La Bamba

This place is fantastic! The al pastor has big pieces of pineapple and is seasoned perfectly. The house made chips are crispy, not greasy. Everything is fresh and delicious. I wish we lived closer!

Went here on a tip from Ken of South End Surf and Paddle in Beach Haven. He said the place will be empty but the food is excellent, and he was dead on. Arrived around 8:45pm on a Tuesday night. The place was vacio but the food was excellente! The service couldn’t have been nicer and more welcoming. Three of us had burritos and one had a quesadilla. Large portions packed with flavor. Much fresher and tastier than anything you’ll get at Chipotle or Mad Mex. Ask for the homemade red and green chile sauce. On the way out we learned that they have breakfast only on the weekends. We will be back for that.

I have to say I have never written a bad review about a restaurant. I have a dairy and soy allergy and recently visited here. I asked the waiter to see certain items has dairy and soy in them. Came out and told me everything was cooked in soybean oil. That was it nothing else. No offer to simply grill a piece a piece of chicken or shrimp from the chef, nothing. Every restaurant I’ve been to has managed to do something. I’ve been to busy busy restaurants and they always have something. It was very quiet and only 5 tables. The rest of my family did enjoy their meals while I sat and watched…

Always stop here if were in town on a job. After a hard days dive, La Bamba hits the spot.
I’m a burrito fan. Al pastor. It was really good and tasty. Just the right amount of hot and sweet.
Chicken tostados were good. Not a huge fan of thigh meat but they made it taste good.
Salsa are good and freshly made.
…and they have el yucateco hot sauce. MY FAVORITE!.. Green more than red

First time here. Stopped in for breakfast. I was the only one in the joint. Good solid 4 stars. Good first impression. Place was clean with a colorful atmosphere.
The service was good. I feel there should be more people in there for breakfast. The huevos rancheros were really good. As a personal preference i would have liked the corn tortilla on the bottom to be more crispy. If it was i would have given them 5 stars.
I will have to come back with the family for dinner sometime soon.

When you order a California burrito and it should contain fried potatoes, the last thing expected is frozen crinkle cut fries! Besides that, unlike most of the reviews, I didn’t think the food was that great. The tortilla chips were stale. The fajitas were extremely greasy.

Everything food wise is good here! They have a lot of options and usually will be flexible with whatever your wants or needs are. A few times though, because of the language barrier, orders have been messed up and have caused my family to refrain from eating all together or sometimes at all. It is frustrating when you ask for no cheese but get cheese anyway, things like this. Food though is very tasty!

So La Bamba probably would be a solid 3.5 elsewhere, but have to give them the 4 for being the only «real» authentic Mexican we have found near LBI and for the great friendly service.
Typically I would have gone straight for the mole (which is how I test all Mexican joints) but being at the beach and having read the reviews, felt I had to rock the fish tacos. Personally I prefer grilled fish tacos but went for their fried version and the wife went for the chicken enchiladas suizas. You get four rather large fish tacos with big slices of avocado on top. The flavor is good but boy oh boy are they greasy. That topped with the mountain of free chips and salsa (really tasty red and green options)…and the guac I ordered I was feeling pretty stuffed rest of the day. The wife’s enchiladas were fresh and filling.
Like nearly every place at LBI it is BYOB (woohoo). LexMex is still our go to for beach «mexican» but La Bamba offers a more authentic Sunset Park-​ish option.

Don’t go there for the décor — enjoy the paella and the tacos!
Honestly — service could use a tune-​up though.

I’ve heard a lot about this restaurant, and finally had an opportunity to check it out today. After we were seated, our server promptly brought us a nice size dish of chips with a red salsa and green salsa. In addition, we ordered an appetizer of Bamba Nachos. What came out was a super sized dish of chips covered in pico de galo, chili, sour cream, cheese, and an abundance of lettuce. This was enjoyable, if not great. This dish was enough to satisfy a party of four, and there only two of us, so you can imagine how big this was. For dinner, I had fajita de Marisco. This huge fajita was described as having shrimp, scallops, fish, pico, lettuce and guacamole. In reality the fajita that I had was huge, but filled mostly with rice. It had two med/​small shrimp, one small scallop and a ton of rice. The seasoning was good, and the dish was certainly filling, but not what I expected. My daughter had a steak fajita, and hers was similar to mine, in that there was little in the way of steak.
The service was friendly and attentive. We arrived at around 5:30, and there weren’t many customers. Given all I heard about this restaurant, my expectations were pretty high. I wasn’t incredibly impressed, but I’ll probably stop in again. Maybe this was just an off night.
Fajita de Marisco

Pretty good. Not the best, but definitely good enough for a return visit. We arrived a little before 8 o’clock and it wasn’t too busy. We are outside and enjoyed a nice sunset.
The waitress was very nice and attentive. Great chips with two kinds of salsa. I ordered the chicken fajitas which were delicious. Fresh made tortillas!!!

