Carolina's Mexican Food - Mesa — Restaurant in Mesa

I’m on a quest to find the world’s best chimichanga, and that quest has led me here, to Carolina’s Mexican Food.

The name “Carolina’s” carries some weight ‘round these parts. Their old Phoenix location might as well be a cultural heritage site.

But it would appear that expansion hasn’t been kind to the Carolina’s name, because the food quality and the speed of service were equally abysmal.

The chimichanga I received is not the best chimichanga in the world, just fyi. Not by a long shot. On my universal 13 point scale of chimichanga deliciousness, this chimi earns a deplorable rating of 2 out of 13. I’ve never eaten a more dry tortilla in my entire life, except maybe that one time when I left a pack of tortillas in my fridge for two months and tried to whip up some burritos after the 10mg THC gummies kicked in. For you newcomers, I order my chimis with beans and cheese, to keep the playing field level, and to avoid the meat sweats. The beans were okay, easily the best component, but I couldn’t tell if they put any cheese in there whatsoever. There was no pico de gallo, and the guacamole was a disgrace with its huge random chunks of jalapeños and tomatoes (tomato doesn’t belong in guac, y’all). Dry, dry, and bland, with a side of dry. And the “salsa?” Forget about it. It tasted like watery tomato soup with a pinch of chili power. Awful. Just awful. An absolute disgrace to what Carolina’s used to be.

My daughter’s quesadilla was somehow even more dry than my chimichanga. I don’t know what they do to their tortillas, but they better stop. There’s a difference between dry and crispy, and this was absolutely the former. It was borderline inedible.

And to top off this whole experience, they were blasting Jesus Rock music the entire time. Sorry, but this alone is reason enough for me to never return. I don’t appreciate being proselytized to while I’m forcing mas o menos mediocre Mexican food down my comida cavity.

I’m gonna need to do three hail satans and listen to an hour’s worth of death metal to get the awful taste of this food out of my mouth. Sorry Carolina, but if I were you, I’d go back to the drawing board with, um,...

The food is decent but the lack of customer service and accountability is the main reason I would never go there again, or would not recommend this place. I placed on online order with Carolinas at the Mesa location on 9/18/25. There was an error with the website and it said the order was not complete. I tried a few more times and got the same error message. I went ahead and placed an order directly with doordash for the order and that order went through. Later I got a call from the restaurant telling me all of the orders went through. They told me they would fulfill order number 9 and refund me for order number 10 but the website sent order number 11 to doordash so doordash would credit me for order 11 and 12 when their system showed an order was not picked up. I asked for a call from the general manager that day and did not receive a call back. I checked my credit card statement on the 22nd and it showed the charge from Carolinas and a $153.30 charge from doordash. I contacted doordash and was told Carolinas marked the order as picked up so doordash submitted payment to them in addition to what they had charged my card directly. I tried to reach out to Carolinas again and they refused to reimburse me for the duplicate charge stating since doordash charged me they would need to reimburse me. Again I asked to speak to the manager and was told he would call me first thing this morning. I waited a couple hours this morning and tried calling again only to be told he had to go to the bank and would call me as soon as he got back. It's now been an hour since the then and I still haven't received a call back or a credit back to my account. I finally had to call the credit card company and dispute the charges. Had they handled the situation the right way in the beginning this all could have been avoided but not only did they drop the ball, the manager Jesus refuses to...

I've been here twice in the last month. The second time was to give it a second chance. First experience, with lady at register was great, she upbeat and happy and enjoyed giving me suggestions. Unfortunately, the food was not all it was hyped up to be. We got the Mexican burrito (I think that's the name) with one half being green chile & the other half being red chile; the red chile was okay, but the green chile tasted like straight masa (flour) and the consistency was unpleasant, hardly any meat and the tortilla got really soggy. I also ordered a DIY combo with a red tamal, crispy beef taco, and red chicken enchilada; the taco was missing sadly, but the red tamal and enchilada were okay. The beans, in my opinion, were a little bland. We also got the three flautas (rolled tacos) combo, and those were okay, tasted pre-made. We also got carne asada fries, and they used the thick steak fries, so they were too soggy for my taste, not enough crunchy outside, and the carne was a little dry.

Second time (11/18) my daughter wanted to try the carne asada fries, same experience, i personally prefer the regular fries vs. the steak fries because of the potato-ey consistency. I also ordered a kids' meal with the two crispy beef tacos (since I never got my last one) and for these two orders it took almost 25 min and by thr time we got the food, the tacos were soggy and the shredded beef was a little dry for me. Again, this is all my experience and opinion. I am a Mexican descendant, and my origin is from Sonora. With that said, I was disappointed in the service and quality of the food. Nobody is smiling, and everyone just looked rushed and unhappy. I gave it two chances and I call it quits. I prefer Tacos Y Dogos down the street. I have a review for them as well if you wish to read it! To each their own. I wish...