Mesa Grill & BBQ

The restaurant is officially closed.
Baja Fish is replacing it.

I have not tried this restaurant; however, yesterday while walking past the restaurant, I noticed signs posted on the windows that they had to consolidate stores and were closing the Costa Mesa location off of 17^th. The posts said, however, that they were consolidating with their South Coast Plaza location.

A hidden gem in costa mesa, behind outback and taco bell. Always empty, which makes it a cool place to go and chill. Their food is excellent for the price you pay. I LOVE their huge salads — definitely shareable. It’s one of those order/​pay-​at-​the-​counter places, so they don’t care if you split a plate. (think pat& oscars– get your own silverware) They tout their bbq but go for their mexican food — fish tacos, burritos, etc. but if you’re a salad-​lover, you must try their salads — filled with tons of stuff, super fresh, and reasonably priced. I love jicama! i love chunky slices of tomatoes! i love carrots and beans and all of that in my salad! and for the meat lovers, you can get a slab of meat on top of the lettuce too. comes with yummy flavorful (doesn’t need butter) cornbread.
i love you, mesa grill. At first i was tricked into thinking it was bobby flay — style fancy restaurant, but now i know you’re just one of the local down-​to-​earth restaurants I can recommend as one of my faves off 17^th st.

Homemade potato chips… that’s all I have to say. Oh, wait! With dipping sauce — ranch, bbq and cilantro to go with those potato chips. The wraps here are good and the salads are hearty. Would definitely come back for lunch :)

please dont go here. i have tried this place so many times because i love bbq and there are no places in the area. this place is over priced and not good. call me stubborn but i kept going back because i cant believe a bbq restaurant would open and not be able to satisfy me.

I saw these pop up and using my Entertainment book coupon (online), decided to check out this place. Food roundup:
Spicy cheese fondue w/​homemade chips: Basically spicy velveeta cheese dip with yummy thick cut potato chips.
Trip tip: It’s wierd since it’s sliced really thin, even thinner than flank steak. I was expecting more of hunks of beef instead.
Ribs: They were meaty, but suffered from being a bit tough and dry.
Side of coleslaw: It’s made of purple cabbage and not tasty at all.
Side of cornbread: Tasty, but they don’t have butter :(
Lowdown: This place reminds me of Stonefire Grill (slightly more upscale Pat and Oscar’s). A good deal (huge dinner for 2 with lots of food for $ 25), but the food is not that great. Perhaps we got the wrong items, probably wouldn’t come back here again. They do provide squeeze bottles of bbq sauces, honey, salad dressing, and thai sweet chili sauces. Sauces are a must!

It was my first time here and I had the Alta Mesa Wrap with pulled pork. This wrap is huge so I could only eat half. The quality of the pork was good and the cilantro sauce is great. My only complaint would be that there was too much vinaigrette but my coworker said hers was fine. She had the same wrap with chicken and she liked it enough to come back.
Good food, good prices, great find; we’ll be back.

I freaking love BBQ but do not eat it that often. What i liked about this place was the fresh feel to it.
I had a pulled pork wrap and a side of the red cabbage coleslaw. Both were very tasty. The coleslaw was a vinegar coleslaw… something fresh and crispy to go along with the tender meat in the wrap. They had somewhere bewteen 4 – 6 different BBQ sauces, along with a cilantro sauce… mmmmmmmmmmmm. They serve beer at this location… extra plus. Overall the meat was tender, the BBQ sauces were tasty, and the cabbage was crispy. Would definatley go back.

Great place. I think people looking for traditional barbecue might be put off because it’s something new — there’s a tiny bit of Mexican fusion. The pulled pork is delicious. The pulled pork wrap comes with a small amount of lightly dressed cabbage — a la mexicana — and there is a station with not just barbecue sauces, but grilled serrano and jalapeño peppers, marinated peppers, and delicious nopalitos — cactus slices. For me that’s perfect companion to barbecue. Not to mention the homemade potato chips.

