Surfside

First thing: this is not a Mexican restaurant. I ordered two specialty tacos and one beer… Completely overpriced and under delivered. The ordering person was extremely rude and inattentive. The tacos were cold and rice was too greasy. I am Mexican and Taco Bell is a better deal and more palatable.

Overpriced mediocre food and not very good service. They only take card? Kinda odd. Too bad cause I live super close.

Shrimp tacos were too fruity. Steak were better.

Good food with variety of Mexican fast food style. Ambience is good. Ordered burrito and it took 8mins or so to be ready. Comes in a small bowl size, wished they would give more quantity. Meat comes grilled!
It’s like chipotle food + qdoba ordering style.

Good food and good service. Portions vary depending on what you order. Fish taco portion seemed a bit smaller than I would have liked. Would definitely come back here for lunch or dinner. The fish tacos are really good.

Absolute hidden fast casual gem. It’s basically Chipotle with more options including pineapple salsa (love it!) and alcohol. What more do you want?

The Mahi Mahi tacos were just good. Didn’t blow me away, the tacos were fairly large, but they dissolved in my hands like it had a taco time bomb set to blow in three, two,…mess.
They get a good lunch crowd, and seem to have a pretty smooth system to keep things moving along. I also like the upstairs patio when the weather is nice.
I bet other stuff on the menu is tasty as well. Enjoy

Horrible burrito. The worst I’ve had in a whole. The thing was cold. It was bland. It was all rice, and I think that rice was expired. I did the make your own burrito and I don’t think they really followed my card. Where was my roasted squash? I was really disappointed, because I’ve had the quesadillas before and they we’re really good.

I’ve been living in the area for 6 months and didn’t notice this place until 2 months in! I would say the price is a little on the expensive side for what you are getting out for a meal but still pretty delicious. Open 24 hours, however I’ve never confirmed it. I remember a many drunken nights where I was wandering for food and always opted for McDonalds #neveragoodidea.
Eating-​wise, I’ve tried the Maui (fish) tacos and the Martinique (shrimp) burrito. Each taco order comes with 2 tacos and a side of rice and a light salad. The rice is exceptionally delicious with a yellow hue. I think they put alot of butter and love into the rice, which is a gamechanger in terms of taste palette. Lately, I’ve been opting for the Martinique which is a shrimp burrito and boy is that good. I’ve never had a shrimp burrito before because I’m always eating the standard chicken or steak burrito at chipotle. Regardless, it packs so much flavor and the shrimp is always cleaned and cooked to perfection. The burrito comes with a light salad that you could probably inhale in 2 bites. Once again the price for the food is a lil high for my taste but whenever I have a craving for shrimp burrito, I always think of Surfside.
There’s outdoor seating, which is great for late spring/​summer/​early fall weather. I wish they had some inside seating though for those brutal winter days. Bonus, they take LevelUp in case you forget to bring your wallet, you can pay using your phone!

Came during lunch rush to pick up a salad. They have a unique menu ordering system where you can customize at a little writing bar or order straight from the menu. I built my own salad, an option I like! However the prices are somewhat steep and they don’t let you substitute. For instance, I wanted no cheese but he wouldn’t let me add cucumber instead. Even though I would’ve been getting a way cheaper item!
For $ 11 my salad was decent. Not huge — more item based than greens. Would have appreciated a little more. The wait wasn’t bad and I ordered to go. Asked for hot sauce on the side, didn’t get it. There are better salad places nearby!
If you’ve been, this place reminds me of a smaller version of Wahoos Fish Tacos.
Won’t be on the top of my list for a salad but interested in trying the other items. I wish the service had been more accommodating /​friendly. Also their soda fountain carbonation was out and no one seemed to care.

Simply put, Surfside is delicious… lovingly prepared Mexican dishes in a relaxed atmosphere at an affordable price (especially for the portion sizes). We were a party of five and everyone truly enjoyed their meal. Shrimp tacos and seasonal fish fresh and perfectly cooked. The steak was actually cooked medium rare unlike most faster food joints that cook the meat to death. Elote was great; perfectly roasted and coated with a great spicy aioli. They also serve beer and Mexican sodas. Seating is plentiful and while the line moves a bit slow, you can tell the staff is working quite hard to keep an efficient ordering system functioning at its highest capacity. Although it is not the pinnacle of authenticity, considering the lack of options for solid takeout Mexican food along the east coast, Surfside has a great thing going.

