El Gallo Giro Food Truck
Elena Caballero came from Guanajuato at eighteen in the 1980s. She cooked up from a diner line in the Excelsior to a manager's job in the Haight, then parked a white truck at 23rd and Treat. The carnitas come off the plancha crisp. Her two daughters work the window.
Why go
Caballero picked the corner herself. She drove around the Mission with her brother Cuco, stopped at this lot, and said she had a good feeling about it. Cuco had run one of the first fleets of Mexican food trucks in the city and sold them to the people who went on to build El Tonayense.
The chicharrón taco is the one that carries Guanajuato. Nicky Jimenez told Lena Park how it is built: My mom cooks chicharrones in her special sauce, so it ends up soft and spicy. We like to top it off with beans. That's how people from where we're from like to eat it. With the spice level -- we love our spicy and grilled serranos -- this kind of chicharron taco is a style you honestly can't find in any other state.
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The family splits the work. Elena makes the salsas, the beans and the rice. Jose Perez buys the produce every morning and then goes for the meat. Stephanie Perez and Nicky Jimenez take the orders.
Paolo Bicchieri's Eater map calls the carnitas Michoacan-style.3 The family told Lena Park they cook Guanajuato.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the chicharrón taco, and ask for a grilled serrano with it.
- Order: the carnitas, which is what the truck is known for.
- Order: the grilled chicken. Paolo Bicchieri priced the tacos at $2.50 each in April 2025.3
- Avoid: a weekend or an evening plan. The truck works weekdays and shuts in the late afternoon.
What locals & experts say
- Matt Tillquist, on Eater SF's Mission map:
The carnitas tacos at El Gallo Giro provide a before-and-after moment for most. They'll either be the best carnitas you've had in San Francisco or the best carnitas you've had in your life. Crisp, fatty, juicy, and tender all at once.
2 - Lena Park, reporting for Eater SF in March 2024, put the truck at 22 years in the same lot and among the longest-running in San Francisco.1
Good to know
- Where: a small lot at 23rd Street and Treat Avenue, facing a park.
- Getting in: a truck window. No bookings, no room.
- Timing: weekdays only, daytime.
Verdict
should-visit — Take the chicharrón over the carnitas everybody names; that is the Guanajuato order. Newer trucks have arrived all over the Bay with regional specialties, and this family has stayed put.