My husband, step-daughter, and I come here about once a month for Taco Tuesday. Â The store is under new management so the customer service has improved noticeably even though they have many of the same waiters. Â
Their Taco Tuesday deal is our favorite in town. $2 tacos, $15 bucket of Coronas, $4 house margaritas, etc. Â The carnitas tacos are the best and the chicken is very tasty too. Â The service is fast, chips and salsa are plentiful, and they check on us enough times to be helpful but not annoying. Â Some Tuesdays they have a little old lady making fresh tortillas out front, so that's a nice touch. Â
Parking is okay, we normally can score a spot in front but there are only about 6 or 7 total. Â There is a huge tv inside and they're normally playing surf or snow videos on that one. Â They have a few more flat screens with whatever sport is in season. Â There's no Mexican-themed music playing so if it's a quiet night you can hear everyone's conversation. Â Not really a problem for me since we're normally watching the Lakers while we're there.
Overall, my family loves this spot. Â I say give it a try for Taco Tuesday!
came here during the holidays and unfortunately they looked understaffed. Restaurant was packed and everything took forever with the exception of the food (mex rest). I'd give our waitress a free pass in knowing that she was so overwhelmed, but that did not excuse her unfriendly attitude. Again, we could see she was busy, but she could not even fake her way through a simple smile. Food was avg which was disappointing considering we've been here before and have always liked it.
2 1/2 stars for food
1 1/2 for service
# overall knowing we've been here before and liked it.
I've been to El Mariachi a handful of times over the years, and I kinda know what to expect by now.
As far as Mexican fare goes I'd say it's average to slightly above average. Â Most of the plates have a good sense of being homemade but I can't say there's a signature dish that just knocks your sox off and come away saying "That is the best damn Mexican food ever."
That being said, they are a slightly higher quality of the countless taco stand and combination plate emporiums that seem to dot the Southern California landscape.
There's a small private corner lot outside that can get slightly crowded at dinner time, so you may find yourself parking on the street. Â The outside has a certain inviting look behind it; somewhat rustic with old wagon wheels, warm colors, lush plants, and rod iron decor. Â Inside, bright murals and wood paneling make the place feel cozy, although booths are a bit small, and generic tables and chairs feels more like a church Bingo hall.
A small and tight bar adorns a hidden corner of the place and they serve plenty of tequilas, margaritas, and beers (both domestic and imported).
Chips and salsa are complimentary, as they are in most (not all) Mexican restaurants and of good flavor and always taste fresh.
As I stated in my earlier paragraph, the food combinations and stand alone plates are just that...pretty standard Mexican fare. Â However, food comes out of the kitchen relatively quickly, is hot, and appears fresh. Â Rice is not over cooked, and re-fried beans have a good flavor. Â Prices are VERY fair for the amount you are given, so no complaints there.
There's a few flat panel TVs scattered about usually playing the games, no real Ranchero or themed music. Â It's a good place for after game meals, breakfast or lunch with friends, or a quick dinner with a date if you're in the area. Â Overall, if they would tweak the menu a bit with a signature dish, and lend a bit more ambiance to the inside (to match the outside), there's no reason this place couldn't be a hit.
So So, This place has been on the regular rotation for years but frankly the food has gone downhill. Place changed ownership a while ago and it it just not the same. Service is still outstanding, but there are too many other great mexican options in SC now to come back here. This visit was a Friday night and the place was not full at all, this was not the case in the past. I suspect diners are voting the same way I felt. Won't be back
Review Source:Great service and atmosphere. The chips and salsa tasted home-made and guac was bomb. For some reason the chips with the guac were different, stale and seemingly from a bag. Not sure why those chips would be different. Had the huevos rancheros and could have been better. Excellent spot for an after surf grind.
Review Source:El Mariachi is a great place to go for fast service, strong margaritas and lots of food! Salsa is spicy but not too much so. They make all of the standard fare well -- enchiladas, tacos, etc. as well as dishes like the carne asada, fajitas, etc. The service is always friendly and fast, even when they are busy which is often. Parking is a little precarious if the parking lot is full (competitive street parking in the residential area). We always go here when visiting Southern California.
