Marinitas — Restaurant in San Anselmo

After a nice 4 mile hike to Cataract Falls in Marin, I was hoping for a decent Mexican restaurant. I had low expectations since this is Marin, but I was wrong! Marinitas is the best Mexican Restaurant I’ve been to in 8 months. And far better than any in San Francisco as far as atmosphere, food and service. Marinitas is no hole in the wall and that was great! The interior is beautiful and clean. Lots of Mexican art. The chips and guacamole was excellent. They make their own chips and guacamole. They clearly changed the oil they used to make the chips as it did not taste rancid from old oil. The guacamole was so delicious. They made it fresh and had nice big chunks of avocado. The Chicken Enchilada’s were the best I’ve ever had. Perfect in fact. They come baked in a nice ceramic bowl with lots of cheese and a tasty sauce. Enchiladas were invented by the Mayans so it was nice eating an ancient food taken seriously by this restaurant. I also had a Miraval Rose Prosecco recommended by our waitress who didn’t mind that asked for 2 additional baskets of tortilla chips. The Rose was one of the best I’ve had and I a picky about Prosecco, Champagne, and Sparkling Wines! The glass was filled to the top which most places do not do. The service was excellent. I just wish that the restaurant had a sign that brought attention to it as it was just across the main area for food and shopping on a busy street. The last excellent Mexican Restaurant I’ve been to was in Sacramento, downtown called Zacalo Restaurant Midtown. It’s sad that San Francisco which has a 25% Latino population has very few good restaurants outside the Mission, and none that are beautiful and clean...

I’ve spent plenty of money at Marinitas over many years, even had multiple birthday dinners here. I love this place so I brought some friend over from out of town to try my favorite spot. We walked in without any reservations were seated promptly. We then sat there for 25 minutes like invisible ghosts while not a single staff person acknowledged our existence despite walking right by us countless times. We had to go to the bar to order drinks - no water or chips/salsa were ever offered, we had to explicitly ask for water while ordering our dinner. We had to ask the food runner for our chips and salsa which arrived a full 45 minutes after we sat down. The place wasn’t very busy, it was just absolutely abysmal service, embarrassingly bad. We literally joked that perhaps it was an episode of some hidden camera show. As always the food was good but wow, the most bizarre experience I’ve ever had at any restaurant. At no point did any staff person acknowledge the obviousness of the issue. It felt like the we were seated in the twilight zone. Hope this place isn’t about to close but if they keep performing this poorly that...

I just walked in and ordered $80 worth of take out with my two young kids from the hostess. I then asked her if we could please have some chips and salsa while we waited for the food to be ready. There wasn’t one person sitting in the dining room as it was 5:30. She told me we couldn’t sit at a table, that we had to sit on the bench at the entryway. She went on to say that to-go orders can’t sit in the dining room. Ok, fair enough. I then ordered two soft drinks on a separate tab and went and sat at a table with my two kids. I also left her a $10 tip because why not. Maybe she was having a bad day. An apparent manager came out and gave me a look for sitting at the table. After 5 min I asked the hostess if we could have the chips and salsa I had asked for. She told me “it’s not my job and I told you not to sit at a table” Wow. It’s unfortunately all too common in the service industry today. I hope someone will politely address this situation with the staff. For the record, the nice young bartender offered my daughter extra cherries in her Shirley temple. So...