La Cascada

Closed… so sad :(

So sad to learn today (8 April) that the brothers have closed the College Ave. site.
This was my go-​to Mexican food in the neighborhood, always fresh and good-​tasting, and their salsas were crisp and interesting. I’m going to miss the favorite quesadilla they made for me, with black beans on the inside.,

I have never left this place in anything but a happy mood.
I go here quite often. It makes some of the best food in the area. The burritos are all great and come in worldly flavors (they have a thai burrito for example that’s really good!) You really can’t go wrong with any burrito from this place. The ingredients are all very fresh and great!
My favorite thing off of the menu is the Nachos Grandes! A huge heap of nachos normally reserved for appetizers but I always get it as my main course. I usually ask for it with the steak and it’s really great! The salsas they out on it are fantastic and once again all of the veggies make your stomach oh so jolly!
The salsa bar is also great. They have some of the most flavorful salsas I’ve ever had (in the US). and the chips are great too.
The servers are all really nice and pretty fast. There is also plenty of room to sit. I’ve never had a problem with that. And they are great to go too! I will often call in so the food is ready when I get there.
This is a great place to head to if you’re in the mood for some great Mexican!

After yoga on Saturday afternoon I had a serious craving for some fish tacos. I found this place after strolling up and down the block on such a beautiful day.
As soon as I saw the fish taco sign from outside the door, I flew in.
YUMMY!!! They actually deep fried some salmon :) The tacos were great!!! Excellent in taste and in size. They topped it off with this great mango salsa that was to die for. YUMMY… I can still taste it.
One con about the place would be the chips. BOOO… tasted as if the chips were from Costco. I could pass on the chips and that was unfortunate because the variety of salsa’s they had was excellent!!!

The burritos here aren’t very good. I had one standard super burrito and it was ok to eat. The chicken wasn’t very flavorful, the wrap tasted bad, and the fillings wer ok. I could finish my burrito but I certainly didn’t enjoy it.

I didn’t visit this location, but instead their booth at a Farmer’s Market.
Ordered the Picante Burrito, and my dude, the Curry Vegetarian. Both burritos were about the size of my lower arm.
Did not finish it all at once, but was able to devour it slowly throughout the day. Yes, it was that good. I’m not a very big girl or anything — I’m not used to those kind of food portions. But dammit that burrito was pretty awesome.
The Curry one was okay, but I liked mine best. And he liked his best. Yeauhh.
Price was reasonable, I think like $ 6.50.

A friend of mine brought me here for an early supper, after having booked them to cater a few of her work events.
The food was nothing short of spectacular. I wasn’t expecting to have the opportunity to be adventurous, so my initial order was a chicken burrito. All the flavors were spot-​on and more than I had anticipated. The chicken was tender and juicy and savory, the pico de gallo was fresh and added great texture to the filling.
The manager, however, managed to talk us into trying his new quinoa salad, and that was the true star of the show. Red quinoa nicely tricked out with spices, nuts, raisins, peas, carrots, caramelized onions and cooked in pomegranate and orange juices. A marvelous bouquet of tastes!
Very very impressive. I am an immediate fan.

First, let me alert you to my bias: I am born and raised Los Angeles. My primary food group is «burrito.» Visiting the bay area, all of my friends say «oh man! watch out! there’s no good mexican food up there!» I was a little worried, but not frantic.
La Cascada is good mexican food. They do have the «best burrito in Berkeley» sign up, and sure it’s from years ago, but that’s okay. My boyfriend and I were visiting friends in the area and the Cal campus– on our way out we decided to stop for some breakfast. Seeing «BREAKFAST BURRITO» on the window, we were sold.
I liked mine better than his. They had a green salsa that was… fizzy. Fizzy salsa is not something we had ever experienced before. The soyrizo my boyfriend had made him sick to his stomach about half way through the burrito, but I’m not sure I want to pin that completely on the food. (We had «road trip belly” — pretty messed up, haha.) They were both pretty bland, but not the worst thing we’ve ever eaten. We really loved their chips, too!
The employees inside were great! NICE and efficient and suuuuper fast. For that, 3 stars.
And, if I lived over there, I’d probably go in again.

