Señor Fred

Get the bread pudding.

After a few recommendations, I decided to come here for lunch on my father’s birthday. Was a really nice atmosphere and (at least during lunchtime) was really easy to get a seat in. The margaritas? Awesome. Salsa? Awesome. Enchiladas? Awesome.
Worth a stop and a stay for some drinks.

This is not LA’s most authentic Mexican food or it’s most delicious, but Señor Fred has some very unique dishes and an upscale atmosphere.
From the moment you walk in, the restaurant has a very intimate vibe, perfect for a date or a place to go with friends. They also have a full bar and a delicious drink menu, the margaritas are some of the best and there is a large selection (I’d recommend the pomegranate!)
When it comes to food, I enjoyed the tuna tartare, quesadilla appetizer, enchiladas and steak fajitas. The food is good, but I prefer traditional Mexican whereas Señor Fred’s are a bit more «trendy’ so to speak.
The service here was incredible. When I did not enjoy my first drink, the waiter let me order another and charged me for the less expensive dish. I would certainly go back for the service alone!

Even though the Happy Hour specials are ONLY at the bar, a friend and I still decided to try this place and eat outside to enjoy the lovely weather. The food was fresh and hot. I enjoyed a lovely meal of steak tacos, which came with rice and beans. I had the mango margarita and a lemon drop martini… can’t go wrong with a nice cocktail. Nice ambiance and our waiter Darren was super nice. I would recommend this place for a nice Mexican food meal and nice cocktail.

had a friend dinner here last night, We were sat out in the patio a party of 20. everything was going great, service was awesome drink were great the chip and guacamole was good, but it all went downhill when we had our main entrée, out of nowhere worms started falling from the ceiling; on the server, a few of my friends head crawling on my friends foot we were all disgusted. the manager was very apologetic and gave us a major discount
i cant rate the food cuz we were all grossed out that nobody finished there food
i might try that place in a few years we the sour taste had faded

The situation: Saturday night, don’t know what to eat.
The solutions: Drive around and find something that looks and sounds appealing on Unilocal.
I normally don’t settle for 3.5 star restaurants when trying something new, but tonight I thought I’d give it a shot. It was between señor Fred or El Torito (where I wish I went instead).
First off, there is $ 5 valet, and you pretty much have no other parking option. Second, when we walked in, I expected a restaurant, but it was a bar/​lounge. The 2 tables outside in the front patio was where people were eating, so we joined the patio scene.
Service was friendly, I only saw 1 waitress waiting tables. The food was mediocre. Maybe I ordered the wrong meal. I had the ahi tuna salad. The tuna was disgusting. It was chewy and warm. The salad dressing was gross as well, so I used salsa as my dressing instead. The portion was big, but I skipped the tuna. I guess that’s what I get for ordering a Japanese specialty at a Mexican restaurant.
To top it all off, a WORM fell on my lap from the ceiling.
Definitely not a great impression, Fred.

My hubs and cousin came to eat here when she was in town from Seattle– LOVE THIS PLACE! We were lucky enough to have our waiter be Sammy. He took extremely good care of us!
I made reservations through Unilocal on «Open Table» and we were greeted, seated, had water and menus within seconds!
We ended up ordering the Mexican Platter for the variety, Ceviche, Flan, and the Habañero Margarita, as well as the Watermelon Margarita both blended. Oh my gosh. I kept eating and eating because it was SOOO good! The Flan was so yummy, and not «eggy.» My habañero margarita was to die for delicious– had a slow burn at the end of each sip!
Outside seemed like a good choice since we had fresh outside air, fun people watching experiences, and lovely music. It was just such a wonderful night! Inside is really gorgeous– dark ambiance, red and black décor– but outside feels like a little oasis. I highly recommend Señor Fred, and hope you get Sammy as your waiter!

