Casa Borrega

Writing this when this incredibly good restaurant has 3.5 stars! Unbelievable.
I went here with a Mexican friend of mine who swears by this place. Tacos were incredible and enchilada was incredible. Server was really nice as well. A Mexican family owns the place which is definitely a good thing.

Amazing Mexican food which is hard to find in this city! Everything is authentic and tastes fresh. The guacamole is a must! The Chilies Rellenos is the best and so flavorful!

AMAZING FOOD! Everything was delicious… only I didn’t care for the flan. But everything else was amazing. The ceviche here is now my favorite in this entire city thus far. Drinks are a little pricey but really yummy as well. This is a great place for a date night. Super cute decorating and very nice staff.

I had lunch at Casa during my trip to NOLA. I had one of the best and authentic Tamales. Food tasted great. The owner Mr. Hugo and the entire staff ensured that our entire experience was pleasant and local. He recommended some best Tequilas and we really enjoyed the drinks as well! I would highly recommend case barrera for Latin American cuisine

Great service, great food, great vibe. I came in during lunch and even though breakfast hours were over, they made me breakfast tacos any way. Super fresh food and nice staff

The live Latin music and attentive service puts this place a notch above most Hispanic restaurants. Food was well prepared, hearty, and more Central American than Mexican. The music was live by a small
Ensemble of guitar, sax, and vocal. Venezuelan, Brazilian torch songs, boss snova. Nead a hearty soup, but saw other dishes that looked good to. More Focussed on small plat and a la carte offerings than most Hispanic restaurants. Service was attentive, despite being packed. Nobly downside was it was difficult to hear the music over the background of insipid conversation. Need a nice back patio, a choice for my next visit. Nearly ng felt safe and easy to find.

I’ve returned a couple of times recently and the food has been very so-​so. A recent taco plate was dry, lukewarm and not pleasing. Drinks are still knock your socks off good but would love to see a little more consistency from kitchen m.

Unfortunately, I cannot give a review of the food as we did not get that far. A few months ago, my husband and I thought we would give Casa Borrega a try as we had heard some good things about the food.
It was an early Friday night and we had our 12 month son with us. I decided to go in first to check out the layout and be sure it was kid friendly. Although there were a few steps to contend with, we were told by the owner’s son that we would be welcome to use the back door to enter the outdoor patio with our stroller. When my husband went to said door, we were met by the owner who rudely said that we were not allowed to use that entrance. Once we explained that we were told we could use it, he reluctantly tried to show us to a table. He made a stink about our stroller and walked away in a huff. When I made a comment that I thought he was being quite rude, he rushed me to the front of the restaurant where he tried to show me a sign that did not exist but said that it was mentioned on their website that they were not kid friendly. He then led me outside of the restaurant where he continued to yell that he didn’t care if I thought he was rude and/​or if I was to write this review.
I did check his site and found this:
‘Casa Borrega welcomes children of all ages during lunch and early dinner. However, we have found it is best not to bring children under the age of 13 after 7pm. Of course for private parties, inclusion of children is up to the customer.‘
That said, it was an early dinner and I had asked before bringing our child into their restaurant. I will never step foot into his restaurant again with or without my son.

Very happy with this place. I had the big sample platter. Everything was great. I would come back just for the tamales. So good.

Every once in a while, I find a restaurant that goes past the bells and whistles of trends and appealing to the «in» crowd and manages to mix a great ambience/​vibe with great food. Casa Borrega is one of those places.
I literally told a couple of friends that «This is the food my mom would make if she’d grown up in Mexico.»
I had a watermelon margarita, the borrega torta, and chips with guac. The lamb was obviously slow-​cooked with care. The bread was a little sweet for my taste but worked well with the rest of the sandwich. (And, still, was something my mom would choose.) The ingredients were fresh. The guac was obviously made from scratch, and the server said that the margarita freshly made as well. (I’m not enough of a drinker to know about these things, but I thought it was delicious.)
The service was fast and great when I went during lunch hour, pretty much spot-​on at noon. My server, Julia, checked in often to see if there was anything I needed. Another server/​busser noticed I was finished with my plate moments after I pushed it away. (The restaurant wasn’t bustling but had a pretty steady trickle of customers.)
What pushed my review up to five stars was the general laid back ambiance of the place and the fact that they have live music here. It’s clear that the people who own this place care, from the artistic touches on the building to the attention to detail in the records on the walls and the flowers on the tables. The employees I encountered aren’t trying too hard to force the ambience; it was a friendly place with great food, good service, and a lot of cool stuff to look at.

