La Cocina De Mi Abuelita

Family owned restaurant great food great atmosphere the Nyla’s are huge and full of meat. The raspados are bomb real fruit amazing place coke here at least twice a week if your in the Santa Ana area don’t take this place for granted stop by and try it out

1^st time, great food, ambiance not so much, don’t come if you’re in a hurry
2^nd time, same wet burrito w/​red sauce, terrific! Will go back again.

This place is lonely and it still takes a while to get your order.
They need to improve their food too, not a fan, I’ve definately had better thank this place.

HOMEMADE… MADE TO ORDER… TORTILLAS!
But enough of that.
La Cocina De Mi Abuelita was a random place I walked by while waiting for my car to be washed in Santa Ana and to much of my surprise the food was very tasty! I’m not going to lie though, the fiberglass Elvis statue up front totally threw me off as to the food and décor inside but none the less, I ventured my way inside the food joint.
Upon walking in you see an old Chevy mock up car split in half and turned into a booth… AWESOME! I was a bit confused though as to what their menu offerings were because their entire menu above the register was covered up with table cloths. There were a handful of pictures taken of the menu items and what they offered but it was only about 10 items. This had to be a mistake right? I searched for other menus and peeped around the place but just no luck. At this point I walked up to the register and was greeted by what seemed to be a husband and wife duo who owned and ran the joint so I asked them what kind of taco’s they had to offer… I mean… It’s a Mexican food place so they HAVE TO have tacos??? To my surprise they had chorizo tacos so I ordered two of those. Most places don’t sell them in taco’s and only has a burrito with some filler or starch like eggs, rice, or potatoes in order to cut the spicy flavor or to simply save a few bucks and get a few more orders pushed thru the kitchen. Not this place. As mentioned before they even had homemade tortillas which were AMAZING! I asked if they had some type of combo with rice and beans but they didn’t however they made up a plate for me and I had to tack on a Jarritos because well… because that’s what you do at a hole in the wall Mexican place like this. The taco’s were falvorful but the rice and beans were a bit cold and lacking some basic flavors of salt and pepper but it wasn’t bad in the least.
If you’re ever in the area and want some decent food check this place out. Granted their are hundreds of other places scattered across Santa Ana, most may argue quite better than this, but it doesn’t mean you should just drive by the place. Like I said before, this place has chorizo taco’s which aren’t found in most places these days!
olé!

Really wanted to like this place tonight… Really didn’t. The freshness and flavor just didn’t cut it and the wait for food was almost an hour when there was maybe 5 customers.
Sorry to say but kind of ruined my night. Gross.

Came here at noon on a weekday and it was empty. Not a good sign. The décor is left over from when it used to be a 50’s burger drive in place which is amusing since now it is Mexican food. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. The staff was super friendly. A buddy and I each got the al pastor tacos on the homemade tortillas. Really good. Would come back and try more items.

Delicious home made real mexican food.
You can tell ots family owned and they truly have an abuelita working in the back lol! Got a huge carne asada burrito that I had to split with my boyfriend. Addes guacamole for only an extra buck! It twas delicious. ;)

I really enjoyed the food and service, but everything else was awful.
I liked:
A) flavor and freshness of food.
B) Service
So I start the place off with a solid 4 stars…
the problems I had were:
A) tables are two small. Two average build men cannot sit next to each other — forget it.
B) Bathroom requires a key and yet it was still a wreck like nobody cleans it.
C) It took us 45 minutes to get our meal and there was only 3 orders ahead of us.
D) Décor is very outdated and odd.
Too bad… I deduct 3 stars for the above issues.
I really hope the owner reads this and fixes the issues. I’d like to return and update my review.

It’s a funky Mexican place. Decorations are quirky, to say the least.
The dude taking our order steered us away from tacos and burritos (too typical), and towards something more authentic.
Chicken mole. It’s chocolate and a laundry list of other ingredients, but tasted velvety and perfectly heavy. The handmade tortillas that we ordered obviously had been made 30 seconds before serving.
Carnes en su jugo. It’s pretty much Mexican phở. Even came with an assortment of cilantro, lime, grilled onions, and radishes. It didn’t push my buttons.
I did have to wait a while until they served my food. It may have been to close to closing time, which is an understandable reason for slow service. I still didn’t appreciate it.

This place is strange to say the least. The décor looks like an old 50’s diner that was turned into a Mexican restaurant. The food was really good, but like other Unilocalers, the service was slow. I went with a co-​worker and we had a wet chicken burrito each. There was only 1 other person in the place so we couldn’t understand why it took so long for our food. Let me tell you the burrito was big and tasty. Again, it’s kind of strange looking at photos of old movie stars from the 50’s and 60’s hanging on the wall and two 50’s car/​booths in the middle of the place with Mexican music playing in the background.
It’s strange and it wasn’t crowded, but the food was good and the service was slow. Overall, if I wasn’t in a big rush to eat I would go back.

Ordered the handmade tortilla taco al pastor, chilaquiles con huevos, and pozole. Food came out 45 mins later. Al pastor was ok. Chilaquiles had a slight crisp but
Appreciated that the staff felt bad for us because of the wait. They said they were slow because they didn’t expect to be busy during lunch… hmmm…didn’t look that busy to me. Wish I could have had a better experience… maybe I’ll try again
I’ve had better homemade chilaquiles and pozole though.

