Fred’s Mexican Cafe

Taco Tuesday.
Love the pork tacos and free dip you get from checking in on Unilocal.
Only issue… Long waits to be seated and the service is t that great.
I’ll be back again, but only because I love the damn pork mango tacos!

My first time, and Taco Tuesday is worth it. I had two chicken taco’s (not street size) large juicy tacos with beers (free salsa and chips of course) and Stephanie the outside bartender is a great gal. I will go back on a different night.

I absolutely love this restaurant! The atmosphere is a Mexican American and the décor was very vintage. All of the chairs are a different color and hight. The food was incredible with huge portions. If you ever go would recommend the fajitas and the churro switch ice cream. The staff was very helpful and kind. Trinity the star of our visit took amazing care of us. Being a local to San Diego I will defiantly be coming back.

It’s amazing. Taco Tuesday is the best here and well worth the long wait. Tacos are cheap and if you have to wait a long time just run across the street to get a tortilla with either salsa or butter in it.

I would like to thank Cesar for his dedication and commitment to our table this evening. We enjoyed our cocktails and appetizers! Thank you a great evening and service!

Taco Tuesdays are the best! You need to come on time to beat the crowd; otherwise, there’s a long wait time of 30 – 60 minutes.

Pros:
–adorable decorations — really bright and colorful! –QUESO DIP! Haven’t found it anywhere in San Diego but here and it’s great!
–the seasoning on the chips is bomb
–friendly wait staff
–great music
–not super expensive
–The California burrito is amazing! It was so big I had to share it
Cons:
–the hostess was not pleasant at all and had a smug look on her face
–wait time sucks even though there were plenty of open tables
–tends to be crowded and parking is awful!!!

Pros: The resturant is pretty cool looking. The white cheese queso dip is really tasty, and evidently the burritos (according to my husband are tasty). The portions are large.
Cons: The cackling women in the bar, the chips are to salty and seasoned with some cajun stuff that has no business being on a chip. The fajitas were funky. They had zucchini in the mix, and the chicken was dry. The torttia was gross, and tasted like a wet saltine cracker. The service was horrid. We didn’t get refills once on our drinks or chips, and it was slow… so slow. Also it was pretty dead. Maybe chef Ramsey should visit.
Overall, I would say skip, there are many MANY more options avaliable in old town.

Honestly, I only go here because they’re dog friendly on the patio and have a little canine menu. My dog was pretty happy with his eggs but wouldn’t leave my date and I alone since our rice and beans smelled that much better. I’ve been here a few times over the last couple years and it has improved in quality — slow week nights are best for service and food. The waitstaff is nice and helpful, thoughtful enough to bring out a dish of water for my dog without us asking, and turning on the space heater outside since it was a little brisk. They have a wide variety of alcohol, maybe even more choices than food. The food is decent here, not quite authentic enough to call it great Mexican food though. A bit overpriced for what it is, but you can’t expect any different for Old Town.

My husband and I first went here back in May 2015 and we had a positive experience. We were excited to go back, but we were a bit let down this time.
We have a small dog, he’s easy to travel with and loves car rides, so we often need to find pet friendly dining options. According to the Fred’s menu, this is one of the only pet friendly dining options in the adorable Old Town section of San Diego.
We went for a late lunch/​early dinner around 3pm on ¹⁰⁄₃₁. It took about 10 minutes for someone to show and take our drink order. The waitress that finally came was super apologetic and professional, she comped us a side of guac with chips and salsa.
I had a frozen Strawberry Margarita since it was happy hour, it was so-​so. I also tried a regular margarita on the rocks and that was just ok.
We did enjoy our meals quite a bit. I had the cheese enchiladas with a side or rice and beans. My husband had a tasty burrito.
The next day we went back again before our drive back to LA and it was pure insanity in Old Town due to the Mexican holiday. We were told the wait for a table would be 15 minutes, but after 30 minutes of waiting in the sun we went to eat at the bar. Food quality was good again and the drink I had was strong.
My biggest gripe is that there were TONS of empty tables when we went for lunch, but nobody was being seated in them. This place needs to hire more staff. It’s a Mexican restaurant on the day of the dead when there is a holiday festival going on in town, they should have been better prepared for crowds.

We stumbled on this place while walking around Old Town. Great place to grab a margarita! The queso is delicious! The bartender was very sweet and we even got free tequila shots from the manager :)
Would definitely come by again when visiting San Diego

Huge portions and delicious Margaritas. There’s such welcoming atmosphere around. Food is delicious and great service. I can definitely guarantee you authentic experience.

