Don Juan

This is the second time I have been to DonJuan. Both times I have been unimpressed. The frozen Margaritas were bland as was the food. I expected a Mexican restaurant to have food with flavor but not here !

I almost did not go to Don Juan because of the reviews about the slow service, but then decided to give it a try. I am really glad we did. The dinner and drinks were good. We had a really attentive waiter named Nick who made sure we were well taken care of. The service was not too slow and not too fast. We got our first course fairly quickly and then had just enough time until the main course was served for us to have a really nice evening. We will be back.

the food is just ok — the service is ridiculously slow with an empty restaurant. No reason to go unless you’re just eating tacos on tuesday…

Never again will I ever step foot inside your establishment. 14 people in my group for your Friday Happy Hour. 14 people! And you have the nerve to tell us we did not drink enough to cover the «free buffet»? Never again… Huge mistake on your part. How do you treat your customers this way? Sorry — i mean «former» customers. Never, ever again. Disgusting. This was the 3^rd week in a row my friends and I came here on Friday night. You’ve got some nerve! Changing Happy Hour pricing during Happy Hour made last night our final visit to Don Juan’s. Shame on you!

You deserve no stars. We came to your happy hour because of your drink special and buffet. There were 14 of us who attended this Friday.
Midway through we were informed that the Margarita Special was changed from $ 4 p/​drink to $ 6. When we requested that you honor the sign that was posted and spoke to owner/​manager we were told that you would not honor what was posted. You had an employee take down the sign (right in front of us as is evidenced by this picture) and when we asked that you honor your advertised special you said we put out a free buffet and you had 10 plates of food. Needless to say as a very active member of the community your disregard for your patrons and your dismissive unprofessional attitude not only lost your establishment business but hurt your employees earnings as well. Trust me when I tell you that you insulted some very well connected people in the group and this will not go unnoticed by the City of Long Beach.

Poorly managed, the greeter wasn’t up front to take names, and took people out of order? Lady who makes guacamole comes around to make it for you but cannot explain how much the cost is? Server was nice but forgets half of a Fajita order? Food was just ok. Good portion of steak. Place felt grimy with dirty table rags left next to us, walls worse than a cheap motel. And if you love screaming kids with uncaring parents come here on Sunday. Sorry for the bad review.

My favorite spot when I’m looking for a good mexican meal. Most offen im getting the enchiladas because they’re the best. Service is always good.

Do not eat here. Horrible servers, dishonest manager and management will try to rip you off by up charging your tab.
We ordered 3 entrees. All of them were 14.95 each.
When we got the bill there’s a «Build Your Own Burrito» on our tab, for an additional $ 19.95, which we didn’t order. So our $ 53 tab was now $ 75, yeah we noticed, we’re not as stoopid as we look, I guess.
We notified our server, and she said she would «check the computer».
When she comes back, the new bill still has the $ 19.95 Build Your Burrito, and one of the $ 14.95 entrees that we actually ordered is taken off, which she tries to justify by saying its because we ordered «steak in one of our entrees.»
Huh? We ask for the menu, which she doesn’t want to do, and then have to ask for a manager, at which point our server says, «it’s not me, alright?» And mentions to me (the paying customer) something about my «attitude».
They finally take off the bogus charge after the manager says that they charge more for steak, which it does not say that ANYWHERE on the menu.
We ordered 3 entrees: Combinaciones, Taco plate, and Chile Rellenos, $ 14.95 each clearly on the menu.
And surprise surprise, as we leave there’s a sign in the window: we need waiters and waitresses.
I believe it’s the management telling the servers to do this, strikes me as very strategic, maybe they only target certain customers?
But honestly, waitstaff you are that desperate that you need to work in a dishonest sh*thole like this?
And oh yeah. Forgot to mention the air vent above our table was dripping water on the table, it didn’t hit the plates, and only got worse as the meal ended, but still, just another sign that this place will not survive the coming winter, I predict they are going out of business.

I visited their Taco Tuesday truck on Riverside Blvd and ordered the chicken empanadas. Chicken was tender, flavorful, and nice and spicy. The empanadas themselves were not greasy at all. Two of them make a great snack!

LOVE this place! Just walking in the door the vibe hits you and youre ready to have some fun. My favorite drink is the peach margarita frozen. It just tastes like vacation. But what keeps me coming back is their steak! Im not sure what they season it with but its got me hooked. Highly recommended!

My husband and I have been coming here for a few years now and we just LOVE IT. We have «adopted» a wonderful server named Lalo, who waits on our table every time we go. As others have commented, it is usually very quiet especially if we head there for a late afternoon lunch. I must admit prior to being taken care of by Lalo we had experienced a variety of wait staff issues but the food and pitchers of Margaritas kept us coming back. With Lalo, not only does he have excellent service but he makes the pitchers of Margaritas himself AND makes the table-​side guacamole. He’s a one-​man show and is the saving grace of Don Juan’s. If you go, ask for him and you won’t be disappointed. Our favorite entrée is the Enchiladas suizas and the chips and salsa are THE BEST ANYWHERE.

I’ve been here twice and the food is delicious. My first time I had steak fajitas which was really good with my peach sangria. My second visit I had the Maria special which was steak rice and beans with avocado and topped of with red sangria. Both dishes were delicious and I will be returning.

