Pedro's Restaurant & Cantina — Restaurant in Santa Clara

Today (2/7/23) was the first time I'd ever been to Pedro's, but my pastor raves about it all the time.

As today's my birthday, my friends treated me to lunch, and I chose to go here.

I don't know how busy they usually are here, but today was a great day to go because the lot wasn't full, and we walked right in and got a table with NO wait.

And I just have to say what an absolute treat today was for me. Pedro's is a charming establishment.

The exterior is beautiful with its terrace dining and ambient water features (their multi-tiered fountain was making its cascading music and delighting a family of robins with its dancing water).

Pedro's interior is just as charming. As an interior designer, architectural integrity stands out to me, and there was so much of it present here. From the lovely tiled flooring to the wooden arched doors, this place just says Mexican restaurant. And the interior design elements were equally pleasing, especially the gorgeous wrought-iron chandelier!

Now about the food (which is probably all you care about anyway, right?): I had the Chicken Fajita Salad... and it was delicious! All the cold salad elements on top (grilled-to-perfection chicken, lettuce, crema, guacamole, salsa, cheese) melded perfectly with the warm fajita ingredients beneath (sautéed onion and bell peppers)--just as you'd get in a fajita but as a salad. Yum!

(BTW, they have Baja Fish Tacos here. I didn't get any this time, but I will when I return. Because fish tacos are a FAVE of mine, and I always like to find places that do them well. (Rubio's, so far, is my hands-down favorite.) I'll keep you posted when I try them.)

My friends had the Chile Relleno and Tostada Salad, and both were VERY pleased with their choices.

The portions are hearty, and the quality of food is wonderful.

And our waitress, Roxanna, was a sweetheart and very attentive. (And a very good waitress because she never intruded into our conversations, yet she was there filling up our glasses and taking away plates almost as if she were invisible.)

So, do I recommend Pedro's? Absolutely. If you're in the mood for great Mexican food and a lovely dining atmosphere with friendly and efficient staff, this is the place for you.

(Actually, I'm thinking of setting a scene in one of my novels here. Have to get permission to use the name, of course, but, my gosh! The place was just screaming at me to set a scene on its premises. Maybe a first date? Ooh! Or maybe a wedding (after all, they advertise on a sign out front that they can handle wedding parties)? We'll see.)

But you try it and see what I mean. It’s...

I really hate to write such a bad review to a restaurant with so much potential. The food is good and so are the drinks, when you finally get them. But the service was terrible and there were some shady dealings with the bill. I was with a large party (13) celebrating my daughter’s college graduation, we went to the bar (which was empty) to order drinks and the manager requested that we order our drinks at our table, no problem. But then it took a while for our server to come take our orders and even longer to get our drinks. Then our server went missing while we waited for her to take our food orders and when she finally did it took a really long time to get our food. It wasn’t that busy and though we were a large party, we were not demanding at all. One of our party spoke with a manager, who apologized profusely and for a moment it seemed things were looking up but then things just got strange. The server started bringing things to our table that we did not order (food ans drinks) and telling us they were on the house. The server brought a plate to my mother, it was not what she ordered and my mother said that was ok, at this point she would just eat it. The server insisted that my mother could eat that food but that she would have the correct order brought to her. When the server brought the correct order to my mother, she lifted the other plate out from under her and took it away! Somebody else stopped her, but still… awkward. When the bill came, you guessed it, all of those “one the house” items were actually “on the bill” 🤦🏻‍♀️ Because we were a large party an 18% gratuity was added to the total so I don’t know if the server thought we wouldn’t notice this and it would increase her tip.? Also, I understand why some places add a tip for large parties but it’s really a bad practice, this server clearly was not motivated to serve us for 18%, perhaps if she’d thought she could have gotten more she would have been more invested? Honestly though if the service had been good we would have...

Pedro's has been a landmark in Santa Clara for decades, and I'm happy to report that the food is just as good as it always has been. Other pluses are the charming decor, and ever-friendly wait staff. We went on Mother's Day mid afternoon, and were pleasantly surprised that we only had a 30 minute wait with no reservation. Since it was a beautiful day, we sat out front on the patio and enjoyed the nice "Early California" surroundings. In the end, everyone was delighted with their food and Margaritas. Only a couple of small details bring this from a 5 to a 4 review. Perhaps 4.5 in reality. Since we came around 3:30PM, after their busy Brunch session ended, the wait staff appeared to be in transition to the dinner shift folks, leaving insufficient overlap , thus service times were slightly longer than we have previously experienced. That's excusable. I'm sure the morning shift folks had plans with their moms too. The only other thing that I noticed is truly in the nit-picking category. As I say, Pedro's has been around for decades with that charming Early California motif and it is a big plus for folks like me. While the surrounding gardens and parking lot are well maintained, some of the decorative building details have been allowed to degrade a bit. As I say, this has nothing to do with the quality of service, food or beverages, which I still rate as a 5, but if a patron has an eye for detail, he might begin to wonder if it isn't time for a refresh on this Silicon...