Corazon Cocina VTA — Restaurant in Ventura

I recently moved to the Ventura/Oxnard area from LA and have been on the hunt for good Mexican food, so I decided to try Corazón Cocina.

The space itself is really cute and nicely decorated and very clean. Our waitress was so sweet and attentive — I wish I had gotten her name. She let us know margaritas were only $10 for Mexican Independence Day, which was a nice surprise!

We ordered guacamole, quesabirria, the Cali burrito, and the Norteño taco. The burrito came out first and was very flavorful — definitely the highlight for me, though at $20 it felt a little steep. The Norteño taco was huge and looked great, but at nearly $13 I’m not sure it’s worth the price. The guacamole was fresh but a bit lacking in flavor (I wanted more salt or lime). The quesabirria unfortunately never made it to our table until we reminded the server about 30 minutes later, but when it arrived, it was good. Very flavorful but very oily.

Drink-wise, the cilantro passionfruit margarita was way too sour for my taste, so we sent it back to add some more sweetener. When the waitress returned it, it was much better.We also got the strawberry margarita which was amazing — I’d definitely recommend that one.

The biggest downside was the service. Our server was genuinely kind and tried her best, but it was clear she was the only one handling the entire restaurant, which slowed things down. As a server myself, it was tough to see her juggling everything while other staff can be helping running food or drinks.I sat right by the bar and saw drinks sitting there ready to be ran for 10+ minutes.

Overall: good food, hit-or-miss drinks, and kind staff, but the service setup and pricing keep me from wanting...

Saturday night at 630:

Food - I ordered a taco which was 1 of 6 items on the menu and they didn’t have what I wanted. I ordered a beer, 1 of 6 and they were out.

When my friends tacos came out, on a six inch soft taco shells, they couldn’t fold it over and eat it as intended. This is not saying it was full of great food and more than one could eat. The cauliflower pieces were so big, the taco wasn’t eatable. The rest of the taco items were minimal at best. No balance. They had to use a fork to eat it. They told me the flavor over all was good.

The kids quesadillas were unimpressive/poor and wasnt nearly enough for kids or as ordered. They forgot to put the steak in the quesadillas and it was only a little cheese and rice. No sour cream, quac or anything. Imagine a tortilla folded over on light cheese with a scoop of brown rice beside it on a plate.

Drastically over priced and food portions, if complete, were not appropriate enough to invite me back. They didn’t have items on the menu (menu was small) and they couldn’t fill the orders properly. Of the 4 plates ordered, all four were problematic.

Service was as expected which isn’t saying much.

The environment was loud. Seating was roomy and comfortable. Don’t expect to be overly impressed by this place.

I’m down to pay for food and service when appropriate. I love good food and appreciate good service. This place was disappointing.

Maybe stop in for lunch with a friend, grab an expensive, possibly acceptable taco and enjoy time with a friend. Maybe get drinks and have good...

We were seated immediately and told that our server would be by to take our drink order. More than 10 minutes had passed and we were talking about leaving when our server came up, semi apologetic about the delay. He had already served others who had been seated after us. I think there was some poor communication of which server was assigned to our table or from the host to the server that we were waiting for. Fortunately, what saved the experience is the food was delicious and the server was being very nice after that point. To drink, I ordered the Aztec Old Fashioned which was very smooth and noticeably high quality. We started with the guacamole, which was served with house made chips and salsa. The guac was delicious, seasoned well and a touch of heat. The chips were perfect, not the flimsy type - nice hearty chips crisp and not over fried. The salsas, green and red, both were amazing and flavorful. The Ensenada fish taco was fresh and tasted good. Nothing wow'd me about this one, but it was good. The Norteño steak taco was excellent! This was the highlight of the meal. The steak was perfectly tender, seasoned well and accompanied by some beans and guacamole. The Chicana shrimp quesadilla was nice, but nothing special. For what this was, I probably wouldn't order this one again. Nothing bad to say about it, but nothing really makes me want to have it again. Despite a very rocky start to the point where we almost left the restaurant, I'm glad we got to experience the food and pretty good service...