My friend and I had planned to go eat «out somewhere» so we decided to go on a search for Mexican Food. She recommended that we go to this place on College called Gordo’s. However, once we got there… Gordo’s was nowhere in sight. Feeling a bit let down, we decided to get dinner at La Cascada. Good food, plenty of seats, catchy Latin music. The food was a bit pricey for my taste but the quality and quantity of the food makes it worthwhile. !!!The portions where massive!!! If you get the nachos or a torpedo its best to just split it. Trust me… there’s enough for two people.
p. s. We assumed that La Cascada had, in fact, replaced Gordo’s… However, a couple of days later as I was on my way back from Safeway I looked out the window of the 51 and saw gordo’s.

Unilocal actually led me to a mexican spot several doors down, but the line was out the door. Still feeling like mexican, I decided to give this place a shot. Upon entering I noticed a huge banner on the wall stating they had been voted best burrito in the bay for several years. I believe it was 05,06,07. Something like that, wouldn’t you rather want that hanging in the window?
Anyhow… I ordered a my burrito with carnitas and a cheese quesadilla for the little guy. Prices were a lot higher that the place down the street which makes me wonder if that’s why everyone was down there. I paid about $ 13 for the everything including a fountain soda. Wanted to try their tacos, but it was $ 3 each. WOWSERS!
If I’m in the area again, I’ll probably give the place down the street a shot. Food here was decent, but pricey!

I was pleasantly surprised at how good this place was! Had to grab a quick dinner so my friends and I stopped here.
The place was pretty empty, but I’m not sure why! It’s a really cute and very clean place. The cashier was very nice and service was quick. I ordered a Seafood Burrito with prawns and it was delicious! I was surprised at how big the prawns were inside — I was half expecting the small shrimp meat that usually comes with shrimp burritos at other Mexican places. The shrimp was really big, plump and tasty and it also came with a tasty corn/​tomatillo salsa.
Overall, great burrito! It cost about $ 8, which I think is a decent price for a good (and filling) shrimp burrito. And it came with chips and salsa too.
Would definitely come here again! :)

Eh. For a while I didn’t make the connection that the La Cascada down on Center/​Oxford/​Shattuck and this one were really the same. I actually like the one in downtown Berkeley more. They had a pretty good carnitas burrito in that location.
However, the college location isn’t as good in my opinion. Its hard to describe, but the burrito tasted «flat». It didn’t have the distinct feeling of multiple ingredients working together per bite to make a delicious combination of flavor. I can’t really narrow it down, but if I had to make a guess, I would say that the carnitas weren’t nearly as flavorful as they needed to be to bring the burrito alive.
Instead of coming to here, you would be better served visiting Gordo’s a couple of stores down. They have good prices and their carnitas burrito is consistently delicious.

Carnitas seemed to be the only good thing on the menu. It was good! But not the best. I dislike how the carnitas wasn’t shredded enough. It made it difficult to eat daintily. It served as 2 meals though so yays.
The promotion «50% off Burritos today only» totally worked on me. I wouldn’t have bothered to step in here otherwise. And I won’t return here unless prompted to by another promotion. Only had to pay $ 3.50 for a burrito… two meals for $ 3.50?! It was awesome.
Go here if you’re hungry and on your way to BART. This place is not a «destination» just a place to go to if convenient.

