Poblano

Absolutely delicious huevos rancheros at 07:00 AM on a Saturday! Authentic roasted poblano onion «chutney» dip for chips, home flavor salsa and delicious grill-​warmed tortillas. The service by a young, cheerful lady was superior — far better than that from the staff at my five-​star downtown hotel. I wish we San Diegans had such truly home-​made Mexican cuisine.

Great fresh, Mexican food and they have a drive thru too. It takes longer than Taco Bell and costs a little more but it’s really, really good. Very fresh, I’ve liked everything I’ve had so far.

Growing up in Phoenix has made me a bit of a Mexican food snob, and in the land of many ‘bertos, I was wary of trying yet another place. I’m happy we did — the food has been consistently delish and the service incredibly friendly.
What hasn’t been consistent are the hours. The menu says the place is open 8 am to midnight, with a 24-​hour drive-​thru. ( Unilocal thinks it’s 7 am to 10 pm.) The last several times we’ve driven by, the lights have been off. I’ve tried calling the number on the site (also the number on Unilocal) and all I get is an automated «this voicemail box is full.» I tried sending an email to the address listed on the site, but that came back undeliverable. So, what’s the deal? Does anyone know when this place is open?

I was in a rush again! Didn’t really want to stop off here, but I am really glad I did! I ordered their grilled steak burrito. OMG!!! Man that was good! grilled steak, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, and guacamole. This is a big burrito, and I managed to handle this all by myself! The steak of course is carne’ asada, and it is marinated to perfection. Again, glad I came back and gave them another chance!

We like this place because of the food and the customer service. We had the queso fundio which was fun and good. We then had breakfast which was good. I would go back again.

Wow, I’m impressed! What a great little spot! We stopped in were looking for something new in the area. this place is a bit confused (It can’t figure out if it’s a drive through, walk up counter or sit down restaurant) but the food and service was great! We started with the cheese crisp, that was awesome. They also brought out chips and three house made salsas. One of them, which I’ve never had, was by far and long the best salsa I’ve ever had!!! It was roasted garlic, onions and chunky green peppers. I had two litle containers of it, super awesome! I also had the soup of the day, which was a creamy pepper soup that was fantastic! My wife had the grilled shrimp that were great and I went with the grilled steak torta. The torta was just okay, but everything else was awesome! The service was a touch slow, but no biggie. All in all, great little spot to get takeout, sit down or drive through hahaha

This place is legit. Fresh food, smiling faces, we left happy. The stuffed Poblano was delicious. I enjoyed the Torta as well, if you are looking for a good Torta come here. You choose your meat on most of the dishes and again the ingredients were fresh, not common in a lot of Mexican Restaurants that we go to.
Give Pablano a try, I hope you enjoy.

I know they’d like to be more than they are, beef & chicken tacos are good, accompanying salsa’s are generic — rice and beans better than most.…the restaurant is always clean and service is friendly. these things always bring me back.

I just went here and the entire experience was fantastic. Very nice restaurant, GREAT food. I had the steak tacos. Everything was extremely fresh. I will definitely go back.

