Caliente Del Sol

Good quality fish in the burrito. But I wouldn’t consider that a burrito… sorry=(

Walked in and was greeted by a friendly cashier who was patient and explained the menu items in great detail. Ordered a combo plate: Pork taco and enchilada. I can’t remember the details, but the green sauce was amazing and the garlic aoli went so so so well with the tender pork in the taco. Prices are decent, and portions are good.

Well some things were good and deserve 4 stars and somethings were bad and deserve 2 stars so 3 Stars will have to do.
The good: Cashier was fantastic and gave me lots of good advice.
The Price was ok and the Service was good. I really liked the Beef Taco (Flour Tortilla and Garlic Aioli) were excellent.
The not so good was the Beans were bland, the Cheese Enchilada was not melted inside which was a turn off, followed by almost FROZEN Salsa which was way too cold to serve to anyone about to use it. Otherwise I thought it was pretty good but could have been much better if they fixed these problems. Avoid the Fish Tacos, my wife ordered them later in the day and said that they were yucky (nasty fishy and gross if you must know).
Best Fish (mahi mahi) tacos are still at Banditos Cantina.

I had the beef burrito. The seller said «it’s almost a pound». What he didn’t tell me was it was full of rice and beans. I had to eat about ¹⁄₃ of it to find the beef. Chips were stale and the pico de gallo average. My wife had the pork quesadilla — that was better. For $ 20, what should I expect? The plus was that they served Chalula hot sauce along with the standard Tabasco. Not bad but not very good either.

I think the food here is great, good price, and killer salsa’s not to mention the hot sauce bar.
I have tried pretty much everything here but the faves are the Mahi Mahi Tacos and Pork Enchiladas with Mole sauce.
I’m not really sure what people here are looking for in «Authentic» but as a born Taino Puertorriqueño Latino («Yo soy Boricua») I say it’s good.
ta bueno

First of all, the service is totally lacking. Sorry that I interrupted your conversation about lightsabers (I am not making this up), dudes, but yes, you ARE supposed to take a break from your discussion when a customer inquires about the menu. Also, when I say the order is «to go,» that means I should be able to *close the container*, so it doesn’t help when you give it to me open-​faced and expect me to reconfigure the food so the lid will stay shut.
My husband thought I was being a little harsh here, so I was going to cut them some slack if the food was actually any good. .. but it wasn’t. I had nachos. Kinda hard to screw up, right? But, the chips were burned, the cheese was all concentrated in one area, and I would’ve gotten more tomato on a taco supreme from Taco Hell. For $ 7.99, I could’ve done better at home.
I won’t be back.

I am not a big fan of Mexican food and perhaps it’s because I’ve never had really amazing Mexican food growing up here in Hawaii. It’s like asking to find amazing Hawaiian plate lunch in Delaware. It just ain’t gonna happen! We wandered into Caliente Del Sol last night for some take-​out on the recommendation of my brother. He raved about how delicious their beef burrito was and we were intrigued.
We ordered a beef burrito for $ 6.99 from a very nice cashier, waited five minutes and drove home with our burrito. My BF was really hungry and asked if I could open up the burrito while he was driving. I said no because I did not want to die in a fiery crash and have my morgue report read «death due to burrito.» The only death worse would have been «choked on candy cane.» Tisk, tisk.
Opened up our take-​out box and we both took a bite into our giant beef burrito. It was much better than I expected it to be. My BF really loved it! The beef had a nice flavor to it and a good ratio of beans and rice. I didn’t hate it and it didn’t make me angry. Yes I’ve been to mexican restaurants where I’ve gotten mad because the food was so sucky that I got upset that I wasted two hours of my life consuming crap! I do wish though that there were more chips in my take-​out box. I only had 7 chips in my box. What a tease! I love freshly made chips and salsa so I was slightly offended. This is a good place to get a quick burrito fix and it’s a deal at $ 6.99 because you can tell they use better quality ingredients. One burrito would last me two meals which is why I shared it with my BF.

My veggie burrito was good and it definitely filled me up. A little pricey but still a decent place to go.

Since I gave Los Chaparros Mexican Restaurant a 2 stars, and this place was definitely worse than they were, I have to re-​review it and give it a 1 star.

