Carmelita’s

This location, energy and food are stunning. Must go for happy hour and get their ribs! Mind blowing, also the carnitas, enough for three people is the best. Giant pours of wine.
No brainer

Food is really good here. Friendly staff and the e menu is small to not complicate things, especially for this area. Restaurant is a little on the small side but well decorated. Love this place and now I can it my new Mexican food to go too. Shrimp ceveche is the bomb, tacos yummy and chimichanga

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Omg this place is so freaking good!
Get the jalapeños stuffed with crab and wrapped in bacon appetizer.
Get the guacamole appetizer.
The chips are amazing and you will thank me later.
We ordered a item that is secret on not on the menu.
It’s huge and fed all three of us for $ 48
It comes one a hot steaming iron you get
Chicken
Carne Asada
Carnitas
Shrimp
Tortillas
Veggies
And two halves of Mexican corn on the cob.
A small side of beans and rice too and bomb salsas.
Everything was so good even my Serrano pepper and like infused margarita. My son got a virgin piña colada, and the hubs got a Sprite.
No desert we were stuffed.
The total was $ 98 and worth every single penny.
We will be back for certain.

Amazing specialty cocktails! I had the Serrano margarita it was nice and spicy. The food was great. I brought my friends here to try it out. The guacamole was perfect. I had the fish tacos and I loved them. The only con would be the service, when my friend dropped her silverware we had to ask 3x for new ones. The waitress started getting annoyed with us for that, one of the entrees came out cold and instead of just fixing it she started to say it was the wind and closed and the door making it stuffy inside. They never cleared our dishes or drinks which ended up piling up on the table awkwardly. This place can be really great and I would come back here again.

The servers looked upset taking our order and then we felt rushed during our meal. At the end, our plates were taken and bill given. No dessert option, just given the bill. We then waited 10 minutes for the server to pick up the bill.

I have been to countless Mexican restaurants all over the place and this place is in the top 3 of places I’ve ever been! The food was absolutely outstanding! Javier’s doesn’t even come close!
The margaritas were on point! The chips come with salsa and incredible beans! Got the chicken enchiladas, which were awesome, but the cheese enchiladas were out of this world! The guac was excellent! Absolutely no complaints.
Make sure to get a reservation cause the place is a little small and seems to be always packed! The décor is cool and I doubt you’ll have a bad time! Check this place out!

They use LARD in their cooking and LARD and PORK in the BEAN DIP they give to every table — WITHOUT warning anyone who might have health-​threatening dietary restrictions
This also completely ignores the statistics that 2 in 10 people are vegetarian who will also get very ill.
I got terribly sick after, and only then thought to ask if they were cooking with lard or something.
California restaurants — and even in New Mexico and Texas don’t cook with lard without warning the public on their menu — or by the server.
And NO Restaranteur serves a LARD and PIG dip to every table without warning the guests.
It’s unbelievably irresponsible.
They also say they serve only «wild» fish. They don’t say wild caught, so this is probably farmed fish that they miss leading the call Wild.

They use lard in there beans! Yes! No wonder it’s delicious. You can tell they think about all the flavors and details. This is really elevated Mexican food. Amazing margaritas. Especially the pineapple jalapeño margarita.
The tacos al pastor were rich smokey with a hint of sweetness. Never had I tasted al pastor like this. so great. So fresh.
Also loved the pollo a la chipotle. Creamy chipotle with a chile relleno and again those delicious beans.
Absolutely delicious

Casual, yet still upscale. This restaurant is in a prime spot just across the street from the beach. I came here for a weekday lunch with 5 other people and we ordered a variety of dishes from the menu. Everything was on point. I wouldn’t say amazingly delicious, but good nonetheless. I had the shrimp and crab enchilada. It was a solid dish with a nice balance of seafood. My table mates had everything from the chicken burrito to fish tacos to oaxacan steak tacos. Overall, a solid restaurant in a nice location.

We came here for their HH. We ordered some Micheladas, which was pretty good and chips n salsa and a guac dip. The food and drinks were amazing, but the service was okay. I think they might of been short on staff that day.

One of our favorite Mexican food spots. Excellent food (try the Tampiquena), drinks (Dos Equis on tap) and service. Gets crowded so go early or make a reservation.

My friends ask me to go here a lot and I always tell them my story so I guess it’s time to put it on Unilocal so others know.
This place has cockroaches! I had one crawl up the back of my chair and before it jumped to my shoulder, my friend across from me noticed it and warned me. I immediately stood up and pushed the chair away knocking the cockroach on the floor. A bus boy came up and stomped the roach out, but there was no apology from the staff and no complimentary anything or discount. The fact that the staff acted as if it was no big deal makes me think this is normal.
Now, I do have to say this happened a while ago when they were still new, so maybe they worked out the cockroach problem, but I’m still too turned off by it to go back there.

First of all there is no lunch menu and the waitstaff is quick to dismiss any idea of such a notion. On one visit the bar tender stated that the regular menu is so good that even for lunch the prices are «Chip».
In my opinion the prices are not «Chip», but rather expensive.
The food is pretty good but does not always match the price expectation.
My favorites are the fajitas and the champagne salad which has a nice piece of salmon on it.
The steak on top of the enchiladas is also tasty.
It’s not like the place leaves a negative impression, but not a great one either.

