Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill

Decided to pick up dinner from Rubios because it was taco Tuesday and their special fish tacos (fish tacos with salsa, guac, and cheese) are less than $ 2 each. But we had to pay extra for a decent sized bag of chips (because who doesn’t want chips with their tacos?).
After the first taco and a half, I was thinking we’ll have to make this a weekly thing but before I finished the second taco (and regrettably ate a third) I was over it. The tacos are mediocre and the greasiness got the best of me. The chips also seemed to have an old oil taste to them as well. Next Tuesday I’ll likely pass on this one.

Very fresh ingredients and amazing food with each visit, even if it’s just to claim a free birthday freebie. The menu is always changing and the customer service is always good as well! I have enjoyed seeing the interior transform to a more modern ambiance. If you ever happen to stop by, try out their seafood burritos! I’m not a fish lover, but I truly enjoyed the Pacific Mahi Mahi Burrito!

Decent fish tacos if you’re in the area but knowing you can get them cheaper in Tuesday made me
Feel bad that we Came in a Friday. We have been back since but I am sure it taste better when it cost less.

This Rubio’s is clean, friendly and the food is on point. Naomi is exceptionally friendly and cheerful. You feel like she really loves her job and enjoys helping her customers. It’s not something I would ordinarily comment on but it really stands out.

Wow, haven’t had Rubios since 2006, and that was after graduating from college and leaving San Diego. Luckily, they’re still tasty and brings back happy, nostalgic memories of buying fish tacos for the weekend, and holing up in my room studying for midterms and finals, lol! Fast forward nine years later, the fish tacos are still fresh and tasty, yay!
You order at the counter, self serve your drinks and salsa preferences, and they will bring your food by calling your name looking for you. Friendly staffers. Afterwards, you cleanup by yourself.
I popped by here for lunch — located right next to Loose Teas, and I got myself the two tacos plate that came with two tacos of your choice along with chips and refried beans with cheese on top. I got the steak taco and fish taco especial (the special part was the guacamole that came with it, lol!). Loved both tacos — had generous toppings of shredded cabbages and tomatoes — though the fish was breaded a lil too heavy and tasted burnt at the end. Nonetheless, it was still delicious. Squeezed with wedges of lime abd topped off with some salsa — yum!!! The cheese, refried beans were smooth and creamy, and dipped my chips in it like chips and bean dip style.
They remodeled the place and it looks really nice, clean and spacious. They got a self serving salsa bar and soda fountain area. Lots of small tables and a huge giant communal table for larger parties. Though they got only one restroom per sex.
Overall, I dig this place. I forgot how tasty Rubios is, and looking forward to coming back here another time.

I think the deep fried fish taco is pretty good. The salsa is very good too. I prefer chips the other day and it was a bit stale. I ordered chips again the last time I was there, and again, problems with the tortilla chips. So don’t order the tortilla chips and you will be ok

Best Taco Tuesdays! Love the green salsa with big jalapeños —’ can never go wrong in this place… wish taco Tuesday were every day

The only thing good about this place is the salsa. It used to be decent, but has really gone down hill over the last few years. Sometimes the food is edible, but mostly it’s over cooked, frozen fish and burnt batter. They always seem to be short staffed and it’s not unusual to see a «Help Wanted» sign near the front door. I wonder why.

Awesome place to get some great mexican food for a cheap price! I love all of their food and especially the fish tacos! Go on Tuesdays to get a special deal on them yummy fish tacos! They have great service and the place is pretty clean and good environment.

I have to say this is the best Rubios to come to for great food. The manager here, I believe his name is Raymond is always so helpful and easy to work with. He has great customer service and this is why customers return to a restaurant. I work down the street from here and I always send my customers here when they’re looking for a good spot to get some good food at. The salmon burrito is one of my favorites here but I would have to say all the food here always taste so fresh not to mention the salsas are just as good. They keep the salsa bar clean which I like seeing. Some places have flies over the salsa which is disgusting. That alone will cause me to walk out of a restaurant. I’ll definitely keep coming back so I hope they keep the manager and the staff here as well. If I could more than 5 stars, I definitely would! Thanks to Raymond.

