Snapper Jacks Taco Shack — Restaurant in Ventura

Great american style mexican food at reasonable prices.

I LOVE mexican food and Snapper Jacks brings it. Their food is consistently high quality, made with fresh ingredients with balanced flavors at reasonable prices.

Entrees - Their burritos are creative takes on traditional mexican combinations. Their signature meat is the Snapper (go figure, right?) which you can get prepared several different ways depending on your preference. They also have traditional meats if you're into that. The Fried snapper tacos are pretty tasty and are pretty close to the ideal fish taco. My personal favorite entree is the taco salad with a meat. It's served in a large fried flour tortilla shaped like a bowl which allows you to add as much crunch (and fried tortilla) as you want...or as little as you want. Salsa - The salsa bar here is packed with unique spins on salsa...from the mango melon salsa to the special sauce...they are all very tasty. The 'bar is anchored by a solid pico de gallo which is great with chips as well as a few grilled pepper offerings at different heat levels. I recommend trying them all on your first go round then honing in on the right flavor and heat level based on your preference. The chips are also pretty tasty - not too thick, not too thin, not fried too long...just right if you ask me. Definitely contributes to the 'got full on the chips and salsa before my food showed up' phenomenon. Atmosphere - SJs is kickin' and gets busy during lunch due to the proximity to two high schools and the college across the street but the food still comes out quick and it rarely 'feels' packed. This is a feat considering the volumes they're putting through. The seating areas are nice with indoor and outdoor options with both packing a very so cal taco shop atmosphere with lots of surf paraphenalia and videos running in the background for a bit of white noise. A few video game consoles in the back round out the feel of the place and provide some incentive for the little guys to finish their food quickly if they have some quarters to spare.

Overall, a clutch eatery in Ventura that's now sprouted out a few more locations around Ventura County which just reinforces how tasty...

Every Monday night I have a rehearsal and pretty much every Monday night I run to this Snapper Jacks afterwards (which is less than 5 mins away) to grab some take out. The restaurant is supposed to close at 9p. Every once in awhile, and it seems to be happening with more frequency, when I show up around 815p-820p, the employees are cleaning up, putting up chairs, or the door will even be locked with workers standing around inside, and me with my face pressed up against the glass door lol

Tonight (3/27/2023) was the last straw. A fellow musician and I walked in at 820p hoping to get dinner and sit and chat a bit. But as we got thru the door,  a couple of the workers looked at us and rolled their eyes at each other. It's 40 minutes til close! There were 2-3 small parties seated. But chairs were already being flipped onto the tables all around those poor people trying to eat (this has happened to me as well). My friend asked if they were still open and they said for take out only. As we were waiting for our food, the phone rang almost continuously and one of the employees appeared to hang up the call each time. After about the 3rd time doing this she looked at another employee who said to just mute it...and that's what they did.

I give 5 stars for food (it is always consistently great...potato tacos ftw!), 0 stars for front of house employees (the service attitude was just so...

I’m a local here in Ventura. My family and I have been going to snappers since I can remember. Never had a bad experience until last week. Whoever the female blonde manager is there is something else. Completely rude, ignored us, was really rude when we asked for a drink. I asked one of the associates why they started charging for salsa and when the salsa and salad bars were opening and she rudely interrupted and said I can complain to her because “she’s the manager”. I told her I wasn’t talking to her and she said “well if you want to complain you can call corporate” every employee there was just down. You could 100% tell she was not at all someone anyone wanted to be around. I’ve never had a bad experience or had someone completely out of line and disrespectful. I guarantee no local will go back there with someone managing who acts like that and sees nothing wrong with it. If I go back and she acts that way I will call corporate until something is done. She’s either new, not from here, or needs a job where she doesn’t interact with people. (Food as always was amazing and all the employees were great...