Miguel’s Cocina

I came to this restaurant on a Wednesday night at 7PM. It was quite busy. Every staff person I encountered was friendly. I ordered a drink at the bar and it was fine.
I didn’t order anything to eat, so I can’t comment on that. The restroom was clean.
One thing about this place is that is very LOUD. Also, it is casual, so don’t dress up.
I would come back again if I was in the area.

Great place, nice and spacious.
Here is what I absolutely love to order:
— Spicy meatballs soup
— Ceviche
— Carne Asada Tacos
— Classic Fish Tacos (batter-​fried white fish fillets with red cabbage & shredded cheese, salsa fresca & ranch dressing in two corn tortillas)
******The complimentary queso sauce & salsa that comes with the chips is delicious!!!
Happy Hour
Monday 3:00pm-Close
Tues-​Sun 3:00pm-6:30pm

I wanted to check this place out for a while and finally got a chance when my friends organized a surprise dinner party at this spot. The location is easy to find and plenty of parking available. It has a really nice feel to it when you walk in. Nice upscale sit-​down restaurant flair yet seems family friendly which is a great combination for us moms. I thought the staff handled the bigger party really well. The salsa dip and chips are delicious and they offer some very interesting drinks and cocktails. Plenty to choose from on the menu. I tried the steak fajitas and really liked them. Great beans and guacamole also. I’m eager to come back and try more. Will update then but so far… impressive. Thanks for a great evening Miguel’s

Hats off to Jessica! We placed an order to go, and had mentioned that I have a food allergy to onions. Upon arriving, Jessica realized the order I wanted had onions so she didn’t have the chef make my food, and waited to see if I wanted something else. She had asked the chef what items they had without onions, and I was able to order something even better! Someone actually cared enough to do that, usually I would have to put up with the onions, and not even bother eating what I order, or just save it for my husband to eat the next day for lunch. I appreciated that someone took the time to care enough. Thank you!

The décor was surprisingly sophisticated. The food was above average, good amount of selection. I especially liked the complimentary queso with chips.

I was pleasantly surprised by Miguel’s. The service, ambiance and food have all been outstanding and I enjoy every visit here.
First off, the complimentary queso sauce that comes with the chips is so delicious and it comes out piping hot. It’s smooth and creamy without being too salty and compliments the chips well. Honestly, I could just eat this and chips and call it a day (but I’m sure Miguel’s wouldn’t like that — ha).
I’ve tried a few different things on the menu and they’ve been be great. The shrimp cocktail (Camarones Coctel) has a generous amount of fresh, firm shrimp and is spicy but not numbingly so. It’s fresh and light and coupled with the delicious complimentary chips, can be a light lunch for one. The meatball soup (Albondigas) has a surprising amount of heat that creeps up on you. The bowl is smaller than expected but you get a ton of meatballs in one serving so it’s still really filling. The meatballs were a little saltier than I would like but were tender and flavorful. The soup has a ton of vegetables in it too such as zucchini and carrots. For a more filling option, the beef stew (Birria de Res) is hearty, filling and flavorful (although I caution against ordering it if you’re wearing light-​colored clothing). A huge serving of tender beef chunks in a dark sauce with rice, beans and tortillas.
The ambiance in Miguel’s is a pleasant surprise. I expected something El Torito-​ish, kitschy and bordering on cheesy, but Miguel’s is definitely more upscale and contemporary, while maintaining some of the ethnic charm.
Overall, I prefer Miguel’s over other similar restaurants in this area.

This place is awesome, very authentic Mexican food, delicious cheese sauce for your chips, very casual but yet still semi formal, great for lunch or dinner… tacos del jardin are my favorite… totally worth every bite :-)

Great place, nice and spacious. Thought it would be crowded for a Sunday night, but despite the rush received excellent service.
Chips and dip was great. Some kind of white queso sauce for the complimentary chips was nothing like I’ve ever had before. Loved it!!! Ordered a seafood Chimichanga, which is a special menu option, and it was delicious!!! It was smothered in the aforementioned sauce and filled with crab, shrimp, and scallops. Civiche wasn’t too special, but the shrimp and chicken fajitas my wife had were also appetizing.
But I suggest to try to get the seafood Chimichanga, and try to resist the urge to fill up on chips and white queso sauce!!!

Pretty good place to come for a quick dinner with lots of food without a huge bill. Got the Carne Asada and it was plenty of food, wife got the steak fajitas and tried a few pieces of steak and it was really good. My wife is a huge fan that they have queso with the chips, and I’m a fan of the salsa.

This is a great place to come to with a big party as they are always very accommodating. The chips and queso dip is addicting. Happy hour has advertisers at a discount. The food is good, the atmosphere festive and the service is great. We will be back!