My rating is only based on taste and not the price. I came in here (solely thanks to a coupon!) and was not disappointed. The tacos were really very tasty and décor was pleasant. the choices on the menu were great. for a veggie taco, it was really yumm!
The only issue I would have if to visit next time is the price. $ 8.71 for a 2 taco plate (which has 2 tacos and some chips and beans) and nothing else is pricey! they shd have some sides included or drop the price. Though it fills you up pretty well, for a daily lunch option for many it is not economical.
the salsa bar was great too!

I know my tacos. I love my tacos. I breathe my tacos. I eat my tacos.
Rubios is a seafood heavy mexican chain.
Price: Expect to pay about $ 8 for an entrée. I got 2 fish tacos, some chips, and some beans.
Parking: LOT.
Service: Not bad (+1) but not extraordinary either.
Food & Drinks: I got 2 fish tacos (blackened salmon and blackened tilapia). I like how you can pick the way your fish is cooked (+1), but I can’t say that they were good. The tortillas were a disappointment… So thick and the fish was drenched in some kind of watery sauce. I didn’t touch the beans because they looked unappealing, and the chips tasted stale. Their selection of salsa was BOOOOO. Sad.
Overall: My parents like this place because it’s seafood heavy. I do enjoy my fish tacos as well, but I think I’d pass next time. Yes, they’re clean, but the taste just wasn’t to par. Tacos are one of my fave foods, but boy oh boy. disappoint.

They have pretty good burritos here. My favorite is their Salmon and Shrimp burritos. Love how their burritos are packed with ingredients from corn, guacamole, rice, cabbage, beans and cheese. Their portions are huge! I can only eat half at a time and I’ll usually save the other half for a snack or dinner. Ordering these burritos seems to take some time to make. Waited about 15 minutes until my burrito was ready. This location seems a lot slower than other locations I’ve been to. They have a salsa bar with different hot sauces and peppers off to the side as well as small plastic containers to put them in. Definitely like their red hot sauce the best!

Wifey ducked in here to grab quick dinners for the kidlets and us, as a bonus round to our required Toys R Us stop for a birthday party tomorrow.
… And I gotta say– the two salads that we split were really good! Lots of chicken in the chicken salad, along with roasted peppers, onions, and eggplant? Bomb diggity.
Kids had bean and cheese burritos, with rice and beans on the side, and they scarfed them a lot better than the Baja Fresh kids meal fodder.
Not cheap food, but affordable and comparable to BF. The kids burritos were 2x bigger than the BF versions, too. Since both of my kids don’t really eat anything ever for any reason at all, this was nice to get something in their tummies. Seriously, they’d rather eat steamed broccoli and asparagus than anything. Yeah, parenting win, sure, but kids do not liveth by veggies alone.
Anyway, I hadn’t been here in forever. As I recall the fish tacos were good, but I’m laughing at anyone comparing these to actual Baja California fish tacos, like from San Felipe. Seriously, you need to get out more. :) órale.

I’d say this is more like a $$ establishment, as it seems difficult to get out of here for less than $ 10. Granted, I ordered a lot of food and a beer… so my total was about $ 20.
Food is a solid 3.5 stars. Place is clean and efficient (after all, it is a chain). Decent fish tacos; shrimp burrito had an ok amount of shrimp in it but seemed a little light on the other ingredients. Chicken and steak street tacos were ok. Pinto beans were good.
Maybe it’s just my palate… but I only liked a couple of their salsas and actually quite disliked a couple as well. The green salsa was the best, followed by the chipotle salsa.

This is the place for Fish Tacos! The dish is so good because the lightly breaded fish fillet in each taco complements well with the tomato salsa and the slice of lime! I will definitely be back to try the other items on the menu the next time I am at Monrovia!

