La Calera Mexican Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Peters Township

Mar 2024,

I know they are doing well. However, it must be due to something other than the dishes we tried at lunch, since both lunch specials were NOT special. In fact, the Mole (Special #27) we really not good. It was only sweet and light brown in color. All the complexity one expects from a mole was just not there.

This one, and the chicken served in the other one was dry as well. We were very disappointed the food. The service was excellent and the prices are very reasonable.

Just opened on Valentine's Day of 2022!

Have seen the signs for months and waited for it to open, so when we heard that it opened, we tried it out. The layout of the building is unchanged from the previous iteration, but the interior has been redone with Mexican murals and themes. The menu is mostly Mexican food as well - with some American dishes for those who are not in the mood for Mexican food, I suppose.

We met the owner and had the chance to ask him a few questions. As to why open a Mexican restaurant when there are several others already nearby, he believes that he has something new to offer. Specifically, his chef is from Honduras, and he will be evolving the menu by adding Honduran dishes in time - I cannot wait as I have not seen Honduran food in Pittsburgh before!

Clearly the restaurant is still in its early days and they do not have their procedures down yet. While were seated right away, there was some confusion on who our server was as we were asked by three different people for our drink order. Then, after it was delivered, all three of them hustled and bustled by us while we waited for any of them to take our food order. We decided to wait and see how long it would take for them to figure it out ... and it took them a while before one of them came over and took the food order.

The food came out on very hot plates and the cheese was melted together. This tells me that either it was sitting under very strong heat lamps, or was placed on the plate and then microwaved - not unusual, but not the best practice either. We did enjoy some of the offerings more than others.

We got a basket of unsalted tortilla chips with a trio of salsas almost as soon as our drink order arrived. Well, two came with the chips, but since I love spicy food, I asked for their hottest salsa and they brought me the third one. The mildest one is a smooth tomato one with a slight hint of some other flavoring. The medium one was very nicely flavored and had chunks of tomato, onion, cilantro and more and was delicious. The spicy one was hot (spice, not heat) and smoky and very pleasing to the palette although somewhat oily. Chip refills cost $4 each.

We got the Vegetarian platter and the Shrimp in Garlic butter. Both came with rice and refried beans. The sauces over the vegetarian entrees were on the sweet side which surprised us. The garlic butter was very strong which we liked - but some might not. The vegetarian Chalupa was actually more like a tostada with shredded lettuce and avocado on it. All the food was reasonably tasty but not extraordinary.

I will definitely want to come back when they roll out the Honduran specialties as those will be unique items. I am hopeful that by then they will have also cleaned up the process problems and I will be able to move my rating from a 4 star to a 5 star rating as I really want...

West Mifflin location: good morning so I debated on whether or not I wanted to post on here and after thinking it over I just couldn't believe what went on and can only imagine if I'm the only one this occurred to yesterday I went to lunch with my parents and after hearing about how great the food was here I convinced my parents we should try it out for an early lunch from the beginning we were off to a rough start the easier didn't know the basics like drinks what's on the menu or even how the menu worked we chalked it up to the fact that the place has only been open for a week since we're Hispanic we chose to order in Spanish to help out the waiter we explained what we wanted clearly and repeated multiple times my father chose al pastor Tacos with a side of plantains my step mother and I both ordered the same thing birria taco dinner with no beans our meals came out first and our order was completely wrong he gave us plain steak tacos with a side of rice I asked what happened he said that's what we ordered my stepmother said she didn't wanna make a big fuss that she would eat hers and I explained that I wouldn't mind it but there is a price difference and our tacos had no toppings so if we wanted cheese it was an Upchurch something as simple as sour cream was another 2$ and why should I have to do this when this wasn't what I wanted in the first place so the man decided to add another order of tacos to our bill this time the birria and claimed that since I was the one who didn't clearly explain my order and didn't know how to order my meal that it would just be another meal we'd have to pay at this point we've been there nesting an hour none of our played were ever cleared not once did he offer a refill we'd have to signal him to come to our table for a refill and even so he only refilled my father's glass then came our bill prior to him giving it to us he asked what was going to be the method of payment my father stated most likely credit but since we didn't have a total he wasn't sure so the man began to apologize for the confusion my father was like oh for what messing up my wife's and daughters order he then started no not for that because he didn't mess that up he apologizing for charging my father for 2 orders of the al pastor instead of one but that is fine because once he pays for the bill in full with his card he's going to give him the 15$ cash and walks away me and my father were stunned as my stepmother was in the restroom when she returns we tell her what's going on the waiter then interrupts our conversation and tells my father to hand over his card because he's going to take care the business he had previously discussed in looking at this man like sir this isn't a negotiation you've botched the job numerous times it's very clear he was not trained properly if even at all and I didn't even feel comfortable with my father handing him his card there was not a manager in sight this man was using a POS system he doesn't know how to use he couldn't remove things he had inputted into the system by mistake and we were still charged for everything single thing even food we never received and for his mistakes safe to say I will never return to this establishment nor its affiliates and I hope that anyone who does please check your receipts and bank statements to ensure you were...

I unfortunately had an absolutely awful experience there this evening. I never usually write reviews, but this was horrible. There was a bone in my birria (pictures attached) which I nearly choked on. They offered to give me “half off” my entree for nearly choking on a bone almost as long as my pinky finger. My husband ordered the burrito la calera and the shrimp were rotten. It came with four shrimp in the burrito and he had to spit them into a napkin. The waitress told us “there’s nothing I can do, he ate it” which was not the case as his shrimp had to be spit into napkins. I am incredibly disappointed in this experience and will never go back. There are many Mexican restaurants that are much better nearby. It’s also truly horrible how they handled the situation. I would at the least expect a manager to come out and apologize to us for the dangerous food that was served to us, which did not happen. Truly...