You come here for the chips, salsa, and cheese dip and end up staying for the food. I have been here a few times and each time i come it is strictly for the chips, salsa, and cheese dip. The cheese dip is just so dang good! Nice warm cheese dip and chips go so good together! I like to dip the chips in the cheese and then the salsa so you get the best of both worlds! Each time i have stayed for food i haven’t been too impressed with their food. The service here is pretty decent and rather you are in the car or regular seating you will be taken care of.
Most of the food is decent, but nothing to rush in for. I have gotten the chicken burrito just because it was drenched in the cheese sauce. Covered in cheese sauce helped add some extra flavor to the bland burrito. This recent time i got the fish tacos. The pieces of fish were rather large for the tortillas. It came with cabbage and some white sauce that was rather flavorless. I had to pour some of the cheese sauce and salsa on the fish tacos to add some flavor. We also got he Mexica City Quesadilla and sent it back due to it not tasting that good. It was a very smokey taste and didn’t have the best flavor.
If you are going for a quick drink and an appetizer and want some good chips and salsa this is the place to go, but if you want some actually good tasting food maybe not the best place to go.

This is the only Miguel’s I’ve ever been to (that I can recall), so I can’t compare it to others, but I’ve never had a bad experience here.
This place is great for getting together with friends because it’s huge, and the wait usually isn’t too long, even on Friday/​Saturday nights.
The best part: most Mexican places serve chips and salsa… this place serves chips, salsa, and queso! And it’s ahhmazing queso.
I’ve had the shrimp enchiladas, and the shrimp tacos with grilled instead of breaded shrimp and both dishes are excellent. Some of the best I’ve had. I believe I also tried the chicken enchiladas, which must have been good because I know I’ve always scarfed down my leftovers from this place.
If you’re going for margs, and you want a strong one, I learned from the waitresses that the «skinny» margaritas are actually stronger because there’s less sugar added. Sneaky… and awesome.

when you’re trying to pump out a hundred reviews in a year, an update really feels like a step sideways but i gotta come correct. the food at MIGUEL’s COCINA is better than i remember and felt like i needed to say so.
dinner got off to kinda a bad start. couldn’t get the wife and daughter out of the house as early as i would have liked and when you arrive at a busy restaurant on a busy friday night, you gotta expect a wait. was told 20 to 30 minutes and when it got to be 45 and hadn’t been texted, i broke down and asked the hostess how much longer. got an «oops» you’re not even on the wait list. was told when we ignored the page, they figured we’d given up. a reasonable assumption, i guess, but we were never paged. handed her my phone, she glanced thru my text history and shrugged — «sometimes it happens. our system doesn’t work all that well.»
it was nearly 8 o’clock and the family was pretty twisted after a challenging week — too exhausted to storm out in a huff, i was relieved when we were told we would be «bumped» to the top of the wait list. took a couple minutes but at that point everybody was too tired and hungry to care.
two things about MIGUEL’s COCINA you can always count on: the MARGARITAS and the CHIPS and WHITE SAUCE are going to be good. and after the last couple work days, frankly i needed a little tequila to smooth over the ragged edges. i was not disappointed. as always, they were excellent.
but here’s the surprising part: the quality of the rest of the dinner was better than i remembered. been a while since we’d visited and everything was pretty darn good. was especially impressed by the MIGUEL’s ½ POUND CANTINA CHEESEBURGER my nine-​year old ordered. he got it with a jack and cheddar mix instead of the pepper jack on the menu, hold the spicy chili mayo with the beefsteak tomato slice and shredded lettuce on the side. with jalapeño bacon and guacamole and cooked to a perfect medium-​rare, i had a bite and would say (yeah, i was surprised too) it’s one of the best burgers around.
we were too tired to eat much and wound up with two doggie bags but that’s okay — we have two doggies. right, like we’re really gonna share with them …

I love Miguels — they are all located conveniently.
They have the best jalapeño white cheese dipping sauce! I had a delicious salmon salad and an horchata beverage and it was so good!

I still love this Miguel’s location and it’s my favorite of the ones that I’ve visited. The restaurant is spacious, there’s plenty of parking and everything is clean. Of course, it’s also home to the amazing queso dip that I just can’t get enough of. I’m seriously addicted!
I stopped in last week for a solo lunch while my car was being serviced at the nearby Toyota. Miguel’s was a short walk and I figured that the walk would cancel out all the queso calories, right? I always feel a bit awkward eating alone at a restaurant but the entire wait staff was very nice and accommodating. My waitress even stopped by a few times to make small talk.
I knew I didn’t want a heavy entrée if I was going to have an entire bowl of chips and queso to myself so I chose the Caesar Salad. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for the salad much. Instead of a regular caesar dressing, it has a red chile caesar that didn’t taste very caesary to me and had an unappetizing color thanks to the red chiles. It also came tossed already and I prefer my dressing on the side. Guess that was my fault for not remembering to check.
On the plus side, the salad is served with two slices of garlic bread that was absolutely wonderful, albeit slightly strange for a Mexican restaurant to serve garlic bread. But it was seriously one of the best garlic breads that I’ve had.

