Kalaveras — Restaurant in Escondido

We came here a few weeks after it opened with another couple. We went for happy hour and only ate the happy hour food, except for the queso which was not on happy hour special and it turned out to be the worst queso I have ever had – it reminded us of a semi warm slice of mozzarella cheese. It was a fun experience until we received the bill. For four of us we were going to have to pay over $300 for happy hour food and some drinks. We were pretty shocked thinking we got the wrong bill, but we received the correct bill and the price was due to three issues. First, we ordered Don Julio in our margaritas as upgrades – the way they charged for upgrading the margaritas looked unusually high, similar to what you would pay for a top shelf drink in a 5 star Manhattan or Chicago restaurant, but we are in Escondido. Second we drank more margaritas than we usually do because we could not taste much alcohol, they were extremely watered down. This might be a tactic for Calaveras to make more money by watering down your drinks or maybe they have a bad bartender. We ordered the top shelf liquor so I’m not going to give them 1 star for that, but my recommendation is before you upgrade your margarita ask them exactly how much it will cost and ask them exactly how many ounces of tequila you get for that. Now the third and big reason that really upset all of us is that they requested at least 33% more on top of the food for service + tip. I’ll tip that if I want to and only for amazing service and the service was not that great anyway, it was pretty lackluster. What happened was our bill went over their limit, which I think was over $200 if I recall correctly, which triggers an 18% mandatory service charge. I told the waiter, I would have appreciated it if he told us there is an 18% tip upfront to which he responded, it is in the menu, so we don’t tell customers this because you should have read that. Second, and to my surprise and horror, he said that’s not a tip, that is a service charge and the owners get it, the workers do not. He then requested we tip him at least 15% on top of the 18%. I told him there was no way we were going to do this, especially because he didn’t tell us upfront. Again he lectured me that I should have read the fine print in the menu. We ended up paying the 18% service charge + 0% tip and recommended that he take this up with the owners. My recommendation to the owners is to verbally warn people upfront of this unusual policy. A month later we met another group of friends who had experienced the same 18% service charge and they asked them to pay an extra 15% on top of that. They were as disgusted as we were and decided they would not be going back and neither will we. Our experience was a 1 star for sure, but if you read the fine print and don’t go over their limit that triggers the 18% top secret owners fee, then you...

Kalaveras is so good! I thought I had already reviewed them before but I guess not. They deserve this 5 star review though!

The inside wall art is so beautiful and full of culture. Its bright vibrant neon colors make for an exciting enviornment!

I love all the happy hour deals they have during the week! My favorite is definitely taco Tueaday with $1.49 tacos and a self serve salsa table with cilantro, onions, radish, limes and so much more!

We came here for my wife's birthday and we had to wait about but for the server but it was okay. It was a week day and there weren't a lot of employees so we were understanding.

We ordered the quesadilla with Carne asada, the chicharron tacos and carne asada tacos. The quesadilla was perfectly cheesy, melted with a beautiful delicious cheese pull when I bit into it and the chicharron tacos were so good, perfectly cooked, great flavor and so balanced in every bite. The Carne asada is also really good here. It is hard to find a place that can cook Carne asada properly, chard on the outside but still juicy on the inside. The complementary chips and salsa were so good too and we asked for more of that salsa because it was just amazing.

We ended the night with a complementary birthday flan from the server and it did not disappoint, it had blue berries in it and was surprisingly a good combination. Not too sweet but just right!

Overall, Kalaveras is worth coming to and I can't wait to go back ans try more items...

Taco tour #8 &9. Visited this place twice, once on a Wednesday and came back on taco Tuesday. The normal tacos are really good and clearly worth coming back for. They are a bit expensive. First time I got the fish and chicharron and carnitas tacos. The fish had a nice breading. Everything was a little spicy though, but not overwhelming. The chicharron were surprisingly good. I enjoy them and goofdcame back and got them the second time on Taco Tuesday. The carnitas were juicy and had a good flavor. I was hoping that the tacos would be similar on the Taco Tuesday special. They came back very small and you went inside to the taco bar to put your own toppings on there. It was a little disappointing and I would prefer to have the normal tacos at a better deal. They have on other days, but they're difficult to determine based on the menu. There's little information that can be used to help when you're ordering. The restaurant could use better signage to advertise and consistency between the normal and special meals. While the food is good, it is difficult to picture myself going back a third time. Have to specifically ask for...