Teresa’s Mosaic Cafe

I wanted to wait until I had this twice before reviewing. Food is authentic and tastey. It is a little on the salty side so be prepared to drink lots of water later on.
I tried the carnitas plate (Wednesday special) and a burro at another time (Thursday special). I’m a fan of their carnitas. It’s seasoned well and not dry like some places. It is oily though. The burro can be made wet with a red and/​or green sauces. I recommend doing half/​half.
The service is attentive and friendly.

We used to come here all the time but we stopped because it wasn’t authentic anymore. The guacamole was so cold And lacked flavor that you can tell it was premade and left in the fridge. Margaritas were watery.
After three years we decided to come back and check it out again .
Chips and salsa was great. Very spicy and flavorful. Mole enchiladas were good. Very tasty. Pinto beans were also yummy. Rice was dry.
Alfonso’s plate was good. Enchilada was very tasty. Steak and chicken were good and juicy. Chili rellano was good too. Everything had great flavor except the rice. It’s nice to come back and taste the deliciousness and authenticity.

There are so many Mexican restaurants in LA and this place is a little above average. Yes, it’s worth stopping by if you are specifically near El Segundo. If you do decide, come here on weekends because parking is very limited at their small plaza location which also hosts other restaurants. The food and service here are both good. I had their Carne Asada soft taco plate with flour tortillas and tortilla chips which all tasted homemade and authentic. The servers are very polite and help you meet your needs.
I would recommend this place to anyone craving homemade Mexican food with good service.

I arrived at Teresa’s around 7 PM on a Wednesday night. The location is in a small strip type plaza that includes H&R Block and other stores and restaurants. It is a small parking lot for the amount of businesses but luckily for me I found a spot fairly easy. What was even easier was when I walked inside and saw that I was going to be the only patron in the whole place!
I was a bit nervous at this, but I thought, what the hay, I’m brave! I did see the nice young lady making the homemade tortillas, but I never did get to try them as they were not offered to me and on their menu it looks like only certain entrees provide them for free. I could have ordered them a la carte but didn’t want to have to pay for them.
The chips and salsa were first to arrive, of course. I thought that the salsa was very good, spicy just as it should be. The chips were… ok but were to become what was to be the order of the night for any deep fried food… they had just the slightest bit of old greasy taste to them. At first I thought it was my imagination, but no, I tried a few more and continued to notice the slight greasy after taste from each one.
My order consisted of the Caldo De Queso Soup, and their 2 item combination dinner-​I chose a cheese enchilada and a chile relleno which also came with rice and beans. The soup was delicious and very unique-​it was a broth style soup with onions, peppers, large potatoes and topped with a cheese that quickly melted into the soup. The entrée was just ok, there was really nothing memorable about the beans, rice and enchilada, and the chile relleno had that, yes you guessed it… deep fried greasy taste to it. What I ended up doing was cutting off the breaded outer portion of the relleno and eating the chili/​cheese part by itself. Unfortunately this was the only way I could stand to eat it.
As I was eating, 2 other groups of customers arrived so I felt a bit better about not being the only person in the restaurant. Throughout my meal, the service was very good and I’m hoping it wasn’t just because I was the only one there for a good portion of the time.
Overall, at this point I just don’t feel that I would have the urge to eat at Teresa’s again – maybe I caught them at a bad time, like right before they dumped out their frying oil… and I’m sure that if the oil had been fresh, ALL of the food I had eaten would have tasted MUCH better. But since it wasn’t, I can only provide them with 2 stars for this meal.