I am a frequenter of old Mexican Taquerias’ and thus had never heard of, much less had ever partaken of Snake Rivers Farm Prime Kurobota Pork. That is why I keep the company of Unilocal bud MiYun C. with her more refined tastes and superior vocabulary.
The LF treated me to an evening out in Laguna for a pre-​Christmas celebration, and I remembered MiYun’s review from 2 years ago. We enjoyed the super fresh and gratis chips and bean dip while we perused the menu. We had both pre-​decided we were going to start off with Margies, and my eyes fixated on the Spicy Serrano Margarita. Great spicy kick with an obvious generous dose of tequila. This drink went down way too quickly. Whoops.
For our entrees we split the Shrimp Fajita Salad, and it was very refreshing with several well seasoned medium shrimp. Very enjoyable. We also chose the special fancy carnitas, and I have to admit they may be the best ever. For $ 20 they had better be, right? A very generous portion and I had more than enough left over to make tacos a couple of days later. Our very efficient and cordial waiter even threw in a couple of extra tortillas in my to-​go box.
I searched the Snake River Farms website (
) and found this snippet: ‘The Snake River Farms prime rib of pork is the Kurobuta equivalent of a beef prime rib roast.’ Well no wonder it was so tender and flavorful.
I know some will snicker at prices this high for Mexican comida, but the quality here really warrants said prices. I will still crave my favorite Santa Ana Taquerias’ like Taqueria Zamora (
), but will look forward to occasionally going upscale here as well.

What was supposed to be a random, post-​hiking brunch turned our to be one of the better upscale Mexican restaurants that I’ve been to. I know I know… Mexican food usually comes by to be pretty cheap, but the quality that you pay for here is well worth it. After all, it’s Laguna and you’re just steps away from the beach!
Started with the Guacamole in addition to the complimentary bean dip and salsa. I’ve never been a fan of beans, but this was THE best bean dip I’ve ever had. Smooth texture and light! The chips were perfectly crispy and not greasy, and salsa just right. I got the El Classico so that I could try a variety (Chicken Taco, Beef Enchilada, Rellano). All three were GOOD, especially the chicken taco and enchilada! My friends also really loved what they ordered too, so we were all very satisfied and happy campers.
Service could be improved just a little bit. The host didn’t seem like he knew what he was doing because 1) he didn’t bother to take my group’s name down and 2) he seemed unsure when I asked him if he had put down the right number of people. The rest of the service was good though!

Would give it 3.5 stars. Came here just in time for lunch. Right off Laguna main breach. Classic margarita was very good. I enjoyed taco enchilada and the other person had taco al pastor– meat was tender and flavorful. However prices were over inflated for the food. Service was fast and attentive.

Very good upscale Mexican food. Expect prices to be around twice as much as you’d find elsewhere but the quality is much better.
The carne asada plate is very good– good quality steak and cooked just right with enough char.
Tasty margaritas.
The place gets very busy so make a reservation.

My friends and I have been wanting to try out Carmelita’s for a long while and finally came in this past weekend.
Unfortunately, we came in around noon and just missed breakfast so we ordered off the lunch menu. We were greeted by our server who dropped off chips, salsa and bean dip the second we were seated and we went to town.
We ended up ordering the BBQ ribs with corn for and appetizer, the carnitas and the fish tacos.
BBQ Ribs were delicious. The meat was tender and just melted off the bone and the corn with parmesan was great. I’m not the biggest ribs fan but their bbq sauce was pretty darn good.
Carnitas dish looked appetizing with the big chunks of meat and a side of guacamole and bean dip but was only average. The meat was definitely on the drier side but the guac and salsa helped. I would say, this plate was a little steep for what was given.
Fish tacos were also good but only came with 2 tacos, beans and we replaced rice with veggies. 20 dollars for 2 decent tacos is too much.
Overall cute place with good service. I wasn’t blown away by the food and prices were definitely on the more expensive side but I would still like to try their breakfast menu.

I came here for dinner Saturday night. My girlfriend and I walked in around 8:30pm without reservation and were seated within 15 minutes. The restaurant is rather small and compact making things very intimate not only with your partner, but also with the people next to you, so if it displeases you to sit close to someone you don’t know, this place might not be for you.
The service was exceptional, and the waiter that helped us knew what he was doing and recommended a good selection. We also got a wonderful complimentary margarita on the house. Speaking of margarita’s, the house specialties are unique. The rims & even the drinks can be (yes I am talking about you the pineapple jalapeño margarita) spicy. Some are rather unique combo’s like cucumber and cilantro. All of them were exceptionally made well. Not too strong, but not too weak, and with great flavor.
For the food, my girlfriend and I got the costillitas as an appetizer and got the tampiquena as our main dish to share. Unique as they sound, I didn’t find them to have a wow factor, which kind of made me shrug my shoulders after tasting. Costillitas can be another word for baby back ribs. That’s it! Yes they were tender, yes they were fall off the bone, but god damn it I wanted it to be something else! As for the tampiquena, it’s just skirt steak on enchiladas. Medium rare goodness, but nothing more.
Do I think Carmelita’s has more to offer? Yes I’m sure of it. We just made the safe choice I suppose. I’ll definitely be back to write an update!
3.5÷5 stars for now.