Casa Escobar

This used to be a semi regular spot for a crew of my friends until one fateful night months ago, after which, the place mysteriously closed soon after.
That night I was proud my picky eating managed to sidestep not 1, not 2, but *4* people getting sick from food poisoning. All of them had ordered fajitas I believe.
The drinks at casa were mixed poorly, the food was…
a little less to be desired even before that incident but well, it looks like we won’t be tempted to be lazy and walk down the street here anymore. Whatever will all those drunken old boater types do for their cheap fix? I guess they’ll be over at Cheesecake or something now. «Horray.»

Ugh. IThe only reason this hole got one star from me is because I had to give it one star! Otherwise, it would get NO stars.
We have visited the Casa Escobar in Santa Monica, and although it’s not fabulous, it’s fine for a big group or when you’re craving Mexican.
The Marina Del Rey location, however, should be avoided AT ALL COSTS. The serivce is HORRIBLE. We had to literally flag down waiters just to get water. Several people ordered fajitas, which are delivered on hot plates with a lit flame underneath. Too bad we sat with empty, flaming plates for well over 30 minutes, waiting for the fajitas! Our orders were wrong– the salads weren’t even correct. One person got their entrée 15 minutes after everyone else, because the waiter «forgot» it (his words)…we asked to have it taken off, but it suddenly arrived! Freezing cold, too! Nothing like an ice-​cold enchilada to cool you off on those hot summer nights.
After 8:30, there is a ten dollar cover charge. One member of our party was 5 minutes late, and had to pay, even though she was meeting a party already seated! Ridiculous. They agreed to refund her money if she showed proof that she ordered an entrée. If you must come here, come early, as this place turns into a bad Tijuana disco after 8:30, complete with packed dance floor and the strangest mix of people you’ll ever see!
The bar area inside is disgusting. It smells like a swamp and I watched in horror as the bartenders simply dipped used glasses in water before refilling them for someone else. Gross. Needless to say, I didn’t do any drinking.
I will never, ever return. The food is not worth dealing with all of the other issues. Ambiance is non existent. We had to ask smokers to please move away from our outdoor patio table– apparently here you can smoke wherever you want, whereas the rest of LA has rules as to where you can and can’t smoke.
At this point, we wanted to leave– but couldn’t!!! Valet was horrible– there was a traffic jam in the lot with many drunk patrons yelling at the valet for taking too long to get cars that were literally parked right in front of us.
We were seated at 9:00, and did not leave until 11:30. And all we did was eat dinner.
Unless you are a glutton for punishment, I would not spend my money here! Go to El Cholo or Don Antonio’s for way better service. It may not be near the beach, but you’ll be glad you didn’t go to Casa Escobar.

Their happy hour on a Friday evening in the spring/​summer has got to be like heaven on earth. I bet it’s what Mexican heaven is like.
Honestly, you win anywhere you go in the Marina because of the view/​setting alone. The food could be crap and you wouldn’t even know because you’re so happy to be on a sundeck looking over a man-​made beach, calm blue water, hundreds of boats everywhere, kids running around, the sun beaming down on you at 6:30 p.m. and you realize why you love California.
Not to mention you have a DELICIOUS strawberry margarita in hand (okay, a second margarita at that), and life doesn’t get much better than that.
THEN you get an unlimited appetizer buffet of chips and salsa and some Mexican chicken dish, which you automatically proceed to OD on, and your life is over and you can die happy. I did also order a plate of their beef nachos too, and those were pretty bomb. They come covered in ground beef, cheese, guacamole, sour cream and onions.
Oh, you know what else is good, there is no forced valet! Free parking all around! Free chips all around!

This has to be one of my favorite places to go because it has okay food but also salsa dancing. The food is good for a reasonable price, average Mexican food, nothing that will want you to come back. Its the area its located that makes it better, the restaurant is right on beach and can be very nice during the evening. There are free salsa classes on Sundays with no cover charge except for valet parking. Overall the restaurant is good to host parties with good food. The service there is great and its not too big or small but just perfect for the setting.

