Comal Next Door — Restaurant in Berkeley

I have been on the hunt for this place for what feels like forever. Simple, good, authentic, local Mexican food ever since I've moved into the area.

So here it goes. Ordered a chicken burrito, no crema, refried beans with the pico de gallo add-on. It was just perfect. Imo burritos should not be served with non-refried beans because they fall out of the tortilla way to easily and are not usually as tasty in this package. Secondly, the pico de gallo was key here in keeping it tasting fresh.

Onto the meat. This is where most other restaurants nearby fail here. It's usually too dry and basically flavorless. The anchiote marinade shines though here and the meat is perfectly tender, it's perfect.

Next up is there cheese, there's lots of it on here and unproportioned well making it interesting with great cheesy goodness.

There are french fries in here and honestly they were totally not needed but they didn't get in the way of me enjoying all of the deliciousness here. They used them sparingly and that is a great thing.

The tortilla itself was nice and fluffy, not sure if it's actually homemade here but anyroad that is completely irrelevant. It does not detract from the flavor and that's good enough for me.

The salsa provided moisture and deepened the flavor. It says it's chipotle but it's unlike other ones I've tried because the flavor of that particular chile is not overly poignant. Mostly it's there to accentuate the smokey flavor of the meal and it does just that. If I had to provide some criticism it would simply be that there was not enough spiciness to the dish so maybe some salsa on the side would rectify that.

It is rare to find such flavors and this place succeeds on so many levels it reminded me why I love Mexican cuisine. Will definitely need to...

I’m a keep it lit! I would’ve gave it one star, but the food is actually good and has been almost every time I come here the biggest issue I’ve noticed is the lack of courtesy from the employees, greet them positively they give you blank stares, say thank you, they give you blank stares, say, have a good day, they don’t even respond just more blank stares. OK fine nobody requires you to be courteous to one another however, I did tip you and I will no longer be tipping anyone in that restaurant I don’t know if it’s just me but it’s been every single visit here I haven’t been to other locations besides Berkeley but Berkeley location CND no chill vibes 👎🤷‍♂️ all in all, I did go there for the food and not the service so if you’re looking for some decent Mexican food in downtown Berkeley, they are good for that. Just don’t expect anybody to...

I rarely write reviews but I was so disappointed. I ordered the caesar and the fried chicken torta and was really hungry after a long day. The torta bread was soggy. OK, fine, I can deal with a little soggy bread. But the meat was inedible. It was chewy, off-color, and had a weird taste. It seemed to have gone bad. I could tell it was low quality. It was pretty much inedible and I basically had to throw out my whole sandwich---really frustrating given how much they charge. The salad was very disappointing as well. The quality of the lettuce was on its last legs. Many of the leaves were starting to turn red. Both dishes not only lacked flavor, but the ingredients were not fresh and on their last legs. Never doing either Comal again. Do...