We had not been here for at least five years, it had a different name then. We hadn't been impressed then. I saw an ad for the new name the other day, figured it might be new owners, so today we went for a 1PM lunch.
The outdoor patio is very inviting and looks like something from Puerto Vallarta. A bit chilly today for outdoor dining, we were seated in the equally inviting dining room. We were the only customers.
The gentleman waiting on us was kind, friendly and helpful. He suggested an organic Margarita, which was nicely presented and shaken table-side, it was quite good. More on the Margarita in a bit.
My wife ordered a salad and soup ($6 each), the latter of which our waiter said was very good. I ordered grilled fish tacos ($12).
The salad had a very good dressing, but the produce was not fresh at all. Brown tipped lettuce, stale carrots, she left the majority of it on the plate. The soup was not very flavorful, quite bland actually. It is unfortunate they choose to use chicken portions other than breast meat, it might have been better. They curiously add a good measure of cheese to the soup, which becomes stringy and difficult to eat when it melts.
My fish tacos arrived not resembling the menu description at all. i was expecting grilled tilapia with cabbage and a sauce, but received what can only be described as fish fajitas on tortillas. The grilled peppers were welcome, but not the onions, which I am not a fan of. The moisture from the veggies rendered the tacos impossible to pick up without the tortillas disintegrating, so it became a knife and fork. Fish was very tasty, as were the refried beans.
The waiter and a woman came by the table often to check on drinks and such. They were both very nice.
Just as we were thinking we would come by again, but just for drinks, chips and their tasty salsa, the bill came. I was quite surprised by the $15 charge for the Margarita. It was good, but not that good and the man who suggested it should have informed me it was that expensive. I don't care to pay more for a cocktail than my entree, especially at lunch.
We will likely not be returning anytime soon. Too bad, it really is an inviting place aesthetically.
This is our regular Go-To place and our FAVORITE Mexican restaurant in San Clemente! Everything is hand crafted on premises, from the tortillas to the Mole to the Tamales, Salsa and Flan! Wash it down with a premium Organic (Orgasmic?) Margarita or two and you've arrived at Paraiso in SC! Locals know and love this secret spot.
Review Source:Yesterday, I found myself in San Clemente at lunch time. Â SInce I don't know the area very well, I had a hard time deciding where to eat. Â I happened to see Tequila's and thought it looked like a nice, quiet place to have my lunch.
I was pleased to have found such a wonderful place. Â The service was great, very personal and the food was fantastic. Â Best nachos I have ever eaten! Â The patio was cool, even though the weather was very hot.
Now when I find myself in San Clemente for business, I know a great place to recommend for lunch.
Thank you for making my day so pleasant.
So many good things to say about Tequila's - the margaritas are the best and the rest of the menu is fresh and not the usual greasy Mexican food that is all over San Clemente. Â Here is a secret - if you don't see it on the menu, just ask and usually they will make it for you. Â My husband says their Carnitas are the best he has ever had and my son is always disappointed with other restaurants Fajitas as the chicken is so well prepared.
Review Source:Love, love, love!! Â You MUST have the Carnitas Chile Relleno!!!! It's so good that we drive from San Diego to eat it! This is our favorite Mexican restaurant - good margaritas, great chile rellenos, refried beans and we love that the owner is still very "hands on." Â She makes you feel like you are eating in your auntie's kitchen.
Review Source:Rating for service, patio, and margaritas only.
We stopped by thinking a place called Tequila's with a beautiful patio would *of course* have some splendid margaritas right?! Well yes!
Greeted by a lovely older lady that wanted to make sure everything was perfect, she gave me  and my husband their off-menu organic margarita. With a rim laced with spicy salt and minimal sweetness, this was a delicious drink for a beautiful day. Love the patio!
Would happily return for food on a day we're not stuffed from brunch! The salsa was house-made and quite tasty.
Beautiful outdoor dining area, lovely setting to sip drinks and snack on chips or have your meal. I suppose if price wasn't a factor, I could give this place 5 stars. But I believe that is ultimately what you're paying for in this lovely, charming resto.
