Cabritos Mexican Bistro

I’ve actually enjoyed this place, and am very bummed it will be moving out of the location at the end of August. The fresh squeezed lime Margaritas, corn tortillas, and guacamole are among the best I’ve had. Good Luck in your new location in San Jose.

Whoever created Cabrito’s tortilla recipe needs to be canonised. Holy mamacita.
Five plus stars for the superb home-​made corn tortillas. None of this cereal board thin round supermarket stuff. These were fluffy, thick, hand-​made manually pressed, hot from the cooker… O.M.G.
Hands down, the most delectable tortillas I’ve ever gobbled up. Fabuloso. Yeah yeah I know that may be a laundry brand, but the tortillas were so hella fab– uh, ok, incidentally another laundry brand. Anyway. So freaking insanely yummy.
They do have a cabrito (goat) kebab. I was intrigued. If I make it to the S.J. digs they’re moving to, maybe I’ll imbibe a few ‘ritas to get enough courage to order it.
Fresh lime juice through and through in the Lime Margarita. I think it could have used more tequila.
Atmosphere was a bit lacking. I don’t know if it was because they were half moved out of the building, or what, it just felt spartan with minimum festive décor. There is a dance floor and karaōke mic, for those daring enough. They kind of blast the muzak.
Salsa served with basket of white tortilla chips was great and had a real kick. It especially goes well with their home-​made corn tortillas. Mmmmm-​mmm.
Carnitas were different than what I usually see at other Mexican places. Not a whole lot of colour or caramelisation, and a little on the dry side, but not dried out. It still tasted pretty good.
Mole was chicken on the bone, which in this case were small-​ish drumsticks. They really kind of stinted on chicken meat.
Portions were not particularly huge, but sufficient.
Dinners come with standard refried beans, cheese melted on, rice, plus some salad.
The corn tortillas were the star of my meal. I could *not* stop gobbling them.
You need to go to Cabritos for these things alone. Mas y mas!
:-]

Very bad news! Drove by today 8÷30÷2011. They are closed. Looking in the window, everything is gone. Too bad.

Excellent goat, Excellent service, Excellent everything except now they’ve closed this restaurant and moving to San Jose. I’ll have to try them out in San Jose to see if anything has changed.
Until then… to be continued…:)

First of all, I must say my fam and I were hungry and craving Mex food for lunch. So our collective review my be slightly biased! We just got done with shopping at Ross and were on the hunt for Mex food. Lo and behold we came across cabritos and we Unilocaled it. Errr, 3 stars? Less than 100 reviews? My snooty Unilocal nose went up… but gosh darn it, it was so darn colorful! We decided to go against our Unilocal standards and were happy we did!
Pros
Delicious n spicy salsa (complimentary chips n salsa)
Enchiladas!!!
Friendly service (albeit we were 1:3 guests)
Cons
Asi asi beans
Just as we found a great Mex place, we found out it’s moving to downtown sj… sad face
Conclusion
Liked the food and service but downtown sj is too far for us. It is good, but not good enough for the drive with gas prices and all. I’m just saying…

I want to gather all the paisas in my family, bring them here, get shitty drunk, and sing Vicente Fernandez songs all night.
¡AYE!

Let me start by saying that I went there early on an off night (a Monday evening). So unless you consider a huge open area with lots of wooden chairs and tables that could very well be in a structure you’d normally expect to find in Sonora, Mexico to be ambiance, there is none. Authentic perhaps. Ambiance, no. The waitress had been working there for a day and did not know the menu. The Dos Equis beer advertised by the neon signs is not sold there.
That said, there is a huge dance floor that probably gets a lot of action during peak times. Pity I missed it.
The food was good and everything I expected (not El Torrito or Casa Maria). I prefer dining experiences so I am not sure I would return.

I went here today for mothers day and it had to be one of the worst experiences in my life. We waited about 45 mins to get our order taken and another hour for our food to come out. I know it is mothers day and they were very busy but dam! To top it off they brought out most of the tables food except mine, my sister, and my grandmothers. Than he comes out with mine and my grandmothers food but not my sisters plate (witch was a child’s cheese enchilada). It took them another 20 mins before he came out with her plate. I asked the owner of the restaurant why are you having our waiter bus tables instead of getting my sister’s food? She did not say anything.
Than it took him another 30 mins to total our bill. The bartender (witch is the owner) over charged my mom for a pitcher of NASTY Margaritas! The whole time we were there I saw the owner taking shots after shot at the bar. I bet she was trying to make back the money she drank by over charging my mom. The waiter was not sorry or said nothing to make our horrible experience any better. The owner does not know what she is doing. Get a hostess and get organized. Geeze there were people seating them selves and of course the servers are gonna fall behind when there is no control and to how many tables there serving.
Now the food was nasty. The carne asada was over cooked and the chile verde was very bland. Not authentic Mexican food at all. My aunt order a Chavela that came back with pepper flakes in it. If you have ever had a Chavela there is no pepper flakes in a Chavela! This place better get a bartender soon or the owner is gonna drink all there profits away!
THIS PLACE IS A SHIT HOLE!
I will never eat or drink at this place again. I do not recommend this restaurant to anyone. With hard times likes these and money is short do not waste your money on shitty food and service.

