El Sinaloense

My go-​to spot for chowing on chips and salsa while awaiting the main meal. I’ve tried tamales, tacos, enchiladas, caldo, burritos, rellenos, and have never been disappointed. Food is reliably consistent, service is good and place is clean.

I’ve been eating here semi-​regularly for a few years now. The food is very good, the service is excellent, and the prices are reasonable.
My longstanding favorite here has been the Machaca, but I recently tried the Pulpo a la diabla and it was fantastic. This was some of the most tender octopus I’ve ever had, and the diabla sauce was deliciously spicy.
Must go back soon.

The carnitas tacos plate is by far one of the best we have had in a long time. This restaurant is small but the service is great! Also try their breakfast burritos they are a decent size for the price. We will definately be back!

I can’t explain this hidden gem !! I really really wish there was a good seafood place like this in redwood city! But in the mean time we will always come here !
I personally love «El Molcajete» and «Los aguachiles» my husband loves «el ceviche» and the «vuelve ala vida» oo and las micheladas !! I can’t explain how much we love this place.
Ooo certain days of the week there is karaōke I believe. seafood is amazing tho!

The Camaron Al Gusto Burrito was quite delicious with the right amount of spice.
Note for the waiter, Mario:
Try not to insult your customers for not ordering enough drinks and $ 28 appetizers during lunch just because you assume we are all high paid engineers. («You guys all make $ 100k+ a year») I’ve lived within a mile of your restaurant for 6 years and was reminded why I’ve only been here twice.
Happy Holidays!

Really good food very authentic this place rules

We were originally going to take my visiting in-​laws to Don Pico’s. They live in NY and you know they don’t have great Mexican in NY (compared to Cali). Don Pico’s was my favorite Mexican restaurant when I worked in San Bruno, but the recent reviews told a sad story. Hubby and I decided to take a chance with El Sinaloense instead and it was exactly what we were looking for: family-​friendly and tasty!
Hubby and I arrived about 15 – 20 minutes before his family. We checked in with the host and asked for a table for 6 before sitting at the bar with warm tortilla chips & good, spicy salsa. They served thin tortilla chips which are my favorite kind! We decided to share a pitcher of margarita ($ 26) and it was great fun! Not that artificial stuff. We ended up ordering 2 more after his famly arrived. The service, especially Mario, was warm too, albeit a bit slow. Mario even squeezed extra lime into my margarita for me :) I’m def a fan of this place now! It’s small, with loud, Mexican music, and legit dishes.
The food was SUPER tasty! I ordered fajitas with shrimp, chicken, and steak and it came with flour tortillas, beans, rice, guac, and sour cream. The shrimp was perfectly cooked and the whole plate was deliciously seasoned. It could’ve used more shrimp… My family shared the shrimp & octopus ceviche as an appetizer (because El Sinaloense is supposedly known for their ceviche) and even though it was weird that it was served with a side of mayo, it worked. My hubby’s molcajete was bubbling when it arrived at the table. It had a tasty sauce. Overall, I was very pleased with the food. Hit the spot!
It was great place to start Christmas break with my family :) Thank you, El Sinaloense!

The food was okay. I felt scared eating the ceviche because the shrimp had not been deveined. The chef said it was fine, though I didn’t get sick, I still felt uncomfortable eating it. We got the molcajete – agreed that it’s overhyped and $$$– and enchiladas. Both were good. But the food itself is probably not a good enough reason for me to go back there. It was definitely too expensive for lack of attention from the server staff and the food portions.

We’ve tried this place twice for to-​go orders. Both times we were disappointed.
This time, my husband’s chicken quesadilla was way off — the cheese was bad in a lot of ways, like it was rubbery and old-​tasting, and the chicken was dry and tasted old as well. My dinner was at least decent, not bad. Overall, really disappointed, though.
Surprised by all the great reviews, but maybe they don’t try so hard for to-​go orders?