For more years than I care to remember, Señor Fred has been a guilty pleasure. Once upon a time, this place would have earned a minimum 4-​star writeup, but that was a time long ago, sadly. The Parrillada de Mariscos alone kept me coming back with unhealthy frequency, but these days I do not recognize what passes for that once well-​loved dish.
So what happened? Who knows. I think a new owner appeared out of nowhere and ruined it for me. Listen, I still like the place. The service has been uniformly pleasant and professional. Sure, the servers no longer recognize me instantly (I do miss that, but it’s my fault for not being a regular anymore), and yet, they still try to do their best.
Here’s where el Señor shines: drinks, chips and salsa. The drinks (I always order a Mojito) are very nice, and always well balanced (by which I mean they have plenty of booze). They always hit the spot. I have been known to walk in at an ungodly hour, like 4 in the afternoon, and order a Mojito. The chips and salsa (a smoky, red, indescribably delicious concoction), which are brought to your table when you arrive, alone deserve 4 or 5 stars. Seriously, trust me on this.
Should you find yourself at Señor Fred during normal lunch or dinner hours, the Birria Estilo Jalisco (a slow braised lamb shank in a tasty red sauce) has always been a hit for me. The lamb shank is beautifully cooked, and easily falls right off the bone. On the dish you’ll find a very nice stuffed chili. Win win. Love love.
I desperately wish I could give Señor Fred a 4 or 5 start review. For ME, this would be an appropriate score. But my views are tainted by years of good times at my favorite booth there. The food is simply not *reliably* good anymore (except for the aforementioned Birria), so a high score would not be a fair and accurate representation to someone unfamiliar with this restaurant. And yet, I do love it there. It’s always just dark enough, cool enough, fun enough, even tasty enough to save what would otherwise be a dull afternoon in the San Fernando Valley.
Me? I’m gonna keep going to the place. That Mojito always hits me in *such* a nice way…

I would eat here again but I would never suggest it.
Food huge proportions, pf chang/​cheesecake factory style but «mexican»
very good crab enchilada but I found shell in it (a big piece) wonderful house salad — delicious with cactus and jicama. burrito ENORMOUS. chips okay, salsa pretty good. overpriced, the service was rough. waited about 30 minutes in an empty restaurant to place an order and server was grouchy.

Skinny margarita and chips and salsa were the highlights of my dinner here. The enchiladas and fajitas are very standard mexican… but at above standard mexican prices. Service was great and it definitely dissolved some of the alcohol in my stomach! If you need to eat this type of food, there are many better options in the Val.

Date night this week almost did not happen. Work and the stresses that are life almost prevented us from going out and trying this new to us establishment.
Anyhow, it did and of course thanks to Unilocal,I found Señor Fred. We were in a spicy mood and felt like a margarita or two after a hard week of work. Having pretty much exhausted all of our option here in Burbank, we have started to branch out into Studio City and Sherman Oaks. There is a lot happening on Ventura Blvd.
Valeted the car out front, walked through a small but lovely patio area to the host area. She was happy, energetic, welcoming and showed us to a table right away. We decided on the patio, it was a nice warm spring night and we have both spent far too much time indoors as of late.
A Cadillac Margarita for him, and a nights dream for me. My nights dream was sweet, and masked the Chambord and tequila nicely. I actually had two. ;-)
My fellas beverage was tasty as well, a traditional Cadillac. We munched on the chips and salsa, while we sipped our cocktails and took in the first of many warm nights. Our server, whose name I have forgotten, was awesome. As soon as I find the receipt with his name on it I will be updating this post for sure. He recommended an order of guacamole, we took it and ordered that brain food. When it arrived we noticed the sheer size alone, at least four avocados worth of guac, that is a lot of guac. We did manage to take it down though.
For dinner I went for the conchinita pibil, which is slow achiote marinated pork, slow roasted in a banana leaf. Oh My Goodness, SOME OF THE BEST PORK EVER! It fell apart at the mere suggestion of my forks presence. It was tender, spicy, succulent and making me hungry all over again! I will dream of that pork, and will probably end up trying to make it, and not succeeding very well.
Anyhow, back to the food, my Fella had the Fajitas, that’s his go to Mexican food classic. A mound of asada that could easily have been split between two people. I reached over and stole a piece, and man oh man did it blow my mind. I always know it is a great meal if we have the look in our eye like we want to talk but there is no way that we’re stopping to say anything, cause it’s too good. We are both such foodies, this had become our unwritten dinner time law, we have plenty of time to talk after, while we split a dessert and a few cups of coffee. Which is exactly what we did.
A round of Irish coffees, after having been steered in that direction by our server who subtly conveyed that the Mexican coffee wasn’t great and often gets sent back. I was torn between the banana bread pudding and the chocolate Kahlua cake for dessert. I asked the server again for his recommendation and immediately let him decide. At that point I knew he would make the right choice.
The Banana bread pudding won, and so did I. It was so good, I will have blissful dreams about eating this without the consequence of it going straight to my lower extremities. We took our time with dessert and coffee, we paid our bill and sat wrapping up another fantastic evening with one another. The server came out and personally thanked us and shook our hands. I felt like he was having a rough night and our tip I am sure helped to turn it around. I will find out his name, because service this good can not go without reward.

