Baja Fish Tacos — Restaurant in Santa Ana

This place has all the makings of a star. Easily one of my favorite places to grab lunch. 4 stars for raising their prices.

Tip: call ahead, the lines to order, get drinks, salsa and eat are long and the parking lot is a bit of a cluster F.

I've spent a fair bit of time in Baja so I can say as far as authenticity it's a vague word to use in description as a style of food. It's not wrong, but it's not accurate. The Ensenada style fish taco is what everyone knows and due to the name and origins associate a whole slew of food to be Baja style which it isn't necessarily.

I'm not a salad guy, but their unwrapped burrito is so good it makes me not want to return to work. Granted I don't want to in the 1st place, but it's a game changer. Champagne vinaigrette, well marinated steak, rabanos, red onion slivers, cheese, guacamole, romaine lettuce, corn. The dressing isn't very sweet or tart, but it's smooth and densely flavored, a bit strong at the end. The steak has a good citrus and garlic note along with a good cut and char marks. In combination it works 100% of the time everytime for me to give me a win for the day.

Their tacos are pretty big here, large piece of densely battered fish on a corn tortilla topped with a cabbage shred and crema fresca based dressing, salsa fresca and bang. It's not the best I've ever had, but it's pretty good, nothing to knock here. Filling, but priced as such @ $3.00 most people don't bother, All their taco's are this way, large and pricey, but classical. The priciest of the bunch is the shrimp, but to me it's the best. White wine and butter sautee with cotija cheese. Personally I would have liked to see Manchego on it, but that's me. Steak again is packed and bursting with flavor and the blackened fish is a nice change of pace and something most people would cook while camping in baja.

The seasoned white rice is light and just that lightly seasoned, unlike the Spanish rice we too often think of for Mexican dishes. Black beans all day over pinto. Baja bowl is pretty heavy in it has both beans, rice, meat and lettuce.

They are very busy in store so service is great for to go, but lacking a little for dine in. The Salsa bar is packed and people do not wait in line, they simply cut and wiggle and weasel their way in but the design doesn't make it so that area flows at all. A few tables outside and tables are cleaned as fast as they can, but I think compared to the other Mexican food around this place is boss, but make no mistake there is a lot of mediocre Mexican food in OC. They are pretty busy and we're open to me asking for a quesoritto. Parking lot is sketch in that people don't give an F so I suggest park as far away from others as you can or up front...

This place, is my go to place for fish burritos and tacos when I’m in the area! The food has good taste and it’s the only one around like it! So I can’t compare it to others in the area! There are some bad things that are getting worse over time! First, is the miniature salsa bar that always has people hovering over it, standing in line to get to it, placed in a high traffic area, and the tiny little plastic cups dont help either, you can’t put more than one lime wedge in there lol! plus the salsa is so mild, both the green and the red! salsa bar gets a one star for having fresh Serrano peppers, otherwise a big thumbs down for the salsa bar! Second is customer service that used to be much better, the last few times I’ve been there has been some very bland attitudes at the registers, the girls all seem unhappy and overwhelmed with all the people standing in line. Staff is running around bumping into people and each other very disorganized setting! Third the bathroom is a mess one bathroom for ladies and one for men what a disaster when you have hundreds of people in an out of the restaurant very disappointing! Fourth the food is missing ingredients burritos that are missing guacamole, or reduced portions of protein, when we got home my wife’s veggie burrito was all rice ☹️my burrito had a sliver of fish, was wrapped like a small cone shaped mess! No guacamole. Fourth we spent $38 dollars and they wanted to charge us $2 dollars for a little bigger plastic container for the salsa bar. Really??? Fifth waiting in line for over 30-45 min to place an order is insane and then waiting 30 minutes for your order is crazy 😂 to many people because there is no competition nearby. This place needs to expand or open another location reconfigure the layout relieve the staff from so many people! This place has loads of potential to be what it once was! Best of luck I hope to see you make good changes. For now I will be exploring other options even if I have to drive a...

Terrible customer service i have ordered countless times from this place and many times they get my order wrong and it’s always something so simple no cheese on tacos how hard is that to do. But today I’m done with this place after pretty much telling me I put cheese on my own tacos how crazy is that. I ordered 4 tacos as usual no cheese I asked the cashier IRMA no cheese and please make sure as they always get my order wrong and I’m allergic to cheese said ok. My order is ready she said she checked and make sure it had no cheese I take her word for it I get home I opened the tacos all 4 have cheese I call her back and asked her why my tacos had cheese when I told her to make sure the receipt said no cheese the bag said no cheese but the tacos have cheese. She said she was gonna check with her manager. She comes back on the phone and tell me she and her manager checked my order and the tacos had no cheese so practically telling me I put cheese on them my self how ridiculous is that. I told her so I put cheese on them my self right or got them from Taco Bell or another restaurant and want to waste my time returning them. She never accepted her mistake instead blame me the customer. She offered to remake the tacos but I’ve had enough cause like I said this is not the first time this has happened so I just wanted my money back and I will never recommend this place to anyone let alone order from this company again. Manager didn’t even bother talking me. Just terrible customer service. Hope my experience helps some folks. I was so furious i instantly went back and called that forgot to take pictures of the tacos and and receipt. The location of the place is the one on Bristol. I’m adding other pictures from a different time so you can see it’s not...