I got two free lunch passes from going to cinco de mayo in downtown earlier this month, so I had to try it. It was free. This place is actually not that bad. I like the fact that they have a salsa bar, but the salsa is not great at all. The best of them all was the green one. We ordered the lamb burrito with the tomato tortilla with ranchero sauce. It was pretty good for a fast food joint. We also ordered the mahi salad, which was not as good. The mahi was moist and flavorful, but I thought they should’ve used a better lettuce instead of using regular iceberg. I would go back to this place, but if I’m already on that side of town I would just go to Toritos.

First of all, «Caliente del Sol» (literally, «Hot of the Sun») does not make sense. Figures — literal translation. I think the owner meant to name the business «Caliente por el Sol» (Hot because of/​from the Sun).
Anyway, I agree that this definitely is NOT authentic mexican — which is right across the street on Kapahulu Ave — La Bamba. My experience was okay, nothing spectacular, I ordered the mahi mahi tacos in lemon caper dill sauce and the chicken in chipotle sauce. Both were alright, I was surprised they stuffed it with soo much fish and chicken — it tasted like I had a strand of shredded lettuce in each taco.
The only thing I enjoyed about this tiny taco joint was the salsa bar and the hot sauce shelf. I liked the green salsa and the Obama hot sauce, they mixed well with tacos and chips. I also agree with some who said the tacos are overpriced.
My friend tried the rib eye steak quesadilla, which was dry and meat was fatty. He said he enjoyed the chips and salsa more than the actual meal.
Overall, I’m not crazy for «Hot of the Sun.» It upsets me they didn’t take out the Spanish-​English dictionary before ordering their logo. But it may not matter to most of you.
If you must try this restaurant, try their food when they’re downtown during a festival. Their food was 100 times better and spicier — not to mention CHEAPER!

i love mexican food and altho this is NOT authentic mexican, it’s decent enough if you’re having a craving while you are near the waikiki/​kapahulu area. i’ve only been here once so i can’t really say much about it.
i was a little confused with menu. i thought that when you order the burrito it would still be a plate (rice & beans on the side including the burrito) but i was wrong. the rice and beans go into the burrito. okay.
since i wanted a plate, i ordered an enchilada plate using rib eye meat. it’s just ONE enchilada but you get sides of rice, beans and cabbage salad with a tangy red dressing on top? there was just one person before me who ordered a burrito (the burritos are HUGE) but my order seemed to take forever. it took about 15 minutes to get mine. the person behind me got their order already. hmm.
finally, i got my stuff and since i never ordered there before, i wasn’t sure how they packed their orders to go. there were 3 containers in my bag but i didn’t question it because some restaurants separate food (like a side salad could be placed in another container, chips in another, etc.). also, since i was waiting for a bit, i didn’t have to to check and made a mad dash out the door.
later, i got my answer. they gave me an extra plate that was mistakenly packed with mine. a carnitas taco plate? i gave that to my guy friend who was very happy to gulp that stuff down. as for my rib eye enchilada, it was not bad. the rib eye was surprisely very juicy which is the way it should be. the rice is alright. i usually love mexican rice but i enjoyed the beans and side salad much more than the rice. if i decide to come here again, maybe i’ll try the burrito since everyone seems to be ordering that.
i’ll give it 3.5. the ½ star was for the FREE carnitas taco plate =P

Wasn’t sure a few tacos would satiate me so I went for a mahi mahi burrito with the spicy lobster sauce on an original tortilla.
Ascetically, it was a fat med sized burrito, served w/​a handful of red/​yellow/​green tortilla chips and a mild salsa.
Tortilla – a perfect chewy texture, holding it all together
Fish – was moist & delicious
Stuffing:
Spicy lobster sauce – rich & delicious
Mexican rice – tasted delicious with the fish & sauce
Kidney beans & black beans – killed it!
I hated the beans inside bc it didn’t compliment the other flavors & textures one bit. The rice & fish seemed to gel completely with the sauce but w/​each bite that included the beans, they reminded me of a third wheel on a date. They were rough in texture and due to their size wouldn’t mix well even w/​a little sauce. Heck, I even tried the pineapple salsa & pico de gallo w/​those suckers in a vain attempt to make it work. No dice.
I would like to try some of the other menu items from salads to enchiladas. If I order the burrito again, they can keep my beans.

