Casa Guadalajara

2016 Unilocal 100 Challenge ²²⁄₁₀₀
Stopped by here for breakfast before heading to the San Diego Safari Park. It had the feel of an authentic Mexican restaurant in the design, decorations and wait staff.
It has a huge outdoor patio with full grown trees and, a coupe stone fountains and several table umbrellas.
The breakfast dishes are huge and very tasty and easily shareable if you don’t feel like starting your day with a large meal. They have the well-​known traditional dishes, but they also have some items I was not familiar with from other regions of Mexico.
My only complaint was that they were sort of slow, especially since they weren’t very busy and had a lot of staff walking around. In their defense, it was early Sunday morning and most people probably just want to lounge around for breakfast. But I needed to hurry up and get on the road to drive to Escondido and I was stuck their longer than I wanted.
I’d recommend going there if you want to kick back, have some drinks and eat your day away.

The service was terrible. During an hour and a half that our group was there, I saw our waiter five times. Long after we were all finished, we finally ran to ask another waiter to find him to get our checks. He came by 15 minutes after that point, and told us he’d get our checks — which finally showed up 15 minutes later than that.
The food was not uniformally bad. There was fish that had turned in the ceviche and the mole tasted off. I loved my seafood chimichanga — best ever — until I got to the last bite, where I bit into rotten fish and almost lost it all.
Evidentally lots of other people get great service and food, based on the Unilocal reviews, but I’m never eating here again.

The food we ordered was terrible. I had the Pescado a la Veracruzana. My wife had seafood enchiladas. The fish tasted like it was frozen not fresh. And it was overcooked. Beans were undercooked and not flavorful. Also, the service was mediocre and it wasn’t even busy. It’s rare that I give a bad review.
If you’re near Old Town, there are so many other great restaurants. We had a good time at Fiesta Reyes. Live music, decent food, and superb service.

This place is excellent. Seafood chimichanga with mango margarita. It was very crowded but well worth the wait.

Sitting outside in January. Beautiful bright colors decorate the patio. Our food was wonderful! I had the shrimp and mango tacos, jicama slaw and black beans on the side. My husband enjoyed chicken enchaladas. This is the place to go to when you are in Old Town

When you are hanging out in Old Town, this is the place to go!
Casa Guadalajara is one of my favorite spots to go and grab a giant margarita, and hang out on the beautiful patio in the San Diego sun.
Like most Mexican restaurants, you start off with chips and salsa. There is nothing on the menu that I’ve tried that wasn’t solidly good. The quality & taste are consistently excellent.
Bring your significant other. Bring the fam. Great for a girl’s night out or even just an average night (or day!) when you feel like having some delicious Mexican food.

Hostess was not friendly. Waiter was not friendly.
Food was below average, meaning that the cook half assed everything. My ceviche was not chopped, they were large chunks of pescado, and I was not provided tostadas, but instead told by the waiter to use the chips that we were given earlier. Drinks were powdered mix. Beans were from the can. Shittiest cocktail shrimp I’ve ever tasted. I literally spit out the shrimp because it was so gross. Not only me, but three other people at our table who tried it. This place tries to get away by saying they are a Mexican restaurant, (I’m Mexican) do not be fooled. Did not have a good time here. Bad vibes from the moment I walked in.

As soon as we walked in there was two girls standing there and did not greet us.
our waiter was rude and he would forget the drinks we ordered.
will not come back

This place was very nice. Service in the bar and the restaurant was quick and caring. I only give it 4 stars because it is noisy… but we did expect that.
Had the Pollo en Mole Pipian Verde and it was amazing. A nice heat to it but a sweetness with the pumpkin seeds. Lots of food… lots of chips and big ass drinks.
Fried ice cream is a must… even though the wife doesn’t like it ;-) We went on a Friday night and we’re seated within 15 minutes or so. Do yourself a FLAVOR and come try this place!!!

This place is adorable. So authentic. So colorful. So Mexican! Took my staff there last night for a end-​of-​year celebration. First time for me. 90% of my staff is Mexican, so I was looking forward to their take on the food.
I had reservations but we still had to wait a bit for our table. It was pretty busy for a Tuesday. (Taco Tuesday, duh!). We were greeted right away by this adorable server all dressed Mexican. So cute. Some people ordered margaritas, some ordered pina coladas (so good!!) and I orders a strawberry daiquiri. The bomb! And the large one is HUGE, so beware!
For appetizer we had the fried shrimp, the ceviche and the guacamole. The guacamole comes in this delicious crunchy shell, I ate the whole thing. So fresh. Ceviche was fresh and refreshing. The fried shrimp was my favorite tho, perfectly crispy, can’t wait to eat it again!
Server was attentive in refilling water and accommodating my staff needs and requests. Our drinks and food didn’t take too long and we had a friendly man stopping by our table to sing «Feliz navidad» for us. Super fun.
For entrée I had the steak and shrimp plate. Comes with rice, beans, guacamole, a super thin grilled skirt steak and three large shrimps on top. The shrimps needed more salt but the steak tasted AMAZING! The portions are big and the presentation is fantastic. Everyone loved their food. They accommodated my vegan friends requests and kept our chips and salsa always full. (Salsa is pretty hot, beware).
We had no room for dessert but overall we loved everything. Great atmosphere, great food, lots of colors, vibrant environment, great service and good prices too. We had a table of nine and the check came around $ 230. Not bad at all.
Will be back!