19^th Ave. Scene?
Like a Los Guerrero luchador from El Moises street art, Poblano is up from the canvas, bouncing off the ropes and not accepting its potential fate. I have no idea how I can make the wrestling metaphor stretch any further, so I’ll gear down into my normal boring blather.
March 23, 2012, I picked up cheese enchilada and chicken mole (that’s pronounced mo lay if you’re an English-​only snob) dinners, poblano chile soup, horchata («or chaw taw» if you want to make sure you get a good cinnamon-​flavored rice drink), corn tortillas (giving you a complete series of body-​building proteins when eaten with frijoles) and a tres leches (three milks) dessert.
Like my college educated, naturalized neighbor Mike said three years ago, «Get out of our way, and we’ll give you an economic recovery.» Mike’s construction business morphed, came off the ropes, and survived. So has Poblano.
The poblano soup was delicious. Medium textured, lightly sweet, very mild. The portion in the take-​out container large enough that half is still in the refrigerator. I’m not sure how normal chunks of chiles are in one’s poblano soup. Our soup was textured with small pieces. Overall it was excellent.
I’m no mole gourmet, but I have cooked mole so hot it was inedible; at best, politely edible. One portion of that meal, the remainder sitting in the ‘fridge, slowing morphed into a colorful, hairy, science project on air-​borne organisms.
Last night’s mole was noothing like that. It had sweetness, mild heat, some star anise background 32^nd notes, plus the whole star anise clove to back up the flavor. Lots of sauce.
The rice was tender, fluffy and flavored beautifully, going well with the queso fresco covered beans. Lots of mole for mixing with all and dipping those thick, small tortillas, just like abuela makes — in her factory. It was delicious.
Sweet D was very happy with her enchilada plate. Again, deliciious rice and beans, plenty of mild delicious sauce, the enchilada tortilla shells generously full of queso panela.
I fell asleep talking on the phone to my Dad, so have no Tres Leches commentary other than it is a pretty litle fist of a cake, its white top of icing criss-​crossed with a chocolate grid.
We both agreed things haved changed for the better. Poblano is higher on our list for a special Mexican dinner when the rest of the family’s not with us.
Friday Night Bonus!
It was open mike night at Poblano March 23, 2012.
When I arrived, a guitar playing gentleman with a high, clear tenor voce was crooning a really sweet ballad. I was put off at first, thinking it was a private party, because I’d never seen so many cars out front. The tables were full of people paying attention to the performance on the tiny stage by the south window. By the time I’d picked up a menu from the full-​service bar, finished texting and ending most of the day’s business, an elderly woman was on stage mesmerizing and silencing the crowd with a story. I was too pre-​occupied to try and follow her Mexican language story line. She then valiantly crooned a song of her own, making me believe I had a chance at an open mike night. By the time I was about to leave, a comedian singer who said he was good as Vicente Fernandez, but left his good pants home was taking the stage. Tuve que volver a mi casa, so didn’t stay for the singing part. There’s potential on the West Side people. I found a spark, and a place to volver for another good traditional Mexican meal and home-​style Friday night entertainement.
There was also Poblano branded salsa for sale, red gingham cap on the jar lid. The brilliant white takeout bags were all sealed with Poblano brand stickers, which I thought was a nice touch.
Why no five? I’m sitting here at 3:30 AM, just downed four onzas of effervescent name brand heartburn remedy and I’m waiting for my normal inner cool to prevail. Mole does that to me sometimes. I also got a small bit of cartilage in my chicken. There was enough canela molida («Ground cinnamon» for us border region English-​only snobs) to cure any diabetic symptoms I may have this month. That’s not a bad thing at all. It was ground much coarser than I remember from my earlier horchati imbibed here. I’m a fine-​ground cinnamon snob. The taste didn’t rock the world of my taste buds like it usually does. But, the straw was the oil derrick sucker rod kind of straw I should have received last week at La Condesa for consuming my fracked fruit stand gourmet horchata.
So Poblano, and company, keep wrestling with the minor food quality issues, and Sweet D and I will return for another round.
Sé que quieren un cinturón de Campeonato de lucha libre con el número 5 de esa hebilla gigante. Muchos de ellos.

Get the quesadilla sampler for sure! When we first pulled up into the lot, we saw they had a drive thru and we almost left because it looked dumpy. Im glad we decided to try it because it was awesome. Had a little bit of a wait for our food, but it was worth it! Don’t judge a book by its cover on this one!

Poblano’s errs on the side of caution. Nothing too spicy, nothing too daring. While the food is good and the plating’s spectacular, the actual flavor seems to be more of an afterthought. This is a great place to take white Midwesterners who haven’t been fully introduced to punch of great Mexican food.

The plating was nice. I’ll give them that. Apart from that: The food was meh. The wait was wayyyy too long. And I paid $ 2 for, seriously, a tablespoon of guac. And it wasn’t even good guac!!!
Do yourself a favor and just go to Fili-​Bs.

Fresh and tasty. Your food won’t arrive drowning in sauce and oily cheese, so if you’re looking for that, keep moving.
Each meal comes with complimentary chips and three salsas. Most entrees include a soup of the day. The soups, enchiladas, beef tacos, and stuffed poblano chiles earn high marks on taste and presentation. The fish tacos were nothing special and it seemed they tried to make up for the lack of flavor with extra chipotle sauce.
The staff is friendly and the restaurant ambience is decent; personally I think they could ditch the florescent lighting in the dining area for some dimming, but I suppose that might take away from the casual atmosphere. It is pretty quiet in the evenings, but the last time I was here they brought in a small mariachi group, which my niece loved.

The food and service are excellent! I usually come here with a coworker, and we receive a friendly greeting right when we walk through the door. I have only been here for lunch.
I like to order one of the daily specials because it comes with soup, beans, rice, and the entrée. The specials are reasonably priced, whereas the other menu items are a bit pricier, but well worth it.

Decent. I came with a family member who has a fish-​allergy, yet I ordered fish tacos for myself. He ordered beef tacos with rice and beans (while all I wanted was a la cart fish tacos). I got home and found the two single tacos I had received were beef, and had to rush to make sure the fish ones were not eaten. Luckily they weren’t.
The fish tacos left much to be desired, while the beef tacos looked quite good — asada which looked quite delicious. The fish looked like little onion rings, breaded and fried — ehhhhh. My tacos were quite spicy, even without salsa, which is fine for me, but I personally wasn’t expecting or assuming anything that spicy without the addition of salsa. I added the green salsa to my second taco — no added spiciness really.
Decent food. Good beans. High prices considering it’s in a low cost area and the like. I might go again if it was late and other places were closed and I didn’t feel like cooking. I probably wouldn’t make this go-​to place though.

