Villalobos

IF YOU HAVE KIDS DO NOT GO TO THIS RESTAURANT! THEY DO NOT LIKE KIDS AND THEY GIVE YOU A TON OF ATTITUDE AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU FEEL YOU ARE NOT WANTED HERE!
I was at this restaurant February 28 2016 at 6:30PM and I must admit this was one of the most kid unfriendly restaurants I have ever been to. When we entered the restaurant we were 2 families and each family had 2 kids. We were greeted by a boy with nose piercing who asked us how many we were and he looked around and told us that the only seating available was at the bar. At this point there was one empty table available and he told us that this table was «reserved», within a few minutes two more tables became available and this busboy with nose piercing told us that these tables were not available either and we were asked to sit at the bar with our kids (party of 8!!). At this point we have one hour before the restaurant closes and there are 3 tables available in the restaurant and he continues to give us bs saying that these tables are not available. In the meantime he starts making faces on our back to his waiter friends trying to show us that he doesn’t like us which I can catch every time I look at him. After a lot of attitude we speak to the manager and get proper seating at two proper tables. All this time the manager (the girl with black hair and glasses) witnessed the whole situation and did nothing to help until my wife spoke to her. For the next 1 hour this busboy with nose piercing made facial expressions walking around us to show that he doesn’t like families with kids, I am not sure where he thinks he works but this is not Tribeca and Mont Clair is a family town. His attitude was as if this was a night club and we showed up with 4 kids. The whole dining experience with our children was very very stressful solely because of this weirdo.
Anyway after this horrendous treatment I thought the food would fix some of the problem but I was disappointed. The food is rather bland and the sauces are unsuccessful at the very least. They tried to offer a creative taco concept yet the kitchen is unsuccessful. The menu almost reminds me of Taco Maria in Orange County, CA but this one is downright unsuccessful. This is a bad imitation prepared by amateur people. Sorry I wish I had better things to say and I really enjoy the gourmet taco concept when it is prepared properly.
The only enjoyable thing in the restaurant was the bottle of Barolo I brought with me.

Not the usual kind of a taco place. They are truly gourmet. Friendly staff, great ambience and yummy food. Their warm kale salad was too good!

What a pleasant surprise. We went there after seeing their old menu online. When we sat down the place was empty, the menu changed and was more limiting, we thought what did we get into… boy one time I’m glad first impression were so wrong. This place was fantastic. After trying the appetizers I decided I wanted everything on the menu. The food was fantastic as was the service, each server that walked by asked how everything was, very attentive and very knowledgeable. By the time our mains arrived there wasn’t and empty seat available. The salsas were great too, literally my only complaint was the cost of the salsas for the amount they gave us but they were excellent. A must try is the Bacon and Brussel Sprout guacamole, so much better then I could have imagined! Dessert was homemade Mexican churros, yum! This is a great pre theater treat! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Although there were no tables available, we sat at the bar (which Im usually not a fan of), and it was fine. The bar was deep enough that I was able to eat comfortably and the staff was not reaching over or bumping into my plate. The ceviche was excellent but this normally inexpensive dish was priced a bit high at $ 13. The chips and guac were good but again $ 10 for a single serving is a tad high. The atmosphere was easy and the servers were friendly. The best part for me as a non alcoholic drinker were the choices of non alcoholic mixed drinks! LOVED THIS! I will be back!

Uh… I’m $ 23.54 poorer and I have no good explanation as to why. I hate leaving bad reviews but we will start with the good: the ambience is beautiful. BYOB. Amazing guac. My waiter was very nice and extremely attentive. The bad: Everything else! The taco is no bigger then the palm of your hand and it’s $ 6 for each one. The fish taco has NO FLAVOR. The shrimp taco was very flavorful but it fell apart because of the corn tortilla. The corn tortilla isn’t even good. Not to mention I’m still hungry.

Nice environment but the food is subpar. Tacos were too salty, very small, and lacked flavor. Not impressed with our waitress either. She left mid dinner and we got someone else. No idea why, but she was still there. It was hard to find something I wanted to order so look at the menu before you go.

