Jalapenos Mexican Restaurant

Fast and friendly service. Affordable Mexican food. Deals for taco Tuesday as well. Will be back.

I love this place! This is one of the closest plazas to my house, and I’m so happy to have a place like this that close to me. I’ve had a couple different burritos from them, but their TACOS are to die for. Get the crispy shredded beef. If you’re a fan of Tito’s Tacos in LA, which was a mainstay in my childhood, this is as close as you’re going to get in south OC. Even their salsa is like Tito’s! My family goes almost every week for taco Tuesday, my toddler gets a quesadilla that he loves (and he’s quite picky), and he loves the pickled carrots, too. My baby gets beans and rice and I can confirm these are delicious as well. The workers are always very friendly. I seem to get the same cashier and waiter each time, and they both smile and are very nice to us. I’m not sure what the other reviews are talking about with the rude service, that has never been my experience.
The only thing I would change would be to have some descriptions of the items somewhere. They have a lot of burritos, and it turns out that a carne asada burrito is literally just carne asada (a lot of it) in a tortilla. I’d love to get a burrito that has the usual lettuce/​tomato/​cheese/​sour cream/​beans that are mainstays elsewhere, but I don’t know if any of the ones on the menu have this and I don’t want to stand there asking about every item when placing my order.

The foods not bad but customer service is huge to me and tonight I show up and they said they couldn’t make my carne burrito because they ran out of ingredients. I asked if he could make me something on the house that they did have for the trouble and the dude was so rude about it I left. I wouldn’t of had a problem paying for something they did have either it I didn’t want to eat there anymore. Unfortunate. I’m still hungry.

Love their Burrito’s! Having said that they get 2stars due to dirty counters. old wet towel the food preparer just smears the spilt bean across Surface counter & NO GLOVES BARE HANDS GROSS!!! Also they use beans to the last scrape of bottom of pan! By 1:30 they should have replaced with fresh beans!!!

I have been coming here since they have opened and have always thought the service has been a little rude. However, there is a girl that works the register and she is absolutely the biggest bitch and she has made it were I hate to goto this place now. I just don’t understand why she is still there and can’t believe she hasn’t been fired unless she is a relative.

This place is hands down the best. It’s been probably over 25 years now as the best Mexican food in so cal. As a kid and now as an adult is my favorite place to eat.

I ordered a asada burrito, i was given beans burrito with almost no meat. 9 dollars for a beans burrito over priced, they just lost a customer!

After Easton off food trucks in Santa Ana hard to give Mexican restaurants a lot of stars this place is good for area. I got chile rellano burrito missing something on the spice factor but large for $ 7.95

The food is authentic and delicious. I love the carnitas soft tacos. Their carnitas is super flavorful and juicy. The food comes out quickly and is always fresh. My only qualm is that all too often the lady who takes orders is very short with me and pretty rude. It makes coming here uncomfortable sometimes.

I don’t need a smile… I just need my order to be right! As God is my witness these people get something in my order wrong at least 1 out of 3x… tonite no exception.
The bag said asada burrito… I kept it and handed my kid her «bean and cheese» burrito… she went to her sleepover and called me later about this crappy burrito she had to eat that had all this meaty stuff!
Frankly it is subpar mex food… but my wife keeps sending me back… well now I’m done NEVER AGAIN.

Carne asada burrito was WEAK. Bland beans, chewy and flavorless asada and an untoasted tortilla. Literally nothing else, no cheese, no sauce, no onions. This cost over $ 7.
Taco Bell is better no joke and half the cost. The place was well staffed and busy which surprised the heck outta me.

I LOVE beans, and I was just reading some of the reviews dissing Jalapeño’s beans. I’ve eaten here lots of times (typically get the bean and cheese burrito), and I love their beans. I dunno… I guess it’s a matter of personal taste?
I’ve branched out a bit and gotten their shrimp tacos (trying to be healthier) and enjoyed them as well. Chips are yummily greasy, if you like that sort of thing. :)

I like this place. The last carnitas platter I ordered was perfect. Could not have been better. Tonight taco Tuesday they are busy, but still offer super quick friendly service. The food is hot and fresh. Bummer they ran out of carnitas but that’s because they’re very good here.

