Carlos O’Brien’s

Favorite Mexican restaurant! Even though they’re always very busy we always get in and get our food quickly. I always get the chimichanga because theirs is the best.

I first went to Carlos O’Briens for a staff luncheon and actually found the food to be better than expected. Since then, it’s become sort of a default choice whenever we’re in no mood to take a risk on a new Mexican restaurant.
The layout of this place has always fascinated me, as I’m convinced that it wasn’t a restaurant in its prior life. Perhaps a dance club of some kind, but all of the levels and separate rooms of this place just seem kind of strange, yet charmingly unique, even if the whole décor does seem very dated by today’s standards. I asked a server once if he knew what was in the building before Carlos (if any), but he didn’t seem to know.
Because of the various seating options, including large tables that accommodate big groups, this place seems to be a very popular spot for large family gatherings.
As for the food itself, I’m actually a big fan of their chimi con queso, recently finding that substituting the chicken out with shredded beef makes it even better. They also offer up some decent enchiladas. Chips and salsa are pretty standard, while their fried ice cream desert isn’t the best we’ve had in compared to places like PoPo’s.
Portions are very generous, food is pretty decent, and service has always been fast. They seem to run a much better operation over here in comparison to the location over on Scottsdale 101, but that’s another story for another day. Overall, I don’t really feel there’s anything that Carlos does that’s better or worse than its competitors.
Recommended as a mostly reliable Mexican restaurant on those nights when you can’t come to a decision on anything else.

Food was Excellent. Price was Great.
Food was loaded with Flavor. Me and my Wife Highly recommend.

One of my go to restaurants for many years until they opened another closer to my house
I pretty much get the #9 combination with a green burro and substitute the tostada with another taco to give me 2 tacos.
I love their open face cheese crisp and the Pollo Fundido which are 2 chicken chimichangas with sour cream and cheese on top.
Their complementary chips and salsa are great but don’t eat too much before your meal arrives so you.
This is my go to mexican restaurant when my family can’t decide where to go even though my kids don’t care for mexican food a great deal.
I could probably eat here everyday if I could.

I’ve been coming to this location for years and I hope in my lifetime this place doesn’t go away. The food is fantastic and have never had bad service. The hostesses are courteous and pleasant. For anyone coming from out if town, I recommend this place and I will continue to frequent this eatery.

This is my favorite place! The salsa is great! They are quick and friendly and I’ve never had a problem! My family and I have gone here for years. The tamles and chimichangas are great. The tacos are good but expensive. The margaritas are great and cheap!

Since we were in the area, we decided to try out this restaurant. My parents remembered it from their younger days and so we decided to try it out. The restaurant is very large. It is nice and the waiters were helpful. The food was decent. It didn’t taste bad, but it wasn’t quite the quality I was hoping for.
As a vegetarian, I ordered the burrito grande and asked for vegetables instead of meat. I wasn’t disappointed by what they substituted: onions, green peppers, and evens potatoes and carrots (that must have been the Irish side of the restaurant).
TLDR: Nice facility, decent food, but I think I’ll try a few more places before I come back.

Well to say the least the place is dated 80’s 90’s look. It has a dirty feel to it. As for food… The chips they brought us tasted bland and were t my favorite. The spinach enchiladas was palatable but nothing to write him about. My partner had the Pollo fondido was dry inside and wasn’t fried long enough either as it was mushy. We won’t be back again as there are many other Mexican places that are much better.

Great service and the drinks are always good. Food Is pretty good and you get a large amount for the cost. The booze is a little more than most but they do taste good.

Been going here for years but I find myself enjoying the quality of food less and less. Went to the new location tonight and it is a beautiful restaurant. Here’s my breakdown
Pros
Server was friendly and attentive
Refills of salsa were consistent and before we had to ask
Large portions
Bar seating allows full menu Service
Fun, cheerful atmosphere
Cons
Chips are bland and flavorless
Food is drowning in cheese-​so much so that it «Americanizes» the dish
Flavors are bland and cheesy
Cheese Crisp is cheese melted on a tortilla. So many places crisp them and they are so much better
Spanish rice was gummy and flavorless

This is an old Phoenix stand by and the portions are huge. I have been ordering the machaca chimi for at least 30 years, it’s still wonderful. The tacos are still the best in Phoenix because they are filled with so much meat, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes.
My favorite menu item is still the chili conqueso. Don’t fill up on chips without ordering some.

