Rodrigo's Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Orange

Had our first dining experience here. Not even Thanksgiving and this place is decorated to the 9's for Christmas.

The staff were very attentive once we actually got our orders taken. We were seated in the main front area and we're the only customers in that section. I think nobody knew what waiter had those tables. It wasn't until we flagged down the manager did that change.

The food arrived quickly enough. I had a pork tamale and a beef taco. My side was refried beans. Overall the food was lacking seasoning. It was good, it just needed a little more flavor. The tamale had very little masa so I can't judge that. The refried beans were Rosarita canned refried beans. I would recognize that flavor anywhere. They even had the typical dry spots showing the cooks didn't stir them as they were heating up, likely in a microwave. I expected their refried beans to be fresh and made inhouse. This was a major letdown for me. The taco was good, but again their meats seemed to be lacking seasoning. I asked for my taco to be soft shelled. I figured I had a 50/50 chance on it being corn or flour. Turns out it came on 2 corn tortillas. What I found odd was that the tortillas had not been grilled even for a moment. They were 2 plain corn tortillas right out of the bag.

Last, the price is a bit high considering the lack of attention to flavor and the usage of canned beans and corn tortillas right out of the bag. I'm willing to give them a 2nd visit with hopes for a better experience.

My score,...

Worst possible service I have ever had in my life. The restaurant was dimly lit and cob webs were in the corners of the ceiling around the building. It looked dirty, but this place was highly recommend by a friend that was with us so we went. Our server Eric was completely unprofessional from the beginning. He got the order wrong, argued with me when I said my son ordered fries and not rice and brought refrigerator cold food out for the kids meals. When asked if the kids could be served warm food, Eric said no, that’s how they did it. I asked to speak to a manager, Manuel Rodriguez, and was told they could take the food back to warm up. Instead of bringing child-safe warm food, Eric brought unsafely, hot plates and placed it right in front of my 6 year old whom immediately burnt his arm. I believe Eric did this intentionally as he already had an attitude and wished “to teach us a lesson”. I have never felt so disrespected in my life at a restaurant. The place was gross and to allow servers such as Eric to serve customers and behave in such a manner is bad practice and makes the entire restaurant look bad. That man needs to be fired and shame on him for...

I don't like leaving negative reviews so I will just say this: Rodrigo's is the most "Gringafied" Mexican food chain in SoCal - absolutely no heat nor any spice in any of their entrees. The sauces come off like canned because of a lack of flavor. The chiles in the rellenos have to be hard-cut with because they are the consistency of dill pickles or cucumbers, not soft like they should be. Their "by request" hotter salsa is about the same heat as other chains' regular salsas. But this place is usually packed and I am a captive customer (my elderly mom's friend likes eating here) but there must be a lot of folks who don't like much "sabor" to their Mexican food. The only Latinos you see are the waiters which is another red flag to me. Rodrigo's was just a name change from Don Jose (or Ricardo's in the case of this location) but same ownership. The only thing that changed with the new menus are higher prices and fewer selections. ...