Caliente Grill

Went for lunch on a Saturday. I ordered a dish a with yucca and 15 minutes later was told they were out of yucca. I was looking forward to that and just ordered a quesadilla. My husband ordered salad with steak and chicken. It took 45 minutes for our food to arrive. There was no apology for the delay. The food was fair but the meat on the salad was cold. There were clear timing issues with the food. While there were a fair number of takeout orders, we were the only table in the restaurant. We won’t be back despite the food looking great. Maybe it’s a better dinner spot…

Perhaps we hit Caliente on a bad night, but it couldn’t have been much worse! The service was totally incompetent and the food barely edible. When I ordered a beer in a cold glass it came with ice in it. Ok, not terrible but it went way downhill from there. Of the six of us, five ordered virtually the same thing — fajitas — three with steak and two with steak and shrimp — with the sixth person ordering beef enchiladas. The dishes of accompaniments came quite a bit before the main dishes — OK you say, not so bad. Two of the steak fajitas were served, followed several minutes later with the third. Eventually the two other fajita orders arrived — all shrimp though the waitress insisted they were steak and shrimp (no steak to be found on the platter). At that point, an unknown dish was placed in front of the person who had ordered enchiladas, and when he told the waitress that he had ordered enchiladas, she returned several minutes later to say that they didn’t have enchiladas. Meanwhile we’re all still waiting for tortillas to go with the fajitas, some of which did come out on sizzling platters while most did not. Some of the fajita steak was over-​salted and so overdone that it stuck to the platter. On the one other occasion we tried Caliente, shortly after it had opened, the food was OK and any complaints were smoothed over by the owner coming to the table and indicating that she wanted everyone to be happy and assuring us that they would continue to improve. That did not occur last night and we will not return to Caliente!

Delicious food and the prices are amazing.
My favorite new place! My family and I have literally eaten here like 4 times in the past 2 weeks. Their guacamole is my favorite in Annapolis, and the pupusas make it to our table every time. Always a great experience.

Been twice in past few months. First time was impressive when we had the pupusas and various tacos, which I highly recommend. the second time we tried some of the more exotic menu items including Costillas de Cerdo. this was disappointing but not all that bad.
Margaritas are excellent but way too small and one or even two doesn’t quite do it. They should learn from the Mexican Café which used to be down the street until they moved because their trade was solely on the large margharitas with ample tequila and i’m sure there would be still a huge following of folks in Eastport/​Bay Ridge/​Hilltop who would flock to this place if only for that reason.
We will return for the tacos and pupusas

The real deal; and 5* is rare for me. For a while there was only one place to go for authentic Latin food – Sin Fronteras. And now there are two!
Fresh ingredients, special orders are ok, great staff, convenient location, full bar, fair pricing… not sure you can ask for too much more. Their chips and salsa are great. You can tell the salsa is home made daily as it always has a slightly different flavor – it is a smoky salsa. not overly tomatoey or spicy.
I am a creature of habit and have a penchant for spice. I get the bistec encebollado, but I ask for them to prepare it with the habanero sauce used on another dish. This is a decent portion of flank steak, smothered in green and red peppers, onions and the habanero sauce/​gravy and WOW. It is accompanied by a small basic salad and some rice. I will get a picture next time ’round…but don;t wait for that. Go now!

Favorite Mexican spot in Annapolis! Love this place. Food and service are AMAZING! They make home made tortillas that are delicious. Of so many places to choose from in Annapolis and surrounding area… I always pick Caliente Grill

Food is amazing… me and my bf are from Baltimore and came here because of the ratings on here and there wasn’t a single disappointment. I got the fajitas and my bf got the bistec encebollado. They both were awesomely delicious. They have happy hour specials for anyone coming around those times.

Came to try the pupusas and left loving them and the entrees. We tried the Pollo Guisado and Pechuga a La Parilla, both excellent. Left happy knowing that we won’t have to wait for the next trip to Latin American for authentic Salvadorian food. The staff was friendly and attentive.

This review is purely for service.
Today, I have to give this place a 2 star. My co-​worker and I arrived around 1145am for a quick lunch as we have one other time in the past. Not sure what is going on with this place but with both experiences they are slow to get the food out of the kitchen. Today we were the 2^nd table to be sat. It took an hour to get both tables the lunch food. No explanation given. Not sure I’ll come back for lunch. Their food is excellent, so it may be a favorite dinner spot.

OMG! This is a total gem! DELICIOUS food — fresh, tasty, well-​made, and authentic (I felt that I was back in Latin America) I swear it was like I was eating the tacos and pupusas my friends’ mom made!
The service is TOP NOTCH! They are so friendly and attentive without being in your space. They genuinely want you to enjoy your food and your experience at their restaurant. And the prices are cheap.
A TOTAL GEM. COME HERE IF YOU’RE IN THE AREA!!! DELiCIOUS, EXCELLENT & FRIENDLY SERVICE.
It was late afternoon and the place was quite full, for very good reason!!!