This is a family favorite. The Carnitas are wonderful, not too many places serve goat so I don’t have anything to compare it too but we like it.
The corn tortillas are hand made, there good but I have had better.
Love the Margarita’s are to die for. And I am so glad they know what a Michelada (spelling?) is.
My Hubby loves the Steak Quesidillas.
The service can be on the slow side but its no different than when you go to Mexico, so all in all not bad.
We are not in to the Entertainment that is often booked here so I dropped a star for that. We don’t karaōke, an amplified full Mariachi (spelling?) band is a bit too much for the space (you can’t here yourself think, let alone the person sitting next to you screaming in your ear at the top of their lungs), and I don’t get the polka band at a Mexican restaurant.

Cabritos is Spanish for terrible! :P
Ate here today for my grandmother’s birthday party. I purposely didn’t read too many of the reviews so they wouldn’t influence my opinion, but it turns out it didn’t matter.
DECOR: The place looks like they bought the cheapest paint possible. The paintings were some of the worst art I’ve ever seen. For some weird reason, the table we sat at was the ONLY one with no blind by the window so the sun killed the meal for my grandma :(
FOOD: I purposely didn’t eat all day so I would be hungry and hopefully make the food taste better. Didn’t work.
–The chips were stale AND greasy WITH a nasty aftertaste. The salsa was horribly watered down and not tasty at all.
–I had Chile Verde and it tasted like it came from a cafeteria. Absolutely no kick or flavor at all.
–The flour tortillas were DEFINITELY NOT home made and quite bland.
–Even the lemonade didn’t taste like lemon. It tasted like sugary water.
SERVICE: It came and it went. Sometimes the waitress paid attention, other times we saw her chatting with the bartender instead of bringing us what we asked for. They took so long making the food, by the time it came out my grandma changed her mind what she wanted LOL
ALL IN ALL: Horrible restaurant. I’m lucky I didn’t get sick to my stomach.
AVOID !

Caveat: I’m sorry Silicon Valley… I’m from LA. I had high hopes. They were dashed.
Pros: Authentic, live mariachi music
Cons: Wayyyy loud
Otherwise, there is no non-​meat options, the margaritas are sorta good (not great), the chips aren’t fresh & warm (I’m guessing out of a bag), and the salsa is in the same league as the margs… sorta good, not great.
By LA standards, this place is sub-​El Cholo, where I wouldn’t go unless I was asked. So, I’m sorry Cabritos. You’re cute from the outside and your staff are sweet, but you need to up your Mexican game if I am to return.

I went here a few months ago with a friend for a late lunch/​early dinner (3:30ish) We were the only people in the restaurant which made us a little leary of how it was going to be, but to our suprise everything was really good I had shrimp fajitas and my friend had chicken enchiladas. Everything was very tasty, the décor was really bright and fresh it reminded me of my last trip to Ixtapa.
The only reason I gave this rating 3 stars is because the service was slow, they messed up our check three times with a party of two and us being the ONLY people in the restaurant it shouldnt have been so difficult.

Let me first say that there are many Mexican restaurants in Silicon Valley but in my opinion very few with eating at. I’m not talking about getting a burrito or taco for that there are plenty of good ones out there. But try to find a good enchilada with a flavorful and properly spiced sauce and the numbers dwindle to a handful.
This place is huge inside they have a large dance floor and have live music on selected nights. The tables and chairs are comfortable and the service is good.
I was happy to find that Cabritos knows their food. The chips are fresh and not greasy and the pico de gallo was flavorful with just the right amount of heat.
I ordered the chicken enchilada and a vegie tostada combination. The enchilada had plenty of DELICIOUS red sauce just the right amount of cheese and the chicken was moist and flavorful. My tostada came with a perfectly fried corn tortilla, refried beans, a bed of lettuce topped with some wonderfully roasted vegies, guacamole and cheese. It was very good!
My buddy had the carne asada which he said was a tad dry but very flavorful.
In the Sunnyvale/​Santa Clara area this is definitely my favorite Mexican Restaurant.

