We have carnicerias and other markets that sell small batch tortillas, masa, lard, etc. Some also sell tacos, tamales, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the taquerias buy locally made tortillas, but I have never seen the kind of staffing or space in the mom and pop taco places to make tortillas to order.
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This place definitely makes their own flour torts. I have seen the industrial Hobart mixer in the kitchen. And let me tell ya, their torts are a little on the ugly side. They’re generally roundish but certainly not round, with random scorches here and there and they shed more flour than any commercial torts I’ve ever seen, but man are they good! Soft, supple, but also strong enough to hold stuff together. The tortillas at Xochimilco in Stockton are the standard against which I judge all others.
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Small family-owned restaurants in East Somerville, a few blocks from the Boston/Charlestown line in Massachusetts, can’t invest in “highly skilled line cooks.” They are trying to keep their small restaurants open these days, especially when foot traffic is down because of fear of immigration officials.
We don’t live in that kind of high-level restaurant environment. And I’m actually glad that we don’t. It’s great to know we can go to Sarma or Oleana or into Boston if we want, but we prefer living in our neighborhood, which is safe and interesting and far from wealthy.
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So places that are not large or well funded enough to have all the “stations” are automatically excluded from being “good”?
That takes every mom and pop joint out.
Tortilleria Nixtamal in queens used to have a map of restaurants who used their tortillas, no one was trying to hide it lest they be considered “not good” - quite the opposite.
All the “good” middle eastern restaurants must also be making their own pita then.
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If these are Mexican restaurants (even small mom’n’pop shops) they certainly have the skills available to make quite easily tortillas in-house with relatively reasonable effort (it is comparable to an Italian restaurant making some pasta in-house and the tortilla making will be easier).I think in Boston (compared to other cities) it is more surprisingly little demand from customers on Mexican food. When we lived there and talked with many people, it was surprising how little interest there was in Mexican (a few times I got the response that there are enough Chipotle shops for good Mexican food). And that unfortunately reflects in the quite underwhelming quality of Mexican restaurants in Boston
Maybe the highly skilled line cooks live were we live, and commute to work in the better restaurants!
ETA But to respond to the OP, our local restaurants don’t pass the “bad” tests in the original post.
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I moved back to Boston in 1989, having first left after college graduation in 1977. The intervening years except for 2 in Spain I spent living in the SF bay area. So I’ve known about the “quite overwhelming quality of Mexican restaurants in Boston” for a really long time.
The economics of small family owned restaurants of all kinds, including Mexican, in East Somerville, seem to be very different from where you live now. I’m sure the Mexicans who own the place a couple of blocks from my house have the skills to make tortillas in-house. The economics don’t work for them. They have only a few people cooking and bartending and everything else and they don’t have the time to do it and still make any money. Especially now.
The lack of high quality Mexican food in Boston has been lamented for decades by many others beyond myself. It has a lot to do with immigration patterns.
Even I can make great corn tortillas at home using Masienda products…when I have time.
And I’ve never been to Chipotle. When I have time, I make complicated mole sauces at home.
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This article is actually a better guide to knowing you’re reading bad writing.
Back on topic, my biggest tell I’m in a bad Mex place is water pooling on my plate.
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Aww man. We get take out on Wednesdays and La Guagua is only open until 4 Monday-Thurs and Sunday. 
I’ll check it out for breakfast or lunch.
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•Finding a blackened grain of rice (they said) or a mouse turd on top of the rice
•Having an inedible piece of some kind of floppy connective tissue in my shredded beef enchiladas
•Biting down on beef gristle in a taco that almost broke a tooth
I don’t get take out from the Mexican restaurants or food trucks either, anymore.
I’ve had pretty bad luck with Mexican restaurants & food trucks (and food festival booths) in Philly last year, too. Even the hyped places, even the ones with lines down the block 
Disappointingly seasoned, gristly meat… I make better tacos at home, TBH.
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In my experience this is accurate. If you go out to Coliseum Way in Oakland where there are 30 or so taco stands on weekends, 90 precent of them are making their own tortillas, and these aren’t full restaurant kitchens, just stands set up on the sidewalk. Even the grilled chicken vendor who serves the tortillas on the side makes them right there.
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London UK, I presume?
The UK is up there competing for country that has committed the worst crimes against Mexican food…
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Wow! How many people do you think are working the stand, and what kind of business (customers an hour outside of “dinner”) do they do?
I passed a few trucks in Notomas on a Thursday at 7:30 and there were customers, but there are places in my town where I suspect they may be less busy and I can’t imagine how they might pay someone to be there, waiting to make tortillas to order. I wonder if with a staff of two, would one of them make the tortillas and cook on the plancha.
Is he making tortillas and grilling chicken to order? I will have to stop at one, one of these days. Somehow that’s not what I want to eat when I am visiting Oakland. I am imagining quite a line!
I still can’t help but think that would work better in cities with more than 75 k. We technically have 100k here, but many of those are serving terms that prevent lunch plans, if you get my meaning. 
In any case, I am on my way to La Guagua, where at their Vacaville location they manage some of their business decisions by being open primarily for breakfast and lunch, except on Friday and Saturday. According to social media, they just started offering Mondays by request! It is interesting to think about how that works here.
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Coupling your observation with several upthread suggests that whether the seller vertically integrates into tortilla production is a business decision that accounts for costs and benefits. Itinerant food stands likely do not confront fixed overhead such as rent and staff pay; sole proprietor/family storefront operation do, and likely often don’t have the “option” of “doing everything” that satisfies the luxury market that want everything their way. That said, to our tastes, when the birria or lengua is obviously well made, we aren’t much noticing the tortillas.
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Absolutely, it’s easier/cheaper from a business perspective to buy tortillas. But it’s not an appeal to the “luxury market” over there on Coliseum way - I think it’s just competition that drives it.
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I know me too - but his grilled chicken is really good and worth checking out! The handmade tortillas are an added bonus.
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Honestly I can’t recall going to, or finding, a bad Mexican restaurant, stand or truck, in a long, long time…or forever…but I’m in California. Just avoid chains and have an idea what’s usual and what’s weird, see who the clientele is.
I have been to a good old school Mexican restaurants that fell into decline. No orange cheese or anything else mentioned…more like no one in the family wanted to continue so it just lapsed.
Also been to Salvadoran pupusa and taco stand in Buttonwillow that overcharged even with a calculator and got rude and weird when asked for salsa. Tacos were meh. Still can’t figure that one out but maybe an Argentinian accent was involved. More of a service issue but very weird.
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