I usually think of Mexican food as a fast cheap fulfilling option and I've been to many long-drive worthy dives with cheap food! (I do love my streetfood). But every now and then, I don't mind paying premium for something... premium. But was it really?
So what's the verdict? Food was typical. Not bad, but not mindblowing, raveworthy mexi-can! Tried some burritos, soft tacos. And for the price, I was hoping for a little magic. But like I said, you're really paying for the lovely ambiance and awesome service.
Now the alcohol.... well, here's a tip. The house margarita taste no different from the special margaritas (believe me, we tried 3 kinds). Don't throw your money, just get the house margaritas (which we requested) and save the extra moolah for tipping extra coz the service is sweet. Folks here were friendly and super sweet.
We live in San Clemente and frequent many of the restaurants here. Del Agave has always been a place we've wanted to try out. The vibe is good, with a cool outdoor Patio. Service was good, but I had a strange feeling because it was so empty. This being Mother's Day. We sat down for a couple of Margaritas that weren't on the menu.
I guess I should of asked for a price, $13 for nothing special. I over heard three ladies unhappy with their meals, so we decided to try the Fresh Guacamole on the menu. Looked good, but tasted strange. I'm not sure if it was packaged with something added to hide the taste. We decided not to order any entree's, because of this.
I always say trust your instincts, so we asked the for the Check, which was $37 for two drinks and guacamole.
We won't be back until I here of some positive changes.
Chose this spot on a whim for our Mother's day lunch. Â I hadn't seen any pictures of the place, so I wasn't sure if we were headed for dive or swanky dining. But decided to roll the dice.
Atmosphere:
Upon arrival I was very pleasantly surprised. The atmosphere was clean, quant, casual, relaxed, but still nice.
Margaritas:
I chose this spot for it's rave margarita reviews. My moms LOVE margaritas. They were NOT disappointed & had several amongst them. I was a little disappointed as they didn't really offer any type of marg other than the classic lime style. I am allergic to citrus, so I was unable to partake. I only saw margs & beer as far as cocktails go.
Food:
The food was very good. Everyone was happy with their meal choices. There was 8 of us, but we all got our food hot & timely & with no mistakes.
Service:
Other than having made a reservation for inside seating & ending up outside, the service was fine. Our waitress was attentive & the staff was prompt about making our seating more to our liking by turning on the heaters & bringing another umbrella when the sun came out.
Overall:
I would definitely return & recommend it to friends.
Note - I didn't see any obvious signage, so you have to look for the address to know you've found it.
Why not five stars?!? Â Good food, great service, good prices, nice atmosphere... DONE!
We were actually looking for Del Agave in San Clemente, but it appears that it changed it's name, was reopened as Tequila's, or closed and another Mexican restaurant went into the same spot. Â Whatever the story, I'm glad Tequila's is open for business!
Started off with chips and salsa. Â Nice, warm chips with a delicious and slightly spicy salsa.
Next up, a Kick Ass margarita for me and a house margarita for the ol' ball and chain. Â Hers was very sweet from the mix, but still had a good kick... and it was a good size drink. Â Mine was, well, a hoot! Â An actual mini 50ml liter bottle of Hornitos tequila was "inverted" and placed into the margarita glass! Â That was in addition to the shot of tequila that had already been added. Â The drink was just fun. Â I chose to slowly lift the bottle to release the tequila as I drank, rather than taking it out all at once.
Food!! Â Carnitas Michoacan, with rice, beans, corn tortillas and guac. Â All terrific, with the exception of the corn tortillas... they were maybe a little under done. Â Who cares? Â They're tortillas. Â And, seriously, everything else was delicious.
The wife had some kind of massive burrito with a verde sauce. Â I didn't try it, but she said it was good. Â We both agreed that we preferred Tequila's to say, La Siesta or even South of Nick's. Â
We love Mexican food and will definitely be back to Tequila's.
