Chaparosa Grill

My favorite Orange County restaurant for four years. SAD News they are closing at the end of this month. I hope they find a new location in the area. GOOD LUCK

The only thing good about this place is that it has a cool neighborhood bar vibe. So for that, two stars. Kind of tight. Everyone at the bar seems to know one another. However, most of the bar clientele here are middle aged-​divorcees killing time. I knocked them three stars for lost opportunity. They have absolutely the worst beer selection of any place in recent memory. The food is prepared in an overly casual manner. No real standout menu item. Just, blah. Why not take that great small neighborhood bar vibe you’ve got and turn your place into something exceptional. Just don’t get it. Feels like the operator is paying the bills that need to get paid, and that’s all that matters. Won’t return.

The food is ok, a little pricey but the staff is really nice and they allow dogs on the patio.

Food was great, if you like seafood and pasta, I recommend the seafood pasta. Nice atmosphere, small sized bar with a couple TVs, plenty of wine selections, and of course a good variety of beer/​liquor.
This place is tucked away, not easy to find off the main road. But once you get there, its worth it.

Excellent menu selection, the shrimp curry was incredible and was greatly complimented by the rice which included a tasty mixture of corn, peas and carrots. This is my third visit and each time the food and service have exceeded my expectations. Friendly hometown atmosphere coupled with great dining, a perfect mixture.

Bartender was friendly and on point. Solid happy hour! good food and drinks! I wish there were a bit more room at the bar top or high tops but hey if its full somethings going right! Cheers

This restaurant is like the cheers of OC. Everybody knows your name! Luis is the heart and soul of the restaurant. He literally runs the place like a well oiled machine. His smile and charm and generosity are one of a kind and that’s what keeps people coming back.

Chaparosa Grill comes highly recommended by us. The food was excellent. My husband had shrimp scampi and I had the fish of the day, grilled salmon. The portions were more than generous. We enjoyed the atmosphere,… being seated on the patio listening to the waterfall and under a heated umbrella. AND the waiter Luis was quite exceptional and accommodating. We will return.

Can’t say that I love this place, although I would like to. It’s nice having a chef-​owned restaurant and not another chain in the area. However, I think the chef’s dishes need some fine tuning. For example, the shrimp scampi is swimming in sauce. It would do well to cut back on the sauce, which is way over done.
Would also be nice to see more of a seasonal menu, which reflects local produce, fresh ingredients, and a passion for developing new, flavorful recipes.

There is a reason why this restaurant is pretty empty on Valentine’s night! The food is barely edible and the prices aren’t shabby either! I ordered through Doordash whose delivery service is exemplary. However the restaurant failed to deliver the French fries I requested on the order. I had to drive to the restaurant to pick up the French fries! I complained to the management. I’m extremely disappointed with the quality of the food and service!

Fantastic on every level with excellent bistro-​grill style food, lovely wait-staff.comfortable environment and relatively low prices. Adults can order nonalcoholic cocktails from the kids’ menu. we’ll be back.

Love the staff! Archie being my favorite. Food is what you would expect for the prices. The bruschetta on the happy hour menu is probably the best bruschetta around! I also love the pizza and the Caesar salad. Furthermore, the bar makes the best lemon drop around!!!

Great happy hour! Extensive happy hour menu and hours. This was our first time and we will definitely be back. We had the pulled pork tacos and the BBQ pork sliders and French fries and were happy with everything. I asked for my French fries crispy and they were some of the best fries I’ve had in awhile. Our server Matt was great and offered great advice on the menu. We will see you again. Their regular menu also looked quite appetizing. Give them a try! I am surprised they only have a 3 star rating. They deserve more than that for sure.

Always great!
Breakfast, lunch or dinner… always great!
Small group, large group, we have always received great service, great prices and excellent food!

