Barra Barra — Restaurant in San Diego

The food has gone downhill. About 2 years ago it was better. The portion sizes now on some of the items like the fajitas, Carne Asada Steak Plate, and the flan are some of the smallest I've seen in a Mexican restaurant. A friend and I ordered the 2 items with beans and rice. We both wanted our money back. We chose tamales and enchiladas. The tamales were dry and tasteless. The chicken suiza enchilada was dry and not flavorful. The chicken enchilada in red sauce was bad too and it arrived cold. The beans and rice were also tasteless and dry. 4 of us agreed the beans and rice were not good. When we complained about the tamales and enchiladas, the waiter would not give us our money back, not even half! He said we ate too much of it. I admit I ate most of my enchilada, hoping it would get better. But, I only had 2 bites of that awful tamale. The waiter offered a replacement abut when I asked to replace it with a Chile Reno he said I had to pay extra! He allowed me to replace it with a soup!! The soup was supposed to have chicken in it but it only had a creamy sauce with corn!!! We had 6 in our party so they charged us a 4% extra surcharge for the rising cost of food, plus a non-negotiable 20% tip!! When we were first seated, we were there for about a half hour without being offered a glass of water or anything! They totally ignored us!! After we finally got service, the waiter did not check in with us often, and when he did, he forgot what we asked for repeatedly and did not come back for quite a while! He gave us a pitcher of water. We drank it all and it remained empty for 2 hours until the time we left. He never offered to refill it. There was a cigarette bud that had was next to our table when we arrived. The staff did not bother to sweep it up. The chairs in the lobby are peeling badly. I guess the owner does not keep the place up.

Avoid this place. I paid $26 including tax and tip for bad service and bad food I couldn't...

Might be OK if you like the idea of eating Mexican but don't like all the flavor. Old Town is filled with some really good places to eat. This is not one of them unless your idea of good mexican is what they might serve at a senior dinner in the Mid West.

We used to eat here more often and it was usually just not quite as good as the other places in the area and in SOCAL as a whole but was an OK place to get lunch if the other plances in the area were on a wait.

They have free kids meals with an adult entree so when our nomal spot in the area was understaffed and had a 20 minute wait we decieded to eat here. Their was plenty of seating and not too many people. The facility looks nice BTW. After a little wait for someone to realise we had not been helped service was quick and efficent. We munched on chips and Salsa and bean dip. The bean dip was good and, sadly, the best of all the food we had. The Salsa was just OK too. I had a combination plate and the food was about as good as a store bought frozen meal. My wife ordered the chicken fajita. It was blan, the chicken tasted as if it were cooked by itsself and not with the peppers and onions. There was not even a hint of citrius or spice. The refried beans and rice were also noticable blan. Even the horchata tasted watered down. As I walked past the bar to go to the restroom I notived it smelled a little off like bars sometimes do when they are not clean.

The price is comperable to the other places in the area but most of them have much better food. If you are visiting San Diego and want good mexican go elsewhere. The only exception is if you are like some of my family from other parts of the county and want mexican but cannpot take ANY spice or citius.

Both my wife an I agreed it was way sub standard and we will not be going back. It is too bad because the location and...

I had already read quite a few reviews before contacting the restaurant because I live out of state and would be traveling to San Diego for my son’s wedding. As the father of the groom I had the responsibility of providing the meal for the wedding party afterwards. I went online and had looked at and contacted quite a few restaurants in Old Town before I reached out to Casa de Reyes, but they were the last one I called because they were so helpful right from the start. To sum up my experience in these few words: We were NOT AT ALL disappointed, with anything, from start to finish. The service provided by our planner, Lisa was nothing short of world class. She was so helpful and friendly. Even if I had seen reviews that the food was not stellar we still would have chosen the ‘Casa de Reyes’ group for that reason alone. Not knowing exactly what we would be getting prior to the point of actually being served our meal, we were very pleasantly surprised with how we were met. Nobody at the restaurant already knew who we were before we had arrived, but that didn’t matter one bit—they treated us all with great respect and kindness from the start. The atmosphere is perfect, the locale is perfect, the experience was simply top notch. We were served by a friendly, attentive staff and everyone who helped us was happy and kind. And… the food WAS stellar—absolutely delightful. I know good Mexican food and the food at Barra Barra was exceptional. I would strongly recommend Barra Barra, or any of the Reyes restaurants in Old Town to anyone I meet who is looking to have a wonderful, traditional Mexican dining experience. I will go back any time I visit San Diego...