Mexican food this is not. Hawaii-​Mex, yes. (Should be more Hawaii-​Cali-​Mex) Just don’t go to this place expecting a nice greasy taco or carnitas plate. This is typical Hawaii-​Mex. Bland and «clean»…that’s the only way I can describe it…“clean“
Wife got the burrito with rib-​eye. Flavor-​less, but put enough «sauce» on it and it’s decent but still «clean».
I did like their mahi-​mahi tacos. Very Hawaii-​Mex, but very good. Lots of mahi mahi (surprisingly alot, like the whole taco shell is filled with Mahi mahi). Fish tasted fresh, not over cooked, and the bland-​ness of the sauces actually helped accent the subtle flavors of the mahi mahi.
I will be returning to this place to get some more of those mahi-​mahi hawaii-​mex tacos. Not your dirty mexican street taco, but a good Hawaii-​mex fish taco (I guess with the added bonus of the lack of colon cleansing, fiery death diarrhea)…
the Beans here are bland, too… but some place in Mexico that’s the way they serve them…

Looking for great Mexican (or even Mexican-​inspired) food in Hawaii is kind of like looking for the fountain of youth or the lost city of Atlantis. We are always on the search, but we rarely come close.
With the opening of a new place by Safeway a few months back, I figured I’d give it a try. My coworkers warned me but I ignored their cautionary advice. Went in and waited in line — and waited forever. The lady at the counter was nice enough but super slow. I finally got up to the counter after ten minutes of waiting, and ordered two veggie tacos with beans and rice. $ 3.50 per taco — yikes! She told me to help myself to the salsa bar, but there were no containers there. And what irritated me even more was that she said that to everyone and didn’t put any containers out. They hid them behind the counter. Waited twenty more minutes for my food, which they put in two styrofoam containers, what a waste.
The tacos were strange. They were overstuffed and more like tostadas with soft tortillas. I’m all for big portions but this was crazy. The grilled veggies were an odd combination, I think there was zucchini, asparagus, and even carrots (?). The aiolis were good but not with the veggies, and would go better with a fish/​meat. The rice and beans were absolutely terrible. Bland rice, bland beans. I kind of liked the fact that the beans had some firmness but it just wasn’t good at all. I didn’t even get any tortilla chips.
In all honesty, I’d rather just go to taco bell next time.

3.5
So I really really enjoyed my veggie burrito with red chile sauce. Was it anything nearing the juicy perfection you can find at Taqueria Cancun in the Mission?
Hell no.
But neither did it make any pretensions of being «authentic» or «simple» or even «tex-​mex» Mexican food. I thought it was filling, yummy, and a bit different. The chips were whatever, but the salsas were fun (if lacking in heat)
A really enjoyed his smoked pork tacos with BBQ aioli.
I will go back, as it is By Far The Least Disappointing Burrito I’ve Had on Oahu and I’m very interested in trying a mahi-​mahi something with spicy lobster sauce (see??? not really trying to be mexican or even californian)

I liked what I had…
I had the grilled vegetable quesadilla with mozzarella cheese on whole wheat. I agree that the price is high, but I still liked the food!

This is a Mexican restaurant in the Safeway complex on Kapahulu. They have the normal Mexican type food; tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, burritos and some salads. With the burritos you are able to pick which sauce you would like on it; ranchera, chili verde, red chile, mole, spicy lobster and also which meat and a type of tortilla. This kind of reminded me of a Qdoba or Chipotle, but not quite. They serve their food in biodegradable containers which is a definite PLUS! All of the staff was very helpful and even gave our table complimentary chips and salsa «for our wait» which wasn’t even that long. I also liked the salsa bar that they had it had about 6 different types on it. I thought this place was pretty decent and is right in my neighborhood which is convenient!

I had a nice burrito here. It’s California style, so they put the rice and beans inside. The proportions were right. The steak was tasty and tender. They would have gotten more stars, but the tortilla was grilled, not steamed as it should be. That made it semi-​crunchy and tough. Which in turn made it roll up square-​ish.