$ 6 per taco?! Do they have truffles, foie gras and gold flakes in there?
I wasn’t going to get any, but since my cousins each got one, I had to bite. Should have stuck with my gut feeling. I tried the scallop taco with brussel sprouts. Lacked flavor and bite. It’s a $ 3 taco.
Flavorwise, I’ll take an authentic Mexican $ 1.50 taco over this.
As for the rest of the food — it’s actually quite good. The bacon and brussel sprout guacamole has probably the smokiest bacon I’ve ever had (including my own. mental note: throw more wood chunks onto the charcoals). It was quite the experience.
The chilaquiles had really good heat. It was also only $ 5 (albeit with no meat). Still a pretty good deal.
The space is beautiful. Very clean, open and filled with New York Rangers memorabilia and staff wearing Villalobos shirts designed with the diagonal Rangers jersey design. Service was great. Very nice people. Everything was taken care of in a timely fashion.
If they slash their taco prices, then this place easily becomes a 4.
Edit: I almost forgot about the Masa fried chicken. The Masa was not crunchy at all and lacked flavor. They seriously need to rework this recipe. Leave it off the menu in the meantime.

As a big fan of Mexican, I was excited to try this place but was a big let down. I’ll start with the food and the very limited menu. We started with guac and chips. The guac was yummy and I thought great can’t wait for the rest of the meal. My whole party ordered tacos, they range between 6 and 7 bucks a piece. I ordered 3. The best outta the 3 was the carnitas. The fish taco was good but just missing something. The shredded pork taco was so salty, I mean like inedible salty. We did address it with the waitress and two of my friends who had only ordered those were able to get new ones without the heavy handed sea salt they put on them. The waitress seemed annoyed when we addressed it. The tacos do not come with any sides and are small. Some were more filling than others. In the middle of us eating dinner the waitress asked if we thought we’d want to order desert. Our answer was simply maybe but we are still eating. She stated though the kitchen was closing. It was 10:30 and they close at 11. Nothing like rushing your customers out the door. Another problem I saw was the fact that people still were eating when they decided to mop the floor around them. Yuck! It does have a good atmosphere so maybe if they revamp the staff, add some more menu items, this place may have some potential. Too many other great restaurants in town though to waste your time or money here.

I was extremely surprised how popular this place is. It was insanely packed on a Monday night, so despite our reservation, we were forced to wait a bit. I was expecting some really exotic stuff on their menu per the old reviews I’ve read but I walked out of Villalobos a bit disappointed. The only thing that was close to being exotic was the lengua tacos, though in fairness, it turned out to be amazingly delicious.
I tried about 5 tacos: Lengua, Grilled Scallops, Al Pastor, Pescado Frito Carnitas. What really stood out are the Lengua and Grilled Scallops so I highly recommend those two. For appetizers, we had the bacon/​brussels guacomale and octupis ceviche. The guacamole was quite unique so I would recommend that as well.
It’s not a bad pick for dinner. The restaurant has a casual/​modern interior and has a pretty good, personable, and attentive team to provide great service. And also, the food IS extremely affordable which by itself upgrade my grade to a 4.

The food was good, but overpriced. I live in Manhattan and am relatively accustomed to overpriced tacos, but I thought $ 5 – 7 for a single (very small) taco in suburban NJ was a bit steep. I ordered three tacos and still left feeling like I could’ve eaten more food. That being said, the veggie taco was the standout in my opinion while the scallop taco disappointed.

I had a very positive experience at Villalobos. Two friends and I came here on a Friday night and it was packed (Tip #1 make a reservation or come early). So, we wound up sitting at the bar (no they don’t serve drinks — its BYOB tip #2) which faces the open kitchen. The décor is rustic modern and was well put together. We tried the traditional guacamole and the tuna tostada as appetizers. The guacamole was fresh and tasted good, but was nothing too special. The tuna tostada, however, was very good! Fresh raw tuna mixed with watermelon and lime served on a tostada chip. Very Delicious — highly recommend. For the main course, they offer a few traditional dishes, but have a decent taco menu. We all ordered a variety of tacos. All were very good. There are about 10 to choose from (pork, chicken, beef, fish, shrimp, etc.) and each range from $ 6 to $ 10 each. I chose a pork and fish taco — tasty and flavorful. We also ordered the asparagus and the papas brava sides and I have to say both were FANTASTIC (see the pictures). I am a light eater and 2 tacos and a side were good enough, but would probably recommend 3 tacos for most people.
This place takes Mexican dining to a different level! I will definitely be returning!

Simple, cute, and clean interior. Fast service. Flavorful food. BYOB.
The guacamole was very good. I really enjoyed the al pastor de pollo taco. I also had a bistec de res taco which had good flavor but my piece of meat was just a little too fatty.
The only dessert option is Churros, to me they were nothing to rave about, they should offer a caramel sauce too instead of just chocolate sauce.

