Perla Mexican Cuisine — Restaurant in Santa Ana

This is a great place for chips & drinks! The disappointment kicked in when we received our entrées. My husband ordered the steak and eggs, medium rare; I had ordered the chilaquiles and had asked for steak instead of chicken, and the waitress said, "Sure. No problem!" with over easy eggs. When the plates arrived, my husband's steak looked/tasted dry/well-done. My plate arrived without steak, and the egg yolks were pretty much cooked all the way through. The two waiters walked by at least 5 times telling me the steak would be ready soon, I should've just canceled it but kept holding out. At least 10 minutes went by, and my chilaquiles went cold. Eventually, the steak arrived. It was a really small and thin cut, juicy, and tender but not medium rare. The amount of time I waited made me think I was getting a bigger piece of steak than something smaller than the palm of my hand. In retrospect, I wish the waitress had explained to me how the Chilaquiles Con Pollo was served (with shredded chicken) since we told her it was our first time to the restaurant because it probably would've changed my mind. Also, she didn't ask me how I wanted my steak cooked like how she asked my husband, so that should've clued me in to avoid the delay. We really enjoyed the Ceviche de Camaron, it was very flavorful! I also enjoyed the La Cometa and Como La Flor cocktails; my husband had La Niña. It came out really quick but tasted watered-down as if it had just been waiting to be handed out. I hate to nick-pick, but this was part of the overall experience. The live mariachi was a really nice touch to the atmosphere. We probably would've stayed for dessert had the entrées been better. The staff was friendly, and we understand mistakes happen or that things don't always go according to our expectations but one thing I would've appreciated to "make it right" was not charging me...

This is my first Google review and I felt I had to make one to share my bad experience. Made a reservation for mother’s day here a couple of weeks ago and nowhere in the reservation did it say no mariachi, so we expected some for brunch at their location. We arrive to our reservation to no mariachi but another separate mother’s day event being held in another room, which we couldn’t attend and weren’t aware of. The hostess lied and told us the mariachi would be in both the event and our location, claimed “it’ll be the same experience everywhere”. We were there for 2 hours and there was never mariachi. We arrived at 10 am and also weren’t approached for half an hour by any of the staff. I had to flag down a runner to bring us waters and get our order taken. Our server claimed no one told her we had arrived, yet she had already walked past us at least three times by then. On top of that, the server told us as we were finishing up our meals and ordering dessert that there was another reservation taking our table at 11:30, which didn’t take into account that fact that no one attended us for the first half hour. We felt forgotten throughout the entire brunch and to top it all off, the cajeta french toast i got was incredibly dry. Overall, incredibly disappointing service and dampened our mother’s day experience. Would not trust them with...

In mid-August 2021, my friend and I visited this restaurant for the first time. We did not have reservations so we were sat at the bar where the two bartenders gave us the best service. We enjoyed the music and food so we returned with our husbands, but this time we made reservations for August 27, 2021. This was our worst experience at a restaurant. When our food came we did not have silverware and after waiting for about 10 minutes, we asked the busboy for silverware and drinks. This made our waitress upset and, in a rude manner, she came to our table and asked us not to do that again. Her attitude made us feel uncomfortable and the service was poor. When I received the bill I noticed there was a service charge of 18% and at the bottom a calculation for the tip amount. I questioned the waitress and she apologized for not letting us know beforehand that this restaurant's policy is to charge an 18 % service fee for orders over $300.00. In my experience I have paid this fee for large parties but we were only a party of four. So be ready to pay this fee when you visit this restaurant. My bill was close to $500.00 and if I had received the same service I did the first time I came here I would have been happy to return but based on my last experience, I will not be returning or...