We really enjoyed lunch here and definitely plan to have dinner in the future. Puposas were superb. Yucca con Chicharrones and Pan Salvadoreno were excellent.
The Canoa dessert was exceptionally good. The waitress and owner were very friendly and helpful.
Excellent food!

I drive by this restaurant at least twice a day, always wondered if it was any good. Finally stopped in yesterday to order carryout. The food was really good (tacos: A+, pupusa: A+, cheese dip B,) I regret not trying this restaurant sooner. I couldn’t stop thinking about their food and came back the very next day for more. I can’t wait to try more of the menu.

Everything was great. Not a standard run of the mill Mexican place. I had the tacos which were great. The tortillas were thick and I’m not used to that. It didn’t stop them from being great. The salsa was really good too. My son had the cheese dip and that too wasn’t standard stuff. Everything was well thought out and executed well. Service wasn’t the fastest but then again this isn’t fast food. I’ll be back.

Excellent food. Friendly and helpful staff. Authentic and simplistic food that fills you up with out being too heavy and over done. Their staff was attentive yet gave us plenty of time to order without feeling rushed. I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone seeking authentic food, at a reasonable price. We worth a drive if you’re not local or visiting from out of town. You won’t be disappointed.
Also very bright clean and open setting. Don’t let the attached building distract from how good the food, staff and prices.

Excellent service by a very friendly staff. Delicious guacamole with chunks of fresh avocado. Yummy Papusas that were not greasy. Had the ayote, bean and cheese and flower and cheese. Good frozen mango margarita too. Will be back for more food.

We ordered takeout from there so I don’t know what the restaurant is like inside, but the food was delicious. They deliver for a small fee, and it was worth it. My son loved his quesadilla, my Texas-​born husband was really impressed by the tacos, and my veggie quesadilla was really yummy. It didn’t taste like your standard quesadilla. We also ordered pupusas, which I don’t think I had tasted before, and they were delicious. We will order from there again.

Fantastic food — Salvadoran flair, margaritas are excellent, carne asada delicious, guacamole was very nice, and ample Supremas for all. Super awesome.

Ordered a chicken quesadilla for lunch w/​rice & beans. Overall, the quesadilla was delicious and big enough for me to share. The rice and beans were homemade, which made the dish even better.
I ordered to go, so I’m not sure how the restaurant aspect of it is like, however I did see they have a pretty sweet happy hour deal.

Terrible! Do yourself a favor and do NOT go! At first we felt a little uncomfortable because we were the only Caucasians there but we wanted to give it a chance and the bartender was friendly. The longer we were there the more nasty things they said about my friend and I in Spanish. However looks can be deceiving… yo hablo español!!!
The women’s bathroom was closed off for unknown reasons and the men’s was available but it smelled like it hadn’t been cleaned in a very long time. I needed toilet paper and had to fish under the sink for it. Each roll was filthy. Something spilled or leaked on it and had dried again. After about 4 rolls I found an acceptable one.
Upon returning from the bathroom I saw the bartender picking a dirty ice cube out of the drink he was making and continued to serve.
After hearing what the staff said about us and seeing the dirty conditions we decided to not order food.
In total we ordered 6 vodka sodas (there were two of us) during happy hour. The bill was $ 61.77. I asked the bartender if that was correct. He told me he doesn’t normally bartend and he rung it in to the best of his ability… I wonder if he is TIPS certified because you have to be in order to bartend in the state of MD.
I told him I felt that was highway robbery for single mixed drinks especially during happy hour. I asked the total included the advertised $ 2 off mixed drinks price that on the napkin containers sitting on the bar. He picked up the container and said «oh this? This is off mixed drinks. You are drinking liquor.» Ummm???
I felt that we were taken advantage of because we’re not their regular crowd. A customer followed me out and offered me the owners phone number because apparently she is a friend of his. He also agreed that we were probably taken advantage of. I left her a voicemail and she has not called me back.

This place is VERY new and still getting it’s mojo on. I stopped in on a Tuesday for dinner at the bar. Margarita’s were good not special, but also not Chevy sweet. I had the tamale, tacos — Chicken and Tongue, Caesar salad, and pork and bean papusas. I have to say the tamale was pretty amazing, it’s not my favorite thing BUT I loved this one! I do have to add that it was not bone free, but so delicious that I would take my chances again. The masa was so light I don’t know how it stayed on the plate.
The tacos were good, chicken was better than the tongue. I hope they improve to the level of Juanita’s up the road. The Caesar was huge and at $ 6 would be an awesome lunch by itself. Everything seems homemade. The papusa was my least favorite I like the ones at Las Delicias on Bestgate better.
I saw some other dishes leave the kitchen that will have me coming back for another round. Good Luck!