I can not begin to describe how much I love surf side. They’re steak may be the best I’ve ever had. They’re portion size is overly generous, my husband and I often split an plate.
They place is laid back casual, with a very helpful staff. I dropped my tacos once and they had them remade in less than 2 minutes. It can get very crowded sometimes, but that’s just a testament to how amazing their food is.
I’ve never brought anyone here who did rave. Surfside even catered our wedding to an overture of raves. I hope they continue to open more locations in addiction to this and the one DuPont.

Ordered a $ 13 «burrito bowl.» Received a tiny pile of cheese, burned tilapia and rotten-​looking tomatoes. No rice, no lettuce. Stay classy, Surfside.

Awesome little place. Great beers. Cool customize your order options. The outside/​backyard seating is great. It creates such a homey feel to the place. The burrito I had. And with this little salad. I wanted a full salad of the little salad. It was so gooooodddd. The dressing was so flavorful and complementary. I can’t even blame it on how hungry I was with how good it was. Great little spot.

YUM– the food here is delicious! Choosing what to order was so difficult because everything on the menu sounded drool-​worthy! I ordered the Martha’s Vineyard Quesadilla and enjoyed my meal so much, I was dropping bits and pieces of my food left and right eating to quickly.
Additionally, the setting inside is great! There are two floors, and upstairs there is a bar and outdoor seating, which is great when the weather is nice outside. Surfside offers a couple different alcoholic beverages as well.
I wish I lived closer to DC so I can eat at this place more often. With that said, I plan on going to this restaurant again (and again and again) without a doubt!

Simply delicious. I went there with a friend who lived for 15 years in D. C, and this place is one of his favs ! I understood why: I tried the Tobago (quesadilla) and I totally fell in love with it ! Not too spicy, perfectly cooked and seasoned, we didn’t have to wait too long to pick up our meals (maybe 5 minutes, I had the time to order a drink) and the temperature was perfect too. What is cool is that you can go out to eat, on the roof, and order drinks (my friend get a Margarita and it was AMAZING).
This place is great !!!

We have always had hit or miss experiences with take out accuracy, but this evening was absolutely horrid. We ordered four burritos and not a single one was right. And I don’t just mean a little off, I mean two were totally missing any sort of protein and the others each had at least two things wrong. So we called, and they made us a second round of burritos.
Okay, fair enough, mistakes happen. We drive back across town and pick up the new order which we are assured has been checked thoroughly. Get home, two are once again missing the fish (they are just pathetic tortillas filled with beans and vegetables, nothing else) and another is missing beans. So after two trips across town to Surfside, we went ¹⁄₈ for the evening. If you can’t handle complexity, don’t have a customizable menu. This was unfortunately the final straw.

Sub-​par street tacos, at 3x the price of street tacos. I’ve been here three times, because I guess I keep forgetting how mediocre Surfside is. It does good business because of location, but I can’t believe all those diners actually think the food’s good.
Food: I had carnitas on my most recent visit, which are decent, if a little dry. I’ve had their chicken and steak in the past, and I won’t recommend either. Portions are a little small. An average guy would probably take three of their tacos, but I’m not sure that you can buy them as singles to supplement your order.
Atmosphere: Loud inside and oddly a little bit dark. (Not dark like «I can’t see my food», but dark like «they could use a little more warm lighting in here». Hard to find a seat at busy times on the weekend. Upstairs deck is nice, but a little junky.
Service: Friendly but rushed. Despite all the activity behind the counter, it still takes ten minutes to get your very simple order.
*Annoying — No salsa/​toppings bar, if, say, you want a little extra cilantro or minced onion on your taco. (BTW, there’s no option for raw onion on the form. You have to ask for it.)
*Also annoying — Like, four different ordering forms (tacos, burritos, bowls, specials), and they don’t all have the same ingredients.
*Also annoying — The «queso fresco» on my tacos yesterday was pretty tangy — like maybe it was mild feta instead.
*Also annoying — The pile of rice as your side is just a pile of rice. Did I mention that there are no condiments out for flavoring your food?
*Also annoying — Their tortilla chips are pretty bad, like the cardboard-​y ones served as nachos in sports stadiums.
Bottom line: if you want something quick with some spice in Glover Park, there’s a Chipotle a few doors down.