I’ve lived in San Mateo all my life and never knew this place existed… glad I know now! Located behind Safeway on Palm Avenue, this restaurant is out of the field of view of a driver. Maybe this helps keep crowds down! ;)
There’s also parking everywhere, which seems to be a huge issue in San Mateo now.
I had the Tocino Y Queso (bacon wrapped shrimp stuffed with cheese) and my girlfriend had the Molcajete. Both are excellent and I highly recommend them.
If you are looking for some great Mexican food and don’t want to fight the traffic of Downtown San Mateo, go here, although you might pass by it when you are looking for it!

Moved to SM a month ago from Los Angeles and have been struggling to find a go-​to Mexican food joint —- this just may be my new home away from home!
Friendly little, neighborhood spot with plenty of non-​metered street parking. Great service. Tons of seafood on the menu and all the traditional dishes that a gringo like me would expect.
I’m a big fan of the enchiladas — smothered in a tasty sauce and cheese and with your choice of meat; chicken, carne asada, shredded beef, carnitas or shrimp.
The carnitas are awesome but not what I would describe as traditional carnitas (at least based on my experience). It’s basically slow cooked pork medallions, not shredded and very lean. Regardless, they’re packed with flavor and absolutely no fatty bites.
The waiter recommended an order of Buñuelos, a first for me and I was not disappointed. If you’re not familiar, Buñuelos is basically fried dough with cinnamon and honey and topped with ice cream. It’s as delicious as it sounds but I’m pretty sure my heart was pumping slower after scarfing them down. Deadly but damn good.
Looking forward to my next trip — probably going to tackle the Super Burrito or the Street Tacos. I’ll be sure to update my review when I do :)

An out of the way neighborhood Mexican Restaurant behind Safeway in San Mateo. A couple people recommended this restaurant to us so we wanted to give this place a try. This is perhaps the best Mexican place in San Mateo. Far better than Pancho Villa.
Definitely want to come back and try some of the regular food like molcajete, Fajitas, fried whole fish, fish tacos
Food Picks:
Chicken Quesdilla ($ 8.90) came fast and hit the spot. Good sized and decent quality with lots of cheese.
Carne Asada Burrito ($ 6.25) was pretty big for regular size. High quality meat brought out some good flavor.
Just OK:
None
Would not reorder:
None
Overall — Very Good
Food — Very Good
Décor — Good
Service — Good
Value — Very Good
Would we come back — Yes

Great service, but the cheese enchiladas were too cheesy, runny.
The shrimp soup was a bowl of stock with unpeeled, uncleaned old shrimp.

This is the usual spot for my co workers and I when we have no clue what we want to eat and it’s friday afternoon. They are well known for their seafood dishes here, so I would recommend trying one of them out! I’ve gotten their tacos, burritos, tamales, enchiladas and even one of their special seafood stew (i forgot the name of it). Their mexican food is average, but their seafood dishes are good! I’ve tried their fish tacos and they use huge chunks of fish that aren’t deep fried. It was pretty good in my opinion.
Overall, its a good spot to go to for mexican food in San Mateo.

Fantastic neighborhood Mexican food place. The owner Mario has something great going here. Their ceviche with octopus is most likely the best ceviche I’ve ever had. And the portion sizes are huge! You’ll get a ton of value from this place.
Their molcajete is their signature dish and boy does it taste amazing. Full disclosure… I’m a bit of a foodie, and keep a «Top 25 meals I’ve eaten across the globe» list and the molcajete from El Sinaloense is on there. Its a bit hard to explain, but it’s a blend of chicken, carne, and shrimp with Mexican cheese is a piping hot stone bowl. Served with flour tortillas and rice and fillers, you eat it like a fajita plate.
I work in San Mateo and every chance I get, I stop in to eat at this place. You should too.