Tucked away in the corner of a shopping center, this is a hidden local gem.
The first time I came here was for a paint night that was hosted here. We were seated outside on the covered patio and all I had was a lemon drop and some calamari, but it was enough to bring me back.
Their happy hour is pretty awesome. Not only does it go until 8pm on most nights, but they have it on the weekend as well! I love a happy hour that I don’t have to rush to. The happy hour menu is bigger than most and a lot of items are like mini entrees.
The restaurant serves Caribbean inspired food, but you’ll find a hodge podge of things including Italian and Asian. It can be a little overwhelming, but the food that I had was quite good.
During happy hour I tried the Cajun Fries ($ 4.95), Cariba Calamari ($ 7.50), Ham & Pineapple Pizza ($ 6.95) and Pulled Pork Tacos ($ 7). Everything was tasty, especially the pizza. The pizza tasted fresh and I really liked the thin chewy crust. They also do calamari well here. The Cariba Calamari is your traditional crispy calamari with dipping sauces and the Spicy Thai Calamari (that I tried previously) is also breaded but tossed in a delicious spicy sauce.
On the happy hour drink menu they have beers and wine for under $ 5. There’s also a handful of cocktails, my favorite being the Lemon Drop ($ 6.50).
If you can’t make it for happy hour, their lunch and dinner menus have a lot to offer and you can usually find a Groupon deal floating around.

Chaparosa Grill
OC: Laguna Niguel, California
7pm Wednesday 20^th August 2015
Three Stars
I have seen this place for years but my mother decided on this place because of a groupon. We sat large partially covered outside patio area. We were served water in dark blue goblets and warm French bread with rich delicious whipped butter. For main courses, I had the capellini langunaise. My mother said it was a Jamaican place but there was Jerk Chicken, fried plantains, and Jamaican curry. My dad tried telling that Cajun Shrimp was close.
Cappellini Lagunaise ($ 18.95) is pasta from Laguna which had ⁴¹⁄₅₀ count size shrimp, decent sized chicken breast strips, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, fresh chopped basil, and cream sauce. The shrimp didn’t seem fresh. The chicken was delicious and plentiful. The combination was pretty good but lacked enough salt to balance with the cream. They describe the sauce as light which meant — not enough butter.
The server was nice but no one refilled my water glass. I liked the place just not that much.

My friend and I purchased groupons for Paint Nite being held here last night, since there was also a groupon for dinner, I purchased that as well.
I wasn’t expecting much as the reviews here are kinda awful but I was pleasantly surprised.
I had a Mai tai that was great. A dinner salad with ranch dressing that was perfect and the tomato basil pizza and that was awesome as well.
The food was great, the service was great and our paint nite after was fun too!
I’ll be back for sure! ;)
The guy sitting next to me during paint nite was eating the curry and it looked and smelled so good.

Two Star Thursday sadly for a restaurant that I was worried about to begin with, as I purchased a deal thru Living Social/​Groupon and that’s always a risk and before I purchased, the reviews were kind of all over the place on Unilocal so I figured I’d to ahead and take a chance. A clear mistake. Don’t take a chance!
The food is confused and definitely not well executed.
Apps: We were talked out of the initial request by our waiter as it was too sweet. Hilarity ensues as we go with his recommendation, Pulled Pork & Mango Quesadilla, which we have to send back! Sweet pork, sweet mango, sweet onions and too little cheese to help balance some of that sweetness, not to mention a severe lack of execution in the spreading of the ingredients. 1 piece had all the mango and 1 piece had all the pork.
Main: I chose the Filet Mignon & Spinach Ravioli, as I felt it sounded not only great, but really different. Hubby had the Cajun Shrimp & Chicken Linguine. Both dishes lacked in execution, again. The ground filet mignon in the ravioli just didn’t work, too much spinach, no cheese and the flavor of the steak just didn’t happen and it tasted about the same as regular old ground beef. I will say however the basic tomato sauce was a hit, definitely helped the dish, but I would definitely not get this again. Hubby’s dish just completely lacked flavor, except for the andoullie sausage, which basically took over the flavor of the entire dish.
Dessert: We split the Warm Chocolate Soufflé Torte and as stated in my picture, WTF?!
Yes it was that small, yes it looked even pathetically tinier due to the humongous platter. The ice cream was standard vanilla, and who knows if it was even Dreyer’s quality. The whole dish was a fail as instead of a soufflé we received more of a lava cake due to chocolate falling out, which was barely lukewarm, not thick and just overall wasn’t great and wasn’t what was expected.
I would certainly not ever go back again. Interestingly, we saw the owner/​chef walk and greet the tables, but he never got to us. Décor, seating, and ambience are all fine, nothing extra special, but they do have a large outdoor patio. Service was friendly and for the most part efficient, we just didn’t like any of his suggestions.

