Ola Mexican Kitchen — Restaurant in Long Beach

We dined-in and for a Saturday late evening around 7:45pm, we had a good spot outside with the street view and only a 5 to 8 minute-wait.

Ambience: We were greeted by two nice hostess' smiles and their background was a very nice dark wood cubby-style furniture with glass shelves that homed each square a nice and elaborated sugar skull ceramic decoration. The bar was to our right with a nice bar that was walled by a beautiful dark blue and white ceramic tiles. The dark-wood motif was included. As we walked to our outside table, the motif of dark wood was accompanied by the thick braided-wicker chairs with aluminum that added a nice texture to our seating.

Food: We were offered chips and salsa. The texture of the chips were amazing at some point because the middle section of some of the chips were still soft and a little chewy. However, this told me that the chips were made there at the restaurant by hand-made tortillas. Unfortunately, this happens when the tortilla is not entirely fried or baked. So in a way, I knew we were eating fresh-made tortilla chips. I added some photos to see the deliciousness we had. First photo shows the delicious chips that were tasty and seasoned with salt and the taste I recognized, was Cumin. It gave it a red "tap" to it and when dipped into the salsa, it came together with a small zesty taste of lemon. Not entirely spicy at all, with so much taste and safe for the kiddos, however, it does have a small tiny little kick to it. But a child with a spice preference, will enjoy. Second photo shows the 3 Baja Fish Tacos that hubby ordered. They had the traditional battered fish with the cream sauce that was pleasant and garnished with fine-chopped parsley and cheese. Third photo is the Lobster Quesadilla my child ordered. Very cheesy and perfect amount of lobster that he loved, but omitted the Pico de Gallo and only had the Guacamole. Lastly, my Lobster Enchilada. Bathed in green tomato sauce and garnished deliciously with cilantro, a drizzle of sour cream and good drizzle of the traditional enchilada sauce I grew up with. I admit, it was not entirely what I expected, but it had a twist of flavors I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, there is a down side I experienced-The tortilla edges were a little chewy and when I was told that the plate was hot, yes, indeed it was, but the food was not, so this told me that edges of the tortilla got a little warm-almost cold, due to sitting in the kitchen for a while. It was not accompanied by beans nor rice. Additional prices for extra. The Guacamole, not pictured here, sorry; was very tasty. It had no onion, no tomato, no lemon or lime from what I tasted, and just the the taste of the avocado, cilantro and a kiss of salt.

Prices: This is where I chose a 4-star review. Example, the Lobster Enchiladas were a cost of $36 on their own with no rice nor beans, as we normally see in Mexican Restaurants or at home. In my opinion, it was over-priced. Small amount of guacamole, like 8 to 10 ounces, was $13. Lobster Quesadilla was $25 and the 3 Baja Fish Tacos were $21. As a nice restaurant and location, I can understand the over pricing and I am glad they kept the great flavors. I just think they over compensated without the sides of rice and beans.

Nevertheless, I do applaud the taste and creativity of the traditional Mexican food embracing the American sea side and toning down the spiciness that Mexican food can offer. The creativity comes in while still maintaining the flavors of the herbs, cheeses and chilis that reminds us, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, of the flavors of mom's kitchen. Hope you have a great experience...

Overall experience was not great. Food was cold, salmon was way too salty, there was a hair in our salsa - twice, and there was a bone in a chili relleno (yes a bone, I don't know how it got inside but it should not have been in a dish that is only supposed to have cheese inside of the chili). The services was minimal to none. It wasn't a great experience. To start, when we arrived, there were two girls at the host stand talking to each other and when they saw us gave us a snarky look. When we said we had a reservation one of the girls said it didn't matter because we were early and told us to wait outside until it was closer to our reservation. We did, we should of left though. When we did come back after waiting it was another girl at the host stand and she was a sweetheart. She did, however, end up saying how we could of checked in early (she mentioned noticing us outside and that if she knew we had a reservation she could of started getting the table ready for us). It only got worse from there. We waited more than 40 minutes to get anything ordered or acknowledged after we were seated. During our entire time there it felt like we were being ignored and disregarded. Our server did not want to even bring us our drinks. When we got the chance to finally order our food our server constantly rolled her eyes and "corrected" us on how we ordered (for context, the menu has Spanish names for the dishes. All of us in my party are all Hispanic, so we ordered the dish as they are called, and our waitress, who was white, rolled her eyes and said the dishes back in an English translation. Which would not have mattered if she didn't say it back in a snarky voice like she was belittling us. "Enchiladas de pollo" is how it's written in the menu and that's how my friend ordered it, and our waitress rolled her eyes and said "so a chicken enchilada" It was the tone and attitude of the way she said it. It made everyone uncomfortable). Prior to even taking our food order she would go down the isles and treat the other customers and smile at them, all if they needed anything - but would deliberately ignore our table, completely bypass us. She's tend to the table behind us and then move to the table in front of us or to the table next to us. The first time we thought, oh she just skipped us, no big deal. But this went on the entire night. We should of left, but we were there on a birthday celebration and our birthday girl really wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. This place came highly recommended but it disappointed my party and myself by a lot. The only thing that was a positive was that the view was nice. But that was the only good thing about the place, unfortunately. Definitely not worth what we paid when almost all of it was left uneaten because of how the food was prepared. Not sure if it was just the day we came in or not, but it left a bad impression. And to the manager I spoke with to attempt to bring all this to his attention, he left in the middle of me talking. I get it, there was a lot I was trying to bring to your attention, but you did not need to end it with "I never get complains like this ever, this is the first time". It felt like you were dismissing what I was saying and...

2.5 stars is a more appropriate rating. The experience wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The food itself is passable, but everything I've gotten there has left me unimpressed. The Ola burrito lacks excitement, and it's as though each ingredient were picked to cancel out the flavors of the others. For having so much in it, it's remarkably flavorless apart from the sauce. The Baja fish burrito had good flavors, but also had a lot of rice that gave it a very mushy texture and in some bites it was dominated by a flavor that resembles rice pudding. The cheese enchiladas are entirely generic. If you imagine what the most average and forgettable enchilada would taste like, you have imagined this enchilada perfectly. It's not bad, but I expect more than "not bad" at this price point.

The chips and salsa are actually very good. They easily rank among my favorites, but be warned that the salsa is on the spicier side of the spectrum. I loved it, and these chips went a long way to redeem this review.

The atmosphere is nice overall and the staff are friendly and professional in my experience, but I do find it mildly off putting that the serving staff seem to be almost exclusively attractive young women, it gives the entire establishment a faintly sexist feel. I'm not really wanting to dine in the 1950s.

I made a reservation for a table near a window a week in advance and arrived on time to be told that no such table was available, and I was left wondering what the point of a reservation is at all if the thing I reserved is not going to be available when I get there.

I didn't dislike going here, and I managed to enjoy myself both times I went, but I cannot possibly recommend this restaurant to anyone over other local options at a similar...