El Costeno

Decent food but super pricey. I like Cinco de mayo in ocean city. Lived in San Diego and I believe cinco has the closest food to there.

Great authentic food. Ask for the pico de gallo with the chips. Love the tacos and entrees. the salsa is spicy so be careful to those with a more delicate palate. Love the Tacos Lengua and the tamales. BYOB is a plus

Great authentic Mexican food. Nachos are hands down the best I’ve had and Mexican food is my favorite type of cuisine. Everyone enjoyed their dish and don’t forget to bring your own Coronas as they are a BYOB. Make room for the Tres Leches cake, which you can tell is homemade.

Excellent authentic mexican food, definitely recommended. It is a small restaurant without much seating, but does have take out. The service was good, helpful, and courteous. We enjoyed the flautas and quesadilla. The sauce was quite spicy, but I say that as fair warning for those who prefer something more mild.

Decided that we wanted Mexican and this place was exactly what we were looking for. From the chips and salsa they give immediately upon entering to the flour tortillas and the chicken and black beans. Between three people we had enchiladas, fajitas and tacos and they all tasted fantastic. In and out in 30 mins and its authentic Mexican. We will def be back!

Ordered the tacos de lenguas and they were delicious! Very authentic… only thing was that they were a little stingy with the meat, very little in there. Will have to ask for extra next time. Will be eating here again!

El Costeno is a wonderful authentic restaurant that sits just across from Clancy’s By the Bay, in Somers Point, on the way to Longport. The ambiance is simple with no decorations but the place is clean and the food is outstanding. The only reason that they are four stars instead of five is because they seem to have a temperature control problem which made the dining area quite cold, but the food itself is five stars.

As close to authentic Mexican food as you’ll find in the area. Definitely a bare bones environment, but we appreciate the tastiness of the food. The chef always comes out to check on you too. We like the chicken mole, chicken costeno, but the empanadas were very oily and salty.

I was excited to try this restaurant but VERY disappointed when we showed up 3 minutes late with our family and found they had already given away our table w/​o even so much as a phone call, an apology or an offer to wait a few minutes for the next table. They only treated us poorly and attempted to make us feel badly for wanting to give their establishment a try.
If you’re looking for a staff to treat you badly and ruin your night… this is your place.

Table was given away so make sure you are prompt. Said they called but never got messages.

My wife and I came late to a church-​sponsored chicken BBQ and all the food was gone
Boy are we glad we missed it! We found this little shop on Unilocal and decided to give it a try. We got the 2-​for-​$ 30 special. My wife got a taco/​enchilada combo and I opted for a chicken burrito. Before our entrees arrived we were treated to a shrimp cocktail appetizer — a deliciously different mélange of tomato, avocado, cilantro, and shrimp with a healthy hint of citrus flavor. The wife’s dish was simple, but tasty. I ordered a chicken burrito, expecting just that. What I got was far from ordinary! A warm tortilla surrounded an excellent blend of sautéed onions, green and yellow peppers, and juicy marinated chicken. It was bursting with plenty of flavor on its own, so I only added a bit of sour cream and the freshly made guacamole. Heavenly!
For dessert (also included!) we had a slice of «impossible cake». A masterful combination of moist chocolate cake with a layer of flan on top.
We were out the door for $ 32, and had leftovers for at least one more meal. Service was helpful and efficient. All-​in-​all a terrific alternative to what we had planned. Come early if you want to dine in as there are only 7 tables.

We were going as a large group of 7. We called ahead and were seated right away. I went with a couple who goes often. They are «regulars.» Pablo, the chef/​owner recognized them right away. He brought us a complimentary appetizer of mixed vegetables with seafood. It was a delicious way to start our meal.
One thing to add is that this restaurant is BYOB, so I recommend bringing homemade sangria and beer. It really adds to the meal and atmosphere.
I ordered shrimp tacos, which were delicious. Other meals at the table included various tacos and fajitas, as well as delicious spicy seafood. Pablo really knows how to bring the heat when you ask him!
Overall, it was a great second experience at this restaurant, and I cannot wait to return.

Man. At first I was upset because when my coworker called at 8 pm they said they closed at 10 and last order is at 9:30. So we called at 9pm and they were closed. That was a week ago. Tonight we ordered early and man am I glad we gave them a second try. I got the Mole Costeño. It was AMAZING! OMG this mole sauce is sent from the Mexican food Gods theirselves. It’s the perfect balance of spice and chocolate. The rice was cooked perfectly. The tortilla chips were fresh. The handmade soft tortillas are TOO DIE FOR. Served soft and waRm. Find someone’s mama to smack. It’s that frigging good. My friend got their chicken roll ups and wasn’t happy with it. She said the chicken was very flavorless and dry. We also got Horchata which was good. I’ve had better but if order it again.