So, we read the reviews and really wanted to check this place out. We Pass it all the time and wondered if it was good.
I like the laid back atmosphere and music. After reading the history of the place, everything fits. We had 2 Cadillac margaritas, no salt, and they were good; a tad sweet, but good. I had the flautas and rashly liked them. They were just like flautas from the street vendors in Mexico. My partner had the mole enchiladas de pollo. The mole was good, but slightly sweeter than I’m used to in Central American cooking.
Please remember this is NOT a tex mex place. They don’t have frozen drinks, refried beans or chimichangas. This is autentico mexicano.

Five stars for the hip ambiance & funky patio with live Latin music. A solid four stars for the authentic, upscale Mexican cuisine, including ceviche, guacamole, chips & salsa, chicken enchiladas mole, tacos, gulf fish, etc. All very good! Great margaritas, but at $ 11 and up, they should be incredible!
Sadly, the two-​star service, left a lasting impression. I like the fact that they don’t rush you, however it would have been nice to have been paid a visit by our server in the 30 – 45 minutes after finishing our meal. We finally had to track him down to pay our tab (w/​20% gratuity included), which could have been higher with more drinks, had they been offered.
Sure, you can get food & drinks every bit as good (and much less expensive), at Juan’s and La Casita, but the «experience «makes Casa Borrega a viable option in the rapidly up-​and-​coming OCH corridor.

Decided to give this place a second chance, yet still left unsatisfied.
The guac and «queso» were good but not enough chips were offered to accompany the two. The cheese dip is really more of a spread which is different from tradition Queso found at most Mexican restaurants. It is worth trying
The meat in the taco fillings lacked flavor and were all very dry, both over cooked and missing sauce
The most disappointing part of the meal though, was the service. Only one girl was working the floor and even with only a few tables dining at the time, nothing came out in a timely fashion. We had to go to the bar to ask for more water ourselves and were displeased to wait 10 minutes between each of our meals to come out, one of which was totally forgotten.
My biggest suggestion for this place is for them to work on their wait service. It really puts a damper on the experience of this otherwise charming place. Still working out a few kinks in my opinion.

We have been hitting up all the new restaurants on OC Haley Blvd & they really are cleaning up the neighborhood. Do not be put off by the location because the restaurants really is nice… but if you are not from New Orleans, this is not a neighborhood to walk around or explore.
The atmosphere here is great– eclectic, cozy, and we were surprised there was live music when we went. Compared to other places in the city, the cocktails are a very generous serving size! But you wont be sacrificing quality for quantity, they are very good, not watered down either! The tacos and starters here are as good as the other Mexican places we like here (not to say they are the same). The dish that stood out was the Mixto & the best item was the Chile Relleno! it was out of this world. Empanada was great too!

This place is great! Loved everything about it, from the décor to the food and drinks, this place is a 5 out of 5! Tried it for the first time today at lunch and my parents and I thoroughly enjoyed everything. Definitely a place i will go back to over and over again. If you are looking for great tacos, homemade salsa, and delicious margaritas with a mexican/​rustic/​casual atmosphere, this is the place for you. But I highly recommend coming for lunch because it can get extremely crowded for dinner from what the waiter told us and that part of town isn’t so great at night. Worth the trip, try it out!

