Ponce's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in San Diego

I've lived in the neighborhood for seven years, and have eaten here a dozen or more times. I've eaten in the restaurant a few times, but most of the time it has been takeout.

The first few years I was coming here it was really good. One time I got takeout I would classify the food as outstanding. I recall thinking "this is it!", e.g. my new favorite Mexican restaurant, after my other favorite had closed. (That was the only time I thought the food was fantastic.)

Since then (maybe four years ago?), the best words I can use to describe my experiences are 'consistently inconsistent'. Sometimes some parts are great, some parts are not, some are missing and some are wrong. Some are weird, and some are just "no". It's become a total mixed bag when it comes to what I'll get.

Three of the last four takeout orders I've picked up have been wrong. Once I ordered a shrimp burrito and received a surf & turf burrito (I'm a vegetarian), another time I ordered a pint of salsa verde and returned home with a pint of red salsa.

The last time- yesterday- I ordered a big bag of chips that ended up being cold and stale. Clearly made many hours prior. The salsa verde was the consistency of water and tasted very odd and unlike any salsa verde I've ever had. My shrimp burrito had two large chunks of avocado in just two bites toward the end, with ingredients spaced out randomly. (I didn't even know it had avocado in it until the last few bites.) It seems like it was put together by someone who just doesn't care. This order was around 5:15 on a weeknight and they weren't busy, so they can't use 'slammed in the kitchen' as an excuse. The burrito was also watery. (How is that possible? From the shrimp?)

Given the inconsistency of the food and the regularity of the screwed-up takeout orders, I have no intention of returning. Yesterday was their last chance to redeem themselves. I'm sad but there are other great Mexican restaurants nearby.

El Zarape (casual take-out) on the west side of the 805 by 30th St has some of the best fish tacos I've had in San Diego (cheap too), and although parking over there is a massive PITA, it will be worth it to drive over there now instead of Ponce's whenever I want Mexican to go.

I really hope Ponce's is able to sort out their problems, because they used...

Horrible!!! ☹️😱 If you are not familiar with the area get ready to have a hard time to get to this place. As I was getting out from the freeway coming from up North County I felt like I was going into a loop where is hard to find this restaurant. Let's not talk about parking that adds extra inconvenience for someone driving from far away in traffic. Drinks can be improved, I ordered an tamarin Margarita or Margarita de tamarindo, I really didn't like it because it was missing something. I get it! They are trying to be unique by using their own secret tamarin recipe that they won't share to anyone but it makes tequila float and their secret sinks in my cup, strange huh!? How can you explain that?🤔 I am a Mexican bartender who's specialist is tequila. I know how to make great Margaritas and I am aware every place I go they have their own way to make Margaritas. I was just trying to solve that mystery about my tequila floating and the mix sinking on my cup by asking the server. That white girl server was horrible 😲 she tried to play smart pants by making such a stupid comment like "is NORMAL to have tequila floating and syrup sinking because alcohol is less dense than syrup" I mean yeah duh! That's exactly what I am trying to find out because I have never served or seen such a bad Margarita made like that. Thanks for the physics class missy smart pants but who likes to sip on a margarita that tastes like pure tequila on the first five sips and as you finish tastes way too sweet because the syrup sinks!!???🤮🤮🤮 Food was bad quality as bad as I can say you can find the same type of food in a cheap taco shop in your neighborhood like Taco Bell, Del taco, Alberto's, etc Won't bother to come back even if they offer me a full refund for the...

I was really excited to try this place as there are so few that have thousands of positive reviews like it and disappoint. However, this place was disappointing. The food is low quality and not fresh. We ordered guacamole and you could taste the plastic it came in, it was equivalent to something you could pick up from Costco with no addition of lime, salt, cilantro or onion. The salsa had a weird aftertaste, like metal and also suffered from the same lack of fresh quality I was hoping for. The menu was not exciting and it was difficult to find anything that I wanted to eat. The service was not exceptional but not terrible, it was slower than I am used to for sit down restaurants like this. The main course was just average but I did appreciate the amount of rice and beans that is provided in the combo option.

All said, I would not recommend this place to folks except for those who want something that is very very basic, like it is your first time trying Mexican food and you need an introduction. I had something very similar in Tennessee once which is not great because we are in San Diego.

Do I feel like I wasted my money? No, it wasn't that bad and I had enough leftovers to constitute an entire meal which is a plus. It is very much catered towards a white audience (which makes sense since Kensginton is about 55% of according to the latest census data) with a failure to try anything new...