Casa Machado Restaurant — Restaurant in San Diego

The restaurant was located in an unexpected area, within the Montgomery Gibbs Executive airport. There was plenty of parking and it felt secluded which was nice. Despite having dinner on a Saturday evening, they weren’t insanely busy either. Immediately, we liked the decor and the relaxed atmosphere. Most of the staff, with the exception of our waitress, could have been friendlier.

I ordered their Chile Rellenos plate with rice and beans as well as their margarita flight. I appreciated that they cleaned out the seeds in the chiles. The seeds are time consuming to remove, but it makes a huge difference in the overall quality and pleasantness of the dish. I also liked the flavor of the cheese used in the chiles. The rice and beans were perfectly cooked and flavorful. The margaritas were served on an airplane shaped board which was a cute concept given their location, but not ideal for the table. The board takes up too much space and the drinks weren’t very stable. The margaritas were unfortunately mediocre. The flavors I chose were mango, strawberry and tamarindo. The strawberry was noticeably made with just fruit juice, the mango was too sweet and the tamarindo was hardly discernible. The drinks had a nice kick though.

We also ordered their chicken mole entree and it probably was the worst mole dish I’ve had. It lacked depth in flavor and it was entirely too sweet. It didn’t have any heat to contrast with the sweetness. My daughter ordered their bean and cheese burrito with a side of fries. She enjoyed her dish. The only complaint she had was that the beans overflowed out of the burrito which made it messy to eat.

We paid approximately $350 (including tip) for 7 people. Their prices were reasonable and despite some misses, I would return to sample...

First time diners of 3 and our son thought the airplane takeoffs and hanging planes from the ceiling were really cool. As a business owner we know when our staff is invested because we know that they care as much as we do about the experience of the guest/client. Maybe today was an off day, but we had hoped as locals that telling them it was our first time that they would at a minimum provide decent service. The food did come fast but offer it was delivered no one came back to see how we were doing. My enchiladas were wrong, and we never got the salad refill or even asked if we wanted more chips. We also needed more napkins and root beer refill and not one person came back. Three stars is generous because as a business owner I know it can hurt to get a bad review.... and seriously as I’m writing this someone dropped the check without clearing, asking or checking if we were even done or needed anything else. Food is just ok, but service is poor. we may give it a second try, maybe today was an off day. We had hoped to find a local Mexican restaurant to go to regularly, I guess...

This place had been a go to place for my family for decades! The Sunday brunch has always been great.

Last Saturday night we went for dinner. I hadn’t been here in many years for dinner. I was surprised that they close at 9:00 PM and the latest reservation they would take was at 7:00 PM! On a Saturday night…No Bueno!! I ordered my staple dish, Chile Verde, which I can usually gauge a quality of a Mexican restaurant off of.

Unfortunately, the Chile Verde at this place way under-delivered! It was bland with absolutely no heat! I even tried adding their green and red salsa to it, but still couldn’t get much flavor or heat out of it. A total disappointment.

I would give the place a 1, but the other dishes we ordered were between a 3-4 quality; plus I really like the location and vibe of this place. Unfortunately, because of their hours the place was mostly empty. The owners need to get their act together, clean the place up a bit and instead of just increasing their prices, which are already high, they need to increase their hours; at least...