This is a decent Mexican restaurant. Â The margaritas are excellent, as is the queso, and chicken nachos. Â I had the enchiladas, which were bland to me. Â The owner and bus staff were more attentive than our server. Â
My friends love this place, so perhaps I'm being too tough, but I don't find the menu exciting enough to keep me from looking at alternatives.
Not super-outstanding but the vibe, location & margaritas made up for it...
I guess.
Here's what I don't understand-
Mexican food is not hard.
It's probably some of the easiest food to make, maybe it's because I'm Spanish, but no, screw that, it's not.
And nothing against THIS place, it's pretty much ALL mexican food that bores me. The food is ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS just whatevs.
I have never once left a mexican restaurant saying, "holy shit that was the best (blank) I ever had."
Which is why I always order the same thing if I happen to wind up at a mexican restaurant = a chicken quesadilla. Why you say? Because you can't really fuck that up. It's like getting a hot dog wrong. Pretty impossible.
So...yeah-that's my rant on mexican restaurants. Nothing against Del Agave or Chato's or Cheetah's or whatever it's called now, for all I know their food is awesome-which... I'm almost positive it's not but hey.
Bottom line-margaritas=decent. Service=good. Chips/Salsy=fine. Chicken Quesadilla=standard. Just chicken & cheese. Yawn. Fish Tacos my boyfriend ordered="too fishy" so that's a negative.
IWe must have hit it on one of those "off" evenings ...
Have eaten here many times over the years but tonight the food was just barely average and to say the service was inept is being generous. Â
Food quality and taste were not up to par with past visits ... verde sauce on my date's enchilada was very weak and my carnitas were absolutely nothing special. Â I could go on ...
At least the waiter was friendly, but he was lost in space as my requests were repeatedly messed up.
I'll wait until summer to try again.
This was my second time at Del Agave and it was really good. I went here with my parents on a Sunday evening and it was pretty dead, we were the only other group in the restaurant. The service was really good and quick.I love hot and spicy foods and salsas and they have a really good hot salsa. We had to ask for it and they were hesitant to give it to us, probably because we looked like a bunch of gringos that couldn't handle spicy stuff. It was a spicy green salsa, and it made the meal. I ordered the Enchiladas de Mariscos, which were stuffed with shrimp, crab, and mushrooms, and topped with a creamy red sauce. The meal came with rice and I ordered whole pinto beans instead of refried beans. Everything tasted fresh and flavorful. It is more of an upscale restaurant, with most menu items between $12-$18, but it's worth the price. And they also have the best margaritas in town. They are worth the $10 price tag!
Review Source:I preferred the name Chato's. Â I don't know what happened. Â Every time I come here I get great Mexican food. Â I think its the fajitas and the giant sangria in the giant wine glass. Â I've always been pleased with my meals at this establishment. Â It was closed for a while and I have no idea why. Â It's always lacking customers. Â Something is weird about this place. Â It feels authentic and is a lot classier than most of San Clemente. Â Check it out out while it's still in business.
Review Source:The first time that we ate at Del Agave's, I was over the moon. Â The service was awesome. Â The food was great. Â And...the owner was there. Â That's important.
We visited Del Agave's a few weeks later only to be disappointed. Â The caucasian waitress asked us to seat ourselves. Â When we did, she came back to us and told us to find another table. Â There were 2 other available tables. Â So I asked her which table she would prefer us to choose. Â The waitress told us that none of the tables were opened. Â I laughed. Â "Then why did you ask us to seat ourselves if there are no available tables," I asked. Â She stared at me and walked off. Â
We waited 5 more minutes for a table. Â Once seated, we waited for 15 minutes for a menu, chips and our drink order to be taken. Â Eventually (we're now 25 minutes into our wait), our drinks/chips arrived. Â The waitress again disappeared. Â About 40 minutes into our visit, she reappeared to take our order. Â At this point, our glasses were empty as was the chip bowl. Â She did not offer us refills. Â
Our dinner arrived. Â We're still thristy and don't have drinks. Â And then we went to eat our steak tacos. Â The steak was raw. Â I mean, red raw. Â It had not been cooked. Â There was blood on the plate. Â Since we had now been sitting for an hour and just now got our food, it wasn't worth asking for another taco. Â
Two hours later, we got the bill and left. Â And, never got a refill. Â
The food was only average (for the price...$38 for 2 tacos & 2 enchiladas + 1 coke and 1 water). Â Skip this place and go somewhere else.