Known for it’s over the top décor and Mariachi music, Guadalajara is today catering to more sight than substance. Having eaten here since Casa Bandini went away, I usually eat here as my «go to» Old Town experience but there is no Mexico left in these recipes. Nada, nothing in the food will take you back to Mexico. Sorry but even the chips are not the same as before.
It’s become the Chee Chees (circa 1980) of San Diego restaurants. They have low prices and Kraft inspired cheesy food. You will leave feeling full but your ears will be ringing from the noise. Dry rice and chicken, tasteless salad dressing, and wasteful deep-​fried tortilla shells.
There are now better Mexican options in Old Town and more authentic ones in San Diego. Bye-​bye Guadalajara! Good choice for the college crowd… maybe.

We had a lovely work Holiday luncheon at this spot. Easy parking and a great outdoor patio setting. Servers were very efficient taking separate drink orders from every one of us. (75+ attendees) There was already guacamole and salsa on the tables. Some of the best guac ever. It has black olives in it. Yes, I understand that may gross out some people but I LOVE it! The margaritas aren’t very strong but they are tasty. $ 24 for a pitcher will serve 5.
Highights from the buffet menu were the green chile pork enchiladas, the chicken mole and the Mexican rice. Dessert was flan and chocolate nachos. Good solid Mexican food in the outskirts of Old Town with GREAT service!

First time coming down to Old Town here in San Diego and my brother treated us to Casa Guadalajara. Initially walking in it seems like your average Mexican restaurant but as soon as you are walking through to get seated, it becomes far from ordinary. Right by the kitchen you can see a lady making hand made tortillas on a huge comal. Great color schemes that invite you to sit down, get comfortable and have a great time.
Now for the food, I ordered the sopes surtidos. You had the option of choosing shredded beef, chicken, carnitas. I had one of each. They were a so absolutely delicious. Each one of them. The meat was tender and flavorful. I will definitely be coming back to try another item on the menu.

Casa Guadalajara is a standard Mexican restaurant in San Diego. Festive décor with a nice open patio. Menu is pretty extensive with some interesting offerings on their daily specials. The day I went their special was shrimp mango tacos. Not your typical Mexican fare but it was delicious. I also had a regular beef taco which was pretty typical and it was good although not my favorite that I have ever had.
Chips were fresh and the salsa was a tad bit spicy for some of our group but I liked it. Like I said typical of what you would expect at a Mexican restaurant in Old Town. Nothing wrong with that. No surprises (except maybe for the daily special).
Service was kicking. We had a party of 20 and they were on it.
Good experience, nice place to have a large get together and I hear they have a rocking happy hour.

Casa Guadalajara has a nice atmosphere for large parties. The space is huge with many huge seating options available.
However, during my last visit, I was unimpressed with both the food and service. I ordered the guacamole enchiladas and they were okay. The quality at Miguel’s is much better. I’d even place Café Coyote far above Casa Guad.
As far as service, our waiter was not very friendly. I came with a large party and we had been gifted a $ 100 visa gift card to spend on the meal. The waiter told us that it wouldn’t work if he tried to swipe it. We questioned that because it’s just like a credit card but he said it had something to do with the large amount. We said okay and asked what would happen if he just swiped the card for a smaller amount like $ 50. He refused.
We found the bartender and he immediately swiped it for $ 90 no problem. I don’t know if our waiter was just being lazy but he definitely should’ve tried a little harder.
Overall, not a bad restaurant but with better options, I’d definitely choose somewhere else in old town.

