California Tacos Cantina and Distillery — Restaurant in San Luis Obispo

Wow! Wow! Wow! I'm always on the prowl for restaurants with new and creative menu offerings in San Luis Obispo beyond the usual steak and seafood. California Tacos Cantina & Distillery does not disappoint. Drinks, appetizers, entrees were all creative and great tasting.

I was as also expecting "poetry on a plate" (i.e. small portions) from a new restaurant because I read that they were pricey. These preconceptions were dead wrong. Beautiful presentation with generous (huge) portions. The bill was about half of what I expected for drinks, appetizers and entrees. So bring your appetite.

For drinks they have dozens and dozens of tequilas and mezcals. They also have vodkas, whiskeys and their own wine, and a selection of beers. We opted for the margaritas - The Cali Girl, tequila, fresh strawberries, lime and agave and the Sunset in Cabo, jalapeno infused tequila, lime, pineapple and agave, not too spicy.

For appetizers we had cheesy goodness with their Queso Fundido - Melted mozzarella with chorizo and jalapeno in a hot cast iron skillet with dipping chips and their Ceviche Hacienda - We're not talking chopped up pieces of seafood drowning in liquid. We are talking giant shrimp, strips of tilapia, avocado on a full-size entre plate. Delicious! All this on top of free chips and salsa.

For dinner we had the El Molcajete and the Pulpo Asado. El Molcajete is a giant metate volcanic rock bowl overflowing with shrimp, chicken, steak, grilled cactus, chorizo, onions, cheese. It comes with little sides of beans, rice, nopales (marinated cactus) and tortillas. It can easily feed 3 people, possibly 4. The Pulp Asado is full seasoned grilled octopus with guacamole, rice and shrimp. So yummy.

If they had a dessert menu we couldn't have looked at it. We were unprepared for the large portion sizes and ended up taking home 2-1/2 full-size take-home boxes.

Excellent food, great service from Carleigh, our server. Will...

My family dined for lunch yesterday. Prior to writing this review I tried calling the restaurant to share our experience but the call went to voicemail and it was full. As a business owner myself, I am acutely aware of the impact customer satisfaction, company reputation, and return business has. The highlight was what I ordered, the quesabirria tacos (chicken) and consomme. It was absolutely delicious, so was my margarita. Our son had a quesidilla, which was fine of course. My husband ordered the trio house tacos. He refuses to ever make comment or send anything back, actually we are both this way, but his reaction was uncharacteristicly negative. I then tried it and had to agree. We requested to order something else because the sauce on the tacos was just inedible and disgusting. Perhaps it had soured. My concern was that our waitress (M) did not offer to return it to the kitchen and charged it to our bill. We overlooked her repeated forgetfulness, the length of time she would take to complete our request once she did remember, but the latter was inexcusable. Perhaps this is the owner or manager's protocol. Perhaps this should be reevaluated if so. Overall the location is great, the patio is relaxing, our server was pleasant, and I for one scored on their...

We had been wanting to try this restaurant since it opened. Food was good, but overall service was lacking. We were the servers one table for the night, but we didn't feel much attention given that fact. Staff was not very friendly when we arrived, which given it was a slow Tuesday, you'd think they would appreciate the business. Overall felt like we were an inconvenience. Chips and salsa that arrived right after we sat was lackluster. We were a party of four adults and the chip portion wasn't enough for even two people. My wife and I ordered margaritas and for the price, the size was small. My margarita was also very weak. Our server left the restaurant immediately after we paid. Our empty plates sat on the table for the remaining hour that we stayed to visit with our friends. In that time we were never attended to at all. We would have ordered more drinks, would have loved more water and might have even ordered a dessert. Other staff ignored us. We asked a staff member if they could take our plates and he just took one plate. Not a high level of service at all. For an all around better experience, we'll stick to La...