Review Source:Ordered the molcajete, if a mexican restaurant has a molcajete then better be legit. I love their location get off the 5 drive on el camino real and go back on the 5 this was driving home from sd and I shared the molcajete with another person and we were both very satisfied. It had shrimp, cactus, carne asada, and cheese. If a mexican restaurant serves cactus definitely legit.
Review Source:Turns out, good Mexican food is hard to find. Â And, if you're looking, you probably shouldn't bother stopping at El Mariachi...
Pros: Â they weren't busy on an early Sunday evening so we were sat right away and the food came out very fast. Â The chips and salsa we're okay. Â Yep, that's about it.
Cons: Â the ambiance was disappointing. Â It's a very cool building, but the tables/booths are very close together and there's no music so you're able to have a conversation with everyone else in the room if you're so inclined. Â It certainly helped us realize that the couple sitting across from us waited for almost ten minutes for someone to come pick up there bill, and even then they had to flag down a server (not their server, mind you). Â Additionally, their bill was wrong because their server had forgotten to charge them for a drink... at least the error was in the customer's favor.
The service wasn't much better at our table, although we could see that it was better a few tables down. Â We seemed to be seated right before a shift change, and we're guessing the server in our section was at the end of a rough shift... as was the host, who barely made eye contact, and generally acted like he hated his job.
The food was nothing special. Â My carne asada tasted like it had been marinated in worcestershire sauce for days. Â Not terrible, but not really what you expect at a Mexican restaurant. Â Â
Pricing on the entrees seemed reasonable, and they were large portions... prices on drinks seemed high, though. Â $8 for a house margarita? Â No thanks... I'm sure I can make a better one at home.
Disappointing.
We came in on a Monday and were seated right away :) Fresh chips and perfectly spicy salsa arrived as we sat down. Â Our server, Francisco, was very attentive and gave us some suggestions. Â I decided on the Carnitas soft tacos & hubby got the gordo (double meat) chicken burrito. Â Soooo good!!! Â I added a photo of my meal. Â We will definitely come again.
Review Source:I used to love this place. Been going there for 12 years. The last year or so the owner has changed the menu about 3 or 4 times and lowered the prices only to raise them again. The food is good but the prices are once again to high. What it needs is a new owner. This Guy is bi polar with his menu and pricing.
Review Source:I went here early last month for a reunion of three families. Since we had such a large group we automatically must pay 18% tip no matter how horrible the experience.
After sitting down we patiently waited to have our drinks brought to us and our orders placed, since we had a larger than normal group I gave them the benefit of the doubt on their speediness.
I myself ordered chilaquiles off the all-day breakfast menu. They had a red only option so I asked if they could make mine green (salsa verde). During my wait I was only able to enjoy water and a margarita. Expecting a simple fix  and after a long wait my meal finally arrived and was a pleasant brown color. After waiting another ten minutes I managed to flag down our waitress to ask her why the color was off. She went back into the kitchen for a short while an retuned with the excuse that they combined the salsas to make it spicy. I have never heard of such a thing. Between asking about the color and requesting a fix I had to wait extensive amounts of time, the server hardly came to my half of the table. Once she graced us with her presence again I asked to have it remained and was once again left to wait as everyone around me finished their meals. My meal once again arrived, thankfully the correct color this time. I took a bite to discover this time it tasted overwhelmingly of salt. At this point we had been here for about an hour at least. Finally I gave up on the experience and asked to have it taken away and off the bill.
Once outside I conversed with the rest of my family only to learn that they suffered similar problems with their meals.