2-​star Mexican fare and 5-​star service beyond compare makes Teresa’s a tough tipa to review and share. My math may suck, but overall Teresa’s Mosaic Café is 3-​stars a-​ok.
The server helping me for lunch was the perfect blend of info, speed, anticipation, and natural friendliness that you really want from a server. He was having a good day and made my day better … while also not talking my ear off. I simply wanted to eat lunch and check emails. He made this happen efficiently with a smile. Gracias!
Teresa’s is in a small strip mall just south of El Segundo Blvd. You’ve probably driven by it a few hundred times. Parking is free and relatively easy.
Ok, so, on to the food. As you can tell, I’m hesitant to write about it. So, let’s talk price. For lunch, they have some specials. I got a 2-​item Combinacione for $ 9.00 which includes a soda. You can add home-​made Horchata or Lemonade for a $ 1 more.
My combo was a Taco Dorados (Machaca) and a Tostada (Guacamole). The taco was terrible. It was greasy, It wasn’t tasty. It was a flattened taco of just meat in a soggy shell. The tostada was better, but light on guacamole and heavy on beans. I couldn’t pick it up at all because the tortilla was so soft. Sides of Refried Beans and Spanish Rice were bland and left on the plate at the end. I doused much of the meal in Salsa Rojo with little impact.
Maybe I ordered the wrong things? Perhaps the service will bring me back. The chips were good and I probably just needed a cerveza. Teresa’s has a small bar and TV in one corner, so, it’s possible I’ll go back to Teresa’s Mosaic Café for a drink while catching a game on the tube someday. Hope that helpful camarero is working!

The first time I went, they ran out of torta bread so I ordered some chewy carne Asada plate. The second time I went I had a chorizo torta and it didnt taste that great. I blew up the toilet after I went back to work.

i gotta say, the food is pretty good and i really love their freshly made tortillas. the décor of the place feels very cozy and food comes fairly fast.
the most of the staff there are really friendly and nice, but there was this one guy, i wasn’t sure if he’s the owner or wat, was really rude. it pretty much ruined my experience right after that.
so apparently someone accidentally messed up one of the check so my friend told him that one of the check is wrong because she didn’t order whats on the check. and that guy got all offended and said: «i thought you guys asked for separate checks!», and we were all thinking, yea we did, but what does that have to do with having ONE wrong check? it was confusing and i think he could have handled it better.

There’s a tortilla making for the kids here! How fun!
Alright, this is a really small café hidden in a plaza on Sepulveda Blvd next to the golf course. If you know where the H&R block for taxes is at, you will find this café.
There are approximately 25 or could be 20 tables for seats and about 6 seats at the bar. As you walk in, there is a section where you’ll see a lady who’s rolling up tortillas. There’s a bottom shelf where kids can roll their own tortilla. I find that entertaining for the kids while the grown-​ups are having their own time.
Came in here while their happy hour was happening. Sat at the bar waiting for the boyfriend to finish up his taxes next door. Boy was that a fun idea. Haha…
Happy Hour — Monday to Friday 4pm-​7pm
Chips & salsa came as complimentary.
Carne Asada taco was a yummers, but don’t think it was worth $ 2.25
Had a margarita with Hornito Tequila — $ 5.76 (strong. not bad)
All beers were $ 3.25
Service was okay. They didn’t seem busy, so servers and all were pretty much walking around cleaning. Coming back? Maybe just for the beers

I had a carne asada torta which was ok. The portion was smaller than I expected considering the size of the other dishes. I did like their homemade habanero salsa.

Teresa’s is definitely worth a try. There is always something new on their menu worth ordering and their salsa is fantastic. Come with an appetite and enjoy yourself.
Parking is a bit of a problem on weekdays around lunchtime.

In my opinion, this is the best Mexican restaurant in El Segundo. The entire menu is worth trying and it’s all very good. I can’t believe that it’s never busy here so I would say its a hidden gem. Now that you know you have to try them.
The best part is that they make their own tortillas in-​house and they are soft and large. Any place that makes their own tortillas is a good indicator of how well their food tastes.

The food is inconsistent
Can be very good one time and rather awful the next…
So I can advise caution
N
Best is usually the carnitas but seeing as it is very fattening I try to avoid … The shrimp is always overcooked and the tacos always greasy
Go at own risk