I’ve been here for drinks several times and and had a good time. If that had been all, I’d be giving a 4 or 5 star rating. However, I ate here.
The waiter was uninterested, possibly a partial mute or he was engaged in a contest with the other staff to see who could speak less. The group ordered a variety of standard Mexican fare, all of which was disappointing. Honestly, it reminded me of the Ortega line from the grocery store. This is LA and there’s Mexican food everywhere, so I prefer to eat *good* Mexican. It was edible, but when I go out, I prefer to enjoy what I am eating. I didn’t and I won’t be back for food, but drinks, sure. They do make a more than decent margarita.

i hate to piggy back on jeremy’s review but i have to agree. i read the reviews yesterday before deciding to check out the place. my friends just wanted to dance to some awesome latin music and have fun, i just wanted to chill and drink and people watch. the service was less than mediocre, took them forever to figure out that we were there and ready to order some food. by the time we got the order in apparently the kitchen was already closed. but no one told us it was closed. until 1−½ hr later we talked to the manager who then informed us that the kitchen has been closed for a couple of hours. why the heck didn’t the waitress tell us the kitchen’s closed? we sat there patiently with empty glasses and empty stomachs. i thought i had such a bad time there they should be refunding us the $ 10/​person cover charge and even give us some change for valet and tip instead.

I have been passing by this restaurant for years. Well, my dear fellow Unilocalers, I should have kept on passing by.
One day, I decided to try it. I SHOULD HAVE UnilocalED IT FIRST, AND SAVED MY DINERO!!! Ya live and learn. Unilocal first, smile later. Unilocal last, cry later.
OK: One star for the location and the look of the restaurant itsself. The Marina is always lovely to look at, but I’m biased when it comes to that. As for the food: No No No No No!!!
Yo — I had to redeem my enchiladas at another establishment! I was so disappointed. I got the Chicken Enchiladas Suizas. Certain styles of Mexican food is supposed to come on a very hot, hot plate, right? No hot plate. I say to myself — maybe it’s not Sonoran Style, you know burning hot food practically sizzling on the plate, right?
Oh No No No No No!!! My food was, let’s say, warm enough. The tomatillo sauce mixed with sour cream tasted like it came out of a can. It had a sort of sour, overly acidic can taste. The chicken was stewed, yet flavorless, and the cheese — WHAT CHEESE? The beans were so bland they tasted like beans do if you season them with a head cold. Y’all know what I’m talking about… just beans — no flava’. The rice was a mixture of hard crunchy grains mixed with some soft grains. Again tasting as if they were seasoned by someone with a head cold.
I think this place could really benefit from a menu makeover. Heck. Fire the chefs and hire some dedicated innovative culinary talent. The food is, in my humble opinion, a charicature of authentic Mexican flavors. The salsa was, um, ok… but totally nothing to write home about, and the tortilla chips were really cold.
Truth be told, as I summarize my experience, one word says it all.
Yuck!

Every time I’ve been here, the service was mediocre to downright rude. The valet people are equally rude and inept. They insisted on trying to park my neighbor’s car, who is a little person with pedal extensions… then, when she showed them the handicapped decal thing, they made her park around the building the furthest spot from the entrance. All this would have been overlooked, but the food was average and the drinks adequate. All in all, I would try somewhere else if it came down to it. They’re even jerks to locals! Jake enjoys pooping right outside their patio as well, since we rollerblase by there quite frequently.

I give this place 3 stars for mediocre fare and a crowded dance floor!
I was invited to a birthday party for a friend of mine from Costa Rica who I know from my Spanish Meetup Group. She had a few friends and family members there as well as a few ladies from her Italian Meetup Group and French Meetup Group since she’s studying those two languages. We were given a back area of the restaurant for our private party and spread out at different tables for our dinner.
It took a while for our table’s food to come out I mean I ordered around 9:15 pm after I sat down and the food came out at 10:00 pm! I was tempted not to eat since it was so late! Anyways, I’ll give the wait staff some slack because the restaurant was pretty packed out since it’s a popular scene for salsa dancing.
I ordered the Ropa Vieja, which is a Cuban dish, as none of the other dishes enticed me since I just wasn’t feeling it for enchiladas and tamales. The Ropa Vieja wasn’t too bad. It came with a salad, a side of refried beans, scoop of Spanish rice, and corn tortillas. The flavor of the shredded beef of the Ropa Vieja was alright mixed with the bell peppers and onions in a tomato sauce although I wish they had added more sauce as it was a tad dry. I made mini soft tacos by adding everything onto the tortillas.
After dinner, we filed out to the jam-​packed dance floor and attempted to dance to the salsa, cumbia, merengue and reggaeton music the DJ was spinning. They also had short bouts of regular American dance music which I enjoyed more than anything else except it was way too crowded to be able to really cut loose.
I would say the food is mediocre at Casa Escobar and if you were into latin dancing, it’s a good choice in the marina for average Mexican fare and to get one’s salsa groove on! Salsa is just really not my thing however.

