El Jardín — Restaurant in California

Ok.. Let’s be real. ALMOST anytime you visit a “whole in the. Wall” style restaurant, the food usually ends up being top tier!! Now. I do t consider this a hole in the wall but is now at big as most spots. The food however. Yeah. Let’s get right to it.. we came in. On Sunday. Had about a brief 10min wait, seated and got right to business. Waiter took our drink order after a short 5 mins. Which was great and did the usual, which was brought out some chip and salads. The chips and sala were good. Super fresh and packed good flavor and texture both the chips and the salsa. The little slaw they brought. Was horrible to OUR taste pallet. May be different for you all’s. It just wasn’t a taste I or my family liked. Go figure lol. But the food. They have a pretty extensive menus and to be honest. It was hard for me to choose. EVERYTHING sounded soo good from the descriptions. I finally settled on a Del Mar enchiladas with Alaskan crab meat. 🤤 drool much 😎 reasonably priced come with two enchiladas a side of refried beans covered in cheese and a side of Spanish rice. I also ordered a pork tamale smothered in red/green sauce and cheese on top. Took about 10-15mins to get back to us. Reasonable time. I was ready to walk straight back to the kitchen and hug the chef. Sheeesh!!! So nicely presented. Wifey ordered the 3 Item combination which was 2 steak enchiladas and 1 steak tacos., my son ordered a Steak Supreme Burrito, (Which by the way was MASSIVE). They both demolished their plates I was rather shocked that my son finished most the burrito. It was so fat he had to eat it with a fork. The taste of everything was soo on point. Kinda reminds me of being in Old Town San Diego. Flavors were just exactly what they looked like they would be and then some. We have a rule that we live buy. You try the beans first. If those are hittin then chances are the rest of the food is going to be on point. And it was!!! The staff there moves very fast like crazy fast there. They are nice and courteous. The ambiance is definitely vibey. Just wish the booths and tables had a bit more space. That’s my only draw.. but other than that. Excellent experience. We’ll definitely be back again. Next time I’m going for that seafood burrito with scallops, crab...

Vegetarians - go somewhere else.

This is a review for vegetarians, if you're not a vegetarian or vegan or otherwise watching your fat intake, then you can probably ignore this! Good things: Their red salsa is good and their green salsa as well (which you have to ask for, if you don't want meat in it, then ask for the meatless one). They have clean restrooms The employees are friendly

If you are vegetarian/vegan/watching your fat content, know that they use lard in almost everything unless otherwise specified (you need to say "no lard") including but not limited to their rice, beans, tortillas when used for tacos and other dishes, and chips. This isn't posted anywhere or talked about in their menu, and not all employees are aware of the cooking practices (which is normal) - you have to talk to the right person to get accurate info, or someone willing to ask the kitchen a lot of questions.

The oil that they use also has meat in it, so that might matter for some people and for veggie people if part of your meal is sautéed.

One of the employees who was very knowledgeable helped us with our order (we were on a long drive home otherwise we would have probably gone somewhere else). She was very very helpful. Apparently you can ask for corn and flour tortillas to eat their salsa with as a substitute for their lard chips.

Our friend got a very plain vegetarian burrito (no sautéed veggies or anything), my partner man and I split 5 tacos (4 would have been plenty). We did not order any drinks, there was no dairy in her vegetarian burrito, our tacos did not have avocado or guacamole or (it was beans, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, onions, cilantro - they were not very flavorful and kind of dry). Our bill was $37, which is a lot.

I think about 5 or 6 people in all helped us (between water fills and clearing the table and helping us order food - the knowledgeable woman helped us who was working the bar) and not one of them was our server (we never met our server), so that was worth noting.

If you have a very flexible diet then you'll probably be fine, it looked like people were enjoying themselves. Otherwise, though accommodating, it was tiresome...

First time coming here and no one came to tell us anything for like 3 minutes. Then they 3 employees came to the front only to be talking to each other for like 2 minutes. I was about to sleep. No please wait a bit or nothing. Just stood there like what do we do. Then after a young girl said come overhere to sit. Kinda like she didn't want us to be there. Once sitting down. Waited another 3 minutes before some came. Guy was friendly and nice. Then left as we asked for the drinks. Got them in 1 minute. Then we ordered. Friendly girl gaved our food. However. No one checked how we are doing or if we needed anything else. We had to ask them hey come overhere we need something. It's kinda rude when your an employee who's working there and you don't have know how to be polite. When you see someone come in. You don't just wait or come over to the counter and start talking to other employees. You say please waits a moment as you might be busy. Then after I was finish with my food and wanted to use the restroom. I saw occupied. So I figured waiting there for a bit be okay. The girl who was in charge of seating people went over to say there was a guy waiting at by the restrooms and were laughing and saying something like if it was a huge deal. What. You never seen a guy be patiently waiting 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦 that's what literally blows from this place. No polite employees noone to come and ask for how good was the food or nothing and if we need anything else. The only to people were friendly but weren't seem to be there so much were great. Other than that other girl who's in charge of seating customers rude and not polite. Isn't smart to be working there. A great worker shows the spirit of actually polite and friendly and great attitude. A bad employee just talks with employees comes to the counter and keep talking to employees than doing your job. You leave the customers not knowing what to do having no clue. Not coming here again for that reason but food was great 2 employees were great....