I had been looking high and low for a nice place to go for a date and served happy hour. This place was amazing! My date and i had 2 drinks and two appetizers during happy hour. I had a blended Passion Fruit Margarita which was sweet and had a good amount of liquor. Second i had a White Sangria, which was just ok. It was fruity and had chunks of pineapple in it, which i liked. It was very strong though, and it got me tipsy real quick. My date had a Margarita Especial. i think that’s what it was called. I was a lovely color because of the Blue Curaçao and really strong! Then he had a Dos Equis. We had the Tingas and a Chicken Gordita. They were both really good and had lots of flavor.
After happy hour we moved over to the Dinning section to have a nicer meal and fancier drinks. We were not disappointed. I ordered a Cucumber Jalapeño Margarita. It was very strong but very refreshing! My date had a Mai Tai which was nice and strong. Then we had the Salmon. OH MY GOODNESS the SALMON! it was absolutely amazing! It was a grilled Salmon steak sitting on top of a bed of mashed potatoes and baby shrimp. If you go to Señor Fred, you HAVE to try the Salmon, if you are a fan of the stuff.
Overall it was great but my date and I both noticed something rather small and odd. The limes that were being used to garnish our drink must have been at least 2 days old. They were dry and stiff and not good for squeezing. But other than that, I had a wonderful experience and i would definitely go there again and recommend it to my friends!

Went here on a Saturday night for dinner.
LOCATION/​PARKING: Its on Ventura Blvd and there is street parking or you can pay a few bucks for the valet.
AMBIANCE: It’s a cool lil vibe upon entering with couches/​a lounge type area in the bar, in addition to the bar stools of course. We sat in the booth by the bar, which our friend requested when he made the reservation. The restaurant side looked nice though. Its got a fancier flare and probably b/​c of their prices.
FOOD & DRINK: The food was attempting to get too fancy and the prices matched their attempts. Unfortunately, nothing was amazing that wasn’t liquid. The margaritas were enjoyable and they have those big bowls you can share, but I was driving and only had one strawberry marg.
Bottom Line — Decent food (not spectacular) and man does the price add up quick! I’d probably go for drinks or happy hour, but not for a general meal unless it’s payday. ;-)

So we ended up going back to try happy hour.
Drink wise, hmmm. I ordered a $ 5.50 classic mojito and it wasn’t really muddled, just a few leaves of mint and a wedge of lime. Maybe that is classic style? At frist sip it tasted of alcohol but then it faded away. A friend tried it and said it tasted of mint water which was even odder considering the lack of mint.
The $ 3.50 beers are good as was the sangria and margaritas.
We tired the shrimp tacos, sweet potato sopes with chicken and the beef tingas all $ 3.50. I liked the tingas, wasn’t a fan of the sopes and never tried the tacos.
Staff were at times attentive but as seems to be the norm, prefer to hang out with themselves and their friends. I will upgrade them one star to three.
Please note, before 8pm you need to pay at a meter and you can’t park in the residential areas after 6pm.

Went by for Happy Hour. Señor Fred has a good selection of appetizers on their happy hour menu.
The bar area is actually a very good size, and can fit a large party. The bartender was nice and very helpful. We got seats on their couch area. I had a margarita and tacos.
Parking in the area is okay, you just have to read the signs. I parked on a side street and fed the meter so it was okay.
I looked inside the restaurant when I was there, and would definately like to come back and try a full meal. The happy hour food and drinks were very good and made me want to try more.

I do think the atmosphere is cool, the service was not bad however the food… not so good.
The guacamole was bad, the chicken mole enchiladas were very dry and the sauce was horrible. The tacos were edible at best but only ate them because I was starving.
I was going to send everything back but my boyfriend talked me out of it for some reason but later regretted that decision so I ended up only sending back the enchiladas and we shared the tacos.
Here is the big question:
IF YOU CONTINUALLY GET BAD REVIEWS ON YOUR FOOD WHY WOULDN’T YOU DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE THAT???

