La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant

I was so disappointed the last time I came to this restaurant. I don’t know if they changed owners or just got lazy. I was so very excited about getting huevos rancheros here, up until the disgusting store bought tortillas arrived! Blech! I came all the way down to Redwood city for THIS? The ONE thing this place had that set it apart in my mind was that they made a proper tortilla. Bummer.

I am on a serious search to find good El Salvadorean pupusas after El Viejo closed its doors (*sniff*) II’m not a huge fan of Amelia’s anymore – fifteen years ago it was great, but not so much now.
So when we saw pupusas on the shop window, we made a trip. Yes, it’s a hole in the wall. Yes, it’s literally by the train tracks and on this Friday night at least five trains went by during our dinner. But I can ignore all that for a well-​made dish. The experience started out well. The place is family run, and the kids were sitting at a table downing pupusas. I started smiling – if mommy serves them to Johnny, it’s sure to be good! And the owner is super nice – she gets four stars, easily, and I feel a bit badly downing the rating given that it’s a family place.
That said, I’m on a mission for great pupusas. I can only give these a two, maybe two and a half star. Here’s the problem: The cutido (the cabbage slaw you put on them) was not fermented enough or given enough vinegar/​lemon juice. As a result, the usually tangy side fell flat and bland. The salsa rojo was yummy and the pupusa itself thick and almost grilled enough.
The overall rating should be:
Four for owner
One for the cutido
Two for chips
two to hrree for pupusa
the rice and beans, nothing to write about.
I guess it adds up to around 2.5. We’ll be back if I can’t find another place, so even though I’m wavering between two and three, I’ll give it a two. It’s a family run place, it’s cheap and ok – not A ok, but ok.

Very authentic, place run by arbuelas who cook the food toorder. good tortillas, shrimp.

This place is a little run down but I’ve tried the pupusas there and you can’t beat the price. Today being lent I tried the fish enchiladas and they were soo good. The sauce was a tasty. I wouls go again for the fish enchiladas.

Que bueno papusas. Mmmm they are only $ 2 each! But I think that is for the non meat ones? Their salsa is pretty darn good too. Haven’t had a full on meals yet, but that is okay I can live off their papusas. Delish.
Fun Fact: The night we went on a Sunday, it looked like they were about to have Mexican karaōke. So if your can sing some songs, go for it.

This place has gone down hill. We used to get pupusas from here all the time. Something happened, owners changed, and it’s sucked ever since.
The place still looks run down (it’s always been the case, but now it’s worst).
Only one person is running the whole restaurant.
The pupusas shrunk in size, significantly.
The rest of the food looked and tasted like it’s been sitting out for a while.
Big bummer.

Slow service. Terribly slow. A bad option for lunch. The food: uninspired wet burritos drenched in sauce. Not a horrible experience, but I won’t be back — not with the abundance of better restaurants nearby.

Surprisingly authentic! My friend and I were walking downtown looking for some Mexican food on a Monday night. Everything was closed, so we decided to try La Fiesta. What a treat! We ordered the pollo asado dish, a pork tamale, and the pork/​cheese pupusa combo. It was all delicious!
We sat outside and the waitress shortly came out with some tortillas, salsa, and a little pitcher of water. The salsa had an unexpected kick. I loved it! The pollo asado came with toasted handmade tortillas (and I do mean handmade). One bite into it and I felt like I was transported to Honduras, which was the last time I had the same type of thick hand mashed tortillas roasted over a fire. The dish also came with vegetables, beans, and a neatly shaped cup of rice. The chicken wasn’t roasted, more like pan fried, the flavor was strong, but not too salty.
The pupusas were something else too. Lightly crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and not oily looking. The pork stuffing was seasoned well and very tender. You have to try it yourself, for $ 5.99 you get 2 pork & chicken pupusas, beans, rice, a salad, and an extra side of salsa.
Because everyone makes tamales differently, we had to give it a try. The masa was tender, a bit too tender for me. I prefer more grit from my masa, but I cannot complain about the flavor. Some people forget to put ground cumin in their masa, others use too much, this was just right.

Ugh. I have only taken three bites of my burrito and don’t think I can force myself to take another. One star is being very generous.
This used to be a great place… then I heard the owner’s husband died and she went back to Mexico or something. Now different women are running the place. I should have known when I walked in and the place was completely empty that something was very wrong.
The super burrito and coke was $ 9.75 for a take out order. For a super burrito, it is pretty tiny. The meat smells/​tastes off and is the strangest texture I’ve ever come across in a burrito. Kinda rubbery and definitely not pleasant. The beans are thick and pasty, the rice is not flavorful. Ick.
At least it came with some chips so I have something to eat for lunch this afternoon. I just won’t eat the burnt ones.
I will not be back. I am sad.

Absolutely horrible. I ordered a cheese tamale and enchilada combo. The food came, but the combo portion never did. They were going to charge me $ 9.50 for the meal, but I argued my way towards $ 5.00. The waiter didn’t seem to understand english as well, and had issues working the cash register. Not only that, the tamale tasted extremely stale, as if it was sitting around for a very long time. The food in general lacked any kind of legitimate taste. Overall, do not come here!

Well we havent been here in a while and we probably wont be back in a while either. :(The food this time was very bad. Probably one of the worst pupusas I’ve ever eaten. It was just a dough pancake really. About ½ thick (too thick for a pupusa) and it was all dough with a small amount of cheese in the middle. :\ And the cheese was not tasty either. The rice was cold, sour cream runny and Jim’s enchiladas were not great either. I felt sorry for the girl though because she was all by herself.

