Cafe Mexicali

Sweet pork quesole was great. Habanero whatever sauce was tasty. Very filling. Perfect for a post-​hike grub.

Tortillas are ok and salsa is fine but they totally screwed up my vegetarian order putting chicken bits on my cheese enchiladas.
Not very clean. Food all over the floor where the servers are.
Really a disappointment.

The only reason that they get even one star is that there is no zero.
I have to share this review.
Without exaggeration, this has to be the worst food I have EVER eaten. We both took one bite of this $#!+ and it tasted so salty and bad that I literally brought back to the counter and said this is inedible. I haver NEVER done this before.
The only good thing I can say id that the Manager gave me back our money without a hassle.
I wouldn’t eat here again if they paid me.

Picture the biggest burrito you’ve ever had. Wrapped in the most delicious, authentic tortillas in the world. Then add on the smother sauce that’ll make you cry with joy.
Café Mex is a classic for late Tuesday nights when all you want is satisfyingly cheesy and fresh Mexican food. Be warned; they don’t mess around with these burritos! They’re fully stuffed with rice, beans, AMAZINGLY FLAVORFUL MEAT, and too many salsas to choose from. You’ll be in heaven.
Highly recommend the sweet pork or the beef and the white smother sauce!
But maybe skip the breakfast burritos. Santiagos on the hill is cheaper and has better green chili

On the day that I went:
The staff who made my food seemed really miserable. I’m pretty low maintenance as far as customers go. I don’t need a bunch of small talk and fake high pitch customer service voice. But these guys just seemed like they had chains shackled to their ankles.
Staff just shoved my food along and never asked if I wanted vegetables, guac, etc. At the cashier it was plopped in front of me and I asked «Is there anything else I can get in this… vegetables, guac, etc» and the guy goes «uhhh, sure, what do you want?» «Well what do you have?!» The area where staff make your meal is not visible (unlike Illegal Petes) so you cant even tell what is an option to get on your burrito. I asked for jalapenos the guy responds «ummm… Id have to cut those up.» I say «no sour cream, please» What do they do? Slop sour cream on. WTF?! Amateur.
I find out at the end that there is no tip jar. This is possibly why the employees are miserable and disinterested in asking if you want extra ingredients on your burrito. There is no incentive. There is no tip spot on the receipt when you pay with your card so the owner must be anti-​tip. Maybe employees should be friendly without the potential of a tip. Maybe not. Maybe it really sucks to work there. I don’t know. But I wouldn’t have written this review on just the food.
The food was average grade, white lettuce, blah. Not terrible, not great. Not very fresh. Not seasoned as well as Illegal Petes.
Ill just deal with the parking at Illegals next time.
Maybe this was an Off-​Day.
Maybe my review is subjective. Doubt it, though. Everyone with me said the same thing.
To be fair, the roof looks like a nice spot for lunch on a sunny day!

Today was my first and most likely only visit to Café Mexicali. As a self proclaimed spicy food junkie, this was definitely on my list of places I wanted to try. They had only a few vegetarian options to choose from. None of which were particularly enticing. I settled on the sweet corn and onion enchiladas, which was served with rice and beans. Only the black beans are vegetarian. The red pepper sauce they topped the dish with was decent. Lovers of authentic red chili would most likely be disappointed though, so don’t expect that!
The dish is served in a metal to go container that they ran through the salamander oven twice. Unfortunately the meal was still under temperature. I would go as far as saying cold. The corn filling is probably kept cold before adding it cafeteria line style. It looked and tasted as if the cheese only barely started to melt.
The overall taste of the meal was bland. The sugary taste of the sweet corn overpowered the dish. Corn is already sweet, not sure why they added sugar. For a dish labeled «sweet corn and onion», there were so few tiny onion pieces, I almost thought there was no onion.
I was excited to see they had a hot sauce shelf, but upon further inspection there was only one brand not riddled with preservatives and red number 40. This is Boulder where a lot of people care what they eat.
The only reason I gave this restaurant 3 stars is their salsa was decent and was obviously made in house. They also offered a «Heat Wave» sauce which had a good taste and a little kick. However, it was so watery I didn’t really know how to use it for this meal. I wet my chips in it and that was ok I guess.
Overall, based on this one experience I’d say this is a two star food experience and 3 stars if you take into account, location, atmosphere and house salsa.

This place is too often compared to Chipotle. They both serve burritos, but they are serving two different palates (tastes). Chipotle is less heavy, its less greasy, and generally speaking is healthier and less caloric.
Café Mexicali is much less healthy, but it savors that unhealthy desire that we all have sometimes. In contrast to Chipotle it also has moderately more customizability for their food. There are a lot of options here and I like that. I say this is, generally, a pretty good place to eat.
This is by no means top-​notch like the burritos at the Centre, but still pretty good.

I am a fan of Mexican food and I often went to Mexican restaurants when I was in Davis. The Mexican food in Mexicali seems to be not very authentic. I have tried different burritos, but none of them is very good. I would have given three stars for the food, the extra star is for the good service and the 20% off discount for students.

Café Mexicali is a step down from Chipotle. The food is mediocre and I don’t plan to come back. I got two tacos: carne asada and chicken and both were enough to get me full, but ask me about «goodness», yea not so much. The rice is dry, the guacamole is eh, ok.

