to push the burrito toward the leading group.

With stronger sauce, this could easily have scored higher.

Instead, El Taco Llama finishes on 34/50.

Good enough to explain the lunchtime queue.

Not quite enough to threaten the top five.

El Taco Llama joins the chasing group on 34/50.

Another respectable contender.

Another unchanged leaderboard.

The meat delivered.

The rice stayed out of trouble.

But in a competition called the Burrito Belt, the sauce has to do more than simply show up.

A stronger salsa might have changed everything.