This place is really cute. The lighting is dark and romantic, but the restaurant itself is colorful and lively.
Thank goodness there’s no Mariachi band here. No offense, but that situation is headache central for me…
The chips were hearty and thick and the salsa was mild but good. My hubby was happy with the chips/​salsa refill turnover rate, too
Our server was a peppy college kid that didn’t seem to hate his job. (total bonus)
We shared a Civiche Shrimp appetizer. I wasn’t digging it too much. Not sure why, but it seemed a bit heavier than I expected.
Man, is it rough trying to stick to my diet in a Mexican restaurant! But I did my best.
I ordered the Chicken Fajitas. I didn’t want it to be too greasy, so our server suggested that I order it on a plate instead of the sizzling hot-​whatever-​that-​is. I ordered it that way and I’m glad I did because it was still pretty greasy.
The guacamole was fresh and delicious.
BONUS:The bathrooms are clean and tidy.
If I come here again, I’m going the safe route and ordering the salad. I’ll give you an update on how that works out.

Getting together with friends? This spot is for you. Conveniently located off the 5 in Carlsbad, this restaurant is part of the Brigantine group. The restaurant is well designed, open and airy. There is a huge bar with loads of casual seating. Huge windows can open for the inside/​outside dining experience. Parking is good.
You are promptly greeted with fresh chips, salsa, and a great queso dip. Run out? Ask for more! I chose the Supreme Tostada with chicken. Supreme it was! Lots of seasoned chicken sits atop of a smattering of refried beans, which sit atop of a crispy flour tortilla. Then comes the guacamole, shredded lettuce, cheese and sour cream. It was very good. My gal pals had the fish tacos which seemed to disappear pretty fast. Our wait staff was friendly and attentive.
When visiting our family in Carlsbad, we will be back.

I came here in on a Tuesday evening for my friend’s birthday. It happened to be Taco Tuesday which we didn’t even realize but were very happy that we did!
Overall, the food is delicious, the staff is very nice and the drinks are delicious. We tried the fajitas, tacos and the margaritas. They also serve complimentary chips with salsa and cheese dip (always a nice bonus and very good salsa)!!

Ok so this is an upscale mexican food joint. Boy is it upscale. From the bathrooms, the floors and the ceiling; they make sure you know the food here isn’t going to be cheap. Lol.
The décor is very nice. One of the nicest I’ve seen in a americanized mexican restaurant. The service is fantastic and the food is good at best.
Theu give you complimentary chips and salsa. The salsas are amazing. I had heard things about their jalapeño cheese dip, but wow I wasnt expecting it to be that good. The fresh salsa was flavorful and spicy.
We had the shrimp quesadillas and the camarones jalisco. The quesadilas were good. They cover them in that jalapeño cheese sauce. The shrimp they use were on the small side though, small disappointment.
The Camarones Jalisco. Ehh. Definitely not worth $ 18. It comes with beans and rice. The shrimp are «stuffed». They werent stuffed with much ill tell you that. They again used the small shrimp so it was a let down for $ 18. They are also wrapped in bacon. The bacon was overcooked and so were the shrimp, the result was that I had small shrimp that were chewy wrapped around hard bacon.
The service. I was pleasantly impressed with the service that we recieved from Cassy. Phenomenal. We all ordered our plates letting her know our names. During our entire time she called everyone by name. I was super impressed. She was so quick in bringing out requests and was genuinely friendly.
Would I come back? I cant say I wouldnt but not in my favorites.

Melissa was our waitress in the lounge/​bar area on Taco Tuesday. Ordered the Carne adobada taco for $ 3.75 and the classic fried fish taco for $ 3.00 which came with great recommendations from Melissa. She was very nice, personable, attentive and happy which really makes dining out that much better!
Before we even ordered, we were greeted by the very nice and informative hostess, who told us happy hour would be ending in 30 minutes and said she’d be happy to walk us to a table or show us to the lounge. Then once we sat, immediately someone brought waters, a huge basket of chips and two things of queso and salsa! I thought that was rad! Definitely the only Mexican restaurant I know of in the area that serves queso free.
The Tacos were big! They definitely don’t skimp on the ingredients. I’ve noticed that a lot of Taco Tuesday’s make their tacos smaller or pre-​make them and they aren’t as fresh. Even with their size being big, the flavor is still there. Could’ve just gotten one since I was kind of a piglet and gorged on the chips and freebies! Fish was fried well, adobada was well seasoned and Melissa had it right– the tomatillo and avocado combo was bomb!
Overall, cool set up. The wood is very nice throughout the restaurant and the table are study. It’s not too loud and there are couch type setups with fire places that would be awesome for a happy hour get together.
Super happy with my experience and my family was as well! Will be back for more!