Marcela's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Clearwater

I had a taco trio: pork sausage, beef, and beef and pineapple with red sauce. The flavors are indeed home-made, but that's not actually a good thing because most home-made food is BLAND. I pay to eat out because a chef knows how to put flavors into food and combine them in amazing ways. I also prefer a more spiced-up Tex-mex style (spices, not necessarily pepper/picante). This food was okay, but no better than average street food. The beef taco had a distinct flavor of stale grease from the flatgrill not being cleaned well enough. Some salsa drizzled on it brought it up to par and it was good. The pork sausage taco was disappointing. I love pork and sausage, but this just lacked flavor somehow. I should have hit it with salsa. The Tacos al Pastor were excellent and more in line with what I was looking for. I would look forward to having more of these. The red sauce was rich with flavor and the pineapple went with it very well. The thick white flour tortilla chips were extremely disappointing. Good crunch, but bland and pasty once you chew them up. The salsa was okay. Was made in-house but had a slight slimy feel to the mouth like they added gum arabic or something to thicken it up. More onion would add body to the tomato and I find that dicing some of the tomato keeps the wateryness down. Good picante bite to the salsa. It certainly deserves to be served with a better chip. When I arrived, the hostess was nowhere to be seen. I waited about a minute and then parted the curtain to see who I could find. The hostess scowled a bit and tried to pull the curtain out of my hand to close it. Makes me wonder if they have something to hide back in the kitchen. The service was adequate--tacos came out in about 3 or 4 minutes. I was there in the middle of the afternoon, so they just had two other tables occuppied. With the annoyance about me seeing into the kitchen and the (overly-dramatic) prior review about food poisoning, I'll be chcking their Health Department score if I go back again. The chip basket was lined with aluminum foil and when I looked at the basket underneath, it clearly hadn't been freshly washed. A commercial dishwasher will dry out plastics so maybe someone decided that it's cheaper to line them...

If you’re looking for authentic Mexican food and drinks you’ve got to try this place. Two native New Mexicans, a Texan and an Arizonian whom have all lived in Southern Cal loved everything we had ordered. They were out of chips and salsa at 6 pm 😕. Anyhow, place your entree and drink orders right up front. There was only one server this past Friday night. Reason for my 2/5 on service.

The Micheladas are really good. It’s a Mexican drink made with icy cold Corona beer, lime juice, assorted sauces and spices. It was served in a HUGE chilled, salt-rimmed clay mug. My husband said, it was one of the best he’s ever had. It’s very filling so you may want to share one.

For dinner, I had the green enchiladas with a delicious Mexican-style steak. It was awesome! My husband had crispy flavorful beef taquitos witch guacamole & sour cream. My mom had yummy street carne asada tacos with a side of beans and our friend had the BEST tasting chimichanga. Everything was served HOT. Big portions. Leftovers for next day with a fried egg. We were all extremely satisfied and thrilled to have found flavorful Mexican dishes that remind us of home and fun trips across the border. Highly recommend this hole in the wall. Don’t have high expectations for fast service — that’s not their style. Everything is cooked to order. Clean. Spacious.Somewhat-Friendly. Practice your Spanish here for sure....

I love tacos, but I don't love these tacos. There's nothing amazing about the tacos, and I'm not sure if we can order tacos with just meat, onions, and cilantro. The menu showed avocado slices with the tacos, but we had to request avocado to have some.

The sincronizadas were good, though cold. There is something inside them that enhances the flavor greatly.

The chips seem to be freshly made, and they're wonderful. The salsa is a bit spicy, so those who can't handle spicy should avoid it. I'm not sure what the flavor was, though it reminded me of something burnt. I neither liked nor disliked the salsa, and I kept eating it.

The price for a taco was $1.99. The rest of the prices were all reasonable. The other patrons at the time I was there were all Hispanic, so that was reassuring. We tried to pay with a credit card, but the lady said the machine wasn't working, so we had to pay with cash.

I'd be happy to go back, though I would go...