Fed up with the entire meal my boyfriend and I made our way to In-N-Out for a entirely superior dining experience.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AMAZING! was driving home from San Deigo and randomly took a exit which I dont remember since i was starving and out of no where found this awesome restaurant! The most addictive chips and salsa ever! We saw a couple having a huge plate of something over fire and had to get it! The ceviche was made perfecty with the right amount of all the juices ( i just made my mouth water). Okay, for dinner we had a huge feast worth 40 bucks of everything from chicken to lobster to steak grilled veggies, some sort of potatoes and all the condiments! We had so much food left over and was devoured once we got home 2 hours later! Great place fast service ... just all in all a wonderful find!
Review Source:Have been going here for 10+ years!
Pros:
- BEST salsa EVER! It's amazing! The chips are also fresh and perfectly crispy. This place is worth coming to just for the salsa & chips alone.
- Margaritas are wonderful. Try the cadillac or the mango blended one.
- It's perfect for a bigger group of friends or also for a casual date. Would recommend splitting one of the combination meals.
- Try the chile relleno! Yumm!
Cons:
- They do charge quite a bit for those amazing margaritas but it's worth it.
- The tortilla soup is not very good - wouldn't recommend it.
Okay it really pains me to write this review, I have lived in and around San Clemente for many years and there has always been only a few good sitdown Mexican Restaurant, tonight my daughter wanted to go there for dinner I really tried to talk her out of that choice but no luck.
Ordered the Guacamole  to have with the chips, there were more onions, large pieces of tomato and cheese on top (never had cheese on Guacamole) than Avocado, it really was a huge disappointment, the salsa tasted more like spicy spaghetti sauce than good salsa, so by now I was really looking forward to the main entrée.
I ordered the Shrimp Fajita and my daughter ordered a Bean and Cheese Burrito,  okay the Shrimp Fajitas first, everything looked great when the dish was put in front of me, then I thought did I order the Green/ Red Bell Pepper  and onion Fajita? Then I noticed the shrimp which were curled up into a quarter size circle, as I grabbed my flour tortillas I noticed that the edges were hard and fragile, I powered through the dinner in minutes due to their only being 10 shrimp (no bigger than a quarter).
My Daughter had the Bean and Cheese Burrito her first bite was met with cheese and Flour tortilla, on her seventh bite she found the beans, the burrito was actually pretty big sitting on the plate more than half of it was only cheese and tortilla, and there was no cheese in the beans, my daughter said " it would be so bad if they marked each end with a B or C"
The Service was great the Waitress was always around and very friendly, there were times when we had said that's it I'm sending this back, but all we really wanted was to get out of there.
Decided to come here again after not coming for about 5 years. We were not greeted finally got seated and felt like we were an inconvenience to them. Dinner was very bland and for the price not worth it. I've lived in san clemente my whole life and would totally choose La Siesta over this place. We just realized why we stopped coming here.
Review Source:WAY WAY WAY TOO pricey. They will also up-sale you at every occasion. The side order of Guacamole they offer as you sit down is small and it is $8. Don't up grade to the large Margarita I believe they are $15 and they contain next to no alcohol. Â The food is run of the mill Mexican, nothing special. My biggest complaint is the service. It always seems like the staff is irritated you are not of Mexican decent. Seriously! Â
I'd love to love this place. I can walk from my house. I love Mexican food and I love to eat out. But I always leave feeling robbed.
I've lived in San Clemente over 16 years, and have been to El Mariachi many times. When I first moved here, I loved it. Super good food, decent prices. Then the quality went downhill, and I didn't eat there for years. Tried it again a few years back, and was surprised to have really good dinner, so I started visiting again.
But then there was a repeat of the decline in quality, and increase in prices. I swore the last 2 times I went I would never be back, but my son had a gift certificate. What a mistake.
I've been hitting up La Siesta pretty much weekly the last year or so. They also have been through some ups and downs over the years. But right now they are on the up. Way up compared to EM.
And don't forget Hapa J's. Hawaiian style tacos on Tuesday, blow EMs away. There is a reason there is a long line outside La Siesta and Hapa J's on Tuesday, yet El Mariachi is emtpy.
WEAK margaritas. Bland food. High prices. I'll try again in a few years.
