Fresco Cocina — Restaurant in Carlsbad

Went in for the first time on a Saturday night. Had reservations, but a table was not ready for us. They asked us to sit in the bar, but then nobody asked us if we wanted anything while seated there for 10 minutes. Eventually got a table in the main dining room. The dining room is very nice, with comfortable chairs and good lighting. It is a loud room and there were two big parties in the room so we had to speak loudly to each other and for the server to hear us. The food was quite good. They did say they ran out of beans, but there were some in our fajita order and on the sopes. Odd for a Mexican place to run out of beans. We had the sopes appetizer and the steak fajitas. They brought (free) chips and salsa for us to start. All ingredients were fresh and the flavors were great. What really undermined the whole experience was the service. Besides the experience upon entering, our server made several mistakes - delayed entry of orders, completely forgetting about two orders (the sopes and an extra order of tortillas for the fajitas), and for delivering an incorrect margarita. All this for $75 per person and we split an app and a main. Drinks are $20 each. Mains are $25-40+. Apps are $15+. In any event, it could be a very good to excellent place and it has prices to match that level, but they really need to train the front staff and the wait staff and perhaps the bus team, too. Seemed like our waiter, who was very nice, polite, etc., was trying to do everything including clear plates/glasses and refill water, etc. where wait staff should be focused on addressing customer needs around the money-making food and drink. And yes, he should have written things down or entered them on his POS terminal rather than delaying orders or forgetting them altogether. May give it one more try because the food and drinks were high quality, but for the price point they need to train...

Tried this place today but my best and her sister. I tried to look at the menu beforehand so I was prepared.

The place is easy to find right by the coast and the parking was ample. There are at least 3 different places to park and when I arrived, the parking place I parked at was empty.

I ordered the tropical vice without coconut, the poblano corn bread for an appetizer, and for my entree, I ordered the red snapper which was the whole fish.,

The snapper was really salty on the outside but I guess that was needed because the inside had no salt so it balanced out. It came with spicy red bell pepper, kale, tomato, and olive somethings something going on under it, which was a nice balance and it was tasty. I would order this dish again.

My bestie ordered the El Lobo drink, tequeños, and tacos. For dessert, she ordered the tres leches with hibiscus and lime.

She liked her food, especially the salsa that came with the tequeños. They were basically cheese sticks and it looked like it had an egg roll wrapper around it, but not sure. She was not fond of the tres leches and ordered the mango sorbet which was good. I actually liked the tres leches because it wasn't wet, but it's fine

Her sister ordered the short rib enchiladas and a Shirley Temple. She liked her food, but ate very little and ordered the chocolate bread pudding to go.

Our waiter was cool, his name was Jackson. He said he was the bartender as well. If you come during happy hour but do not sit at the bar, they do not serve you happy hour things. This was not told to us when we first walked in.

The ambiance was nice. There is low lit lights that are yellow and they have real plants all around. The spacing (of tables) is nice and the tables are white so it has a nice little contrast with the walls. There's also seating outside which was proudly nice during summer.

This...

not sure where to start with this one but lets begin with the service because this is how this atrocious evening started. i arrived there exactly at my reservation time only for myself. i explicitly requested outdoor seating in my reservation with OT and i reminded the host. anyhow, she politely said no problem, let me clear a table for you. well... i waited patiently near the entrance watching her seat at least 10 parties ahead of me where some parties had 4 people or couples or 6 people, etc. some even didn't have reservations and requested outdoor seating and she sat them. anyhow, i was literally sitting in front of her watching her come and go for 30min and never once did she look up at me to say "sorry... we're still working on your table" or something. it's like she completely ignored me or forgot me and must of thought i was some lost weirdo just sitting in front of her. she didn't even ask who i was in case she forget. nevertheless, this is where i should have just left but i decided to eat at the bar since you don't usually need reservations at the bar. the bartender also was not very friendly and spent more time chatting with her coworker who was at the bar on his day off. anyhow, that's the service. as for the food, i order the whole fish (veracruz style) which had a decent sauce taste BUT can you believe the fish was not fully de-scaled!? i mean bones is normal and expected but scales!! any decent cook or fish monger knows how to de-scale a fish including me. so this is a straight no-no for any restaurant. i've even been to beach side shacks in the carribean that scale your fish much better than this restaurant. what a joke. didn't order another drink and didn't speak to anyone else and paid my bill and got the heck out of there ASAP and had a drink elsewhere. will never return here nor recommend it to...