Ehh… Man I haven’t gave a 2 star review in awhile but I should of known better then to try to eat Mexican food at a place called FRED’s Mexican Café, FRED’s! If you want to get good Mexican food maybe going to a place with a white man’s name on it probably ain’t a good idea. I mean it be like going to a Italian restaurant & the place being called Maria Guadalupe’s Martinez Italian Café, yeah that probably wouldn’t be a good idea you just might get Chicken Mole instead of Lasagne… Well now I know.
First the customer service was ok. I talked in Spanish on purpose to see if the girls new (there was 2 of them one of them being trained) & neither of them knew Spanish they just stared at each other, they don’t know Spanish but work at a MEXICAN café as waitresses? That’s like a stripper working at a strip club who doesn’t take off her bra! Makes no sense! Ok so I ordered in English. The black beans were very blahn no real flavor to them. The chicken enchiladas the tortillas too thick & not enough chicken in them. Rice also needed more flavor. Carnitas were not that bad but needed more salt. The sauce on the enchilada were ok. But I will say there Carne Asada burrito was pretty good & a good size. The food actually tasted like a guy name Fred made it not very mexicanly.
I did like that it was doggie friendly & they bring them a bowl of water & the place was clean & the service was nice just not a fan of the food. The prices were good too.
Maybe they should just change the name from Fred’s to Alfredo’s Mexican Café & hire Spanish speaking waitresses & add more salt to there food, just an idea. Sorry Freddy but I think I’ll be eating my Mexican food across the street, but if I got my doggie with me I will come here, water for him & a beer for me & I’ll share some chips & salsa with him.

I have visited this place a couple of times now, and both experiences could not be far from polar. Unfortunately, I am not quite sure which one is truly representative of the restaurant. There are too many other Mexican Restaurants in San Diego to be a guinea pig and find out.
Our first visit here was great. We had stopped in for apps and lunch for our daughter before we caught the train up to Del Mar. We were clear with our server that we were on a time crunch (lul between lunch and dinner) and he made sure to keep us on track. We ordered some salsa, queso, carne asada fries and a margarita. My wife had been a virgin to the Carne Asada Fry before we came to Fred’s. This was all she talked about for weeks after we went. It is amazing how such a grossly delicious pile of goop can be so good! The queso was just right and the chips were fried to perfection. All and all, we could not have been happier with the service… which is why we opted to return.
Our second visit was apparently to a completely different restaurant. We again wanted to get some light apps and early dinner for our daughter. She had loved the burger last time. and if it is not broken, we do not fix it. Our server was quick to come by, and we were lead to believe we had the crème of the crop as she was training. We later realized that meant nothing. We started off by ordering our carne asada fries, queso and our daughters burger. (Side note. we always order our daughters food with our appetizer. I am sure many parents can relate). After about 10 minutes, our queso and chips came out. The chips were still dripping with cooled off oil and were noticeably stale. We asked for a new basket of chips and pointed them out. Our server said «they must have left them out a little long.» Ok. we will go with that. Maybe they should have tossed them?
About ten minutes after that, our carne asada fries came out. While delicious, they were clearly sitting on the line a little long as the cheese sauce had begun to harden. When she dropped the fries, we also ordered a few tacos.
Ten minutes after this, our tacos come out and our daughter is now in tears as she has no food. It took a few minutes to flag down our server. (Hind sight… if I had ordered a lot of drinks as every other table had, my service would have been way better.) She looked into it and came back apologizing that she forgot to put it in. At this point, there is really nothing you can do. We are not going to eat in front of our daughter. We cannot leave, because our daughter is hungry.
We decided to wait another 15 minutes for a «burger on the fly,» but at this point had lost our own appetite. We had given our fries back as we stopped eating not even ¼ way through. She refired our tacos as we refused to take them before our daughter ate. We opted not to eat them, but were still charged.
Being someone who has been in the industry, this is usually where a manager would come and touch your table. The manager on this day was too busy figuring out how he could touch his female serving staff. He never came by, never apologized and likely never even knew we existed. His server certainly did not own up, and he never left the bar our entire stay, so he could not have known.
I had started this review out by giving it 3 stars because of my first experience. After reliving the absolute lack of service and poor management, I cannot give this place much more than the one star it has truly proven itself to be to us.
If you are in Old Town or any other part of San Diego, do yourself good and try out another restaurant. Use Unilocal (we should have) and don’t get roped into this place. If you see 5 – 6 servers crowded around the hostess stand… keep walking.

Had a quick bite here before my party and I had our old town ghost tour. Originally we were looking into another place but there was no line here so we went here… bad idea.
The menu had very little variety. Margaritas were watered down and had little to none flavor. Food was less than amateur (I can make better Mexican dishes).
Service was ok. But… yeah the food outweights the service by a long shot on this one.

Whaaaaaat happened?
Holy crap this place has gone downhill. I used to love coming here. Anytime I was in or around Old Town for several hours, I would stop here for lunch. I hadn’t been in a couple years and my return visit was beyond disappointing.
Margaritas tasted like sweet and sour with gasoline. It was so dead they were only seating people on the patio in very hot weather without much shade. The tables were dirty and sticky. The menus were covered in drinks and food as well. A server dropped a glass cup and it was just left there on the ground the entire time. Chips were stale. Food was average.
Food being average is the biggest plus. But with so many other things so wrong, it just didn’t matter anymore. No wonder it was dead on a Friday. I think I’ll continue to stay away.

