Santana’s

5-​26-​2016 Update: The food at this place is so inconsistent. Sometimes it’s top notch and others just mediocre.
We went there for Thanksgiving dinner (long story), Open 24 hours, I thought I didn’t like Mexican food so i didn’t expect much. I was blown away. The two cook guys working that night were not only extremely friendly. They made dinner simply amazing. Based on that, we went back after several nights later and my Carne Asada fries were saggy and not fresh like the first time. There was a different cook and he seem really fast, so I don’t think he waited for my fries to be crispy enough.
I will try to go back when those guys are cooking again, but this time I’ll get their names so I can find out when they are in.

What happened to this place? It used to be the «best» Santana’s and now it’s awful. The food was cold, the staff was rude, and the small male Hispanic cook was talking about us in a very derogatory manner in Spanish. I write this hoping someone in management reads it because it was awful in all aspects.

I usually try most Mexican restaurants wherever i go, this place was clean, nice friendly staff, what killed it for me was the enchiladas sauce was bland, had orange cheese not even melted you could still see how it was shredded. Fair price, just my first experience here was bad food. Two stars because it was clean looking and good staff.

The food is always on point here! Always warm and so fresh. It’s the best Santana’s in the valley! I make sure to stop by every time I go to Bart Lounge (a bar right across Santana’s) :-) The potato tacos w/​sour cream and avocado and their fried shrimp w/​tartar sauce are my favorite!

After a few drinks at a nearby bar I got some munchies. Got the carne asada plate and it was great! Chips and salsa bar were also very good. I need to stop by here more often, a better mexican food chain than the others close by. Hopefully more good experiences to follow.

c a l i f o r n i a b u r r i t o w i t h s o u r c r e a m !
must try.

We love this location. good food and friendly staff.
!!Do not eat at the palm springs location by the airport if you expect the same quality!
This location is delicious each and every time.

I was hoping to find good Mexican fast food. But it was just disappointing. I got a chile verde burrito. The chunks of pork in it were good. The sauce was good. But the burrito was dominated by beans, they lacked flavor and were extremely hot which normally I appreciate but it made it difficult to eat the burrito which quickly turned into a sloppy mess. The tortilla was also kind of greasy which didn’t help. David got the California burrito which said it included potato but he wasn’t expecting a scoop of french fries inside his burrito. It just wasn’t very good. Very nice salsa bar. But minus points to the two patrons who set up shop at the salsa bar, filling container after container, piling all their stuff there so you couldn’t even get access. It was about ten minutes after getting food that we were able to get salsa.

I just ate lunch here because I’ve driven by this place and have never gone inside. Being lunch hour, I expected it somewhat busy, but found the place nearly empty — not a good sign. Their «combo» is rice, beans and a main for $ 8.50! That seems high for fast food quality and fast food experience. The food arrived so hot, like crazy hot that I could not eat it until it cooled down. The serving of the main was small, but lots of over-​hot rice and beans (no chips, but lots of salsa at the salsa bar), so I had a small main that had virtually no flavor and a bite or two of plain, everyday rice and beans for $ 8.50! It’s a rip-​off — I should have gone to Taco Bell.

I have given up on SANTANA’S, your food is average at best, I wanted to like SANTANA’S, the business layout is good, but the quality of food, poor, the prices continues to climb, I leaving for THE REVELUTIONARIO, there food is BOMB, good priced!!! Or VILLA on crosley and Ramon, there food is BOMB and priced very well, goodbye SANTANA’S!!!

This is by far the SLOWEST Santana’s in the Valley. Came here twice at 9 am, ordered California Breakfast burrito (my fave) and had to wait 10 minutes each time. Don’t know what gives, maybe it’s the complete lack of business, but I’ll not be returning to this location.

While traveling through Palm Springs today, my friend was stuck at work– and I had a lot of work to do myself so I looked up «Restaurants with WIFI» here on Unilocal and this place came up. I’m sure glad it did! The food was great– and even better was the staff who made some accommodations to my order, and made me feel totally welcome! They set me up with WIFI and let me «camp out» and work for a few hours. Such hardworking and friendly folk! I really hope their boss sees this and recognizes them! Support this small, local chain!

Fast, reasonable & tasty! 24 hour fast food, what more could you ask for? Great salsa bar!