According to my co-​workers, this place has AUTHENTIC mexican food that makes them feel like they’re back in their mother’s kitchen! :) And apparently it’s the only place they’ve been able to find «Carnes de Jugo» that’s good in all of southern california.
My coworkers and I came here after work one day. One of my coworkers were raving about the hand made tortillas. She has really good taste in food, so I told them to lead the way. The location was not too difficult to find. Upon first glance, it was decorated with Elvis-​style interior. I really like that some of the seats are in a «car»
We sat down and they immediately greeted us, and gave us menus. Unfortunately for me, everything was in SPANISH.. ugh ohh.. . good thing I had my two lovely co-​workers with me who were more than happy to help me with my order. I got carnitas tacos with rice and they got the carnes de jugo. In addition we ordered 2 horchatas and 1 tamarindo.
The drinks came out first and the food came out shortly. The tortillas were warm and fresh! It was delicious. My carnitas had the perfect amount of chewy, fatness and I cleaned my plate up. It was so delicious, way way way better than the franchised mexican locations I am familiar with. My coworkers were also extremely happy with the carnes de jugo. I think it is safe to say we will be coming back here for more authentic mexican food soon!

The tortillas are amazing. I found the carnitas dry.
The carnes en su sugo are amazing.
The chile relleno was good but the batter was too thick.

The good is good and hot.
Last time I was here roughly a week ago, there was a dead bug smashed on my to-​go bag. That was enough to keep me away forever. The drive thru menu has been vandalized and out of service for a few months now, often the lights are not on inside when they are open as if to save on the light bill, and the few times I’ve been there I was the only customer around.

The food here is really good! My favorite is the carne en su jugos on a cold day. This beef stew-​like soup dish is sooooo hearty and flavorful and perfect if you’re sick or have a hangover. In fact, this is the restaurant’s specialty so I highly suggest you order this. It comes with a plate of condiments: onions, cilantro, radish, lime.
I’ve also had tacos al vapor here and they are good but not fabulous. Get the tacos con tortillas hechas a manos — hand made tortilla tacos — they are great and get al pastor! Carne asada is too dry for me.
The camarones de mojo de ajo is okay — they used dehydrated/​powdered garlic, not fresh so although it tastes fine, it would’ve been much better with fresh garlic.
Go for the carne en su jugos! It’s really very good.

I’m a big supporter of mom and pop shops. I like contributing to their businesses. Makes me feel really good about myself, for some odd reason. So when I find myself not liking one, I don’t even want to give them a bad review because gosh dangit, I feel so dang guilty. But whats gotta be done, has GOT to be done.
My girlfriends and I decided to share a bunch of food because our love of variety. We had the carne asada nachos, shredded beef tacos and and a carne asada torta. While the food was okay, at best, the service was horrible. There were only 1 other group dining when we were, yet our food took over 30 minutes!!! I mean, this is suppose to be fast food Mexican. And worst is that our food was trickling out at a very slow pace. I couldn’t believe it. Thank god were were sharing because one of my girlfriend’s order came out 10 minutes after mines.
Their food was not memorable and their whole menu was in Spanish. I don’t know about you, but we live in America. If mom and pop Asian shops can translate their menu, so can you La Cocina De Mi Abuelita.

wow, i’m very glad i stumbled into this place during my lunch break… it was a nice escape from the confines of the office. all my coworkers were stunned that i brought them to such a dilapidated place. but all things changed when they took their first bite…
my co workers all speculate that this place was a mcdonalds back in the golden days. the seats, the look, the feel… all signs point towards that it used to house Ronald mcdonald and not mexican elvis. haha.
The whole menu is in mexican, so the best bet would be to look at the picture up near the cash register. or ask the people working there… they’re friendly, and will help you suggest something to eat.
However, if you’re a fellow Unilocaler i’d highly suggest the Pork Al Pastor wet burrito. fuck me sideways, its god damn delicious. i don’t know if they had to summon the power of pablo picasso, but trust me. its super filling, and full of intoxicating delicious pork. they even mix it with pineapples to give it a sweet flavor. Genius!
it also comes with your choice of red/​green sauce. i’d suggest the green sauce!
portions are huge! i felt like i was eating my own weight in burritos. =/​
don’t get the azteca torta, its lacking in flavor… so –1 star for that. but they made it up for making it feel so homey.
i was also scared driving into this part of santa ana… you could totally see the transition from wealthy (south coast plaza) to the less fortunate once you pass the rail road tracks. its weird.

Tried a lot of things here but I think my favorite thing was the huarache.
Pastor was my favorite meat but then again its normally always my favorite meat wherever I go. Carnitas had good flavor but was a bit dry. Carne had good flavor and might be a little to gristley for some people.
Carnes en su jugo is like a Mexician style phở. not entirely for me but if that sounds good to you then I’m sure you’ll like it.
Birria is beef and we liked that as well.
Kind of a bizarre place. 50s dinerish with car tables. I like the personality.

If you are craving a carne asada burrito but want that diner atmosphere, go to La Cocina De Mi Abuelita. The décor is fantastic here. They have Cadillac tables, murals and Elvis statues.
When you order at the counter and ask for it to go, they will tell you to call ahead next time. I guess they feel bad for making you wait for your food.

Well based on the exterior of this place, you’d think you were walking into a 50’s diner, especially with the Elvis statue outside. Don’t let the outside appearance deter you though. The food was tasty and flavorful. The portions were big and the prices pretty cheap. I ordered 1 taco al vapor and 1 potato taco and my friend had the wet burrito. Both good, the potato taco was more like a taquito, but good. Each taco was about $ 1.70 each and the enormous burrito was only $ 6.00. There were a lot of different things on the menu from tacos, tortas and burritos to Mexican seafood, tamales, sopes, and carne en su jugo. Also, if you have kids, the kids menu looked pretty good and the kids there seemed to really enjoy it. (next time I may order from the kids menu). YUMMY!
Now the service was just ok, mostly teenagers working the front, so they were a little slow to bring out your food and drink, but they were friendly.
I definitely plan on coming back to try some of their other menu items.