Chi-chi's Mexican Cantina - S San Diego

Being born and raised in SD I can't believe I've never been to Chi Chi's! Food is great, the chicken fajita plate was huge and definitely my favorite. Came for taco Tuesday as well and all 4 of the tacos I tried were delicious. I think the most impressive part of the restaurant is the Manager Darlene, every time im here she's single handedly running the whole restaurant from bartender to barback to waitress and food runner she does it all and is always super nice and accommodating. All the years of working in the bar industry and you rarely find anyone who works as hard as she does! PS Is it just me or is there only one playlist that plays all day everyday? Majority of it being pretty depressing.

I 'm not one to come out to Old Town on a weekend. Or anywhere near a holiday. I 'm usually smarter than that, but not always. OTMC is usually my go-to for the vegetarian enchilada, but when I 'm not getting that Cafe Coyote is good too. I ended up meeting my folks down here on one of those holiday weekends. I knew it would be bad, it decided it was worth it to see them. The only place I could find without a looooong line, was Chi Chi 's. I usually know why that 's the case but whatever, maybe it was hidden from view. Who knows. It wasn 't super busy inside, and we got a seat immediately. Facing right into the evening sun, so I 'm glad we moved. Once the chips came out they were gooooood. Like really good. Hot chips, that 's usually a good metric for figuring out where the place will land in terms of good food. This time the metric was incorrect. I swear that one of the waitresses was drunk. She brought out a water and went to grab the glasses off of the table of people who just left. No thank you. I 'd I had ordered a beer I 'm sure it would have come back half empty. Like my confidence in this place at this point. I ordered some shrimp tacos and a gobernador. My dad got a chimichanga. It was huuuuuugge. I don 't recall what the rest of us got, but at some point when we asked for some more chips they advised they were out. They also must have been out of water and iced tea as well because we never got any more of that. So. I don 't really know what else to say. I 'm convinced that this place is one of those spots where they just DoorDash food from elsewhere, because when my mom had asked for a correction on her plate the answer got got was the kitchen is closed . Im sorry? You screwed up a plate and that 's the answer, with no solution? I 'm also convinced because... it doesn 't smell like a Mexican restaurant. Prove to me that this place has a kitchen attached and I 'll remove this part!!!! The chips were good. That was about it. Everything else came out nearly 1.5 hours later, well overpriced and... just not good. Between this place and Miguel 's (for my raw shrimp quesadilla (I 'll never forget!!! just have stick to where I know. That bone marrow birria place is okay, but Fernandez is better and much cheaper. This is by far my lowest effort review, because I can 't even be bothered to attempt to be clever here.

Just stopped in for a Margarita and a Corona beer and snacked on some chips, salsa and guacamole dip. Bartender was awesome and had and I had a very good experience here just sitting back, relaxing and enjoying the moment.

Ok so me and my daughters came by here to get something to eat and since there was no wait time and plenty of available seating we picked this place. The 3 stars are for the service because the waitresses were very nice especially the lady dressed as a butterfly for Halloween (forgot her name) she talked to my very talkative 3 year old and I appreciated that. Other than the service, the food wasn't the best I've had. My youngest got the bean burrito and some black beans on the side and did not like her food but it was removed from the bill . I had shrimp tacos with beans and rice and they were ok and a jalapeño margarita which was the best thing. My other daughter had some enchiladas made with mole and she said her food was good. I probably wouldn't come back for food but the drink and chips and salsa was good!

Visiting San Diego on my bday and happened to run across this place. I was excited to order enchiladas since I was craving it and first bite in I was met with a roach in my food, I had to look away cause I was going to throw up. After confirming it was a roach and got a second opinion from my boyfriend, I told the waitress. First thing she said was oh my god I 'm so sorry and ran to back. 5 mins later she comes back and said oh it 's burnt cilantro but I removed it from your bill, so sorry about that and walked away. HUH??? That 's a roach!! My boyfriend continued to pay for his food cause we just had to get out we were both sick. Mind you there was no cilantro in my food like at all. Lack of accountability, lock of apologies. Stay away.