Casa Méxicana — Restaurant in Lodi

What an experience! Firstly, the restaurant was clean, the music appropriate and staff attentive and helpful. The food though, I don't even know where to begin. It's not Mexican. They say it is, and the rice and beans make it appear to be Mexican, but I swear there is someone's British grandmother doing the cooking in the back. Being new to the area and having spent the last few years in the midwest, I was hoping to have real Mexican food, but alas, I was disappointed. Even the Iowa Mexican had more spice than this. My spouse had ordered the Diablo Shrimp in the past and it was just shrimp with some red coloring on it. There was nothing "diablo" about it other than the sin of calling it mexican. Even after this experience, he wanted to give it another try, because, as previously mentioned, the place is clean and the staff is great.

At this visit, I ordered the carne asada - imagine my surprise when the spiciest thing on the plate was the onion. No roasted jalapeno here, you get a complacent green bell pepper to spice it up. After diving into the main course, I looked at the basket of house tortillas hopefully, thinking that perhaps that was the redeeming niche of this establishment. As I unwrapped the parchment paper, I was happy to see the scorch marks of well toasted tortilla, only to discover that the bulk of the tortilla was rather doughy - and tasted similar to the uncooked pie crust I used to snitch from my grandmother's counter as a child on the day before Thanksgiving. But even Grandma's pie crust had salt. These were an experience. I tore off a piece of the generous tortilla to share with my spouse and as he took it in his hands, there was an immediate "Nope!" and it never made it to his mouth.

So, in all: Clean, comfortable, decent place. Food is not exactly mexican. Also, chips were stale. The "salsa" was the definition of sauce, no kick but pleasantly fresh. Bonus: Definitely no after effects common in very exciting...

Casa Mexicana has been a go-to for years. If you’re looking to walk into a restaurant and get great service and good food, no matter what time of the day or week— then this place is for you. The meal starts with a mix of chips (homemade flour and probably store bought corn) and salsa. Pro tip, the house salsa isn’t spicy enough for me, so I ask for the two spicier salsas to mix into it. They come in squeeze bottles and have great flavors— one is medium spicy and roasted tasting, the other is more tangy and even a little spicier.

For my meal today I ordered the green pork pozole and liked it! It is a generous portion and comes with heaping sides of onions, cilantro, and cabbage. I suspect they make it right when you order it, because the flavors didn’t seem “married” just yet. But, it was so amazing after heating it up later at home.

Plus, every meal comes with their delicious homemade flour tortillas… TOTAL YUM!!!

Over the years, I’ve had lots of things from Casa Mexicana… all of their dishes are pretty good. If you’re looking for super spicy— you’re going to have to ask for them to make it that way specifically.

The service is very attentive, the prices are fair, and the restaurant is always clean. One of the best things about this place is that they do a super awesome catering business. Whether you are feeding 4 people or 140 people, the food is fresh tasting, comes packaged up nicely and it is affordable.

Go give them a try again! Don’t forget to ask for the...

We've been customers for 15 years. Owners are the nicest people which is part of the reason we keep going back. Years ago, I worked at the school that their kids went to...they would randomly bring food for the staff which was amazing and much appreciated. I will say that I dont enjoy any of their beef dishes...chicken is the way to go.

We always order the family pack which is a good deal. It feeds my family of 5 at least 2 meals. Prices keep going up(of course) but at some point it will no longer be worth it for us. The guac always has a lot of brown in it which I overlook because usually all the other food is really good.

We have had twice over the years where we recieved food that was spoiled. Once our quesadillas were moldy the very next day (was stored properly in the fridge) and yesterday we received rice that had a horrible smell. It didnt smell very strong initially so we ate it but I kept thinking something smelled weird. When trying to reheat some later on in the day, it smelled so bad! Some of our flautas had a strange smell and taste as well. I didnt feel well after eating the food either. Disappointed that we had to throw it away.

Hoping that yesterday was just a bad day as we love their chicken quesadillas, homemade flour tortillas, chips, chili rellenos,...