I’m officially a fan of Fred’s Mexican Café. Came here on a tuesday for some tacos and boy it was very well worth my money. I got one carnitas, one baja fish, and one chicken. All three of the tacos had different sauce to it so its not just the protein difference. I was most impressed by the carnitas’ sauce. It was a little sweet and sour and just goes really well with the protein. The only thing I have a compliant about was the carnitas was in super big chucks, making them a little dry. If only they were shredded more properly, the dish would’ve been perfect.
My second favorite was the chicken taco. Again, it was the sauce that caught my attention. It just goes really well with the chicken and made the chicken stand out. My least favorite one was the fish (and I was most excited for that one). The fried fish itself was good, but there was completely no sauce in that taco! Ok, I’m exaggerating a little, I did see sauce on it but honestly I couldn’t taste any. Everything was so bland and I could taste the corn tortilla while I’m eating it. And on a side note, I don’t particularly enjoy corn tortilla and only tolerate them because the protein and the sauce’s flavors overpowers them. So here I’m tasting the corn tortilla I do not fancy and ended up just finishing the fish itself. I was very disappointed at this one!
But despite this one disappointing taco, I still give it a four star because the other two were very impressive and the tacos are all fairly large in size and cheap ($ 2 on tuesdays). Lastly, I want to make a note that if you check-​in on a Unilocal you get a free queso! Both the salsa and the cheese dip are so good my friend and I literally couldn’t stop eating it in the beginning! All in all, I had a really pleasant experience eating here and quite frankly I don’t understand why this place only has 3 stars. I heard there’s a long wait on taco Tuesdays but my friend and I came here around 5:30 PM so that wasn’t an issue. I’ll definitely come back again on Tuesdays for some more delicious tacos (but probably not the fish one again)!

Lunch wasn’t too crowded, nicely decorated, seems like a fun place to go for happy hour if I worked a little bit closer.
I got the carnitas burrito, slaughtered with 2 different sauces (a little spicy kick but not too powerful). The meat was delicious! Super tender and fatty and ripped apart at the seams. The stuffing in the burrito complimented each other well! They also serve you some chips and salsa. I loved the chips here, but as leftovers the next day, they get really stale tasting! Also, don’t forget to check in! Free queso dip with the chips.
Overall the burrito was on point, decent, great size, and tasted great with every bite. But the cost… at least 3 – 4 $ more than the average mexican burrito place. In the end, a little pricey for a simple lunch. The tacos on the menu were even pricier than the burrito! If this place was cheaper, I’d definitely come back.

Have only been here for Taco Tuesday, but it was delicious! The only reason I’m docking it down from 5 to 3 stars is due to wait time and prices. Allow me to elaborate:
We came here a few Tuesdays ago so the crowding was admittedly our fault – Old Town on Taco Tuesday? C’mon. However, being the tourist-​avoiding San Diegans we are, we hadn’t ever experienced it and figured we’d try it. That being said, finding a parking spot was insane, the wait time was over an hour, and you had to shimmy past people to get anywhere. The saving grace was that you could order margaritas and drink while you wait. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s the entire plan – everyone gets so drunk waiting that they order one of everything off the menu! Well, if it isn’t the plan it should be. Once we finally got seated it was great though, and the service was fast.
Onto the prices. Taco Tuesday and my taco was $ 4. Let’s be real. It was shrimp, so I get it, but even the chicken ones were like $ 3. It’s just not exactly the deal I was expecting.
Alright, bitching aside, this place is pretty great. We had amazing friends with us and we were ready to drink our stresses away, so it was perfect. If you were to come here, stay at a hotel nearby and drink while you wait, it wouldn’t be so bad. And the food is amazing! Seriously, I couldn’t have been more pleased with the quality and taste.

This is another great mexican joint to add to the list in Old Town. The service was good, they were very attentive and friendly.
They have a decent happy hour menu. I reccommend the nachos, they were great and everyone seemed to love them. Although I pesonally can not stand Wastermelon or Cucumber… Both people that order the Margarita’s absolutely loved them. Most of us ordered from the happy hour menu which was more than enough food, and everyone enjoyed it.
We sat on the patio which was nice and open. The waitress was very accomodating when we were paying seperately.
I will go here again and order and entrée and then I will re-​evaulate my Unilocal review. Maybe then… It will get 5 stars. The sign on the wall was a favorite :)

El local es «singular», el personal simpático. De lo pedido, resultaron buenos los tacos de pollo. Las raciones me parecieron exageradas, pero intuyo estoy acostumbrado al tamaño europeo… En un futuro no me importaría volver, pero seguramente vaya a otro sitio.

The food (chicken tamales) was very good. Very tasty and nice looking. The wine (the ony one on the menu) is also good. Service is friendly but it takes ages to get someting o drink. Second time I ordered a drink took so long I was sure that the waitress forgot. The moment I wanted to ask, she brought it. Food in opposite came very fast.
Music and TV inside are far too loud. But whewhole place looks nice and it’s fun to watch the people on the street passing by.