This place never disappoints. I particularly enjoy their tacos with the soft corn tortillas, because they are not only delicious, but they don’t completely fall apart once they get wet, and they manage to not be rubbery. I can pile on the salsa, guacamole and hot sauce, and the taco stays together. Happy!
Great margaritas made by knowledgeable bartenders and with real lime juice, no mix. This is a great place to come for a little day drinking and tacos, either at the downstairs bar to watch sports and relax, or head to the rooftop for a more festive bar scene.

Surfside has two locations — one out in Glover Park, and another one as a 24-​hour ‘taco stand’ in Dupont Circle. I’ve always been curious about this restaurant, so I was pretty excited to check it out with a good friend: D They offer a regular menu with chips and a variety of dips, tacos (fish-​of-​the-​day, grilled steak, grilled marinated chicken, blackened fish-​of-​the-​day, seared rare ahi tuna, etc.), quesadillas, burritos, salads, rice bowls, a kids option, as well as a brunch menu on the weekend (Huevos Rancheros, Buttermilk Waffles, Breakfast Burrito, etc.). We shared the Bermuda Triangle, which came with 3 large containers of guacamole, house-​made cheese dip, and house-​made salsa, with a brown bag of crispy salted corn tortilla chips (I wasn’t a fan of their salsa, as it was just way too minced up and water; the guacamole was chunky and delicious, and the house-​made cheese dip was nice and warm, and thick enough to coat the tortilla chips! Yum!); my friend had a cheese quesadilla with a side of guacamole and sour cream, which she enjoyed; I had the Nevis tacos, which came with 2 tacos, filled with 2 large grilled shrimp (each), some yellow rice, all on a doubled-​up corn tortilla, with a side of more yellow rice, guacamole, pineapple jalapeño salsa, and lime sour cream (the shrimp were fresh and nicely-​grilled, but unseasoned; I wasn’t a fan of the yellow rice, as it was undercooked and not flavorful; the lime sour cream didn’t really have much of a citrus tone to it, so I used the house-​dip for saucing it up: P I was surprised at how large and spacious the place was, with high ceilings and exposed brick. You fill out an ‘order’ form with the blue highlighters that are available at the front, and then submit and pay at the cashier. There were many who were dining in, but there were also many to-​go orders as well. I liked how there was some room for customization, too!
+house-​made cheese dip with corn tortilla chips: D
+guacamole
+Nevis tacos (opt out of the yellow rice)
+fill out order form before you get to the cashier
+located across from Whole Foods (by the bus stop)
+limited metered-​street parking

This is a casual restaurant/​bar with a good variety of staple Mexican options (tacos, quesadillas, burritos, etc.) as well as a small bar in the back. I came here with a large group on a Friday night before heading to Escape Room around the corner. The pros were the easy order-​at-​the-​counter layout, decent amount of seating space, beer/​wine/​margarita options, and free parking in a small lot across the street with validation. I wasn’t a huge fan of the food; my Cabo San Lucas steak tacos ($ 10.95). had a good flavor but were not very filling. I wish they had come with something else other than a small side of plain rice.
We settled in with our food and margarita pitchers and never felt rushed despite it being a fairly busy Friday night. Overall, not a bad place to hang out while enjoying a relaxed dinner.

Not bad, very satisfying, but as a California native with plenty of experience playing along the Mexico beaches, it is not quite our delicious divey taco spot Sharkey’s, but thankfully world’s better than Chipolte. This is a casual grab and go lunch place.
I would give this a 3 — mom said 4 but she was hungry. I will go with 4 because, across the board I am disappointed in DC food and adjusting the better than average spots accordingly.
I liked it and I will go back. Fish seemed fresh, black beans were good. It was filling. I liked it. No complaints.

I have tried their shredded beef tacos, chicken tacos and chicken quesadillas. All have been satisfying. Each meal is served with two tacos or two quesadillas. I have found that one is more than enough for me and I take the extra home for later.
The quesadilla comes with mushrooms. I would recommend leaving these off, otherwise you get more mushrooms than you do meat. They have a unique ordering system where you highlight what ingredients you want on disposable menus at the front and then turn it in to the employee at the register. You don’t have to use this system and there are plenty of standard items that don’t require your input regarding specific ingredients.
The back of Surfside is more of a bar with a cantina and there is also a bar area upstairs. Normally when I go there are several people eating there, a good sign. I have gone though when there are a crazy number of small screaming children with their parents celebrating the end of a soccer game or some such event. It is during these times that I get my food to go.
It is a nice alternative to Chipotle with better quality food for similar prices.