This place was a great find! Â On a Sunday, we were on our way back home to LA from SD and were starved but didn't want to do fast food. Â I looked up on yelp to see what restaurants there were in the area that we were heading in and a few came up and this was one of them. Â It was super hot that day so we sat this in small outdoor area where they had water mist. Â It was so cool! Â
They had yummy margaritas and the warm chips and the salsa...oooh YUMMY! Â My mouth does water when I think about it. Â we had to ask for like 3 refills :) Â So I've never ordered enchilada style anything before and I got the chicken enchilada. Â It was pretty good, looked like it was mostly white meat, which I LOVE. Â My husband got a beef burrito and it was HUGE! Â Just big enough for a true MAN to eat! Â The beans, were soooooo good and the rice well..I have nothing bad to say about that either. Â We will definitely be returning on our next trip south, yay!
QUICK UPDATE:
I just do not understand why the service here is just so inconsistent.
I brought the mother in law here for lunch. It really is so off putting when you take a guest someplace that YOU recommend and the service is so poor. I left today with a bitter taste in my mouth. It took forever to take the drink orders, and we where never checked on, (whether we needed something or not), is unacceptable.
I still enjoy their food, and their chips and salsa. So I WILL be back, but knowing what type of service too "consistently" expect.
*** For the record- Olamendi's now has my vote for the best salsa for San Clemente. Super spicy, something which El Mariachi is lacking. Review for Olamendi's to come.
FYI- Pretty cheap and delicious lunch specials! Def worth it for a cheap sit down lunch.
I love this place! Â I don't live in the area, but I try to plan my trip so I can stop here any time I'm headed to San Diego. Â I've brought friends here too, and they liked it. Â A great sit down place, great ambiance, and exactly what I want in food for a sit down Mexican restaurant.
Get the enchiladas suzias. Â Try not too eat too many chips, you'll ruin your dinner.
Every time we've been here, it's been nothing but great! We love the food, especially the flautas.
The bathrooms are weirdly cool. I've never seen such attention to detail in a bathroom. Mouthwash, floss and lotion, it just seems a little overboard, but hey, why not.
There's a lot of cool things at this restaurant. The servers are always there for you, the food is always great and always something interesting going on!
Parking is very limited, but the happy hour is great, so it evens out.
I can only speak on behalf of their shrimp burritos as that was the first thing I ever ordered at this restaurant and the only thing I order whenever I return. Â :) Â I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the shrimp burritos here! Â Unlike many other restaurants I have eaten at where they are stingy with their shrimp, El Mariachi is the exact opposite! Â El Mariachi "whores" out their shrimp in their burritos! Â It is AMAZING! Â Yummy, fresh and tender shrimp in each delectable bite. Â Ask for extra salsa fresca/pico de gallo to pour on top of the burrito...even better!!!! Â
Price wise, this is place is a bit pricer than other Mexican restaurants I have dined out, but I figure it is because we are in the southern OC where they can afford to hike up their prices.  The shrimp burrito costs about $18, but let me tell you, it is  well worth the price!
Service is pretty good. Â Have not really had an issue with them. Â I like that fact that they have a service button on each table, so you can ring them whenever you need something.
Margaritas are served large and are delicious. Â If you order the medium, you are in for a treat! Â :) Â The glass is as big as a fish bowl. Â No kidding!
I am a huge fan of this place, but have to take away one star because they do not serve horchata. Â :) Â LOL!
I loves me some breakfast! I must admit, I have been here 3-4 times and have actually only had breakfast. The Macho Omelet is usually really good- ordered to-go yesterday because I had a hankerin' (and a wee bit of a hangover;)- it was good- but not like usual, the omelet was missing the jalapeno's, which, hello, that's the point of this omelet...and the eggs weren't fluffy. This is why I only gave it 4 stars because of consistency, and its pricey for breakfast - every other time I have been there it has been yum-o-licious! They make a good margarita too. Friends have ventured away from the breakfast menu and loved everything. The bloody Mary's could be improved...