Pretty good Mexican food and open 24 hours. It’s difficult to find decent fast food when you don’t eat meat. Santana’s has plenty on the menu in the way of meatless choices.
I loooove the chile relleno burrito. The potato tacos are yummy but quite greasy. The salsa bar has tons of variety and each one is more delicious than the next. The beans and rice are tasty, too. My husband digs the carnitas burrito.
Service is a bit slow, especially in the drive thru, but I find the employees to be quite friendly which makes up for the speed of service.

I think we ate here 3 times the last time we were in Palm Springs. The carne asada fries are the best thing ever invented and their taquitos are also good! The only thing that would make it better would be if they served beer and margaritas, but I digress.

Solid Mexican take-​out. We would eat in if they had beer.
The portions are big and the price is right. My teenage daughter will eat their chile rellenos everyday if she could. The salsa bar is excellent and fun with 6 or 8 homemade choices every day. Nice horchata and jamaica too; sweet for my taste but totally fine.
It might be typical Mexican food but, when it is fresh, nicely seasoned, fast, convenient, tasty, inexpensive and served in huge portions why keep shopping around? It satisfies our cravings.

We spent a couple days in the Palm Springs area and we were craving Mexican food. Saw this place off the 111 and decided to try it. As I waited in the drive-​thru, my wifey and I litterally watched these guys heating up orders in the microwave.
I tried the Chile Relleno and it was good until I noticed that none of the seeds were not removed from the chile pepper. I’m pretty sure those are removed when being prepared. The rest of the food was just okay but I’m pretty sure there are better places out there.

Nobody’s ever going to see me sitting at a table in a Mexican restaurant that doesn’t serve Margaritas, or beer and wine at the very least. However, with a bug in my ear to try Santana’s for carry-​out, I moseyed into this 24-​hour lifeline for comida con piernas (translation of «food with legs» courtesy of
for us unilinguals).
Burritos beckoned here and, interestingly, most of them run $ 6.85 for the house specialty, «conga style,» that includes rice and beans. To repeat, a carnitas burrito costs the same as one with a chili relleno inside.
A visit to the salsa bar occupied me until the order was ready, and to the bag of burritos I added sliced carrots, radishes and lime wedges packed into sandwich bags, and eight plastic cups/​lids of stewed chilies; mild, hot and chipotle red salsa; spicy salsa verde, and guacamole sauce that had two avocado seeds, presumably as a preservative, in the chilled tray. Lucky for Santana’s, I chose to leave the seeds behind.
Got home and opened the goods to reveal two torpedo-​like burritos, rolled longish and tight, not puffy and squat. Those are probably the only options in burrito folding, but I expect someday a culinary trailblazer will invent a twisted-​pretzel burrito (you’re welcome, Wolfgang).
Now, about the two burritos: The carnets (that’s «carnitas» in Autocorrect) was fantastic: shredded, lean and nicely fried, debuting on the first bite, not hidden behind an end-​wad of tucked-​in flour tortilla. The chile relleno burrito was what it was. We’d get it again, but at the same price I’d suggest stocking up on the meaty ones (carne asada will be ordered next time).
Whatever you do, don’t overlook the salsa bar. While eight was enough cups for our burrito duo, more would’ve been merrier. The green ones are especially tasty, and hoarding the avocado sauce is a no-​brainer. For all you night fliers, Santana’s is a Cathedral City godsend.

Solid Tacos al Pastor carved from a vertical stake spit. Beef rolled tacos were «just okay». Lots of crunch on the rolled tacos, but they could’ve used more beef and was almost indiscernible in it’s presence.
Employee (cashier) was nice, dining room was a little bit unkempt but I can overlook that since the tacos al pastor was very very good. I’d come back for that alone.

One of the things I miss about living in California is good Mexican food. We just don’t have it in NYC. No. We don’t.
So one late night (midnight isn’t all that late, really, I guess), I happened upon Santana’s, in search of a delicious burrito. And not only did I find that, the fresh salsa bar was really good, and the people were SO NICE. Like, ridiculously nice. So much so that I’m totally willing to go back.
I highly recommend the grilled chicken burrito. Yum. It’s about 2 inches too long (or maybe I wasn’t hungry enough), but I ate the whole damn thing anyway. And didn’t get sick.