Great food and quality service. Staff is great here. They have salsa lessons and paint nite, which is a wonderful addition. Best mexican food in Long Beach

Literally the worst service I have ever received. After waiting «20 minutes» for a table (an hour) we finally sat. While we were waiting we sat at the bar and after waiting more than 15 minutes we were rudely greeted by the bartender who asked for our drink order. After hearing our order she nastily told us «that will be a few minutes.»
After FINALLY sitting down we waited a half hour for someone to come over to us. This was only after we approached someone about not having a waiter. Our waiter came over a little while later and we ordered everything together. We were then told that they had run out of chips. About three tables were given baskets of chips after we were told that.
All we ordered was nachos and tacos. And there were only three of us. This is completely unacceptable. I will NEVER come here again.
PS: still waiting for our appetizer.

When ever we go it’s usually very quiet, the server gives us great service!
The food is always on point and delicious! They always accommodate our 2 year old and we enjoy going here and eating good food and enjoying good conversation.

Loved PaintNite with Jane Cowan. Food and service were great too. Nice waiters. Drinks priced reasonably

If you’re like me and you’re always on the lookout for REAL Mexican food, then save yourself time, money and heartache and don’t come here.
All the other 1 and 2-​start reviews are accurate:
1. Service is slooooooow, even when they are empty
2. Food is mediocre at best, and overpriced
At 7 pm on a Friday night this joint should be jumping if it’s a good restaurant. There’s a reason it was empty, including the bar when it was $ 4 happy hour drinks. Free buffet was just SAD, but I do have to say the Sangria was absolutely delicious — good pour, and boozy. But after that? Meh.
Enchiladas Suizas: um, i think not. I could make this better at home and i’m a Gringa!
Chicken Chipotle: tiny little bite-​sized bits of chicken floating in a huge sea of sauce.
I would honestly rather go to Green Cactus for take-​out tacos than go here again.
SKIP IT!

I went here for a quick girls night out dinner. I was lucky to not have to deal with the extreme wait time I read in some reviews, but it was expected as to there being no one at the restaurant but us and about 2 people at the bar. The waitress we nice and helpful. We had an order of beef empanadas which is just 2 of them but they’re pretty delicious.
The only issue I had with Don Juan was that after we had our entrée she just gave us the check. She didn’t ask us if we wanted dessert or anything else in general. We told her we would like a order of Churros and she comes back with our check saying we didn’t pay for it. I couldn’t believe she was seriously because we didn’t even know how much we should have been paying cause it wasn’t on a check yet. We only gave her what was necessary for the check she rushed us with. I didn’t like the way that issue was brought up because I felt as if she was trying to say that we were trying to leave without paying for it. As for the Churros they were not worth it they were very dense and over priced for the amount given.

I’m rarely harsh… but I’m gonna be harsh in the hopes that Don Juan’s will read this and improve.
I brought my team here on a Tuesday after beach volleyball. Usually we’d head to the west end, but we decided to try something different.
It was dead, maybe 4 tables, relatively empty bar. A drastic difference from the lively spots on the west end. Borrrring.
It took 5 minutes for them to set us up a table, and another 5 minutes for the waitress to come over to us. We all ordered off their new Taco Tuesday menu, and got a couple buckets of beers.
It took about 10 minutes to get the beers… and then about 40 minutes to get the tacos. We were now in the restaurant over an hour. There is NO reason tacos should take this long. Especially on a slow night. Especially after plastering the neighborhood with flyers advertising your new promotion. Your kitchen should be ready to rock. I could have walked home, made the tacos, and brought them back faster than Don Juan’s took to bring them to our table. I wish I was exaggerating, but I’m not.
There’s a reason why The Cabana is THE taco/​margarita spot in Long Beach. It’s fun, it’s quick, and it’s cheap. No one wants to wait an hour for tacos at 10pm on a Tuesday.

I still haven’t found anything close to «real» Mexican food, to anything remotely close to any places in California. And I was told to come here for drinks, but made the mistake of trying their food as well.
Call me a harsh critic, but I would never come back here again for the food. I’d come only if I had friends meeting here for HH or what not, but never by choice. Honestly, the best thing I had here was their sangria, which was in a small glass and had a decent kick to it. But not even worth the money.
Burritos were $ 15. Fifteen for a frikken burrito??? The burrito was not even remotely close to good as any burrito I could buy for $ 5 in Cali. The meat was not cut properly, they’re in these awkwardly big chunks that took some time to chew, and the flavors were just not right.
The fajita was ok. Just ok at most. The shrimp was the best out of the trio (chicken, shrimp, beef) but again. The flavors were just not at all right.
Most dishes ranged from $ 10– up to $ 25, which is so absurd to me to ever to fathom paying more than 10 $ for a decent Mexican meal ever. Also, the hand towel was so pungent of cheap laundry detergent, it was kinda gross and killed my appetite to start off.
Oh and if you want to SHARE any of the dishes you have to pay $ 4 more. And no, that does not include more food.
Service was below par, my server was absolutely boring and apathetic, and she clearly did not know anything about the menu when I asked her about details.