The sweet aroma of handmade corn tortillas, fresh vegetables and juicy beef wafted from the kitchen of Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante in Fresno on an August afternoon and made customers feel right at 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 on providing its customers with a family-like treatment.

“We want everyone to feel like family and enjoy delicious food,” said Javier Ramirez, co-owner and manager of the taqueria. “They are our customers. We don’t turn them away.”

How did the Mexican restaurant Fresno come about?

Ramirez opened Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante on January 17 with his sons Aldo and Anton. The restaurant has an area of ​​260 square meters and employs five people.

Javier Ramirez owns another store on Fresno Street, Princess Dreams Bridal Quinceañera & Wedding Dresses, with his wife Lorena.

“We’ve wanted to open a restaurant for some time,” said Aldo Ramirez, co-owner and service manager at Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante.

The Ramirezes said they wanted to open a restaurant that felt like home for the Latino community, and they wanted to give each guest a unique and personalized dining experience.

“We wanted to create a restaurant that was unique, but also authentic and traditional Mexican, serving fresh food,” said Anton Ramirez, co-owner and chef at Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante.

Ramirez said his love of travel and passion for good food inspired him in creating the menu, which includes dishes from different regions of Mexico.

His favorite dish at the restaurant is Taco Belicon, a corn tortilla with juicy ribeye steak, avocado and chiltepin, a type of chili from the Mexican states of Sonora and Durango that packs a punch.

His brother Aldo Ramirez said his favorite dish at Fuego Taqueria is Taco Perron.

The taco, which originally comes from Tijuana in Mexico, consists of a wheat tortilla topped with arrachera – a spicy, tender flank steak – as well as beans, cheese and guacamole.

What’s on the menu at Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante?

According to Anton Ramirez, all of the ingredients used in the food at Fuego Taqueria are fresh and prepared in-house. Nothing is pre-made, he said.

In addition to tacos, burritos, tortas and quesadillas, the menu also includes papa locas – loaded baked potatoes – as well as mulitas and vampiros. A mulita consists of two corn tortillas filled with melted cheese, while a vampiro is a grilled tortilla with cheese and other ingredients.

Customers can also order a Fuego bowl, which includes rice, beans, salsa, meat and grilled vegetables.

Other menu options include Quesabirria, a favorite dish of Lorena Ramirez.

Popular in the Mexican state of Jalisco, the dish consists of a red corn tortilla with cheese and birria. It is usually made with goat meat, but in the taqueria, the quesabirria is made with beef.

The taqueria also serves dishes like el nopal montado, a grilled prickly pear served with pico de gallo cheese and arrachera. This is Javier Ramirez’s favorite dish.

Side dishes range from guacamole and chips to French fries.

Drinks include Boing juices and Agua Fresca in Jamaica, Horchata, Cucumber and Lemon flavors.

The taqueria adds new dishes to its menu approximately every three months.

It currently offers about 50 options, including family dishes and a children’s menu.

How much does the meal cost?

Prices for the main menu depend on the type of protein included in each dish.

Regular menu items, including protein options like carne asada and grilled chicken, range in price from about $3.50 to $13.50.

Premium protein options include carnitas and shrimp and range in price from approximately $5 to $17.90 per menu item.

If you want to switch to ribeye, which is considered an excellent protein option, the cost increases to around $9 to $29 per dish.

What do customers say about the Fresno store?

Customers have been thrilled since Fuego Taqueria & Restaurante opened, said the Ramirez family.

“People have come from all over the country,” said Javier Ramirez. “We’ve had people from Kansas, Sacramento and even New York. People have found us through Yelp and want to try our food.”

Yelp user Long L. of Fresno praised the store as an “incredible gem in Fresno.”

“The owner and his son are the nicest people and show that they love their work and strive to put a smile on their customers’ faces,” Long L. wrote on the popular review site. “This is different from many places where they just sprinkle salt on top to cover up the lack of quality and culinary details.”

“The service was great. The staff were so attentive,” wrote reviewer Axel O. of Fresno on Yelp, describing the staff as “very friendly.” “The asada was well seasoned and prepared. The handmade corn tortillas were great…”

Customers Reynaldo Perez and Isabel Valencia, who dined at the restaurant, also praised the restaurant highly.

“The service is really good and the food is great,” said Isabel Valencia

The handmade corn tortillas – common in Mexico but harder to find in the United States – have also been a big hit with customers, the Ramirez family said.

Will the taco restaurant open another location?

Fuego Taqueria y Restaurante plans to expand to additional locations in Fresno and across the country.

“A lot of people from Clovis, Madera and Kings Canyon visit us,” said Javier Ramirez.

“We definitely want to open another restaurant,” said his son Aldo Ramirez, “but we feel like we’re not quite ready yet. We really want to get everything perfect before we decide to open another place.”

The company currently does not have a website and relies on Instagram and Tik Tok to post about its most popular dishes and upcoming events.

“In September we want to do something to celebrate Mexican independence,” Ramirez said.

On Saturday, the taqueria will also offer catering services. Their first job will be serving tacos at a quinceañera.

“We believe it is an opportunity to give back to the community,” said Javier Ramirez.

Eventually, Anton Ramirez says, the restaurant plans to open another location in California or Florida.

The company is also trying out different culinary fusions, such as Venezuelan and Colombian cuisine, and even introducing meat from Argentina, such as churrasco.

What are opening hours?

Fuego Taqueria & Restaurante is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 8pm.