Pablanos a spicy name for a place of odd contrasts.
The food is gourmet style, but there is a drive through. There are LCD screen menus and a register to walk up to but they wait on you at the tables, the prices are a bit high, but you are in a low rent part of town.
We walked in and when the cashier /​hostess /​drive though attendant /​waitressed asked if we were dining in or to go we said for here. She said sit and I will bring you menus.
Looking at the menu there is no lunch or dinner, just many items that range from $ 6-​$ 12
The meal starts with complementary chips and salsa, red and white chips with three types of salsa. Oddly on refill the chips went from wide strips to narrow ones. The salsas were all good and the chips were fresh too.
I went with a veggie burrito $ 6.49. It did not have exactly what the menu listed in it bu tit did have a great flavor, a richnesses and attention to detail, even the carrots were waffle cut. Overall it was great with the soft tortilla and the fancy cut in half on a bias presentation. It was bit greasy for the health conscious.
Mexican food is not a rare commodity in this part of town, it takes a brave new concept to give it a try here.
If you are in the area and want some different style Mexican options give this place a try.

Poblano’s makes me happy.
Some highlights:
1. Really good and fresh food.
2. Extremely clean: Both the store and the kitchen. (Its an open kitchen.)
3. They are open late: Now they are only open to 10. (An hour later than the average phx place.) But they say that after their grand opening the store will be open till midnight and the drive-​through will be open 24 hours.
4. They are in my hood. (Yes, you should care that they are in my hood!)
These last two points are really important: It means no more eribertos or pizza hut for me, when I am searching for food at 11pm. Finally a good food option!
I really hope they make it. Once they begin their late night hours, I’ll be there every night…

I was so excited when I heard that Poblano’s FINALLY opened their doors for business.
I went there for lunch this week with folks from work. A group of 6 got there about 15 minutes ahead of the next. I was in the second wave (3).
The place is spotless, decorated tastefully, and the employees are friendly.
When i arrived, all but two of the earlier arrivals had received their food. It was artfully plated, very appetizing. Thumbs up all around. There was a little of everything on the table, and it all looked great.
We ordered at the counter, got our drinks and sat down.
About the time our food showed up, the straggling food for the earlier arrivals showed.
Everything was fresh, hot, and delicious. Several of us found that we needed to add salt to our dishes.
My chimichanga was great– lean shredded beef, just a schmeer of refried black beans, and the fresh tortilla were perfectly balanced and delicious. I rarely order chimis, because they are generally overly huge, watery interiors and too much food with chips etc., but Poblano’s serves a reasonable sized chimi, perfectly prepared they way a chimi should be. Lunch was a little under $ 10 with a large drink.
Besides the wait, the only complaint was with the «late» food — the carne in the burro had a lot of fatty pieces. The earlier orders of the same were very lean. We guessed that maybe they ran out of meat earlier and hurriedly prepared more, and skimped on the trimming/​cleanup.
I think that Poblano’s has the potential to be a 5-​star local favorite. They need to work out the details with regards to consistently timed order fulfillment, and final touches with seasoning.
I WILL be back, and look forward to trying other menu items.

I had seen the construction going on at Poblano’s for the past 9 months or so now. I knew I had to try it, once construction was completed. A couple months ago, I believe, the sign said Poblano’s Gourmet Tacos with a pic of a poblano pepper, but I guess they changed their minds. It looks like they did a complete remodel of the place. I had never been in the place that occupied it before Poblano’s, but everything looked brand new. They have a giant menu screen when you 1^st walk in (think Pei Wei-​ish). They also had large windows so you could see into the kitchen, I really dug that.
I decided on the carne asada tacos & I made it a combo with rice & beans & added a drink. I asked the girl at the counter what came on the tacos & she mentioned avocado slices. I told her to please hold those & that I’d like pico de gallo added. She gave me the #7 & I waited for my number to be called. About 10 minutes later she brought my food out to me & I returned to work.
When I got to my office I discovered that they gave me an entire bowl of pico, I just wanted a lil added to my tacos! I then noticed that there was guac on my tacos, wish she had mentioned that guac was also on them because I would have told her to hold that too. The tacos were pretty good & a huge portion. I ordered 2 & could have easily been satisfied with 1. I have to say their meat was very tender & well seasoned. The rice & beans were pretty good as well.
The prices seemed decent when scanning the menu, but somehow my taco combo plate & drink came out to $ 13.50! Was that huge side of pico $ 5?! Any way, I do like that this is a local, family owned business & their food was pretty good, so I think they deserve 4 stars. I’m sure I’ll be returning for lunch during the week, since they are a 2 minute drive from my work. I also like that they have a drive thru, very convenient.