Caliente Southwest Grill

puh-​ritty.
freakin.
deliciouso.
come here about 4 times per week. enjoy it all. yummmmz

Food was spectacular (we got the steak tacos and highly recommend) costumer service was amazing also. We’re from out of state and the lady at the register gave us some tips on places to visit! (:

I’ve come here a few times and usually the food is great! However, I didn’t like the customer service I received yesterday. I went in to redeem my $ 8 credit for a meal that cost $ 8.50 and I expected to pay the 50 cents and tax (I never had to pay tax before, but last time they asked me to pay tax, so whatever). However, when I tried to pay my balance of about $ 2 with a credit card, I was told by the cashier (an older lady who I usually see work there) that I need to pay in cash because they only accept credit card payments for purchases of $ 5 or more due to credit card fees. I didn’t have any cash so I had no choice but to purchase another meal in order to pay with a credit card.
I completely understand her point of view with the credit card fees. However, there was no signage in the restaurant about the requirement of credit card payments for only $ 5 or more purchases. I feel like the cashier should have let me pay with a credit card at that moment since I was unaware of the rules, and to tell me to bring cash for that kind of purchase next time. That would have been better customer service. Or maybe that particular cashier just doesn’t like me.
Also, I asked for no cheese on a salad I ordered, and there was cheese. I had my order placed to-​go so I didn’t check on the food until I got home. Another reason my review is on the lower side. I thought there was no point to let them know and get another salad because it would have been a waste of time.
Caliente needs better customer service and needs to pay more attention to the customer’s orders!

This place is very quickly becoming a Sunday ritual for us!
Their «breakfast burritos» are off the charts. Now you do have to play around with the menu a but but the cheapest way is to get a steak and egg burrito and add egg (instead of getting potato and egg and add steak) The steak is extremely tender and the entire burrito tastes fresh.
The entire place follows that motto and everything here is made from scratch. From homemade coffee all the way to their natural lemonade and drink dispenser. This is the restaurant of the future. No preservatives, no chemicals, no bull droppings.
As all items are made from scratch, it does take a while and calling ahead to order may be a good idea. But even then, they have a huge hot sauce collection for you to check out while you’re there. The walls are plastered with sauces which you can try and then later buy to take home.
Give it a try!

The Taco Tuesday was very yummy. Great taste and big tacos. FREE soda for checking in on Unilocal was cool. Small space and tight seating was the only downer.

We have been eating here for years and are happy every time! The Rajas & the blue moon salads with chicken are large and yummy, the fajita platter fabulous and they have awesome tacos. Salmon, Mahi Mahi, chicken, carnitas & beef.
The place is very small but seats about 20 people, often I just take home. Everything is fresh and yummy.

I am seriously shocked reading any reviews that are less than five stars for this place. First of all– everything I’ve had here is delicious. My favorite thing to order is the fajita bowl– it comes with a tortilla topped with Rice, lettuce, pico, grilled veggies with your choice of meat. So good! They give you this delicious cilantro dressing, mix that with some of their homemade hot salsa and you’ll be craving this bowl weekly. Aka– I’m here at least once a week. Also their breakfast burritos (only served on weekends) are the best I have found in Costa Mesa thus far. A few other favorites– any salad on the menu, the wet steak burrito, the salsa! I come sometimes just to grab some of their hot salsa for my kitchen (I love to cook) you may think I’m crazy but it’s just that good! Enjoy!

So my boyfriend and I went here based on Unilocal reviews, it does not disappoint but it is more pricey than expected. The food is seriously delicious but the price per quantity is a bit high. Still recommend this place, the flautas are the best we have ever had (and we love flautas!) but it’s more like $$$.

Great Mexican café with unique ingredients, very cheap chips! and good atmosphere. Wooden tables. Little cramped in the drink area. We ate here for lunch on Saturday. Good salsa bar. Quinoa! Plenty of parking in the lot. Tons of hot sauce to try. It’s in a strip mall. We’ll come here again.

This is one of my FAVORITE eating places in all of Orange County! The carnitas is among the best I’ve had. They also have specials each day of the week, too. The chick stix only available on Thursday are delicious and HUGE… Don’t let the picture fool you. Can’t go wrong with a meal from Caliente!

The staff here is pretty cool. I’ll give them that. It was two minutes before closing and I ran in because it was a taco-​mergency. They heeded the call and gave me the taco that I so craved. That’s the good part.
The bad part is that the taco wasn’t very good.
The tortilla came from a bag. Why was there cabbage on it? Why was the chicken so bland? And dry? And the skeptical part of my brain kept thinking maybe they know the chicken is bland, which why they have dozens of hot sauce options on the wall. To shield you from the TRUTH. The truth that there are much better tacos to be had, and you should find them.

Great tasting food! Great service! Tons of sauces to choose from. Prices are a tad high, but that is Newport Beach for you.

Great place for tacos!!! Friendly staff, neat restaurant and lots of hot hot hot
Sauces to choose from. If you are a taco lover, Tuesday and Wednesday are the days to go!

