Frida Mexican Cuisine — Restaurant in Torrance

I’ve been to Frida way too many times. And I think I know what to expect here, and also give you an honest opinion of the place. The food here is good, some dishes can be better. I guess it’ll depend on what you order. My favorite dish so far are the tacos norteños, they’re some of the most delicious tacos I’ve ever tried. Trust me, I know tacos. The chicken soup (consomé de pollo) is absolutely the best, it’s like they have abuelita in the back preparing it. You can’t go wrong with their enchiladas, or flautas. The torre de mariscos is perfection. And the salmon a la diabla is also a good one. Now, the ones that are not as great in my opinion, the tortilla soup is not that great, fish tacos have no seasoning, the milanesa de pollo was awful (extremely salty, i couldn’t eat it), the ceviche tasting was only okay, the aguachile was not good. I have to say that as far as I can tell all of their food is authentic Mexican food, something that is appreciated. Now let’s talk about the service. Overall they have good customer service, of all the times we’ve been there, only a couple of times the service wasn’t good. One of those times was just plain bad. The waiter was rude, and I could tell he got mad when I asked if he could take the food back to keep it warm. For context, we had just been served our soups, we had just started eating; and he brought the main dishes out right away. We were eating in the patio area. So I guess the common sense would it have been to bring those dishes out, once we were about done with our soup, at least that’s been my experience everywhere I go. The waiter gave me an attitude. But hey, I don’t want to eat cold food. But like I say most of the time the service has been pretty good. I’ve been there during dinner time on weekends. No waiting time to be seated, however; if you don’t have a reservation you will be seated by the bar area. The restaurant is a good Mexican restaurant overall. I’m adding pictures of the menu if you want to see their prices. They share parking with the Del Amo mall, so it’s challenging to find a spot during the weekends. Oh and their...

2018 UPDATE: 2 to 4 stars. I went for happy hour at the bar. I believe chips and salsa/hot sauces are free now, at least I didn't see the charge for it on my bill. I tried the molcajate, it was pretty good! Better than Madre's over all, but I liked Madre's cheese better. While mingling with other people, one of the bar servers cleaned up the food that we were still working on, about a fourth of the food was still unfinished. :( She offered to get the manager to see what can be done, but I just let it go. Other than that, servers were great. Food, even on happy hour, still seemed a little pricey, happy hour drinks were a pretty good deal, but there's a lot of completion in the area. Parking can be difficult, even though it's at a mall with a lot of spots. Took me about 10 min to find parking around 5pm on a wed night. I'll back track and say the place is worth a visit now, at least for happy hour which is all day Mon-thur, bar only.

----- original 2017 review below -----

Food was okay, but considering price and everything else, not worth it. Catered to people who don't like authentic Mexican food.

Chips and "salsa" (basically just hot sauces) are automatically ordered for each party, yes ordered, not provided, albeit it's only $2, but with no refills. Typical cantinas provide chips for free, with free refills, and with pico/salsa, not just hot sauces. Tacos are about $4-5 each, didn't try it myself, but at nearly $5 ea, didn't look that great. Carnitas was pretty good, but for around $25 which comes with only rice, beans, and a tortilla (no salsas or other condiments, or even garnishes for plating), the meat better be good. Amount of meat was about a big burritos worth, which is not much for the price. FYI the meat was on the sweeter side, in case that's not your thing, I personally prefer savory, but still thought it was pretty good.

Honestly would never choose to eat here, so many better options for sit down Mexican, like pretty much any Mexican cantina; do I dare say it, yes I do — El Torito or Acapulco is more with it.

TLDR, skip this place if you...

My family will never visit this restaurant again. In fact we will make it a point to not recommend to anyone and deter others from going as well. My husband and I were there this Saturday evening (10/26) and had one of the worst dining experiences. We ordered a wet Burrito Campechano, grilled veggies & Cadillac’s. We asked for chicken only as we do not eat beef and haven’t for over 15 years in support of my mom who had colon cancer. Halfway thru eating we found pieces of beef in the burrito. We were not happy at all and concerned that we may have consumed some in previous bites. We told our waitress who came and took the plates and said she would talk to the chef & her manager. Here is where it all went down hill. The manager came by the table and just drops off our bill. No acknowledgement of having beef in our burrito no apologies or concern... nothing. We thought wow how rude that she came by but didn’t say anything. Our waitress came back around and asked was everything ok and if the manager came by to talk to us. We said she came by and just dropped off the bill but nothing was said. She said she would have her come back so we can speak to her. The manager came back and gave us major attitude, like it was our fault that we had beef in our burrito. Still no apology and stated that it was company policy that she couldn’t do anything about it. My husband told her that what she was saying was ridiculous and didn’t understand why she couldn’t acknowledge that a mistake has been made. We decided to leave it alone as things were elevating so paid the bill and agreed to never go back. It’s really unprofessional and terrible that Frida has this type of person managing their business. She should be fired cause she is not qualified for the position. I will post our experience wherever I can to ensure people know how Frida treats their customers. Do not eat here, choose a different restaurant in the area where you will be treated like a valuable customer because Frida has people in place that are not capable...