Ordered my food at 7pm it is 8:30pm am still waiting and I live max time 10 mins from the place. when I order she never said it would be a hr if i knew it be a hr i would have ordered from El Coyote in EHT which is well worth the wait… Completely disappointed with the delivery time and will never order from here again!
I called to cancel my order and was basically told they give me a free meal next time I order I do not want a free since my first experience has been horrible! Now i have go thou my bank to file charge to get my money back and still have no food!

Although my sister and fiancé would give this place 5 stars, I wasn’t as impressed with my food as they were. I can’t remember what it was I ordered, however I remember thinking it was bland. The complimentary chips were stale in my opinion, however the salsas that accompanied them were muy deliciouso! If I were to rate this place on service alone, I would give them a 5, simply due to our 10yr old waitress who was more professional, friendly, and knowledgeable then any other waitress I’ve ever had! She was a doll baby. I will go back to give this place another try bc like I said, I was the only one of the 3 of us that went, who wasn’t impressed.

Thanks to the other reviewers on Unilocal,we found this gem. It’s turned into our go-​to place (although we haven’t eaten in, just take out). We moved from NYC so are a bit on the snobby side when it comes to good ethnic food (still trying to find a good local Indian place). We loved the enchiladas, tacos, and the chicken in Mole sauce (not spicy). The fresh corn tortillas are definitely the highlight. If I had to pick an area of weakness, I’d have to say is the meat. But, the tortillas and sauces/​salsas still make the items delicious. My husband suffers from Celiac disease and so far so good in terms of being easily able to avoid the wheat and there haven’t been any issues where he’s become ill due to cross contamination. I highly recommend.

I was excited to try this place after reading all of the great reviews on here. It wasn’t terrible, but there is a lot of room for improvement. Upon being seated, I was served complimentary chips with small ramekins of chipotle salsa and guacamole. The chips were homemade and tasty, but they would have been better if they had been served warm. The other problem was that the chips were served in one of those red plastic baskets without any liner covering the bottom. I was grossed out by the idea that there was no barrier between the chips and the basket and skipped eating the ones on the bottom. The chipotle salsa was excellent, but the guacamole lacked flavor.
I ordered a cup of the cream seafood soup, which turned out to be more the size of a bowl. The soup was supposed to contain shrimp, calamari, scallops, crabmeat, and clams, which was surprising since it was priced at just $ 5.99. However, the seafood turned out to be one baby shrimp, 2 tiny clams, zero scallops, and a good portion of calamari and imitation crabmeat. Although the broth was good, I was seriously disappointed to see imitation crabmeat in a seafood soup. I understand real crabmeat is expensive, but there simply is no excuse for serving the fake stuff and calling it crab, especially when you are a restaurant at the Jersey Shore whose name means «The Coast» in Spanish. Despite the disappointing seafood, the broth was very good.
For my entrée I ordered the chicken sopes. The portion was absolutely huge — 4 big sopes loaded with marinated grilled chicken, lettuce, cheese, black beans, and sour cream. The chicken was very good, but there seemed to be only a small amount of beans and hardly any sour cream on the sopes. The tortillas themselves were either too thick or simply cooked too long, because it was very difficult to cut into them. Ultimately, I only ended up eating two of the tortillas and scraping off the toppings from the others to eat by themselves.
The owner and his 10-​year-​old daughter served me. They were both very friendly and attentive. The restaurant is bare-​bones with little decoration, which is OK by me if the food is good. I did mind however that it was late afternoon on a chilly day and the lights were turned off, as well as it seemed like the heat wasn’t on. I was uncomfortably cold throughout my meal.

i’m not entirely sure why we waited so long to try this place. we’ve been going to Pancho’s in AC for quick and easy and DELICIOUS authentic Mexican, but that is so far. SP is much more convenient. i LOVE the fact that they have a selection of freshly made juices, like hibiscus, tamarind, horchata and more. they are such a treat.
service is sensational. the menu is huge. we had a few types of tacos and sopes. i love the red sauce they offer with the chips in the beginning; that sauce is hot and a little smoky — perfect for everything, haha. the beef sopes were GREAT. they definitely eat like a meal. in order to get a quick survey of the meats, i got two orders of tacos at the same time. one with carnitas and bistec and the other with brisket and enchilada. the carnitas/​bistec was OUTSTANDING. the other had some really touch pieces and unfortunately, it was hard to tell which was which so i’m probably going to stay away from both the brisket and enchilada, at least for the time being. there are too many other things to try anyway.
homemade tortillas crush it.
if you like cheese, like queso fresco, please realize the tacos don’t come with it. you have to ask.
we will be coming back here A LOT.

We truly enjoyed the fresh, authentic, delicious food at El Costeno. The staff is very friendly, and we had great service. We ordered Enchiladas Rojas, and Bistec (steak tacos), they were fabulous! The salsa, tacos, and tortillas taste freshly made! We will be returning again to try the interesting and varied menu!

I just had the best chicken burrito ever at this place. My boyfriend always talks about how great this place is and he is right. The service is great, the cost is reasonable, and the food is amazing.