Here’s my Mexican food history: El Farolito, La Tapatia, Taqueria Guadalajara, Celias, La Morena… basically enough to explain my love for Mexican food.
I was here with a bunch of friends and everyone loved what they got. Portions are huge and prices are decent. The service is great here as well. The menu is extensive and have many choices from little kids to adults and senior citizens, haha.
I ordered a super fish taco. Oh myyyyyyy… ghschs;luitwsc. It’s super good. Trust me. The fish used was super soft and flakey. The fish is grilled as well and the flavors were just blasting in my mouth like heaven.
I definitely recommend you try it out. Easy to find and easy parking on the street!

This place is our new favorite Mexican spot. It’s Phenomenal. Great service. Great food. Good portion size. Everything was awesome. Can’t believe us took me so long to find this place. So good.
Service was fantastic as well. We had the molcajete which was amazing. Getting it again next time. Portion sizes are perfect and quality was fantastic.

Food was service was excellent. I got a mini wet super veggie burrito with both red and green sauce. It looked awesome and tasted like it looked.
We were looking for a spot to grab some authentic Mexican food in San Mateo and gave this joint a try. Lucky we did. Approaching the little spot gave us be feeling we had found a great little locals-​only place. The interior decorations are nice and welcoming. Some enormous paintings are hung in the main dining area which portray some typical portraits of people living life. A nice touch.

Came here for the first time last weekend to try out a new Mexican restaurant. I’m used to places where you order at a register so it was fun to try something new.
I ordered a combo plate, 3 items. A soft-​taco, enchilada and chalupa. Chicken, carnitas and carne asada. It came with some rice and beans as well. All the meats were great, tender and delicious. There was plenty of food and the price was good. I was underwhelmed by the enchilada sauce, so besides that, everything was good.
I want to come back and try one of their burritos. They put those on the «fast food» section on their menu.

I’ve enjoyed El Sinaloense twice now. I’ve dined in the restaurant once and ordered delivery via FLUC.
On both occasions, I was looking for a hole in the wall Mexican place and this fulfilled what I was after. It’s tucked away off the main drags in San Mateo, making it feel somewhat special.
Also on both occasions, I enjoyed their eponymous dish, the Fajitas El Sinaloense. This dish is one of the more expensive items on the menu on an absolute basis, but perhaps not as much on a relative basis based on the portion size. It is a medley of grilled chicken, beef, shrimp, peppers, onions, and cheese prepared with various spices. It’s a large, hearty meal.
It also came with some excellent sides including guac and refried beans.
Pro Tip: Don’t plan on eating too many of the free tortilla chips and salsa if you order this dish because you’ll struggle to finish the mains.

Muy buena comida, pero pesimo servicio, es la razon por la cual les doy 3 estrellas, llegamos y habia un cartel grande donde decia «PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED» habia un joven llamado Agustin en la caja, cuando llegamos nos vio, y siguio haciendo nonse q cosas ahi, luego llego la mesera, tambn estaban ahi hablando como si no estuvieramos ahi, hasta q un señor (15 minutos despues de estar parados) nos ofrecio la mesa, bueno, nos sentamos y nos dieron los menus, unos minutos despues, llega la mesera y nos tomo la orden de bebidas, cuando regreso nos dijo q si ya estabamos listos, le dije q necesitaba unos minutos mas, despues de un rato, regreso y yo pedi un Molcajete, mi esposo un Mazatlan, y a mi hija le pedi un taco de pollo con arroz g frijoles.
La comida estuvo muy bien, deliciosisima, y era una buena porcion, pero me acabe mi soda y la mesera NUNCA regreso a chequear si todo estaba bien, para pedir mi soda me tuve que parar a pedirla, (por que ovbio ella estaba platicando MUY OCUPADA con sus companeros de trabajo) ella la trajo y lo proximo que supe de ella fue q me llevo la cuenta.
Deberian de hacer training a sus empleados y contratar una hostess, la verdad es q no me gusto el servicio, pero REPITO la comida EN SU PUNTO, deliciosisima! Nada mas trabajen en eso