Cuisine of Oaxaca/​Sonora ~ I can spell it, but I can’t say it! By definition, it’s Mexican cuisine with mole, cactus and squashes, corn, hot chocolate, or even more authentic would include: grasshoppers. Perhaps it’s the Grasshopper Preservation Society (GPS of El Segundo) that has banned the use of the little creatures in cooking in this city… bummer!
SERVICE — very nice, sweet, and warm service. Nadia radiated these qualities with a smile. The supporting staff and other serves seemed also to be terrific.
FREE/​EASY PARKING — small lot shared by several other restaurants and businesses just steps away from the front door, and if needed, a larger side lot is available.
LOCALS — it’s located in a stretch of the business district, and draws upon the employees of Xerox and others. Lunch and after work, generally.
HAPPY HOUR, OLE’ (4p-​7p, EVERDAY) — Drink specials, discounted appetizers, and tacos for $ 2. Little counter bar, but full selection of mixed drinks, tequilas, draft and bottle brews.
DECOR — disappointing. It’s clean, but its basically a square room, painted yellow, with corona banners lined across the ceiling. The idea of «Mosaic» made it sound so lovely, and from the few photos I found on the website… apparently, it’s the original Tucson location that was built with the mosaic theme. At this location, only the tortilla station has mosiac titles wrapped around the lower part of the counter.
SHRIMP! — 8 jumbo shrimp with tails and shell ($ 15.95), but split open — it was a thing of beauty [
. In a spicy red sauce, they were cooked perfectly and I would totally get them again. Served with a side plate of rice, and a squash medley [
, it’s awesomely topped with cheese.
FAJITAS — good, but not served on a sizzling platter. Booooo. Where’s the sizzle? If you don’t hear that sizzle come down the aisle to your table, it’s seems more like a stir-​fry! I need that steamy and smokey sensation!
CONCLUSION — I like Teresa, but way too soon for love. But, I’d like to see her for again.

Saw Bobby Flay’s throwdown against their Arizona counterpart, so was expecting something spectacular.
My meal, I had to choke down, it was terrible. Everyone else at the table thought their meals were ok and a couple want to go back. I’ll probably be forced back in the near future and will update if needed.

I came here for lunch one day with a large group of coworkers. It was a Thursday, so the lunch special basically included a free drink with the purchase of a burrito. I ordered the horchata, which was pretty milky and kind of soapy tasting. I also got the El Oso burrito with carne asada. The burrito was a decent size, but not amazing for $ 10. The quality was also pretty good though I did get some bad pieces of steak in there. The service was good and the chips were decent, but ultimately I wasn’t impressed with the overall value for my dollar spent.
Summary: Parking in private lot. Nice staff. Pretty attentive service. Food is decent. Not amazingly priced. Horchata was so-​so. The big hype here is fresh tortillas, but I’d encourage La Cabana in Venice if you want better food and fresh tortillas.

I’m very particular about Mexican food because I grew up in LA and have found the food here to be better than most I’ve eaten even in Mexico City.
Teresa’s seems to be a mom-​and-​pop shop, so I’m always apprehensive about giving reviews in the 2/​3-​star range. Perhaps it’s Teresa’s distance from the epicenter of Mexican food in East LA/​Downtown that makes her food less satisfying. Perhaps it was just a bad night, but I found everything to be quite unmemorable.
The menu is more Tex-​Mex with red sauce and melted cheese on everything. The corn tortillas, though homemade, were dry and not very flavorful. The carnitas were not the traditional deep fried chunks of heaven – more like chile verde with green sauce all over. Not terrible, but not what I was hungering for. It would have been nice had the sauce and wetness of the dish been mentioned in the menu. The house salsa that arrived with the chips was pretty bland and tomato-​based.
The more unfortunate part is that even though the restaurant was featured on some Food Channel show (prominently advertised on a giant poster in front), and was ¹⁄₃ full, the food didn’t taste entirely fresh – or at least, wasn’t reheated skillfully. Of particular note was the orange rice which arrived lukewarm and was wet, yet hard, and reminded me of reheated rice that could have gone another 3 minutes in the microwave.
The BFs carne asada tacos were the saving grace. The steak was plentiful, flavorful and had a fire-​grilled flavor. These were so good that it didn’t have to be gussied up with onions, cilantro or lime.
The service was also fast and very good. I don’t know if great tacos and service is enough to get me back out to El Segundo, but I might give it another shot if I’m near LAX.