Like another Unilocaler has stated, the ambiance here is great. It’s lively, yet very intimate and the décor in and outside is just beautiful. The place looks and feel authentic and the staff is very welcoming and accommodating. A coworker recommended Casa Guadalajara one night –we were all sick of the bad mock Chinese places and needed something refreshing. Having a man with a guitar in his hands come to your table to sing for you is my definition of a great restaurant with amazing entertainment. He had an amazing voice. I’d go back there just to hear him sing again.
Too bad I can’t write the review only on him. I’m giving two stars solely on the atmosphere. The food on the other hand… more like a ½.
The menu has your typical Mexican food items. It’s a pretty okay menu, lots of variety… Can’t remember if I saw nopales or not.
Our server came (in this gorgeous, traditional Mexican dress), got our drink order and gave us some tortilla chips. A few minutes later, she brought us some queso dip by request. The queso was very salty and grainy to me. It didn’t taste like any queso dip I had had before. I was thinking to myself, «I’m so close to Mexico. This HAS to be what real queso dip tastes like.» I tried the salsa. Wasn’t a fan. I even ordered some guacamole (CAME TO $ 8.50 FOR A LITTLE PLOP OF GUAC WITH A TOMATO AND OLIVE FACE– I was heated). It was… okay. Needed more lime and salt. I just couldn’t convince myself it was good, though. I’m the type of person who hogs the chips and dip. Not this time.
I can’t even remember the name of my food. It was shredded chicken, over-​wrapped in a tortilla or two, and deep fried. Dryyyyyyyyyy. .-. Bleh. It was all tortilla and barely any chicken. The meat I could find was so so so dry. Picking apart the tortilla and just eating the chicken didn’t even help. I gave up and didn’t even get half-​way through my food and I was s.t.a.r.v.i.n.g. Maybe if I had a few margaritas in my system… Who knows?

I’ve been here on several occasions as you get pretty good Mexican food, festive ambiance, decent drinks and the location is near Old Town so if you have out of town visitors it is a fun spot to dine at.
The service is always consistently good, they keep chips/​salsa full on the table and are pretty good at filling up those water glasses.
The food is really good with a great variety of items. This last visit I ordered the Camarones ala Diabla and it was great. HUGE Jumbo shrimp, nice and spicy… the platter was pretty big. Two at my table ordered the #10 and WOW there was enough food on there for three people (each plate). Totally worth the 18.95 charge given the volume of food placed in front of you.

One of my new fav spots!!!
Busy busy busy. They are busy! So make reservations or be prepared to wait a good 30 – 40 min before getting seated.
It is very fun and beautiful here. Right when I walked in I was excited! What made it even more fun was when they had the Mexican band come out every few minutes to play different songs. It was like a fiesta! I loved it. They have a bar area, a dining area and also a patio dinning area! Good options for those who is looking for specific seating.
The food here is so good! I got the carne asada plate (I forgot the whole name) but it was delicious! The rice was yummy the the beans tasted fresh and the carne asada was just YUMMY! I might have to come back writing this review lol. It was a big portion for a good price as well.
I also got the millionaire (alcoholic bev.) wasn’t my favorite but my co-​worker got this coconut drink and it was very yummy.
For dessert I got their flan and I really liked it! It came with whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate. A simple sized flan. Maybe it could be a bit bigger?
If you’re craving Mexican food don’t hesitate to stop by here to try it out (:

Casa Guadalajara and I go way back; many years ago, my best buddy had his rehearsal dinner here, and we mobbed the patio with 50 or 60 of our closest pals, eating everything in sight, and consuming gallons of both salsa and margaritas.
More recently, during my stay in San Diego for an educational conference, we visited this restaurant for lunch. I ordered the beef tostada off the lunch special menu, and washed it down with a couple of Pacificos. Our seat at the bar was a perfect place to watch A little soccer, and keep the bartender busy.
On other trips, I have had several of their dishes, and all of them are pretty tasty. I like their chile rellenos, and enchiladas suizas. Service is always pleasant, and water glasses, ice teas, and chips and salsa don’t state empty at your table for very long before a server fills them back up.
Prices are very reasonable, and the atmosphere is casual. This is a very popular restaurant, so plan accordingly if you hope to visit… Especially around lunchtime.

Full disclosure, I’m allergic to cilantro and there are a lot of things I can’t eat here. That may be part of the reason I’m not super excited about this place.
Recently, I came here for a work lunch with a rather large group. When we first called to make the reservation the girl on the phone told us they were booked and then asked us what time we wanted to come. Turns out they were booked for dinner not lunch. Sometimes it pays to get all the info first.
The restaurant is on the edge of Old Town with its own parking lot. When we pulled up we had no problem finding parking. We walked in and sat down at our table. They hooked us up with requisite chips and salsa and it turns out they will bring you gluten free chips if you ask for them (a coworker has a gluten allergy).
We all ordered and our food came out rather quickly. They did deliver a couple orders to the wrong seats, but we figured it out amongst ourselves. I had the taco salad sans their cilantro dressing and it was just okay. Perhaps it’s better with the dressing? Anyway, a couple others got salads and they were all huge.
If you’re looking for a tourist destination this is a decent spot. I know a lot of people who are big fans and its a pretty good value for your money in the area.

Eh