El molcajete loco — Restaurant in La Mirada

Had a great experience here at El Molcajete Loco the other day. My dad was raving about the menudo they sell here and though it was a bit out of the way from where we live, it was definitely worth the drive.

I just want to start off by saying that the workers here are really great. They greeted us warmly when we came in and let us sit down where we pleased. They told us what they had on the menu and what dishes are popular. They even let me turn the volume of the TV down because it was so loud which I liked a lot. So many other restaurants get so touchy when it comes to the tv lol.

There was one worker in particular, Nati, who really went above and beyond. She was so sweet to us and made sure we constantly had everything we needed. I say it’s great that they have workers like this in here because it makes customers feel a lot more welcome. It was some excellent service all around.

The menudo was also one of the highlights of our visit here. In my opinion, it’s very difficult to get this dish right. They offer it in many places here in SoCal but I would say I have yet to have it someplace where I really liked it. But here it was really great! The broth was great as it was not too smelly or rife with condiments. The tripe was also cooked to perfection. This is one of the most important parts because this is the part that is hard to get right. Sometimes the meat is too hard or too chewy or soft but here it was just right. I was even pleased with the size of the bowl as it was a rather fair portion.

Something else I enjoyed about this place was the cleanliness. It was very clean and the tables shined bright as did the floors. Aside from this, there was also running AC in here which is always welcome, especially in this heat we have been having.

If I am ever in the mood to have some menudo, I would most definitely come here and have it again and perhaps try some of the other things on the menu. I felt welcome and satisfied with my meal and this is...

Staff was nice but the food quality was horrible. We barely ate. I hate complaining and being "the difficult customer" so we ate what we could because we were hungry and felt horrible wasting food and didn't want to cause trouble. I could barely eat any of it as the meat and shrimp tasted a bit off and I feared food poisoning from bad meats and sea food. Lacked flavor. Textures were off. Just felt really weird eating there. Ultimately we got up to pay and leave. They asked if we were ok since we barely ate anything and we said it was fine as we figured there's no way they can make this right. We did see some bad google reviews and some good ones but decided to give the benefit of the doubt and try them. Sadly some of the bad reviews regarding food quality were correct. Also the allegations of not giving you a receipt with a breakdown was correct. My husband went to pay and he said our tab for 3 tacos, a carne asada plate, and enchiladas plate , kids quesadillas, and 3 drinks was roughly $120-$130. My husband was not shown a breakdown of the charges and we paid, tipped, and left. We felt it was way too expensive for the portions and the quality. I definitely...

This is my first time ordering from this place. And let me just say, the food is absolutely amazing. I ordered a double molcajete and camarones a la Diablo and it was all delicious. The owner was also very sweet and we made great convo. I wish him the best of luck in his ventures. This location has had three different owners just in the past year (that I know of) so I hope he sticks around because I just...