Baja’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant

Some of the best mexican food in the state of Connecticut! I am from the west coast and have searched everywhere for great quality mexican food and this is def the place to go!

This is the greatest restaurant in all of west haven. Take it from old Ricky Ray. I can stick a whole burrito in my mouth at once. So I know a bit about Mexican food.

My mom and I have been coming here for probably 15 years now. They have, no doubt, the best Mexican food! The place is small, not very decorated or anything. They have a great salsa bar with some great chips. I always get the nachos mexicana and it feeds myself, one other person and still have some left over. I definitely recommend you try it!

Good salsa bar but they really need to be more creative with their veggie burritos. I stopped coming here after awhile because I was just so sick of eating zucchini. Also WARNING for vegetarians/vegans…they put chicken stock in their rice. I’ve ordered the *vegetarian* fajitas a few times and it took them years to tell me that the rice isn’t actually vegetarian. What?!

Amazing freshly prepared food. Rice and beans are fantastic. Never had a bad meal. The chimichanga is my go to!

My husband and I love it here! The salsa is awesome and I live for the chile verde! The ceviche is flavorful and the staff is warm and friendly !

I’m actually here right now and again fantastic. It doesn’t matter if it lunch or dinner the food is consistent. Friendly staff and great drinks. Definitely family friendly. Love it.

I’ve eaten here a number of times now, and I have never had a bad meal. Don’t let the location smell of rubber from the tire store next door turn you off. The food is fresh, large portion, and there is a plentiful variety on the menu. They even made me a special request of a mahi enchilada, and it was yummy! Their margaritas and mojitos are excellent. I also love that they have a salsa bar so I can try all the sauces :)

Great food. Fair prices. Always leftovers. Friendly service. Not 5 stars due to décor and one small pet peeve: they give you plates for the salsa. They really should provide small bowls instead after going through the trouble of having a large salsa stand. overall though, by far the best Mexican in the area.

An amazing «hole in the wall» place. They have a salsa bar that’s fantastic, their entrees are amazing, and oh my god their desserts are incredible. It doesn’t look like much but believe me it’s worth it.

First time at this restaurant as my girlfriend and I are foodies we also like to expierence out food, to be honest I’ve never noticed this place before randomly placed in that small Plaza next to Town fair tire.
Authentic Mexican food! That’s what it says on the windows.
I wanted to try it, since my girlfriend heard good things about the place.
First the place was empty, which it made me wonder why if the food was authentic. The waitress was nice and polite, SEAT YOURSELF type of restaurant.
Second, the menu was very long and repetitive –NO SPECIALS– over priced beer and not a big variety to choose from.
Thirt, the salad bar was nice offering a variety of salsas from mild to really hot, however poorly managed and maintained. It would have been nice to have bowls or salsa containers instead of the small flat appetizer plate they placed in our table, also no labels on the salsas just hot-​mild paper plates glued to the counter.
Fourth, no water unless upon request but in this hot days would have been nice to have some tap water from the beginning.
Fifth, we order our food camarones diabla and as far as I’m concern diabla means spicy, when our food got to the table it look like they cooked the shrimp in some of sort of hot red salsa from the salsa bar. Camarones diabla sauce was supposed to look almost like barbecue sauce not some tomato chunky sauce.
I was very dissaponted with the food look not the taste, to me I didn’t look authentic but since I was starving and was already there I didn’t feel like getting up and go around looking for another place. We ate our food. It tasted good but not authentic.
Our time there was an experience for sure, as for right now I wouldn’t go back any time soon. I will give Baja a try again in the future and by the time I do that hopefully their owners and management improve their restaurant, menu, staff and that great salsa bar which I personally think is a great idea.
Thanks

Don’t let the outside scare you! The restaurant is in need of a makeover inside and out but we were pleasantly surprised with our meals and the portion size. We love Mexican food and I have to say this was the best rice I have ever tasted. Great!
I didn’t give it five stars because as soon as we walked in we were handed menus and told to seat ourselves. They only had one other table! The restaurant looks very dirty and dated but the taste of the food was impressive. Total dive but it delivers quality food.

Fresh, flavorful, homemade Mexican. It’s great food. Great prices and delicious. I recommend the nachos. For 10 bucks you have dinner and lunch. It’s a small place. Not much going on inside but the food and service totally make up for that. Love this place

First time at Baja’s today and I will definitely be back again. My friend warned me that it was a hole in the wall next to a tire place, and I did pick up the hint of tire smell in the air upon walking in. However, the food and service was so good that I don’t care one bit. I’ve been to worse looking dives with great food. Nothing scares me anymore.
The salsa bar is phenomenal. The green salsa was so hot that it was almost too hot for me, which is saying something because I love spice! I loved the chunky veggies and the smoky, dark hot salsa combination. My carnitas chimichanga was delish– big chunks of juicy pork and loads of sour cream. Served with rice and beans– I could only finish half and felt really full. You really get your money’s worth.
The service was also great. Our waitress was sweet and accommodating. The place was almost empty so we had our choice of table. People who don’t like this place because of the location or what it looks like are close minded. Judge it on the food and service! They wouldn’t be there 20 years if the place didn’t turn out good food. Cannot wait to go back!