Del Agave is a fave for Boyfriend and me. The owner comes out every time and tells us about how she remembers when he was "this tall!"
The food is really great, the salsa is always perfect and I love the tamale. The molcajete is Boyfriend's favorite. It comes sizzling hot in a big lava bowl thingy and you scoop it into a tortilla with veggies like fajitas. Oh, and their soup is so so so good! I crave it when I'm sick. Oh! And the nachos are really good too.
The margaritas are good, and super-huge, one even comes with a little bottle of tequila inverted in it!
The only negative is the small portion you get for the $8 guacamole. and DON'T let the owner see you touch her koi fish, you'll be in trouble!
Where are all the patrons?? We were here from 4:45 - 5:30pm tonight (Friday!) and we were literally the ONLY people in there. We thought it was a little creepy, but the server was really sweet, and I read some pretty rave reviews here on Yelp, so we went with it.
The food was OK but extremely heavy and we both felt a little ill after. Â Hubby had the carnitas and they were kind of dry but better than my enchiladas which I thought were chicken but seemed oddly pink so that I didn't want to eat them. Â I would guess the food was from yesterday or the day before - yikes. Â The margaritas were way too sweet - ick!
This is really disappointing because this place has a LOT of potential. Â Great decor, fun atmosphere and killer location. Â Come on Del Agave - what's going on??
Del Agave is a unique and atmospheric Mexican restaurant in a quaint, old building in San Clemente. There are several good reasons to go there, like the piping hot soup and the tray of hot sauces that they bring to your table (including habanera sauces!). Â However, I always judge restaurants by how they address the basics.
The tortilla chips are just store bought. Interesting because they include red and green chips in the mix, but just store bought and average quality. The salsa that accompanies the chips is OK but just average and doesn't stand out.
The piping hot "volcano" soup is excellent and is a recommended dish. The basket of corn tortillas that is served with it is another matter. These are perfectly round, machine made, store bought tortillas that were moist, rubbery, and almost flavorless. Â There are far better store bought varieties if you must go this route. Hand made would of course be better and would be the true sign of a quality restaurant.
Del Agave, you will need to go beyond store quality basics if you hope to ascend to the level of a top quality Mexican restaurant. If you want people to start talking about you, do away with the cheap, store bought basics and learn to craft excellent sides by hand in your cocina!
Had drinks here. The margaritas were quite delicious and large! I asked for more limes as I like 'em on the tart side.
Tortilla chips are given with salsa even if you don't order food, but we ended up getting the carnitas plate which incidentally was HUGE. A plate of carnitas plus a plate of sides -- your choice of whole or refried beans, with rice.
I thought the food was okay, it wasn't the best I've ever had, but it wasn't bad for San Clemente. Plus, the atmosphere was very pleasant, we sat outside on the patio area. The carnitas was better than most places I've tried so that's a plus. However, I still feel that they're cooking for the locals -- ya know?
I would totally come here for drinks again and maybe appetizers to go along with it. I wouldn't come here specifically for the food though.
Another perennial fave for the wife and me, and I don't really care for Mexican food that much. Carnitas Michoacan for me - very tasty. Great margaritas and very efficient service.
We met the owner, Yolanda, years ago and, as noted, she is very friendly. Not just to patrons she knows but to all her guests. She's also extremely family-oriented and supports her staff as if *they* were family.