Not gonna lie– we walked in and I thought, «uh-​oh…» Wanna-​be, try-​too-​hard, overpriced Mexican. One bite of ANY of the dishes ordered by our crew of seven changed my mind. This was authentic, sloppy, well-​executed, and perfectly spiced fare. My son ordered a sandwich with steak and beans and cheese that was insane– I’m not a sandwich eater but the bread was perfection and the ratio to toppings was perfectly balanced. My chilaquiles (split this huge $ 14.99 plate which also included rice and beans and choice of soup or salad!) were amazing– well spiced steak and perfectly-​cooked eggs over medium atop a platter of tortilla triangles swimming in red sauce, topped with cotija cheese, sliced onions and radishes, drizzled with crema. Choose the chicken tortilla soup– balanced flavor and chock full of vegetables and chicken. One criticism– the chips and salsa, complimentary, would have been much improved (salsas were fresh and crunchy and well seasoned) — with better chips. Likely house-​made, these chips were heavy and unsalted, and since they were cold, adding table salt didn’t help. It didn’t stop us from devouring a hefty portion with that yummy salsa, though!

I’d agree with most all the previous reviews but just wanted to add…
The menu is very diverse… I’d describe it as a mix of authentic Mexican and seafood Mexican… This also sets up for a diverse price tag…
The seafood entrees can approach $ 30, non seafood entrees can be less than $ 10…
The tortilla soup was fabulous…

I went here for lunch today with a few friends, and we all enjoyed our food very much. Not only is it fairly inexpensive, it is also authentic and great tasting!
I had quesadillas. They were HUGE and were filled just the right amount. All of us enjoyed the free chips and salsa (s) that came before our food as well. The service was pretty good, too. No complaints. Overall, this is a great place and I would visit again.

The food was excellent, everything was fresh and very tasteful, but the SERVICE was horrible. I speak Spanish and we were the only ones in the establishment. They were chatting away we waited 30 minutes for our check, and when asked if we wanted it, it was more of a bother than anything else. So not happy about the in house service AT ALL but I may get take out.

Best burrito Mexicano (with chorizo) I ever had in NJ. Fresh veggies, good spice, but not so generous on the chorizo. Hubs loved the chorizo tacos (equally good spice as mine, just more meat) with a side of refried beans. But the chips were cold, and salsa is just ok. Service was sub par at lunch, and with so many negatives I’d have to give the place 3 stars. HOWEVER, if it were a rating based solely on the main course, I’d give it a 5.

Honestly wouldn’t ever go back. We do not ever give bad reviews on Unilocal,but I feel like we didn’t eat at the same restaurant that everyone keeps raving about on here.
Pro: friendly server, great chips and salsa, cheap prices overall for the area.
Con: very slow service (was only one other table in the restaurant and it took forever to get service), the chicken enchiladas were awful, had a hard time even eating them because of how dried out the meat was, the chicken burrito was ok at best. The rice and beans were nothing to rave about as well.
There is an amazing little spot up right off the Parkway that I would suggest stopping at.

We’d heard from a friend that this would be a good new restaurant to try. Not sure how long it’s been in business, but we were looking for good Mexican food.
As Guy Fieri would say…‘Shut the front door!‘
La Bamba offers this and more! The wait staff is extremely friendly and helpful while we asked alot of questions as their menu is extensive. Our waitress, Aurelia, patiently answered our questions and helped us make selections. We shared two appetizers, Camarones con Coco’ (Coconut Shrimp) and Pastor Skewer’s –marinated pork cubes, pineapple chunks skewered and grilled. The shrimp were delicious, and the dipping sauce was different than anything we had ever tasted. The two appetizers were enough for the 4 of us!
Our meals were even more delicious! We highly recommend the Lime Scallops, Red Snapper (whole fish!), Quesadilla De Tinga (Shredded Chicken) and Quesadillas de Carne Asada (Shirt steak, fried onions peppers and cilantro). More food than we could eat, so we’ll have to come back to try the fried ice cream and platanos.
This restaurant is the real deal… every dish has a unique taste, the staff is wonderful, the price is very reasonable, and you can BYOB. We think we’ll have to call Guy Fieri to check it out, too!

The special lobster tacos were great! They forgot an appetizer, but after we had our chips and salsa, salads, and huge dinners it was probably a good thing. Great stop after the beach!

The food is amazing and the prices are reasonable. The food tastes very authentic and the staff could not be friendlier. We came here often when our kitchen was under construction and the staff got to know us so well the cook sent out special recipes for us to try. I recommend the tacos arabes and fajitas… DELICIOUS! I also like how the chips and salsa comes with both red and green salsas.