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"San
Marcos Restaurant is a small family restaurant in the South Bay (the
building housed a Dairy Queen in the late 1970s) specializing in
Mexican food "en tipo casero": home-style ... There's nothing fancy
about the food, venue or atmosphere, but they deserve a five-star
rating for the quality of their effort. The portions are perfectly
sized to what a hungry person would be able to consume without
wasting/left-overs. Nothing on the menu is especially expensive
with entrees weighing in at $15.99 or less ... Most items are in the
$9.99 range at dinnertime.You won't find rolled tacos or trendy
burritos here, but you will be pleasantly surprised by what you will
find. I suppose I could best describe the offerings as what your
mom or grandmother would make to feed the family: stews, shrimp
dishes, fish filets (some with too much delicious sauce), and
traditional Mexican meat dishes that stick to your ribs. On
weekends, home-made menudo and posole are available. There are
daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner specials (dinner costing less
than $7.00). When I go with my family, the bill ... for three
adults for the evening meal ... is less than $35.00 WITH tip.
While the atmosphere is minimalist (a plasma television plays
Mexican soap operas or noticias), the waitstaff are friendly and try
very hard to communicate with limited English (although some staff
do speak English fluently and are very knowledgable about their
menu). They take great pride in the quality of their offerings.
This restaurant opened in October 2007 and I'll bet that I have been
there at least 25 times in the past six months. The hours are 7:00
AM to 8:00 PM, and many of the customers are people making their way
to or from work. The menu features many traditional Mexican
favorites clearly described in English so the non-Spanish speaker
can easily pick an entree and point if necessary. Dinner customers
are treated to freshly fried tortilla chips with two salsas (one
green and one red) made in a rotation of different recipes; mini
quesdillas; and a small bowl of the soup-of-the-day that is
immensely flavorful and, like the salsa, is made in a rotation of
different recipes (I like to squirt fresh lime on mine). I
highly recommend the chile relleno dinner (#22): The chile is huge,
stuffed with melted cheese, lightly battered in an egg mixture, and
topped with a vegetable red sauce and crema. It comes with rice
(they make four different types of rice depending on the day of the
week) and flavorful frijoles refritos. The dish is delicious and
very filling. Another favorite are the camarones rancheros. The
shrimp are presented in a sauce similar to that on the chile relleno
and are accompanied by beans and rice. The bistequitos with nopales
(cactus) are very savory and the birria de res (beef stew) that I
had a few nights ago was resplendent with cloves and garlic.
The machaca breakfast ... served one of four ways ... is savory and
hearty. If you're a fan, you'd be doing yourself a favor to try
theirs. The tortillas ... both corn and flour ... are made
fresh on the premises. Both are outstanding and are offered with
most of the entrees. The flour tortillas are so thin that they're
nearly window-like; the corn are moist and delicious. They're
served piping hot. A number of beers are available by the
bottle in addition to fountain sodas and the traditional jamaica/tamarindo/horchata
... I recommend the jamaica with a glass of snow-like ice. Very
refreshing and likely home-made. If you're still hungry after
your filling multi-course meal, San Marcos's flan is absolutely
terrific ... it's dense, creamy, and has just enough caramel sauce.
Parking is limited during the day, but there is street parking
nearby in addition to over-flow parking in the grocery store parking
lot not far away. There are about twenty tables inside and a
few patio tables outside. Tables fill fast, but the staff is very
efficient, so the wait isn't long. They have a bustling take-out
clientele, too.
If you're south of Main Street in Chula Vista and are hungry for
food like your grandma makes, stop by San Marcos Restaurant ... It's
a quick trip south on Beyer Blvd. You won't regret stopping in ...
and your wallet won't take a hit either."
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