If it were possible to give less than a star to this place, I would… I feel as though I had the same exact experience as reviewer «J.F.» Here are a couple rant points:
1. If I am paying for food and service, I do not want a waitress who talks on her cell phone. I don’t give a frig who it is, or how culturally endearing someone may frame it as. It is unprofessional and implies you don’t give a damn how your customers perceive you.
2. 20 minutes is ok if you are calling family long-​distance, but not when you are waiting for a burrito in an EMPTY tacqueria. Unacceptable.
3. Equivalent amount of waiting time for check post-​meal. (see J.F. review)
If you are going to operate a restaurant and try to at least break even, do it right. I mean come on, why own and operate a place like this when you plan on infusing it with total indifference and apathy.

The worst service I’ve had in a long time. The servers understood English but seemed to be pretending not to (I speak Spanish too, so when they pretend not to understand what I said in English and then converse about it in Spanish… WTF?). It took 10 minutes to get a coke and I had to interrupt the girls conversation by the grill to get a second one. The food was plopped on our table while the server was talking into her cel phone. Meanwhile it sounded like a pet bird in the back was squawking loudly the entire time we were there which made me wonder how filthy their kitchen is.
The food was ok, but the overall experience was terrible. I know it’s just a taqueria so I shouldn’t expect much, but this place was just lousy. I’m never going back.

La Fiesta is awesome. Ok, the salsa isn’t amazing and sometimes you do have to wait a bit for the check… but its truly Mom & Pop, don’t come here if you’re in a rush, they’re on Mexican time. The shrimp burritos are heavenly, the crab burritos are a close second, the tortas are good too. Good selection of mexican sodas and Mexican Coke (How can you NOT like Mexican Coke??!). The owners are SUPER friendly and always smiling, which I am too whenever I come here!

the reviews are true in that it’s a mom and pop place and they are very friendly… to everyone except me. I’m a nice guy, I pay my taxes, and I walk with a smile. But for some reason tonight they decided I was not worthy. I really wanted to like this place since it’s right across from the train station. But when I walked in, it took some doing to be seated and then given a menu. I was confused, standing there and both the mom and pop saw me. the mom asked me what I wanted. I said ‘one’, which is all I would think needs be said when one walks into a RESTAURANT. (sigh) The chips were so-​so and the salsa was bland. my chile verde was like the hard parts of carnitas served in the verde sauce. not at all as if they were cooked together. the corn tortillas were excellent, but I was only given two with my dinner plate, stingy! the rice portion was small, and the tender parts I did find in the pork were chunks of fat. something went wrong when I walked in here. Now I’m waiting for the check 15 minutes (long enough to write this review via pda) and still nobody asks me anything. everyone else here is getting the love — chit chatting about whatever with the owners. I am getting the cold shoulder. sorry la fiesta, but you chose the wrong nice guy to not care about.

This review is based on my chicken burrito + salsa experience only. The owners are nice and the place has a mom and pop feel with plenty of places to sit. They give you free salsa and chips. The salsa is thin and doesn’t have much kick (spice, flavor).
I ordered a regular chicken burrito which comes with rice, beans and peppers — for slightly under $ 5. It’s a good deal as the burrito is large and comes with ample amounts of chicken. The chicken is shredded and stewed, rather than grilled (I prefer grilled chicken). Like most shredded and stewed chicken, it was no longer tender and the flavor had been cooked out of the chicken. Normally, really good salsa can counter this but their salsa did not add much flavor. Did it really come with peppers? I could not tell. It wasn’t spicy at all.
I could have just ordered the wrong thing. The pupusas looked interesting and they have tortas too.
Update: My friend ordered the pupusas and didn’t like them. Even worse, the place was empty and it took ½ an hour to get our order. Way too slow. They didn’t even refill our basket of chips during this long wait. I had the eggs a la mexicana and it was okay. The eggs were overcooked but the refried beans were fine and I like how they make their own corn tortillas. Due to the service, we’re not coming back here.

I adore La Fiesta, my family and I make it to the restaurant maybe once or twice a month. It’s nearby and has the most amazing pupusas. It’s a little bit of a wait but it’s well worth it. It’s a family owned place (nicest people_​and you really feel like you’re in their home. After a one or two pupusas you might want to go next door to their ice cream shop (perfect in the summer)… yes they own it too and please try their white pistachio… my favorite! It’s cute, the parents run the restaurant and their daughters the ice cream shop.
Enjoy!

Plenty of places to sit, even a few outside. Watch the trains go by while having a crab (snow) burrito and agua fresa. The couple who owns this place are very nice, especially the wife, who cooked me papas con chorizo, even though the husband said «no, we don’t have any potatoes». Somehow, she found some out back.

Yay! A place where I can get menudo in the middle of the week and not have to eait for the weekend hangover crowd. They serve both Mexican entrees/​taqueria fare and Salvadorean cuisine. A tasty bowl of menudo on a Monday and my co-worker’s chile verde was said to be one of the best he’s had in the area. The family that runs the place is pretty friendly, they have a small outside area for the nice days, and it’s bit off the beaten path from the rest of the Broadway food places. The only drawback is they’re really close to Caltrain so be prepared for the train interrupting your conversation every now and then.

The dude who owns this place is always there. And they serve pupusas. Not sure what they are? Ask for one con frijoles y queso and don’t mind the ten minute wait.