First of all, they changed the name on me. Wasn’t it Rubio’s Baja Grill before? I could have sworn it was because that was the jingle on the radio used to say as it played back in my head throughout the entire day it was stuck there. Second, they changed the menu on me! I was totally jonesing for a Mesquite Grilled Shrimp Burrito, and the little lady behind the counter tells me that the menu has changed, which was obvious from the new menu up there. I was just hoping that they’d have like a secret, off the menu, menu like IN-​N-​OUT or something and they’d be able to magically concoct one for me, but sadly, it wasn’t gonna happen.
So to be perfectly honest, the chow was on point. My wife had the classic shrimp burrito, no complaints there. My daughter had the grilled tilapia burrito, and it was either the 100 miles she ran in soccer practice or the thing was so darn tasty, but she devoured that puppy in about a nanosecond. My pops didn’t like his regular bean and cheese burrito, BUT did love the black beans, which are always on point. My son liked his kid’s menu selection of a chicken quesadilla with apple sauce and a churro, but it looked more like a chicken and cheese burrito, and the churro was a little hard.
My burrito had a name too long for me to remember, but I do remember that it was quite delicious. Shrimp, citrus lime rice, black beans, and some type of ancho chile sauce or salsa, cut in half and made to look super duper fancy on my black plastic plate. No complaints as the quality was fresh, and it even made me forget about my long lost, beloved grilled mesquite shrimp burrito, RIP.
The only complaint I have about my visit is the water in the fountain seriously sucked. I didn’t feel like drinking soda or punch or anything sweet so I went with a water. High quality H20 it was not, and Bobby Bouche, mama’s favorite water boy would have caused a Ragin’ Cajun commotion. I don’t know what it was. Maybe the filter was dirty? Either way, the water sucked, and I broke down to buy a fountain drink. Overall, I’d come back for the food again, but I must say that the price went up about a dollar and item, so they might want to think about that little price point.

I came by here with my husband tonight since we were in the plaza, wanting to buy some things at Trader Joe’s. This Rubio’s is located right next to Toys R Us and there is plenty of parking.
Anyways, when we came in, we were immediately greeted by the girl behind the register. She was quite cheery and friendly. We decided to try their new Regal Spring Tilapia Burrito ($ 7.59, prior to tax) but ordered this to go. Wait time for this item was rather long, but I believe it is because Rubio’s make their food items to order. We probably waited 15 or so minutes and there were only 2 other parties in the restaurant (we arrived around 5:30 pm).
When we came home (after purchasing some items at Trader Joe’s to make a tasty salad), we split our tiny burrito. Can’t believe it cost nearly $ 8.00. Anyways, according to their menu, this is supposed to come with «grilled or house blackened on an authentic comal topped with fire-​roasted corn, handmade guacamole, Mexican rice, a cilantro/​onion mix, red and green cabbage and creamy chipotle sauce».
We ordered this grilled and the chipotle sauce kind of tasted like barbecue sauce, and not exactly in a good way. Our burrito was missing guacamole, which probably would have made it taste better because this sad looking burrito was pretty BLAND. Everything with this burrito was just completely wrong and I would not recommend ordering that again.
I am pretty disappointed with this visit because I remember when this Rubio’s opened up 15+ years ago when the food was pretty good and service just seemed to be faster. I would come here every once in a while with my dad for a quick dinner and had liked the food back then. But unfortunately seems like the quality of food has gone down.
One thing to note though, I do like the look of this Rubio’s. It is pretty clean and there are a good amount of tables and chairs. The salsa bar was clean and the disposable cups and lids were stacked up nicely. But these things are just not enough for me to come back for a 2^nd visit.

Salsa is pretty good. I like their salsa bar. And your meal comes with a bag of chips. Service is pretty decent. They bring you your food and they’ll also clean up your plates (but I really don’t expect them to). They use silverware instead of plasticware. Their steak burrito was a little dry though, hence the reason for 3 stars.

It’s not every day that you could say you met the founder, Ralph Rubio! I had the opportunity meet Mr. Rubio and his wife at a Unilocal event in the OC. From that experience and trying different items on their menu, I knew that their food is pretty awesome.
I stopped by the Monrovia location to redeem my birthday certificate ($ 7 off your purchase). Sign up for their e-​club and you’ll get special offers as well as something special for your birthday.
The staff members are super friendly and very knowledgeable about the menu. The cashier who helped me was super sweet (side note: and had really gorgeous eye make up on that day).
I couldn’t decide between the fish taco plate or the salmon taco plate, so opted to have the plate where you could get two tacos of your choice. Both had great flavor. The side of chips and beans were great too. The salsa bar was super clean and each salsa tasted amazing! (I tried them all).
Definitely a great choice to a simple meal and a nice setting! Plus they have beer chilled on ice ;)