I used to go here a lot when I worked close by, so being I was in the neighborhood and had a craving for there Thai burrito I decided to swing by.
I’m not really big on Mexican food but this is an exception. It’s a little whole in the wall restaurant located off of College Ave, your typical Mexican authentic décor, bright colors, Terra cot ta tiles, Mexican tile work on the walls, and with a huge blackboard hanging from the sealing, over the register, with there menu chalkboard written in fun, bright colors. Though there menu is anything but typical.
They have a multitude of a selection to choose from everything from Thai Burritos with peanut sauce, Pesto burritos with pesto sauce spinage ect… Oriental burritos, curry burritos. Vegetarian burritos, fish tacos… Just to name a few. They use all fresh quality ingredients with no lard or grease.
The owners and staff have always been exceptionally friendly. One of the owner’s even used to bring out special dishes out for me to try, that they don’t serve usually, and they were unbelievably delicious.
I got my usual order of the Thai wrap in a whole wheat tortilla, black beans, no rice, salsa fresca and chicken which is served with a side of tortilla chips and salsa. My burrito was good, not as flavorful as I remember, I think it could have used a little more peanut sauce but other than that burrito texture was chewy and tasty, black beans great, salsa fresca was incredibly fresh and full of flavor.
Service is still extremely friendly. It was early and I was the only one there so they were especially attentative, took time to bring me my food with big sincere smiles and ask if I needed anything
Overall food was not phenomenal, but definitely fresh and satisfying .They are a little pricey and I do believe have raised there prices over the last year. Other than that, the service was — as always above and beyond exceptional, something rare in these little places…

So much better than Cancun. They just lowered their prices too! It’s 4.99 for most of the burritos. But it seems like they raised the prices on the wraps up to 7.99, so the lesson is get a burrito and not a wrap. I especially like the vegetarian burrito. It’s so delicious and will definitely fill you up.
The fish tacos are tasty (we had them a while back) but I really can’t justify eating salmon, even «wild salmon», or any fish, for that matter, at this point. What a convoluted sentence. I meant to say, don’t eat fish and get the veggie burrito instead. The two workers here are very coordinated and if you come on Sunday afternoons you can always see one guy making chile rellenos. I haven’t tried them yet, but I definitely want to one day, maybe after a big hike!
The décor in this place is also great and the location is nice.

Not really comparable to Gordos. Under no circumstance consider ordering a non-​buritto here. Their meets just can’t hold up without support, and their plates have some… um. bizarre flavor choices. I ordered the enchilada here and it tasted like someone dumped a tub of sweet n low into the sauce.
The fish burritos aren’t that bad, and are the sole thing keeping me from giving them the 1-​star treatment.

Right before entering Gordo for the bajillionth time to eat a greasilla, a woman stopped me and the notorious Nick H. and recommended La Cascada, saying it was much better. We’re down to listen to the homies so we decided to give it a shot.
Completely empty when we arrived, there was a speckling of other patrons by the time we left. The inside is tastefully muralized to look like a hacienda in Mexico or Argentina or something.
We ordered a chile relleno and a fish taco to share, the bill was something like $ 17. Both were pretty good, not unbelievable, but better than the Berkeley average. Well, the fish taco did feature mango salsa, so that’s a whole star right there. But I’ve had it up to here with so-​called Mexican restaurants only serving tacos and burritos. Maybe I WANT some chile rellenos or a tamale or a fish taco. In fact, these items are my favorites and if you don’t carry them I am angry with you.
There, I’ve said it. Burrito shops can kiss my wannabe Mexican culata.

La Cascada’s juicy steak burrito makes Chipotle’s taste like dried-​dog-​shit-​in-​a-​wrap. I’ll admit, the platter next to the cashier is a smart move on their part to woo customers in to make obligated purchases, but who doesn’t love free samples?!
One thing though, customers are limited to two tiny cups of salsa, which is definitely not enough for the burrito and the chips (which, btw, come with your order). Then again, the salsa’s self-​serve so…

A lot of my friends loved this place, but I really just think it is normal slightly americanized mexican food. Go here for quick food to go and their fresh salsa bar is pretty tasty, but it is just average in my book. Their burritos are the way to go in my book and there is always seating open usually. For parking, park across the street in the rockridge bart station lot. It’s free and easy ha

I’m a fan, and for my relatively small stomach, I’m a happy camper. But my (male) roommates’ gustatory experiences are usually not satisfactory, especially not for the price.
I have loved everything I’ve eaten (the bean/​rice/​cheese veggie and the salmon fish tacos), but living around the corner has not been particularly healthy for my wallet, and if I go with my roommates they have to snack beforehand.
Cascada is around the corner from my apartment and the proportions are perfect for smaller folk like myself, but it’s pretty easy to find a cheaper (saltier) burrito that’s more filling closer to campus.
The mango salsa is pretty awesome, though.