Because everyone needs goals in life, I am on a mission. That mission is to eat at all of the restaurants listed on the «38 Essential New Orleans Restaurants, January 2015»:
I had already eaten at 22 of the above establishments, when I found myself in the mood for Mexican. I rushed over to Casa Borrega to satisfy the craving.
First of all, the décor in this joint is choice. I love the Catholic/​Mexican/​Dia De Los Muertos feel of the entire place. I almost felt like I was having dinner in a fancy Mexican Church. Or maybe I felt like I was having dinner on a Dia De Los Muertos altar. Whichever it was, I liked it.
I hadn’t had a margarita in way too long, so the first thing I did was order a «Margarita Borrega», which was muy delicioso. I might have had two, but who was counting?
The first thing they do after you order your drinks is bring you some chips and fresh guacamole. OH MY GOSH! This guacamole puts my homemade guac to shame. It’s super fresh and it’s nice and thick with tomatoes in it. I couldn’t get enough. One complaint: the chips are way too thin for the thickocity of the guac, so they tend to break. As far as «issues» go, that’s not a big one.
As for the menu, everything sounded incredible, especially the «Plato Mixo», which was basically a little sample of everything. You gotta really ask yourself, «Do you want to walk out of here or waddle?» I chose to walk, so I went with the Enchilada de Mole instead.
Let me tell you– these chicken enchiladas were delectable and they were not shy about smothering them in mole sauce. I’m not complaining! The sauce was AMAZING and the enchiladas were incredible. The dish came with a side of beans and rice, but honestly, I would have been happy with just the enchiladas. The beans and rice were a little bland, which I totally get, because not everyone likes spice.
I wish I had had room for dessert, but alas, there was no way that was going to happen. All in all, I loved my meal here and I can’t wait to return. They also have a stage for live music, so that’s something I will definitely have to check out!

Mole mole mole!!! Any questions about what to order pastor and MOLE!
So good will be back, on my trip from Los Angeles, CA to Panama City, FL had to drop here and some other places.
The environment of this local restaurant compliments the food by far!

The atmosphere and the décor is just alone amazing. The service was great too! Probably the most authentic Mexican food I’ve had here in Nola.
The only thing I didn’t understand was why the side of rice and beans is served separately in a tiny tiny little container. I mean tiny.
Besides that, everything was wonderful!

Happened to drive by and was attracted to the décor from the outside. I decided after my errand I had uptown, i was going to swing back and give them a try since I’ve also had them bookmarked for a while.
I’ve been on a Mexican food rampage the past couple weeks and have been quite pleased with my findings. Naturally I was happy about continuing the binge, giving a new restaurant a chance. The food was good, nothing that blew me away, but good. The service was super friendly and prompt, certainly a nice staff in there.
I was ready for a more authentic Mexican style/​flavor. I ordered a fish, shrimp and pastor taco with a side of rice and beans. I went at the fish first and found it to be good, but somewhat dry, so I hit it with some hot sauce and that woke things up a bit. The shrimp taco was okay, I liked the pastor the best out of the three. The beans are not seasoned at all so if you need, be sure to use some.
I sat at the bar and i will say if you can get a table, get one. Thing is, the bar top is pretty much flush with the under part, so there’s no room to sit and eat comfortably at the bar. The inside is really cool, lots of interesting décor and ornaments around.
The pricing seemed a bit steep relative to what you pay and recieve at other Mexican joints. Fourteen dollars for three tacos and a little thing of beans and rice didn’t fill me up like a fourteen dollar meal should. But hey, I’d give them another shot, i really like the interior and that whole little strip seems to be working towards being a cool little stream of businesses on the horizon.

I had a lovely dinner here last Friday. There was some nice live music going on and it was a good temperature that evening to sit outside in the lovely patio/​courtyard/​thing. The neighborhood is definitely sketchy but the place itself is very cool. I love the décor.
The ceviche was delicious and was quite a generous serving! There were also a lot of chips involved. It was so yummy and fresh.
Then there was the chili relleno. That was very good and comes with two huge rellenos. My mother and I each had one and got them stuffed with vegetables.
Service was a little slow but it was a fairly busy Friday night and it was so enjoyable to relax in the courtyard, I am not going to ding them for that, to be sure.