I’ve driven by this place, and always thought to try it. I’ve checked the menu out, but decided to go else where (mostly because I did not feel like BBQ). For some reason, I’ve delayed dining here for the past year, and I’m kicking myself for doing so. Dining out as much as I do, and loving food as much as I do, I have to say that it’s places like Mesa that make my love for food grow.
Isn’t it so exciting when you’ve found a place, out of the blue, and it happens to blow you out of the water? Mesa does this. The management is hard-​working and strive to produce fresh and delicious BBQ (with a slight Mexican twist). I came in with a date and the chef approached us with a $ 5 off guest coupon because it was our first time! I tried the tri tip wrap, and my date got the pulled pork sandwich. They usually come with the house made chips, but I got to substitute the chips for roasted veggies.
My huge wrap was a whopping $ 7– the wrap included a tomato tortilla with a generous portion of tri-​tip, lettuce, jicama, corn, black beans, rice, avovado in a BBQ ranch dressing (I got the dressing on the side). The wrap was HUGE, to say the least, and the veggies were fresh off the grill. It was definitely enough to make two meal (for me). I also got to try the pull pork sandwich which was really juicy and came with crunchy red cabbage on a country bun. There was also a generous portion of pulled work, and the red cabbage gave it a great textural addition. The house potato chips were nice and crispy! YUM!
I was also delighted to see the fresh roasted chili bar. Mesa has roasted jalepenos and serranos (the real deal, not the sissy pickled stuff). Hooray!
Another plus is that they have a happy hour Monday through Friday from 3 – 6 PM i think? Beer is cheap, food is cheap, but so delicious!
The only downside is that it takes a while to get your food. My guess is that they are trying to perfect the food, but we probably waited a good 10 – 15 minutes for our food– with only three other orders to take care of. I say, it’s worth it, but if you’re in a hurry– maybe you can call in to order, and just relax and enjoy. OH– also, they have the most eclectic atmosphere ever. The background music is jamaican reggae music, the inside interior has a little but of a spanish flare, but their beer is german! weird stuff, but i guess it works!
I’m glad I found this place, and will be going more often to try out their other food items!

Average at best. I would bet the sauce is not homemade. I’m a huge fan of BBQ and I wouldn’t recommend this place. I had the baby back ribs dinner– ribs were avg.- not bad but not something I would crave. For my sides I ordered mac & cheese and the beans– both were horrible– mac & cheese was gritty and too liquidy. Beans had tri-​tip in them and the tri-​tip was tough and way over cooked. 3 stars for the ribs, 1 star for the sides. Spend the extra couple of bucks and get some better BBQ elsewhere.

I got a flier in the mail advertising this place, and figured, heck, why not? I was just waiting for an opportunity, and luckily it presented itself recently. My Mom drove out (I like to hang out with her and keep her company while my Dad’s out of town on business), and we had dinner here.
They have a pretty interesting selection, with your standard BBQ items — ribs, tri-​tip, chicken, etc. But they also have pizzas, wraps, salads, and appetizers. We got a tostada appetizer, I got a chicken supreme wrap, a side of Mac & Cheese, and Mom got the cobb salad. Waaaay too much for two people, but heck, figured we might as well try a few things. Nothing disappointed, and I enjoyed the fact that they have BBQ sauce, cilantro dressing, etc. that you can add. And lots of peppers — grilled, jalapenos, etc. Mmmm, spicy! Their homemade chips were excellent, not too greasy, and really crispy. Mac and cheese was decent, but not quite noteworthy.
Lots of good food for good prices. Will be coming back here again, that’s for sure!
$ 1 Coors Light during Happy Hour (M-​F, 3−6pm)? Mmmm, I might come back here for some nasty American light beer!

I was suprised at how good the food was. Although I prefer the ambiance of Beach Pit down the street, the food is just as good. The BBQ doesn’t stick out on the menu, you kinda have to search for it, but it’s worth it. My wife enjoyed her bbq chicken salad (white meat) while I enjoyed a tri-​tip sandwich with no sauce. I prefer the sauce on the side to really tast the meat. I passed my test. It was also very nice to see very good pricing. If memory serves me correct, and full rack of baby backs was $ 14. Holy cow — I hope he can stay in business, because that is about $ 5 cheaper than most other places. Their sauces were in containers that made them appear to be homemade, but I can’t confirm that.

I was a bit skeptical at first when a Baja Fresh owner decided to transform his restaurant into a BBQ joint, but Mesa Grill did not dissapoint. I had the pulled pork with homemade potato chips and bbq beans. The pulled pork was great and a very large portion. The chips were fresh and crispy, and the baked beans had large chunks of tri tip in them. I will definitely be back to try the ribs and chicken…

Outstanding food, service, and value. Orders are placed at the counter and delivered to your table. The Family Platter for 2 ($ 20) is more than enough for 3 people. The Platter includes a half chicken, several BBQ baby back ribs, tri tip (2 large pieces), pulled pork, shrimp (2), salad, home fries, and a choice of 2 sides (the baked beans and macaroni and cheese are excellent). Happy Hour is Monday — Friday, 3:00 — 6:00 PM, with Coors Light ($ 1) and Moon Light ($ 2) beer on draft, BV wine for $ 3 a glass.