Canchola’s Restaurant

The Birria was delicious. A little disappointed that they ran out of the Barbacoa, I’ll have to call and ask before I head over there. Haven’t had anything else on their menu, why would you when they have Biria and Barbacoa, which are rarity menu items in any Mexican restaurant. Service was OK. Could be better especially since they were not busy.

This place has great food! Delicious with big plates, I will def keep going to this place. I even am thinking of hiring this place to cater my nieces bday party. Oh and the owner is a cool guy too :)

Down a star because my last visit was somewhat disappointing.
I made a mistake and tried something different for a change. Pollo con Papas. For $ 8.50 I got a small fryer leg on top of a plate of fries. Not a good deal compared to the rest of their menu. All entrees are supposed to be served with rice and beans EXCEPT the Pollo con Papas. It just doesn’t make any sense. On top of that the chicken was dry, and not very tasty.
My wife ordered her usual, which never fails. $ 9.50 for a heaping plate of cecina and huevos cooked in a delicious chile rojo with yummy rice, refried beans and homemade tortillas.
They make michelada’s the way I like em’, with lots of spicy tomato and lime juice. At the moment, they’re serving alcohol on the D. L, in white styrofoam cups.
The waitress mentioned something about the process of their permits, but I’m not really sure what the real facts are. In any case, I appreciated the 4.5% alcohol and 148 calories.
The day we came, they had a sparkly shirt, middle-​aged man playing super loud music. Which wasn’t all that bad except the DJ also brought a Karaōke machine and continously belted out songs throughout the whole meal. He was super cute for trying though.

Shoulda read the reviews beforehand– maybe ordering the right things would bump my rating up to 4! I tend to order from «platos tipicos”/regional specialties menues, and at this michoacan place, i did: flauta de pollo con wilotas (two baked quails hangin’ out on top!) and pozole, which was pretty underwelming as far as pozole goes (huarache azteca down the street has a better one). next time, i’ll order BBQ tacos, a torta de lomo, or something with roast chicken on it. did i mention the WHOLE ROASTED CHICKEN FOR SEVEN DOLLARS? that’s getting harder and harder to find these days.
p. s. the person I ate with doubts the authenticity, or at least the value, of the «quails» in question. i say they were smallish and gamey but definitely quails and not small chickens. see photo.

Canchola’s was a dope spot to fill our hungry bellies after a carnival rehearsal. My Spanish is a little spotty, so i ordered what i thought was chicken enchiladas, but it turned out to be enchiladas WITH a leg of chicken tossed on top. the food was tasty, the rice was plentiful, and I’m not normally a fan of the beans, so all I’m gonna say is that my fellow carpoolers were wishing the beans were not as delicious as they were. looks like they have a boomin sound system too with a few large PA speakers mounted in the wall above the door. We were here on a Saturday around 4pm and it was DEAD empty.

On a poor person’s budget, my Unilocal buddy and I shared a Carne Asada rice plate… and it was shockingly delicious! It was served with grilled onions, a little bit of avocado, rice, and beans. On the side we had four freshly made corn tortillas. The size of the meal filled the both of us. The only things that I’d complain about were the line in front of the restroom, two visibly dirty tables when we walked in, and the semi-​long wait for the food to get to the table. Other than that, it rocked! And it was definitely worth the wait. ;-)) The price was also reasonable.

Mucho gusto.
I fault the place more than Steve K for the terrible service, broken glasses, and sticky tables.
Also one of my pet peeves is when for the sake of «cleanliness» someone spritzes the table with Windex right before a meal. Nothing gets the appetite going, better than the smell of degreaser.
Last complaint, before the good stuff, the jukebox was cranked much too loud. It was perfectly loud with just the soccer game and the capacity crowd. The music made it deafening.
That said, the barbacoa was outstanding.
Steve K did forget to mention the refreshing dice of radish that comes on the tacos.
Next time, I might even just get the Barbacoa platter, that comes with a plate-​full of meat, and a side dish of possibly hand-​made tortillas. Not to mention a Styrofoam coffee cup of consume.
I would like to be tough enough to recommend the plate of birria, but gamy goat, while rich and tender, was a little gamy and goaty. I prefer my goat Texas style from Doug’s — smoked and slathered in BBQ sauce (next to some deep fried turkey).
But it’s a good place. Just bring some Purell. Grab a Pacifico and all the lamby goodness you can squeeze into your taco-​hole.

This restaurant was formerly known as Neza Rosticeria. The Neza sign was still up, with a «grand opening» banner hanging over it today.
Hits:
The menu appears to be very similar to Neza, and the food is still great and non-​greasy. I enjoyed three tacos — barbacoa, birria, and chicken (thanks for the order suggestion, Daniel B.) — on what appeared to be handmade corn tortillas.
The barbacoa was the belle of the ball — plentiful and well-​seasoned. The shredded white meat chicken was a bit wet and a little bland, although perhaps I should have just ordered a half chicken for $ 3.50 to get a more representative sample.
As expected, the birria was a bit gamier than the barbacoa; it’s definitely worth trying, but about one taco was plenty to round out the body count.
All of the tacos were served with chopped fresh onions, cilantro, limes, and hot salsa. While $ 2.50 for a taco may seem a little pricey for the area, most other places I’ve tried in Fruitvale don’t make their own tortillas, and they aren’t shy about lubing up the food. I also have yet to enjoy better barbacoa, although I’ve only had it at a handful of places.
Flour tortilla chips seemed pretty fresh and were served with two salsas, avocado-​tomatillo and a red salsa that had chunks of fresh tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. Both were well balanced, flavorful, and moderately spicy, with the edge going to the green over the red.
Misses:
Service was slow. The restaurant had a good-​sized crowd around 1:30 watching a soccer game, but our waitress took an awful long time to bring our drink orders, and she did not refill our chips or water during the meal. My water glass was also chipped, a detail that a sharp-​eyed friend of mine caught before I enjoyed a cut lip.
The bathroom was also out of soap, which kind of put a damper on the hand-​made aspect of the otherwise great tortillas.
According to their business card, they’re open 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. seven days a week, so the hours are better than Neza. Now they just need to bring the service up to Neza level, and they’ll have some serious game. Next time I’m in the mood for an all-​meat dinner, I’ll a) skip lunch and b) get half a chicken (they’re small) and two barbacoa tacos, which should run about $ 12 all in. Go there.