I went there last night with a group of 47 people. The food was Great, the margaritas were great also. The salsa was yummy, the service was good!
They made us feel welcomed and greeted us with chips and salsa. Last night they have Banjo players which was very fun to sing a long and dance.
I DO NOT EAT BEANS, but these were so good I ate them all up! I am going back soon. The food was fresh and hot.

Not sure if this is every night, but I know that on weekend nights they have blasting music where you can’t even talk to your dining mates.
Salsa: YESSS!
Service: Great!
Margaritas: Eh. Couldn’t taste the alcohol, was too sweet and sour.
Corn Tortillas: mmm… yummy! You can tell that they are homemade.
Food: Pretty good. We ordered the Tlaoyitos, and neither of us liked them. The machaca (egg dish) is pretty good, the carnitas is pretty good, and I got this garlic shrimp dish that was good as well. The carnitas comes with this really awesome pickled veggie salad that we love.

I really like coming here.
I’ve ordered quite a few things here and have liked everything I get.
My fave thing to order though is the Tlacoyitos. Which are deep fried beans and cheese wrapped in masa and topped with some red sauce, sour cream and cotija cheese.
Other good things are the huevos rancheros and the huevos con chorizo. Huevos rancheros is an over easy egg topped with a red sauce and the huevos con chorizo is scrambled eggs mixed with chorizo sausage… both are accompanied with beans and rice which are also awesome.
The chicken fajitas are very good here too.
Also the horchata is too die for… one of the best i’ve had anywhere.
Overall love coming here for the Mexican breakfast.

As I have been to Mexico many times and love the food, I was disappointed when I moved to the Bay Area. I had given up hope that I would find a Mexican Restaurant that served actual Mexican food.
YAY!!! I found it!!!
We ordered several dishes and menudo to share and everyone loved it. The Margaritas were great and made with real lime/​lemon.
Our waiter was very attentive and very friendly.
The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because the restrooms were not that clean.
Not a date place but it’s great for friends to get together drink, eat and gab!
They had a dance floor so I assume they have dance nights on weekends.
Totally recommend this place!

We went here for B. holiday party which was for dinner Fri 12÷18÷09. The restaurant was closed for this private event.
They have their own parking lot, next to Maple Tree Inn, across from Nissan dealership.
For the party we got 2 FREE drinks per person. I got a margarita & strawberry daiquiri. I asked for non-​alcoholic, I think the margarita one had alcohol, not completely sure. Other drink tasted pretty good.
Food was buffet style: salad, rice, black beans, refried beans, cheese enchilada, meat w/​sauce, grilled fish, corn or flour tortillas, & shrimp cocktail.
I liked the shrimp cocktail the best. Other stuff was average.
Three-​layer cake after dinner. Just ok for me.
There’s a dance floor w/​DJ. It was loud, but people enjoyed it. I thought it was ok.
We didn’t pay for anything so I give it 3 stars, taste is average at best.

I LOVE this place. It’s close to where I live and looks cute from the outside, so one day after picking a friend up from the airport who was coming to visit from Austin, TX, we stopped in for lunch. We both thought it was one of the best Mexican places we had ever eaten at. The portions are huge, the rice and beans were delicious and our enchiladas were fantastic. The absolute BEST thing, though? They make these homemade corn tortillas that are the most fluffy, delicious things you have ever tasted (I always order a side of butter with them and those of us at the table scarf ‘em down!).
Last week, I introduced my new boyfriend to the place. He is Mexican and from Tijuana. He said it was the best most authentic Mexican food he has had here in CA and that he knew that the meal was going to be good when he tasted the guacamole (which we ordered as an appetizer). He liked it so much, that we went back for dinner again last night, just two days later and enjoyed it again just as much. He ordered the carnitas plate and I ordered soft tacos (carnitas and carne asada) with rice and beans. Again, we indulged in a side order of the homemade corn tortillas — what a treat!
Every time I go, the place is not crowded, though, and that worries me because I want them to be a successful. I asked the lady who brought us our check about this and she explained that she was the owner and Cabritos is under new management. She says the last owners let the place go somewhat and now that she owns it she’s trying to get people to come back in. She was SUPER nice and is obviously very proud of the food they serve.
Listen, I can’t speak for the taste of everyone (because I’m not you!), but support Cabritos and give them a try. I think that you will REALLY enjoy the place. And if you do… tell all of your friends!

I will have to go again to eat but I found myself here for an All Hallows Eve party after I already had dinner.
I’ve heard plenty about this place but never anything about the food. It’s always about what it used to be, Cheers. This night was used as a reunion for those who were regulars back in the day. For some the 80’s will never end…

The rock cover band was great and the celebration turned out to be fun. Some impressive costumes too! Unfortunately, I learned that too much Dos Equis gives a mean hangover.