El Tejate Restaurant — Restaurant in Carlsbad

The good: The food is delicious, and the margaritas well made. You definitely need to try the enchiladas or the chile relleno (with delicious corn tortillas on the side). This is not the typical Mexican fare you get locally since the food is more Oaxacan style rather than the usual Baja Californian style you usually see in Southern California. If you like moles and tlayudas, then it is definitely worth a visit. Tomas is very hospitable and friendly.

The not so good: While Tomas is very hospitable, and friendly, the service here is extremely slow. Basically it is ONLY Tomas usually running the whole show: seating; taking orders; waiting tables; bartending; bussing and cleaning tables (using a very strong smelling cleaner!). In addition, there seems to be only one or two cooks, so once ordered, food is very slow to come out. What it means for the customer is waiting -a LOT of waiting… to be seated (no hostess, just a bell to ring and eventually Tomas will be by to seat you); to get chips; to get drinks ordered; to get food. Tomas is literally running around trying to “do it all”. They REALLY need extra help all around.

Also, the building itself has seen better days and seems to be in poor shape (it is a shared building with a Thai restaurant); and has a musty;mildewy smell to it. It also lacks ambiance: the tables and chairs have also seen better days; and while your margarita drinks are in glasses; water is served in plastic cups; and while your food is on plates, you get plastic forks and knives. Even the front door to the restaurant feels more like you’re going into a dive bar rather than a restaurant. There seems to be a lot of this dichotomy going on.

And finally, there’s the menu - or more specifically the prices on the menu. Whatever you see there, chuck it out - they are just plain wrong. They do have a sticker on the front of the menu that states: “some items will have an additional charge due to current supply costs.” What this means in the real world: Chile Relleno: $15.99 menu price/$16.99 charged; Margaritas: $8.99 menu price/$10.99 charged; Mrmelitas appetizer: $8.99 menu price/$9.99 charged. Only one item out of 5 was charged the menu price. To top that off, they overcharged the sales tax (8% instead of 7.75% tax rate for Carlsbad).

Final conclusion: The food makes this place worth it. Honestly some of the best in town. Just plan on...

Raw food. I had unfortunate experience. I got back from being 2 months out of town. Decided to have a family dinner at a new location. Came on here (yelp) and found great pictures of great looking food. We (my family of 6) arrived and the place was empty except for a lady taking pictures of the food for their website. We ordered 6 different plates. The owner came by and asked if my plate could get a picture taken and they will provide 15% off. I was like sure why not. 5 mins later 12 Marines arrived (I too am a Marine) after seeing they were getting the food for free from the restaurant (the ones getting a picture taken) I was happy they were doing that community service. Here is the issue: 1) there was only one waitress and she was stressing between getting the food for the pics, serving my family and serving the Marines their drinks. I overlooked it all and said I get it, no problem. Then we started getting our plates one at a time with 15 mins in between each, so my son waited until his girlfriend got her plate etc. 2) my plate was one of the ones they were going to take a Pic of but the picture lady gave it to the Marines. Now everyone at my table finally had plates and except my daughter and I still didn't. I got up and talked to the owner, she apologized and said she will not charge my plate, I said no problem get my daughter her plate please. They got her, her plate (by now my son and girlfriend were done with their tacos) but her plate had all the stuff we asked not to have on it. I simply removed the onions she doesn't eat and told her to eat her food, still trying to enjoy this dinner while my plate was getting made. My wife saids "honey look" her fried fish was raw. That's when I got up told the owner, was not charged and left. I'm at chick filet now as I write this. Quite upset that this happened. I get they might have been very busy with pictures and many other items, but a restaurant has to ensure each food is cooked. I hope my wife does not get sick. It could of been one of my kids. I wish I took a pic of it being raw...

Food was good. Service was horrible. Unfriendly arrogant waiter/manager/owner. Never asked us if we needed anything or checked on our table. The restaurant was not busy either. He semed irritated when we asked for extra chips, salsa or water. Chips & salsa were placed on our table when we arrived. We assumed they were complimentary and asked for a refill. Later we checked our bill and noticed we were charged $4 for the chips. We were never told that there was a charge for chips. He also told us that the tip was not included in the total charges on our bill. He said that the service charges listed are not considered his tip and that he has no control of service charges when printing out the bill. So we were charged 18% service charge and he still wanted us to leave a tip. I dont ever want to go...