So the three stars is for the décor, drink selection, and okay battered fish tacos.
The restaurant has a motif that is similar to the Day of the Dead. It’s black and white chalk board menu is bordered with bright turquoise and there are drawings all around the menu.
The fountain drinks are different than what you find at nearly all eateries. Instead of Coca Cola and Sprite, they have Jone’s Agave Vanilla Soda and other similar flavors. So yummy!
My battered fish taco was pretty good, but not that much meat.
The Mahi Mahi fish tacos my boyfriend had were tiny! For the same price of mine, they had half the amount of meat. No one would feel satisfied eating that.
Therefore, the over all aesthetic and vibe gets the 3 stars, the food was not so good.

Huge fan of their breakfast burritos! My boyfriend and I will make it a point to go there every so often for one of their oh-​so-​good bacon, egg, cheese, potato burritos! Its our favorite place for whenever we get a craving!
This last week I decided to try the Blue Moon Salad with chicken and it was delicious! I could have spoon eaten the salad dressing! Will definitely be making it there more often for the salad!

Good, tex-​mex food for at an inexpensive price.
Salsa bar is my fave. They have the pickled jalapeños and carrots with an assortment of different salsas AND little cups to take it to-​go complete with doggy bags.
The fried fish taco was pretty delicious. A little heavy on the batter but good flavor overall. They forgot to put the sauce on the side, so in my opinion it was a bit drenched. However, I enjoyed the taco for the most part. Extra lettuce and tomato on the taco at no extra charge :)
Noms.

Today I ordered two items, a California Beef Burrito, add avocado, and the Shrimp Burrito Bowl, with added guacamole. I was disappointed with both orders for these reasons: The side of avocado for the California Burrito, which costs $ 1.50 was basically two very small slivers on top of the Burrito. On the menu it states extra avo for the burrito is $ 1.50 but down below under «extras» it says avo is $ 1.00. I’m not sure why the difference but what we got was not worth even 50 cents. On the shrimp bowl there were also two tiny slivers of avo but worse, only about 5 shrimp in the bowl. At the cost of $ 10 for this item, I would expect a lot more than 5 shrimp.
I really love Caliente and the food is excellent, however I don’t feel we got our money’s worth today. I know they went through a remodel and changed their menu around a bit, so I am just hoping they didn’t increase prices and decrease quantity.

You can expect to find fresh and tasty food here. I ordered the shredded beef burrito and really liked it. The burrito was a good size, and the shredded beef tasted good. What i really liked here was their own line of sodas and hot sauces. They don’t have your typical coke, pepsi, and tabasco options for their soda and hot sauces, which i really liked.
My favorite entrée that my girlfriend and I ordered was the tacos. The fish battered taco for $ 2.50 was sooooooo good, and the sauce that came with it was amazing. I also tried the carne asada, and mahi mahi tacos and really liked those as well. If you come here, i definitely recommend trying their wide varieties of tacos, paired with their unique hot sauces, you won’t be disappointed.

Came in for the 6.99 salad Mondays deal. I was immediately astounded by the joviality of the staff as I was welcomed with warm eyes right as I walked in. I ordered the Rajas chicken salad and was thoroughly impressed when the dish came out in under a minute. The salad had a beautiful presentation (I had to take pics and show my mom) and the taste was incredible. The chicken was fresh and grilled to perfection and went so well with the green Rajas sauce! I am a hungry college student and the salad was incredibly filling.
I’m rating the Caliente Southwest Grille a 5 out of 5. Wish they had one closer to UC Irvine :)

My boyfriend and I bought coupons for this place and we were excited to check it out. I ordered the teriyaki chicken burrito and he ordered the beef teriyaki burrito. When I looked over the menu, I noticed that it is definitely on the pricier side for a place that serves Mexican food. I will say that they try to use healthier ingredients and some higher cost proteins so choosing something healthy but tasty is pretty easy to do here.
They do not have your standard soda selections so be aware of that. They offer some type of organic soda. My boyfriend and I both tried the vanilla cream soda and we both thought it was gross. He ended up drinking the cola, which he said was great. I cynically tried the grapefruit soda and found that it was actually really good.
While we are waiting for our food, we got to chat with the girl who works there — Cora. She is a tall pretty blonde girl that is really funny to talk to. She is very genuine and kind with lots of energy. My boyfriend night got big kick out of checking out all the bottles of hot sauce that they have on the wall. For anyone who likes hot sauce, this would be a good place to come because you can try the hot sauces before you buy them.
The shop itself is pretty much a hole in the wall but there is plenty of space and the menu was very colorful. There is a ton of parking. When my boyfriend and I both got our burritos we were both impressed by the presentation. I was not a huge fan of the enchilada sauce that they put on the outside of the burrito. The burrito without the sauce actually probably would’ve been really good. Had a ton of chicken and yummy grilled onions and bell peppers.
My boyfriend and I are huge fans of Mexican food so we had to check out their salsa bar. This is a definite miss. There mild sauce is good because it’s chunky and has some texture to it. All the other sauces were very thin and watered down. I normally love salsa and I would not touch the salsa at this place after I tried it once. I am, however, a fan of their spicy carrots– YUM YUM.
Rating breakdown:
+1: excellent customer service from Cora.
+1: interesting menu selections
+1: clean shop w surfing footage on tv.
–1: you can’t buy a burrito for $ 4 – 5 here.
–1: The salsa bar needs a lot of help. You can’t have bomb food and a weak salsa bar.
–1 imaginary star: awkward family photos in the bathroom. I just don’t get it.