We went here on the recommendation of some friends. Let’s start with the ambiance: this is a no frills kind of place, which isn’t a big deal if the food and service is good. That brings us to the service.
The waitress screwed up our order and took forever to bring over the drinks. The drinks took almost as long as the dinner. She was also pretty rude, not just to us, but to the tables around us.
Now let’s go to the food. This is by far the worst food I’ve ever had at a Mexican restaurant. It tasted like it was sitting around in a buffet under warm lights and dumped on the plate. We were in and out in about 20 minutes. This place is terrible and makes the Taco Bell next door look good. We ended up leaving after paying the bill and going to another, much better restaurant for some appetizers and drinks to make up for the terrible food and service from Baja.
I really don’t understand why we were rushed and for the most part ignored since they were only ¹⁄₃^rd full and had plenty of staff.
There are a dozen better mexican places around. This place is not worth visiting.

I grew up in the New Haven, Connecticut area. I know pizza and what constitutes a good one. I am a total pizza snob. I have traveled and will own up that I am ignorant on the subject of «authentic Mexican» or «Tex-​Mex». I do know what tastes yummy and Baja’s Mexican Restaurant fits this bill.
I am sharing a picture of the outside. It is in the same building as a Town Fair Tire. Although I don’t think it looks too inviting, this is a good example of not judging a book by its cover.
My girlfriend and I arrived Tuesday November 11, 2014 around 3:30 pm. It was Veteran’s Day so we were the only customers. Jessica took care of us right away. She was very friendly. I ordered a Dos Equis while my girlfriend got a margarita. We were both happy with our drinks.
We then proceeded to the salsa bar which was amazing. It is labeled mild to hot. We were warned about the green salsa at the end which could clear up a person’s sinuses. I have been reading some different reviews and I do agree they should be offering better plates than the flat ones here for their wonderful salsa. I didn’t mind it so much but do believe this is a valid criticism.
I ordered the shrimp tacos. Everything on my plate seemed fresh and I did enjoy them. My girlfriend ordered the Vegetable Fajitas. She did share and I liked her plate a little better than mine. I will order something else in the future.
I did notice other customers coming in for take-​out. As we were leaving I overheard one woman getting food for a bunch of 16 year old girls. I would get food here for a party.
Baja’s is my second favorite Mexican Restaurant in the New Haven area. Jalapeño Heaven in Branford is still my favorite. I am giving Baja four stars. The salsa bar was amazing. Our meals were fresh and Jessica our server was very attentive. They do lose some points for no Wi-​Fi and the flat plates. Still this was an extremely enjoyable meal. We will be back. There is a good reason why this place has been in business since 1992.

My boyfriend and I love Mexican food so we decided to give Baja a try as we were in the locality. First impression from the outside was that it didn’t look like your regular Mexican places. For some this may be a deterrent. Our Waitress was Jessica who was very friendly, open, knowledgeable about the menu and showed a genuine interest in us. I ordered the Vegetable fajitas and and my boyfriend had the Shrimp tacos. Although my dish didn’t come wrapped in the flour tortillas I did find the dish tasty and adequate. I liked that you could choose your own salsa from the salsa bar. It was very fresh. I also ordered a margarita which I found was to a standard I like. Overall, I will return to Baja. It has many positives and dining at an affordable price. One negative was no open WiFi but this is only a minor aspect.

I’ll keep this short — Baja’s has unfortunately declined in quality over the past five some-​odd years (even the review I wrote in 2011 was somewhat backward looking).
While I think the recent 1 star reviews are a bit harsh, I agree there’s really nothing special about Baja’s anymore. I also think they should update the furniture and deep clean the place.
I used to look forward to Baja’s visits — now, it’s a fallback destination.

I couldn’t wait to try this Zagat-​rated restaurant and after trying it, we were utterly disappointed with the quality of the food. There is nothing «authentic Mexican» about this restaurant!
We had the enchiladas con mole and enchiladas verdes. The mole was NOT mole. The mole tasted closer to a sweet Italian marinara than true mole. The enchilada verde was bathed in oil with plenty to spare and tasteless. Only the rice and beans were palatable.
We will never go back.
I would recommend the Chef to try even using the canned Doña Maria mole as this is closer to my grandmother’s «authentic» mole.

Did you ever have one of those nights where plans had to keep changing? This was one of those. It brought my brother and I to Baja’s, though, which made for a pleasant surprise in an evening of disappointments.
Baja’s has an extensive salsa bar, which you serve yourself and bring back to the table to accompany the basket of tortilla chips which promptly appears. Service was quick and friendly, and our entrees, when they arrived, definitely hit the spot.
It’s neither fancy nor pretentious, and they’re clearly committed to offering good food at a good price.