El Molino de Oro — Restaurant in Orange

So I'm pretty critical about most places that serve Mexican food. It's either been ok, or "why did I even come here" I know everyone throws their flair into their style of food, and that's great. The difficult part is finding something they would appeal to a broad audience.

My friend brought us to El Molino de Oro based on some reviews he saw. He said it might be good. We walked in, nice place, clean, cafeteria style line with their food on display. Pretty typical to Taqueria de Anda. Looking at the menu, solid choices, but not too many choices. I feel that's something a lot of places suffer from. I took a Gamble and ordered a Cali burrito, then I ordered the basic, 2 tacos de carne asada. A Coke to accompany the meal as well. Is it a lot of food? Yeah, but I also felt I had to, I needed to know if it was good. I sat, clean tables, wooden ones. Really heavy chairs, sturdy, I liked that. It took a good 5-10 minutes to receive my order, it was happy with the wait, it told me my meal was made fresh, and hadnt been sitting under the lamp for whatever amount of time. Ok, it was time.

I thought my burrito was well balanced, it wasn't stuffed with French fries like some other places, the carne asada was definitely the star here. All other ingredients complimented it very well. Meat, very well seasoned, cooked to perfection. Had bits of fat, really nice texture overall. Guacamole, not too lemony, perfect. The burrito is a decent size, very filling. I will definitely try another burrito from there, just based on how well balanced it was! Excellent.

Now the tacos, pretty basic right? Meat, cilantro, onion, tortilla and salsa (optional). It's difficult to mess up something basic, if you can't get this right, i won't be convinced to try the rest of your menu, because I doubt you'd get more complicated dishes right as well. Anyway, the meat, just like the burrito, it did indeed shine. Made perfectly, and they do serve you a nice healthy portion with double tortilla. Normal size I would say, bigger than a street taco. Brilliant though, the taco was perfect, it didn't need anything extra, great on it's own. The texture mixed well with the fresh, cool and crispy onion. Delicious, loved it.

With that being said, this place surprised me in the best way possible, it was absolutely delicious. Oh, the staff was super friendly as well, I hope they continue to thrive and serve what I would consider, some absolutely delicious Mexican food. Will try other meats and dishes at...

If I could give it zero stars I would, such a shady place. I came here on a recommendation that the bread is good. On the day of the rosca, which is the 3 kings cake. I went to purchase a rosca, however they ran out. But, they said I could order one for pick up. I asked the cashier, do I pay it now or when I pick it up around 730pm. The women said, you have to pay for it to reserve it. Cool, I bought it and a drink. They gave me a receipts and the form that said I paid it. I was running late, and my mom came to pick it up. Two days later, my mom joked around saying how she paid for the cake, but I'm like what I paid it. Apparently, when she picked it up, they told her it wasn't paid for. Of course, she didn't know that I paid, even though they had the form with my name an credit card receipts. The rosca was about $25 plus tax. Now, together we paid 50 something. My mom went back to tell them what happened. And they said oh, you need the receipt from the first transaction, cool she forgot to bring it, now after 4 times going back and asking for our money, which was a mistake on their part, they are still refusing to give it to us! Saying that the manager isn't here, and they can't do that because their drawers will be short. Which, sorry that's not our problem. yet it's easy for them to take people money, and not own up to their mistakes, even with the proof that we had. So disappointed in a...

I decided to give it a try after hearing so much wonderful things about their food, but the service is such a mess! It was my first time there and I was trying to order the 3.75 tacos. The man didn't seem to be paying attention to what I was saying, I even spoke both in English and Spanish to try to make things easier for him. I got sent to the register, and the cashier seemed confused by my order, constantly asking me questions when I was really confused by how everything worked. They kept putting the wrong order and I had to keep correcting them, they had to keep going back to the man to ask him questions, and it wasn't long before more staff members came to the register trying to figure out what I ordered. I realized it would take awhile which was time I didn't have, so I apologized and left while they shouted at me to come back. I asked some friends who came here, and they confirmed that happened to them too. The staff really need to communicate better. I wanted to try the food but unfortunately the service just...