I LOVE THIS PLACE. The first time I went in the service was amazing and the student working let me sample each type of meat.
The sweet pork smothered burritos, the quesole and the creamy chicken tortilla soup! I crave it probably once a week. Especially the creamy habanero sauce on anything– I could drink it, it is so good.

I went in and had just missed breakfast so I got a green chile burrito instead stuffed with steak and rice. I wasn’t very impressed the chile didn’t have much flavor but the tortilla was hand made which was good. I have to try to go earlier for a breakfast and give them a second chance since my coworkers brag about how good their breakfast burritos are.

Would be five stars if the music wasn’t giving me such a headache. Specifically just this song «I’ll be there» TERRIBLE.
Other than that this place is great

This place serves ma-​hassive smothered burritos.
I got the beans, rice, and cheese burrito smothered with green chile, and I was only able to eat a third of it (albeit I had chips and guac as well). The tortilla was … Let’s just say the tortilla here stole a piece of my heart — it was soft and mm-​mm-​perfect.
The smothered burrito comes with a salad (lettuce and tomato) in the metal tin with some guac on the side as well. The food was generally pretty good — there was a nice balance between the three ingredients. But, I will admit, my stomach was in pain for a bit after eating the burrito. Maybe it was too salty for my sensitive stomach? In any case, the whole thang costed about $ 10 with the chips and guac and errthang, and I enjoyed it. I’m a fan.
I’ll be back to try the nachos soon!

I love this place for quick tacos. One taco plate is filling. Kids eat free on Mondays. The staff is always so friendly. I sure love the huge variety of hot sauces to choose from too. The burritos are HUGE.

Probably some of the worst food I’ve ever been served at a restaurant. I’m not super picky, and I’ll almost always eat what’s put in front of me, but both my friend and I ended up tossing our meals and leaving. The salad bowl, or whatever it was I had, was semi-​edible, with a pretty good tortilla, but I didn’t want to think too much about the meat it was topped with. My friend’s «enchiladas,» (basically two cheesy, saucy tortillas stacked on top of each other) rice, and beans were stomach-​turning. The people behind the counter seemed like they didn’t know what was going on, and our meals were just set on the counter without them calling out our names or anything. It all just seemed very disorganized. I also felt nauseated for the rest of the day. Just… don’t go.

Café Mexicali is chipotle or qdoba taken to the next level. Good tasting food with a menu with a lot of variety. You come here if you want a huge burrito and you want it smothered.
This location had a good atmosphere and I would guess that the staff is mostly college students.

At Café Mexicali, they attempt to make extremely poor quality food edible by using a large quantity of seasonings. But instead, they just end up producing a very subpar product. And though the food tastes kinda good at first, the horrible sickness that follows will surely make you never want to come back.
This restaurant cuts a lot of corners, and if the food doesn’t improve, they won’t last very long.

Pulled into this place completely by accident, and we really liked it. I got the chicken quesolle which was less cheesy than I would have liked, but with the flavor of the guacamole, chipotle sour cream, and creamy habanero sauce, it was delicious. I’ve never tasted anything like that habanero sauce, it was really interesting and good! My boyfriend got the same thing, but with the heat wave sauce. He loves spicy food and said this was some of the hottest sauce he’s had.
I’m glad we stopped here and tried it out.

An eating establishment which exudes what the world does not need more of. Marginal food, made with tasty ingredients, without much love I thinks. Not to mention the use of 100% disposable dishes and silverware — not compostable. Did I see any composting or recycling there? Not that I recall, but the ‘dishware’ in use wasn’t eligible for either anyways.
The disposable nature of this place is a number one reason not to give any of your business to this place.
Good marks given to them for a fun deck with the great view. Not a bad place to study if you are looking for somewhere different.

I did like this new place (first visit) and I will try it a few more times to see if they deserve 4 stars but for now I’m calling it 3 ½.
When I eat Americanized fast casual Mexican, I prefer «cali» over ‘tex” so this fits the bill. We got a variety of enchilada plates and everyone (4 of us) liked theirs.
I had the pork barbacoa which was less seasoned than I expected but still good quality meat. The sweet corn/​onion enchilada was well appreciated. The chicken breast had big chunks of meat. We had the chips, salsa and guac appetizer. The chips were warm and not too salty, good for me. We should have gotten an extra guac container as it was quite small (we will next time– even for 2 people it is small) for the amount of chips and # of people, but fresh and tasty. The salsa was heavy on the Mexican oregano and light on the cilantro. I would have preferred it the other way around, but the others were happier this way. The rice was good, and I prefer this prep to a tomato base. Black beans were excellent.
As for service and selection, I had no problem. When I got there, 6−7people were already in line and ordering and it moved quickly and everyone was friendly. I had never been there before so I had studied up on the sauce choices on the menu in advance of ordering and it clearly did state that the mild was tomatillo and the other strengths had different peppers. As for bean choice, I could hear the offerings for the customers ahead of me and was prepared for the black or pinto option as my order was taken.
It was fun watching them make the tortillas right in front of the customers and if I have the option, I would take kids there to see it.