This has got to be the most «Americanized» Mexican restaurant I’ve been to in all of my life.
IMO, there is very little that is authentic Mexican here. Well, maybe the Mariachis. Other than that, really, really, really, really bad food.
I suppose that’s to be expected in Marina Del Rey. However, the ad for the place said they’d been serving authentic Mexican fare for quite a while (30 years or something like that).
Anyway, picture this. Only valet parking available. As if you can’t park your own freaking car between two white lines. Oh, but if you try, the «valets» flag you down and take your car and re-​parks it. That’ll cost you $ 3.00 (US).
Enter the restaurant, get seated. Waiter comes along and asks the obligatory «what would you like to drink». Okay, ’round the table, I want blah, blah, blah, etc. Get drinks. Reading over menu.
Enter mariachi crew. It just so happens that the woman sitting at the table across from us endulges the crew but also accompanies the band with her wonderful voice. Three or four songs later I’m pushing $ 5 into my kids hand saying, «give the band some money so they can go away and we can order our food». OMFG, they ask her what song she’d like (mistaking our table of Filipino/​Samoans for Latinos). She says, «La Cucaracha» because it’s the only Latin ditty she knows.
The band strikes up and calls up the son of the woman with the wonderful voice to accompany them in «La Cucaracha». I want to put a bullet through my head…
So an hour later and stuffing $ 10 into the mariachi band leaders hand, we finally get to order.
My tacquitos? I think they got them from Swingers because they too were lukewarm. They were also sitting in about a bucket of guacamole. Not such a good taste sensation.
I don’t like this place. If I could give them a zero, I would. In fact, I would give them a less than zero because they’ve caved to «American» tastes and think that they’ve succeeded.

edit ¹⁰⁄₂₀₀₈ — oy, no hay mas salsa! shame. club narain is the new sunday marina del rey salsa spot.
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this is purely a salsa review, for salseros/​as of all levels. never tried the food, never had a drink except maybe a glass of water here & there. yeh, they’ve got good water!
that said, escobar is a great little place if you just want (free!) dancing. 9pm — 12am sharp on sundays (not sure about wednesdays; web site says it starts at 8pm). the space in general is well ventilated: no sweat dripping off the ceilings here, yeh!
there’s always a good mix of dancers, from first-​lessoners to i-​danced-​myself-​right-​out-​the-​womb types. all are friendly; gals, just stay away from the guys in suits & you’ll be fine. small dance floor, but there’s also an outside patio & a spacious carpeted area if you don’t mind roughing up your shoes a little. music is mostly pretty good salsa (i can do without la pantera mambo, aka the pink panther song) with merengue, cha cha & bachata thrown in; good for bathroom breaks! :)
some nights, you might catch the teacher & her group giving a performance.
parking is cheap, $ 3 valet, friendly drivers. but i usually bust a U along washington & park in the plaza on the corner, then walk the block to the restaurant.
happy dancing!

Casa Escobar has Salsa nights on Wednesdays and Sundays (Sundays from 7:30pm-9:00pm is lessons and then a live DJ/​band after 9pm).
It’s a lot of fun if you liquor yourself up with a few margaritas and don’t take anything too seriously. Just let loose, dance like no one’s watching and have fun!

This was always my «other» Sunday brunch spot in the Marina. What I liked was the buffet style setup of traditional Mexican entrees, all of which had a perfect view into the pool area of the Jamaica Bay Inn next door (and it would be quite common to see friends and family there as well). Food is great and since you serve yourself, no worries about having to wait (this pertains to brunch only). Recommended!

Sunday Night is Salsa night, or at least it was on this night. Lessons at 7:00 and dancing at 9:00…
Lord i need some help with my Salsa, Meringue, Cha Cha, etc.
But watching the beautiful ladies dance with some sleazy men, amusing but scary. Watching some cute little old men dancing with the hot ladies was awesome. My attempts at dancing, foolish.
We can’t all be good at everything.
The food, and drinks looked average, the music was not live, but the dancing was HOT HOT HOT!
I mean HAWT…

Now this is a fun place to play! The music is so great that I danced all night! All types of spanish music, reggaeton and whatevers cool. Very friendly people.
I took off a star for the too small dance floor and the cranky cocktail waitress. Didn’t try the food, but I will next time.

Was not too impressed with this place. The food and margaritas were so so and the service kind of slow. However they do offer Salsa Lessons on Wednesday nights around 8 for a small fee. The downside is the its really crowded and not much room to practice salsa. To bad the Conga Room closed down :(

If you want good Mexican food while on the water of the marina, this is the place to go. The service is wonderful and I have never had to wait for a table.
The food is good, not amazing, not the best I’ve ever had, but a step up from a chain like El Torito.
Prices are decent.