Since this place has opened the employees have been from dis-​interested to down right rude. Continued to go because we like their carne asada burritos. After not having been in months, went back tonight and paid $ 20.20 for 2 burritos and a small side of beans. The price on the menu was $ 7.15 for the burrito then charged 1.20 extra for each one for cheese and 1.20 for each one for sour cream. Their small bag of chips used to be part of the meal but now there is a .50 charge for each bag.

I totally get why this place is a three star. There’s nothing special about it. The beans are average. The rice was way ever cooked. In fact, everything was over cooked. My carnitas was flavorless and dry. By son’s burrito was pretty darn hot and he’s a spicy lover.
A burrito and carnitas plate in a $ hole in the wall was over $ 20. That’s not $ and that’s far too much for what I got. I wouldn’t have blinked twice had it been a $ 12 – 15 bill, but this was way too much for far too little quality.
Like all the other Ladera Ranch restaurants, they just aren’t good. Why can’t this town produce a good meal? Is it that hard?

Jalapenos is so yummy. I get crispy beef taco, chicken soft taco, and a bean dip add onion.
The bean dip is awesome it had half green sauce and half red sauce on top with cheese and I added onions. *chips come with this.
Sad that they now charge 50 cents per chips bag. They used to give it to you as a courtesy.
Try the marinated carrots at the salsa bar they are very good.

The food at Jalepenos is minimal fast Mexican food. They carry the minimal meats for tacos and burritos like carne asada, chicken, and carnitas.
I had a carne asada burrito with more beans than rice and meat. The meat was cut into very little pieces but the burrito was ok.
They have a salsa bar with two sauces, Jalapenos, and pickled carrots. I recommend the red hot sauce because it’s not spicy. The regular red sauce is only blended tomato… No cilantro, or onions or spices… No flavor at all.
The lady at the front counter was not pleasant and looked like she was having a bad night. So I started to talk to her in Spanish and that made her more unpleasant.
If you are looking for fast minimal Mexican food without all the bells and whistles or flavor this is an ok place to eat.

This is your typical counter service Mexican quick serve type of place. They have most of your traditional Mexican items. I’ve been here 4 times in the last month and really do seem to enjoy it.
Here’s my (revised) breakdown:
Good 1: The food is good and consistent. The beans are very tasty and the shredded beef tacos are above average and worth trying. The burritos are a little too juicy for me personally and tend to fall apart if eating upright with your hands.
Good 2: Their prices are reasonable for being in high rent Ladera Ranch
Good 3: They assemble your burritos, tacos, and such right in front of you so you can see everything they’re putting in. I think this is a great touch.
Good 4: The staff is friendly and helpful if you ask questions about the menu.
Bad 1: The salsa bar has only 2 salsas, mild and hot. The hot is the smokey Trader Joe’s style and it seriously lacks any depth to it. Very plain. The mild is basically just blended tomatoes without any flavor at all or anything else. Salsa should be the cornerstone of a Mexican place. They really should revamp this.
Overall …
It’s decent Mexican counter food at reasonable prices. Their Taco Tuesday specials are on point and very affordable. The portions are decent and generally the staff is friendly. All in all I’d recommend it to friends for a nice Mexican food fix if you’re in Ladera Ranch. Give it a try.

Food is always mediocre. chips are no longer free, and the workers are still rude and seem to screw up orders.
Ill only go every now and then for taco Tuesday.

I should’ve run away when I saw their liquor license suspension plastered on the front window!
I came here with my husbad as we were craving California Burritos. Unfortunately, they do not have Cali Burritos on their menu and cannot make them. What kind of Mexican food joint in So Cal doesn’t serve Cali burritos!!! Though we were bummed, we opted for an order of chicken taquitos and a carne asada burrito with a side of guacamole.
Our order came out, and for $ 4.00 we got two plain tiny chicken taquitos with cheese (not melted) on top and one small scoop of guacamole and sour cream. Our «carne asada burrito» was a kid’s sized portion of basically a bean burrito with a few pieces of meat inside for almost $ 9 bucks.
We left disappointed and hungry and will not be returning!