Came here for a paint nite event, love the outdoor patio area that you could sit in, but if I’m being honest, the food wasn’t that great.
I had the shrimp alfredo dish and though the portions were huge, it was basically just a plate of alfredo soup with a few shrimp and some linguine… unfortunately just didn’t taste that great. Maybe I just ordered the wrong food?
Service was good though, they were a bit slow to get to us but they were very friendly and did come back to check on you if you needed anything.
I wouldn’t suggest it as there’s other places in the area, but it’s a great place if you want to grab a drink and want to hang out in the sun.

If I had one word to describe this «Bookmark Saturday» night, it would be confused: confused by flavor combinations, confused by portions and ratios and confused why I stayed for the full meal!
Laina found a Living Social deal and decided to purchase it and bookmark the restaurant.
The restaurant is in a large center (
) in the back left corner. The sign is partially covered by some vegetation, so when you turn into the center, just had to the back left corner. Laina had made a 7:30 PM reservation, but upon arrival (
), we realized the reservation was unnecessary. We were immediately taken to a table near the patio, drink orders were taken and some complimentary bread and butter (
) was dropped off at the table. I was happy we were seated by the patio since one of the few highlights of the evening was watching a 3 month old Golden Retriever puppy on its first night out with the family. Yeah … a dog was one of the few highlights of our meal! The bread, on the other hand, was an extremely pedestrian version of wheat bread.
When our server Stefan returned, we needed some help deciding between the Asian Nachos and the Pulled Pork and Mango Quesadilla. Stefan recommended the quesadilla, remarking he found the nachos too sweet and the portion was probably too large for two people. We appreciated his honesty and ordered the quesadilla (
) to start our meal.
Quick note: Later we saw another group order the nachos and his comment regarding the portion seemed accurate, it was a large portion built for parties of three or more.
When the quesadilla was dropped off, we placed our entrée order. My better half went with the Filet Mignon and Spinach Ravioli and I opted for the Cajun Shrimp and Chicken (
) Linguine.
The quesadilla came out in a reasonable amount of time and was sent back in an even shorter amount of time. The quesadilla has slow roasted shredded pork, caramelized onions, fresh mango, BBQ sauce, and grated cheese with a drizzle of sour cream. We each took one bite and couldn’t believe how sweet the quesadilla was and confused by the lack of balance in the dish. There was nothing in the quesadilla to cut the «sweet assault» on my palate. More cheese (there was hardly any) and a side of sour cream would have been beneficial to this item. Another issue was the distribution of ingredients, my lovely wife’s slice was mostly made up of mango, mine was mostly onion and the other piece had most of the pork!
Rohlinism: If you have to redistribute ingredients in any restaurant, you might as well cook at home.
We found this item unpalatable and sent it back to the kitchen and Stefan removed it from the bill without question. If we didn’t have the Living Social deal, the evening would have ended right here, but we decided to soldier on and hope the entrees were better.
When the entrees arrived, more confusion ensued. My lovely wife’s ravioli didn’t have a good ratio between the spinach and filet and the ravioli was different sized and shapes. The filet was ground up to a point where it was non descript, so it might has well been ground beef or not there at all. The portion was on the smaller side, she only had five raviolis on her plate. The only noteworthy item was the sauce, which had a really good flavor and used fresh tomatoes.
My linguine was better than the ravioli, but it was not lacking issues. The chicken was overcooked and the shrimp were the small variety, not quite baby. The Andouille sausage was very good, but unfortunately the spiciness killed the flavor of everything else in dish except for the red peppers which were nice and sweet.
We decided to try to plug the holes in this sinking ship with a Warm Chocolate Soufflé Torte. But as our luck would have it, the soufflé was a fail! It wasn’t warm, it was grossly uncooked (the first fork went in and it fell apart) and reminded me more of lava cake than soufflé (confused why this is called a soufflé). The vanilla ice cream was boring and the raspberry sauce was actually pretty good. It seemed more attention was paid to the presentation and less to the menu item. The portion was also rather small.
Service was the other stand out. Stefan was very efficient and friendly and the rest of the staff was on point when refilling drinks and clearing plates!
If I was ever to return, I would be confused as to why I was there.