I only saw Teresa’s Mosaic Café because it’s located right next to The Boat Thai and Sushi restaurant on El Segundo and Sepulveda. And I only noticed it because they had a big sign on the window that said they were on some television show on Food Network. Oh, and also because they had happy hour. So those things combined, G and I decided to try it out one night when we couldn’t decide on where to go for dinner.
Happy hour is from 4 – 7 pm and we got there right on time for happy hour (6:59) and were seated in front of the tortilla bar, where this woman just stood there and made tortilla after tortilla all night. On top of that, she was also designated babysitter (bless her little heart) as there was a counter and kids could go up there and roll out their own dough and shape their tortillas however they wanted, and she would take them and cook them on the grill. So while the parents got drunk off the relatively inexpensive HH prices ($ 3 for a beer),
Our waiter rushed us for our drink orders, since HH was ending, so we ordered a beer, and then we ordered a guac which was $ 4 and you get a large instead of a small. The guacamole was the best thing there, tomatoes and such in there, and great flavor.
Off the HH menu we also ordered a couple of tacos and a beef tamale, and the tacos were not very good, and the tamale was terrible. It was not only dry, but it was tasteless and cold inside.
I would probably go back to HH guacamole, but that’s about it.

Teresa’s Mosaic Café Is a pretty good place to go to. The restaurant is a good size, and there is plenty of parking in the lot. They have a pretty good lunch special, where you get two items, rice, beans, and a free drink for $ 8.75. They also give out free chips and salsa. If you order the lunch special to go though, it’s $ 9 and no free drink.
Their chips are good. They are not stale like some other places. The salsa was good too.
My favorite thing to order at this restaurant is the chile relleno. :) That is what I usually get. I also like their rice and beans. The rice seems like it is a little healthier than your average Mexican rice? And it tastes really good. With the beans, I like to dip my chips in my beans and eat them like that… sometimes with some rice in it.
The only thing I can say is that this restaurant is a little stingy with their napkins. They only give you one. You have to ask for more. I guess it’s not their fault. They’re only trying to save money :) One of the times I came here, I may have gotten the waitress mad. She came back with the napkins, and threw it at us… well more like me. Paul D can vouch for that, not sure if Steve K saw it happen. As we were leaving, one of us said thank you to her and she responded back. Then I thanked her as well, and she ignored me.
Ah… I still would come back. The food is good.

The homemade tortillas are the only thing that impressed me here.
The food was WAY too salty. I almost didnt finish my chicken tortilla soup because of the extreme saltiness.
The chili rellendo was also very salty but tasty. The sauce is really what makes this dish.
Overall, nothing to rave about when you are in LA and have thousands of authentic mexican places.

Teresa’s is a small joint that you might pass by often and you won’t know it’s there unless you’re looking for it. «Teresa’s Mosaic Café» — the name doesn’t strike you as a Mexican restaurant, but that’s what it is. I came here for lunch on a week day and it wasn’t busy at all [at 1pm]. The ambiance is quaint and it’s clean. There’s a bar, full from what I saw. Service was prompt and everyone was polite.
I ordered a combination plate as it was a lunch special and came with a fountain drink. I had a chicken enchilada and carne asada hard shell taco. Chips and salsa were served while we waited for our food. The salsa was good. I’m not big on burn your taste buds off HOT… I prefer my salsa to be hot but flavorful so my tastebuds are still alive and enjoying the fiesta. The chips weren’t cooked fresh like some spots I’ve been to, but they weren’t stale.
Funny… our drinks were served without ice. I dunno if that’s a regular thing or if they’re ice machine was out that day. It didn’t bother me much so I didn’t bother to ask. I’m not even sure why I’ve bothered to mention it.
Carrying on… our meals were brought to us fairly quickly. Perhaps b’coz there were only 3 other tables besides ours at the time. The hot sauces of choice: Tapatio or Tobasco. I really need to start bringing my own bottle of Cholula wherever I go. It’s rare I find a restaurant that carries it. Back to the food… rice and beans were… well rice and beans. I usually mix them together and drown them in hot sauce anyway. The chicken enchilada was delicious. The chicken wasn’t dry and they did not spare on the sauce. The taco could have used a little more asada and spent less time on the grill. Despite the overcooked meat, it was still tasty.
My lunch buddy and I cleaned our plates off! We’re definitely coming back again.