Nothing gets my goat or my goat's goat (my goat & I are very psychologically in-tune with each other) like critical self-appointed culinary experts who know nada about the regional or national characteristics of the foreign food they review.
Anyone who calls Chato's (I mean Del Agave's) food Americanized or anything less than spectacular is, frankly, a tard. No, make that a Tard with a capital "T".
Uhh, their chef is from Ciudad de Mexico, hombre. Â I think he knows a bit more about cooking phenomenal Mexican food than 99.9% of California. Â
And it shows. From their tortilla soup (which is the best soup of any kind I've ever had. In my life.) to their carne asada, Del Agave is the best Mexican restaurant I've ever been to outside of 14 cities in nearly half the states in Mexico.
The awesome patio with lush greenery and fountain and small, warm, intimate interior compliment the perfect food. Perfectly.
P.S. The easiest parking is behind the restaurant on Estrella. Enter through the roof-top patio and down the stairs . . .
Chose this place after searching on Yelp for Mexican restaurants in San Clemente as a halfway point for friends driving down from LA. Â
The location is very cute, with 2 nice outdoor patios, Â and a smallish inside dining room. Â My friends and I commented that this would be a great place to come in the summertime. Â
The service was good and the food was pretty yummy, standard Mexican fare. Â I would come here again.
Went here on a Saturday night and it was surprisingly quiet. Â That should have tipped me off that we were not going to be happy. Â We ordered the sopes, chalupas, fajitas, and guacamole.
Another commenter said they liked the non-greasy premeal chips. Â I'm gonna have to disagree. Â The lack of any grease made me think they came from a bag. Â And they were so light and tasteless, they had no character but for the neon colors.
the guacaomole (8$ for 4 itty bitty ice cream scooped portions) was also characterless and covered in queso fresca (a very pungent variety). Â we weren't impressed. Â Â The pungent queso fresca was on everything so everything kinda tasted the same. Â The sopes were lacking in texture and cruch (kinda soggy on the corn cup) and the meats tasted overly stewed. The chalupas was a little better, but not by much. Â and the fajitas at least came out sizzling hot and smelling good.
The salsa was also very bland.
When I think Mexican food, I think bold flavors. Â The stuff here tasted Americanized to me. Â Should have known that was the case for a restaurant in South OC on a yuppie street. Â The fact we didn't like the food was more surprising given that we were starving going into the restaurant.
Also, the menu is kinda limited here. Â I think their focus is on alcohol. Â We didn't have any of that so we can't comment on the booze quality.
I would have given one star, but the place was clean and nice and the service was attentive.
Del Agave is a nice place. Â Quiet, charming atmosphere, the two times I have been there were were almost the only people there. Â Margaritas are just ok, the food was good. Â Service was slow even though we were nearly the only people there. Â Yet, it was a good meal. Â I would recommend Del Agave to anyone.
Review Source:How is it that Del Agave, formerly known as Chato's, has not yet been yelped?!? I am shocked!
Anywho, my theory is that the further south you go in OC, the better the Mexican food. Â And Del Agave proves my theory. Â I'll break it down for you:
- The Mexican food here is truly authentic, fresh, and absolutely delicious.
- The restaurant is very charming.
- The service is great.
- The guacamole is perfect. Â
- The homemade tortillas alone are worth a trip to this place. Â
- The chicken and shrimp fajitas and carnitas will bring us back again and again.
* Edited to change the name from Chato's to Del Agave. I guess they recently changed the name.
This place was incredible! Scenic outdoor seating within an enclosed patio, and 3 different sitting areas inside the restaurant. The menu is only a 2-pager, but it has some great dishes. I had one called the Molcajete that kicks it up another notch over fajitas -- nicely stewed in a whole bunch of spices and stayed hot throughout the eating, real tasty refried beans, delectable guacamole, and (what seemed to be) handmade flour tortillas. Pre-meal chips were crispy and fresh, not greasy. You can even get an occasional red chip or even a bright green chip. The homemade salsa had quite a kick too. Yummy for my tummy!
Review Source:
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