Great ambiance and friendly service greeted us as we walked in to Villalobos. We got the heads up to BYOB — they were very accommodating as we’re unused to this custom in Montclair. The menu looked great with lots of vegetarian and creative options. The food, unfortunately, disappointed though. The special salad was warm kale with pinto beans and just didn’t work out. The vegetarian enchiladas were bland and uninteresting. The chilaquiles side missed the mark without any noticeable eggs on top — the key ingredient! But the guacamole was good though!
If they tighten up on taste they’ll be great. They’ve got the bones for it.

Villalobos, as in Jorge Villalobos. «Yo soy tu papá.» (I only expect those of you who have seen Meet the Fockers to understand that).
Jason V. and I went here on Cinco de Mayo, and ay caramba! What a disaster! How this place was so clearly understaffed for the most widely celebrated no-​such-​Mexican-​holiday in the United States is beyond me. They were probably at 60% capacity by the time we rolled in around 8:30 so we sat at the bar, feeling no need to be all intimate at a table. It must have taken 20 minutes for someone to take our order, but the person who finally did start to at least serve us water and open our wine was the hostess who sat us.
Bottom line: the prices here are outrageous in proportion to the serving sizes. I get that they’re probably getting creamed on the rent given the location, but $ 26 for the what is undoubtedly the smallest portion of cochinita pibil I’ve ever been served? En serio? I left con hambre. At least it was tasty, but what’s the deal with the side of chipotle mayo? The pork sure didn’t need it. Was it meant for the dry rice and beans? Jason V. was happy with his tacos, but he had to get 3 at almost $ 20 total just to make a meal out of it.
On a positive note, I do like the space. It’s very clean, but is sadly lacking that authentic Mexican feel to it. They need more décor to set the mood.
BYOB, but don’t bring wine or tequila thinking they have the mixers for sangria or margaritas. But hey, at least they have Coke in the bottle!

Walking into the restaurant, at 4:45pm, on Cinco De Mayo, i was surprised how empty the place was. I assumed it would fill up as the evening went on. I am also sure this had something to do with the fact that the restaurant does not serve alcohol (not much of a happy hour).
Anyway, i was the first one there, and we had a reservation at 5pm, for 5 people. Literally only one table was seated, and no wait. I asked if i could sit at the table, and was told no. had to wait for the rest of my party. I understand that if the place is busy, but when it’s empty… oh well. Waited a little bit, and then 2 other people from our group filtered in… 10 – 15 mins later, they allowed us to sit. there seemed to be 2 tables set up for 5 people. One was at the very front and the other at the very back. they were walking us to the back, so we asked if we could at the front table. Again, the hostess said no, and something about having arranged the seating in a specific way, and that they could not change it.
within a few mins, our entire party was there. They brought over some chips, and also a few different sauces. Chips were nice, and sauces were good. I asked for a hot sauce, which was very mild for me.
We ordered some appetizers — Octopus ceviche, tuna tar tar, tamal, etc. Octopus was my favorite out of all of them, which i was surprised about. I usually am a big fan of tuna tar tar. This was good, but just didn’t have the citrus, salt, heat that i was looking for. flavors were extremely mild. This was unfortunately also true for the main course.
I ordered the scallop taco, and the fish taco. Both were very bland, and didn’t have much to them. It wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t have that kick i was looking for.
We had also ordered a few sides to share. Nacho cheese (which i thought was cheese, and not nacho’s with cheese), and the potatoes.
Our waitress was great for most of the evening, and very patient with us as we were relaxing and enjoying our dinner. Unfortunately, at some point, we were told that they needed the table for another party that literally had walked in 3 – 4 mins before.
We had been dismissed. If you are looking for good, mexican food, i would probably try else where.

Okay date night with my beautiful wife is rare.
So we have come here and it was a win win.
Busy Thursday at 7 pm. Got a seat. Nice hip interior.
The waiter was a golden god. Yes you with the glasses. He came right up and was great. He suggested the tomato salad just to get us warmed up and he was right.
The sweet pea and bacon guacamole was incredible. Get it and spread all over everything.
Tacos. Tacos. Tacos. I loved the shrimp and brisket.
Hold on ill be back
But wait midway through the meal I hear the house music. It is a loud place. So I could only make out the bass but it was Come Together the Aerosmith version. Then Black Sabbath kicks in. All hail the DJ.
The dessert was
pepper Popsicles. Churros. Yum.
Go here and eat the greatness.