Called in a catering order for my son’s birthday party. Couldn’t have been easier. Dave took my order and was very thorough to ensure I understood exactly what was included and how it would be delivered. He called on the day to confirm details and arrived right on time. I couldn’t have asked for better service.
The food was good, too. We had mini tacos, flautas, plus green corn tamales and pollo fundido. Everything was hot, flavorful. Came with generous amounts of chips, salsa, rice and beans. I ordered black beans instead of refried and they were awesome, too! I ordered a bit extra and my family loved taking home some leftovers.
I considered a couple of different options for Mexican food catering and prices were pretty comparable. So glad I chose Carlos, as the food and service were terrific. Dinner was just as good as when we visit the restaurant — YUM!

I visited this place back in November and now I’m back in town, can’t wait to order again.

This is a old time family fave! Really good Mexican food! Very popular spot and a must try!

The food and staff are always very good. I order something I did not like and they took it back and got me something different. They were very apologetic management came over asked if he could sit down and and talk to me about the issue wrote down why I did not like the meal after I got my new food came back again and made sure I was happy with it and bought me a desert. Outstanding service. Will be back

By far one of the best places to get Mexican food. Been going here for over 15 years with family. Happy Hour prices are great especially with drink specials. But overall the staff do a very good job on service, nothing to complain about.

I’ve been coming to this place for over 15 years is a wonderful Mexican restaurant the food is very good and the price is incredible and their plates are enormous.

I had a terrible craving for Mexican food the other night, and found myself in this complex doing miscellaneous shopping. So my son and I wandered over to this restaurant, having not been before, just recognizing the name. Walking in, it felt large and clean. It took a while to be seated, and when we did we were put in a corner booth. The waitress was nice, but short with her words. I ordered the chicken chimi with red sauce, and got my son the bean burrito kids meal. Food was just okay. I find myself only coming on here to write so so reviews, and maybe that’s not fair as im picky! Probably due to being stuck in a corner booth, the waitress didn’t check on us once, and I had to flag her down to get my bill. I suppose if you live in the neighborhood it would be okay to check out, but I wont be back. There are too many other authentic places in town to come here.

3.5 stars actually. This location is HUGE! I mean HUGE! The area that we were in for my friend’s party held a good 60+ of us with no problem. Although the service was great and the food was ok but the lighting was terrible. That was my only gripe. Where the food was set up for the party, was not in a well lit area at all. Could you see? Yes but it was VERY dark compared to not only the rest of the restaurant but even the area where we could sit and mingle. If they would have set this up in a different area, then I could easily give this a good solid 4 stars. All in all great service considering it was a party of 60+.

Was my 1^st time at Carlos O’Brien’s, it was a friends 40^th birthday dinner and this is her favorite place to go. I went with high expectations because she has told me over and over the past few years how good this place is.
I arrived couple minutes after everyone was there and saw that the party (there was about 25 of us) was broken sort of into you, half the party down one side and other wrapped around the middle and the birthday girl was kind of not at either tables, just in the middle of the 2, which made it difficult for conversations to flow, you could talk to your half of the table, but if you want to talk with those on the other side of the restaurant, get up and walk over their then, needless to say, I stayed where I was at and talked amongst my fellow friends on my side, kept giving the bday girl a shout out and drinks to let her know we are here to party!
Let’s start with the salsa, their where 2 types, a pico de gallo and a hotter blend, which reminded me more of a smoky chipotle sauce. Well the pico looked great, but had absolutely no flavor, no pepper, no onion, no tomato flavor, not even the cilantro, which is my favorite ingredient to cook with, had flavor, even if you added salt and pepper to it, it didn’t help. The hotter of the two did have a nice smoky chipotle taste to it, so that was the one I went with it.
I went with the filet of Salmon with mango salsa with Spanish rice and black beans. The fish was perfectly cooked, and even though the top of the fish appeared to have some sort of rub on it, it too was lacking in flavor, I tossed on the mango salsa to see if that would help and sadly it did not, no flavor at all. I topped it with the smoky chipotle to give some sort of flavor and appearance that I’m not eating mush. The rice and beans were perfectly cooked, no issues there. Had this dish had flavor to it, it would have been amazing, but nope it did not.
Now like I said we were spilt into 2 along one sided booth table things from one end of the room to the other, and there was apx 25 if not more of us. But by the time my end of the table had gotten their food, the other half was already paying and leaving. It was not because I was late; I got their in time for orders to be taken. This was poor planning on the server’s behalf, half the party had ready left by the time we got our bills. I was bummed because I was wanting to catch up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while and poof she was gone. I wanted to like this place, but I’m afraid I am a onetime diner here.