Walked into this place and got seated right away by a very unhappy looking hostess. The restaurant was dark and empty. Took a little while for the waitress to come around, don’t see a reason why, the place was empty!
We ordered a beer and the pomegranate mojito. A beers a beer, but the mojito was too strong, and not that great. I shared it with my boyfriend and between us two, we couldn’t finish it. Strong drinks could be great if they tasted okay, but this one not so much.
Our appetizer was pretty good, we had the flautas. The dinner entrees were so-​so. I ordered the ‘Ensalada De Pollo’ which was under dressed, and the chicken was SO unbelievably dry. The flavor of the salad was great though! Don’t remember the name of what my boyfriend ordered, but he seemed to love it. He finished everything on his plate. We both also had a dessert, the flan and churros. Both of which were great.
Now my problem with this place was the waitress, she took too long to greet us, was sitting down at chatting at the bar for 90% of our meal. The meal would have been much more enjoyable if she didn’t take forever to come ask what we needed (and we did want a few extra things which took forever to be taken care of).
And lastly she brought our bill said «no rush» and didn’t return for a very long time. We were both clearly done when she brought the bill. But for some reason I guess she thought it would take us over 15 mins to produce money for the check. Good thing she was really nice, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have left a tip.

THE SANGRIAAAAAAAA!
Ugh, if you want some of the best sangria there is, that literally tastes like candy… come to Señor Freds! Located right off Venturq Blvd. in the heart of Sherman Oaks, Señor Freds is a perfect spot for late night drinks, happy our or group outing. A pitcher of sangria is about $ 30 and you can easily share 2 glasses amongst 4 people. The food here is a little pricey, but good. I always order the vegetarian enchildas which are awesome!
Outdoor and indoor seating. There is a full bar & booth seating. Dark and intimate ambience. Valet or street parking.

HAPPY HOUR «YES» — FOOD «NOT SO MUCH»
Cool peeps, great enclosed patio, great décor in the bar, nice bartenders and servers… but the food is highly mediocore. I’ve gone three times, and unless it is for a drink/​chips/​salsa, I ain’t gonna do it again! In summary, bar yes, food no.
== HAPPY HOUR ==
Mon-​Fri 3pm to 7pm; and late night Fri — Sat 11:00pm — 2am (that’s awesome)
– Mixed drinks: $ 5.50 — Classic Margarita, Passion Margarita, Yucatan Sangria, Sour Apple Martini, Classic Mojito.
– Wine: $ 5.50 — house Cabernet; house Chardonnay.
– Beers: $ 3.50 — Bohemia, Corona, Corona Light, Dos Equips, Pacifico, Sol, and Tecate.
– Appetizers: $ 3.50 — Sopes, Tingas, Flautas, Taquitos, Gorditas.
== FOOD ==
In fact, I had the worst chicken fajitas of all time here. The chicken wasn’t grilled and served on a sizzling platter. Instead, it was chopped small in a white-​ish sauce (or juice) and served in a bowl, which made it taste similiar to chinese rather than mexican. Seriously, it was yuck. I had a decent chopped chicken salad, and a combo plate (taco/​enchilada/​rice/​beans) which was okay.
With so many other choices for dining in the Sherman Oaks /​Studio City area… why must I settle for ‘okay’ food?
== CONCLUSION ==
The BAR area is great — stick to the bar, and/​or for Happy hour. and you’ll be great, too.

Food is decent and waaaay overpriced. Señor Fred is good for drinks and ambiance.
The Queso Fundido and Guacomole are pretty good.
I have had the Mahi Mahi Tacos and those were dry and flavorless. They drizzled some «avocado sauce» on top of the tacos which did not taste like much.
The Enchiladas de Papas Suizas are pretty good (With potato, onion, Mexican cheeses, tomatillo sauce and sour cream).
Enchiladas de Mole… flavors were not amazing but just ok (Chicken enchiladas with Oaxacan mole sauce topped with queso fresco and sour cream).
The drinks here are pretty good. I really like the Watermelon Margarita, Cadillac Margarita and the Pina Colada.
Mediocre Mexican food but with good drinks and ambiance. I would recommend this place if you want to grab a couple of apps and drinks with friends.