Celia's Mexican Restaurant

Recommends

DinerinEB

Joined 5 years ago

Celia's had nice margarita's, too bad it's closed.. The owner hasn't reopened his new location yet. But maybe when he does it will be an improvement. Hopefully the drinks will be the same.

Doesn't Recommend

hezmodo

Joined 8 years ago

Oh the pain.. This isn't Mexican, and it's not even Tex Mex, at least by today's standards. It is, however, cheap, and relatively edible. What passes for taco salad is an interesting blob of refried beans, seasoned ground meat, iceberg lettuce, unripe tomatoes, onions and globs and globs of American-style cheese atop a fried torilla. Burp. The enchilada's are passable, for bland American rolls of torilla/meat or cheese/ and inocuous red or green sauce. Uncle Ben's rice, done up Spanish style (read that: tomato sauce) doesn't offend or excite but simply exists. The puddle of refritos, covered with a melting pool of jack and maybe cheddar cheese is okay enough, I suppose. But is it enough to pay for? Probably not, unless, like me you occasionally (with shame) crave a good old American carne molida crispy taco alongside a puddle of cheesy beans, bit of iceberg salad on the side for a no frills price. Although I am told they have killer Margarita's, I'm leaving my drinking to someplace else. Celia's is a chain restaurant, and therefore, in my estimation, are not expected to have something that wow's me or anyone else. For that matter, they've been at the same location in Berkeley for a million years, even as 4th Street grows into a twi, yet homogeneous, shop-way for the well-to-do. One wonders, who is eating here? Surely, not the $200 jeans' wearing 4th Street shoppers... but who is it?

Doesn't Recommend

espritfemme

Joined 7 years ago

if you want good food and service, this is NOT the place!. my first and LAST visit. it took about 15 mins for the server to come to take our order after we were seated. we sat there without someone bringing us water or offering to take our beverage order. we saw the server three times: once - to take our order, twice - to deliver the food, and lastly, to bring us our check long after we finished eating. let's just say the service is ridiculously bad.

as far as the food goes, we would have done better eating at taco bell. i had a mediocre enchilada, and what was supposed to be a flauta but was actually a frozen taquito that was overcooked, accompanied by a side order of the most tasteless guacamole imaginable. let's not even talk about the chips. that should have been a dead giveaway for what we were to experience in cuisine.

this is not mexican food. i don't know what it is but it's really bad. and to top it off, the restaurant is not clean at all. i think people go here for nostalgic reasons. it may have been good once upon a time but not anymore. do yourself a GRANDE favor, and skip this place.