Service is friendly when dining in, not so great for take out. Will probably be a few months, but I'll be back for sure- maybe, just maybe I will try something other than breakfast...we'll see!
Pricey for so eh food. Two baskets of chips for a table of twelve, c'mon.
No chicken in my tortilla soup but it was loaded with tortilla strips...uh okay. Â I don't remember if it was Chicken Tortilla or just Tortilla Soup (Dean). Either way the soup, in my opinion, should not be loaded with soggy strips of tortillas where it becomes a bowl of mush.
El Mariachi serves consistently good food, even though it may be a little overpriced.
The owners take great pride in every aspect of the operation, as shown by the somewhat recent rennovation and inclusion of a beautiful wood carved bar area.
The fajitas come in a kind of gravy like broth that really works. The quesadillas - shrimp - are plump and filling.
The staff has been there forever, and are still helpful and friendly.
I dig the vibe and cute decorations at El Mariachi. Â The guacamole wasn't anything to write home about, but I did enjoy my crispy chicken taco combo plate, I love when they fry the tacos. Â The blended margaritas were strong and solid, but not the best by any standards. Â Overall, a solid place with a good atmosphere, but don't expect to be blown away by the food, it's slightly above average I'd say.
Great service though.
Whenever I'm in the area this is my go-to for Mexican food. Food is yummy, menu has a lot of choices, margaritas are good, service is decent... three stars.
I don't know whether to +1 star or -1 star for the bag lady that comes around and screams at the customers seated on the patio. She can be difficult to understand, but last time she snuck up behind me and screamed, "I...don't...like...your...make-up!" (Okay, to each their own.) And then proceeded to tell our cute, quiet Latina waitress to "Shut the fuck up, bitch!" It's so funny yet so scary at the same time...
This place is the go-to, obvious choice for when I have friends in town because they have plenty of "safe" choices for the out-of-town newbie, and plenty of authentic choices for those who grew up eating real Mexican food their entire lives in southern California! Â Really wild decor with painted murals, talented yet non-obnoxious mariachis walking around on the weekend, big screen tv's with surfing videos. Â I have been there so many times I have many favorites, but usually I will get the shrimp cocktail-huge and full of avocado slices, deep-fried jalapenos (not on the menu but they will make them if you ask), and a medium Cadillac margarita. Â No, I don't drive home after that! Â The chips are warm and crispy, the salsa fragrant and filling. Â They also make great spicy michiladas.
I didn't give them 5 stars because the service can be spotty, but it doesn't detract from the great food and drinks. Â It makes your experience a little more authentic, like you are actually in Mexico! Â This place is VERY popular for dinner. Â I recommend going for a late afternoon lunch, and sitting on the patio.
El Mariachi, or "Wagon Wheel" as I call it, as they have a bunch of funky decor out front including several old wooden wagon wheels, is a fine place. The food is good with generous portions of whatever meat you order. The Carnitas they use in the taco's is some of the finest Carnitas I've ever had. The beans, which is a gauge for any Mexican restaurant are just so-so...
The wait staff is great. All Hispanic and they dress in traditional garb, mariachi outfits for the guys, and big poofy dresses on the ladies. The chips are good, and if you like onions the tasty salsa is full of diced ones.
I go there for lunch occasionally. They have about 80 lunch combo's. You can dine inside, on a patio area, or outside depending on your degree of casualness.
So, I like my margaritas on Friday nights. I come to San Clemente a couple of times a year, and we discovered El Mariachi a few years ago and usually make that our Friday dinner destination when we arrive in town. Â It has a nice friendly atmosphere. Â The Margaritas are decent - get the top shelf Margarita in the smallest size (still big) - better than the huge ones - just get two if you want to indulge! Â The food is good and the service is fast. Â My favorite is the Shrimp Enchiladas (I think it is #37 on the menu, but don't hold me to that!) The enchiladas are bursting with shrimp - a very generous portion!
Review Source:
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