Caliente Mexican Restaurant

Very nice restaurant. Loved the food and ambience. Service was good as well.
Will definitely come back again.

i WANT to rate this higher, i really do. after all, their food is fantastic (best guacamole salad i’ve ever had), but their service makes it hard to rate higher than two stars. i’ve now been to caliente three times & i can officially say there won’t be a fourth.
the first time i went was with my coworkers at lunch. with 7 of us, they had to seat us separately, which was fine. they were reasonably busy, but not packed whatsoever. by the time we had left, it had taken over 2 hours. so we clearly learned this wasn’t a reasonable weekday lunch spot. it’s also notable that our waitress wasn’t capable of passing out our drinks/​chips & salsa/​apps, & literally held the tray out over our table (without a word) while we had to grab our own stuff. weird, but we chalked it up to the place being new.
the next time i went was on a saturday at lunch with my fiancé. the place was dead. the girl who gave us our chips & salsa couldn’t even be bothered to remove her headphones. yes, you read that right. she was listening to music on her phone while
she served paying customers. i watched her prance around the place, seating groups, with phone in hand at all times, making sure to sing & dance when she had the chance. my favorite was when anyone asked her a question, she simply removed one ear bud & asked them to repeat. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! the cherry on top was the fact that what i assume is one of the owners, was out on the floor & had no problem with this. even joked with the girl a few times. what a joke.
the last time we went was on a weekday evening. this time it was pretty busy & it appeared there were only two waitresses. 15 minutes after being seated & still
not having our drink order taken, i start watching the staff. of the two waitresses, it seemed that one had the majority of the tables, as she was moving all over the place while the other one leisurely dealt with two tables. the woman (who again i’m assuming is one of the owners) offered no help to her staff, & just stood around. classic sign of poor management is when the head feels like they’re above their workers & don’t need to «stoop» down to
their level. it’s not like she was busy doing anything either… she clearly was capable of helping. instead i just watched her finally tell our waitress (20 MINUTES AFTER WE WERE SEATED) that we were her table. our poor waitress looked overworked & exhausted, but was extremely apologetic for the wait. let me be clear though: our waitress did nothing wrong & had no reason to apologize. the fact that there is no sense of communication in this establishment speaks of the higher-​ups.
let me know when new management takes over. maybe then i’ll give it another go.

The décor of this establishment was very neat & authentic looking. However, the quality of the food left much to be desired.
When the entrée was brought to the table, it was too spicy to eat… a replacement was brought out only to find it lukewarm at best. The service itself was poor, as well as the cashier made us wait several moments before even acknowledging my presence. We will not be back to El Caliente and do not recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Flavorful food but not spectacular or with wow factor. Most dishes are topped with a white nacho cheese. Husband had nachos which were overall good. I had a vegetarian combo that was disappointing — bean burrito was literally just refried beans wrapped in a tortilla and smothered in white nacho cheese. Basically fine food but nothing to write home about.

We were there for lunch as a group. Part of the group was refreshed with chips and salsa while the other part was not. It was as if they only saw part of the group. Our food arrived, and at least one of the orders came out wrong (one taco instead of two). I had the shrimp enchiladas, which were good. The place has tons of character, inside, with all of the walls decorated. I would go back, again, and just alter my expectations, a bit.

This place is amazinggggg. It’s your «standard» Mexican place if your standard is amazing guac, queso, salsa, and entrees + phenomenal service + lightning fast take out. I eat here more often than I should but apologize for NOTHING! :) Highly recommend the chicken chimichangas and margaritas!

Excellent Mexican food! Great atmosphere with friendly service. Margaritas are very good but the «table side» guacamole is awesome. Not actually done table side but request it that way. Their «standard» guacamole is just ok. I have been now 3 times and none has disappointed.

We went out on a limb and tried a new to us lunch place. Lunch! There was two tables in the place with customers, and we still waited for 5 min before anyone even came to seat us. As quite as it was the service was so slow! Once we got our food, it looked good, and it tasted good, but nothing out of the ordinary Mexican American fare. The décor is lovely and their tomatillo sauce was great. Not sure we would come back, with so many places around there, with better service.

Maybe it was an off day, but we went here based on the good reviews, so I want to share our experience. Chips and salsa were average and kid’s quesadilla meal was pretty good. So 2 stars for that.
The steak in my fajita dinner was completely inedible. It was cooked to death owns then cooked even more on the sizzling skillet. The corn tortillas were old and funky smelling. I didn’t bother sending back because we had a cranky toddler and just wanted to get home. My husband said his enchiladas were ok but a little below average.
Wanted to like it, but doubtful we’ll be back.

This is your typical Mexican restaurant. Large menu selection pretty basic food. Drink menus were a little vague but still good. Chips n salsa tasty, salsa in the spicier side. Taco salad was good but was heavy with the sauce. Burritos were tasty and filling. I’d go back.

Food and service was amazing. It’s a drive for me coming from Fishers, but this will be our number one Mexican food place to come to from now on!

This restaurant is beautiful and customer service was fantastic. Their Texas Margarita is my favorite! The medium was plenty big for me!
The is that classic «sloppy» Mexican food – beans and cheese and melty goodness. I loved their chips and my kids were huge fans of it all.
**Parking is in the back and they have lots of room for big groups.
We’ll definitely be back!

Great food and wonderful service. I had the chicken and vegetable soup which was much more interesting than the name. It was a meal sized soup with lots of rice, chicken, and avocado in it. Wonderfully spiced.

Table side guac, excellent lunch specials, and even a Colts mural… What could be better?!
I order something con pollo, it was chicken, rice, and melted queso. Unbelievably delicious and generous portion sizes for the price!
It’s nice to have another authentic Mexican place nearby. I just need to get a margarita there soon!

Caliente serves up some pretty good Mexican-​American standards in one of the most unique restaurant interiors that I’ve seen. The décor is vivid and bright everywhere, and their wait staff seemed to have sunny dispositions to match.
We sat in the small bar area which has a huge flatscreen tv. Standard salsa and chips were decent, entrees were very fresh tasting and delivered piping hot! They have both Dos Equis Amber and Negro Modelo on draft, served in frosty mugs.
Good first experience, would return. Love the stained glass Pizza King-​esque lamps and the Homer Simpson barstool!

The service was good. The food was tasty. As authentic as you can get for Indiana :-)
The ladies’ restroom was apparently sub-​par.

I love Mexican food and was super excited that Caliente opened right across the street. This location is huge inside. This surprised me since it seemed so small. from the outside. The chips and salsa were good and the margarita were great. I thought they were a little pricey, but my jumbo frozen raspberry was flavorful and you could tell there was alcohol. Again it’s great this place is across the street.
We got there late and were sat quickly. There is a small bar area and a lot of seating. Our food came quickly. I got the Pollo Favorito, the chicken was flavorful and was topped with peppers and onions. I also got rice and a guacamole salad.
I definitely seeing eating here often or stopping in for a drink.

I’ve been dying to have a new favorite Mexican-​American joint and I think I’ve found it! Most Mexican places I’ve been to lately have been unclean and off the same enchiladas with canned pasty beans and boxed rice. Drove by this place and had to go in. As soon as you walk in you’re hit with an eclectic design and rainbows of colors! I love how customized the décor is, taking the Mexican art theme and introducing Colts and other Indiana fame throughout the restaurant. It’s really fun to wait on your food because you can just look around! The service was outstanding! Our server kept calling us his amigos and it just made me smile. I had an enchilada and a tamale with beans and rice. And of course had to get some guac to go with it. The chips and salsa are very fresh and have great flavor. Sometimes I’m scared to order Guacamole at places because there’s nothing worse than paying $ 6 for a disappointing bowl-​o-​guac. This guac was so fresh, a little spicy and full of flavor. The enchilada and Tamale were cooked perfectly and had great flavor. The rice wasn’t that great, so that’s the only reason I gave it 4 stars. The prices were very reasonable. You have to try this place!

Good Mexican restaurant but I may not be a good one to judge how authentic it is as I am not Mexican.
The chori-​queso is different than other places I have seen. Instead of a bowl with melted cheese and chorizo in it, it comes out on a sizzling platter. Again, I have no idea which way is more authentic, but it’s a different presentation.
The other dishes we got are fairly good but mostly indistinguishable from other good Mexican restaurants. The only thing is the scallops were barely larger than a grain of rice. I had no idea they even harvested scallops that small.
One concern I have is that I didn’t see a single patron that looked remotely Mexican. How I judge the authenticity of an ethnic restaurant is how many patrons of that ethnicity are actually inside the restaurant. The answer here is «zero». Even the live music was a gringo playing gringo music. You can interpret that any way you want but El Chino gives this one four stars.

Three stars because they have some pretty good tortilla chips!
We got the Taquitos Mexicanos, which were flavorful but really salty. They came with guacamole (which was great), sour cream and pico de gallo.
We also got the Nachos Texanos, which are nachos with steak, chicken and shrimp, and those were really good. They were loaded with lots of stuff — the above mentioned meat, as well as queso, grilled peppers, onions and tomatoes. Very filling and very good.
We also ordered a burrito, but they don’t really have burritos (you know, those cylindrical things you can hold in your hand and eat). Yes, they have burritos on the menu, but their burritos are more like enchiladas: tortillas filled with meat and covered with sauce. They also have enchiladas on the menu, so I’m not sure how they differentiate from enchiladas and burritos. Anyway, we ordered a burrito, but we had to explain that we wanted all the fillings inside the tortilla and wrapped up, which they gladly accommodated, but it was weird that we had to explain how to make a burrito to people at a Mexican restaurant. Basically, if you’re looking for a handheld burrito, you won’t find one here. But if you fancy an enchilada, then they have you covered.
They also offer a full bar, but we didn’t order any alcohol because we got takeout (they don’t let you buy alcohol with to-​go orders).