Casa Lupe

 

10

86

Jill H.

Sunnyvale, CA

Everyone is here is very friendly and meals come quick. The food is tasty although nothing spectacular. I always order the same thing when going there-Cheese Enchilada and Beef Taco. Both rock! Although with this location, I also enjoy going to the sunnyvale location. There really is no difference between the two except this location is much smaller and the wait staff is slower .

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Elite '08

131

551

Jane L.

Santa Clara, CA

I really love the charm of this restaurant set like a casa.  The entrance is cute with a screen door and the bathroom is interesting with curtains for doors.

Not too many options if you're vegetarian and for seafood, there's only a few items with shrimp.  I had the veggie burrito with sour cream and guacamole on top. They made my request of black beans in place of refried beans.  The beans were on the tiny side and not much in quantity.  

Margaritas were good, on the small size, but the price was less than $5.  I think they can up the notch on flavor.  Place seems packed during peak hours and that's what drew us here to begin with.  For the downtown Los Altos crowd, this is pretty acceptable.

Cash only.  There are a couple of banks nearby if you need to run to the ATM.

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Elite '08

25

122

Jesse S.

Mountain View, CA

This place was below average, overall. It's awkwardly small considering the prime Main St. storefront location. The layout of the restaurant is weird and there are places where you are in a corner facing the wall and the wait staff can't even see you.

No booths here. The chairs are a cheap kind of wood with no padding. Very uncomfortable to sit in, no back support at all. Normally I don't criticize little details like this, but the chairs really bothered me. I have back problems and there was no way to get comfortable in those chairs. If they were trying to be chic, it didn't work.

The salsa and chips were pretty good. Above average spice but that's OK, spicy is good sometimes. I ordered the nachos with cheese, beef, guacamole, and refried beans. The nachos were OK but certainly not above fast-food grade. Very bland taste, nothing bad but nothing that good. Service was average.

The total with drink and tax came to $14. That seems extremely high considering that all I had was nachos and it was not a huge portion. I can justify paying a little more for a restaurant that spends a lot of money on decor but this place clearly didn't fit that bill.

I don't want to go off on a rant, but why don't they take credit cards? Do you have any idea how easy it is to take credit card transactions? A cheap credit-card machine and a phone line. Sure it'll raise your cost of doing business by about 50 cents per transaction, but so what?

It's easier for the customers and easier for the restaurant because they don't have to keep track of as much money. And I think people leave higher tips when they're not limited strictly by what's in their pocket.

Given the abundance of Mexican restaurants, I probably will not come back here.

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0

3

Dan G.

CA

This place loses out to Fiesta Vallarta around the corner on pretty much all accounts, and that is a sad state of affairs.  The service, food, and ambiance is better at Fiesta.  So why come here?  I'm pretty sure that Casa Lupe microwaves all the meals, as it is always scalding hot when I get it.  And the refried beans have the skin over the top of them that tells you it has been sitting around for a while - so if it has been sitting around why is it so hot?  - micowave.  And yet even with the microwaving, the service is still pretty slow.  Last time I was here I got the Chili Colorado - the sauce was alright - kinda bland, but the meat was sooo dry.  I could barely chew and swallow it.  

There are just too many good Mexican restaurants around to waste your time here.

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Elite '08

41

220

Michelle W.

Los Altos, CA

Tentative 3 stars.

I have been meaning to try this place since a friend whose food taste I respect told me it's good.  I saw him and his wife eating in there one night & popped in to say, "hi" while they were dining.

Like Nathan C. I don't see why the 1st 2 reviews were SO bad.  Maybe the place is hit or miss.

The chips were good, very lightly slighted with a great toasted corn flavor.  The salsa's main characteristic was heat.  It was a little too hot to just munch and I like hot.  I was replaying the Mythbuster's chili soothing experiment, trying to see if water, sour cream, guacamole, chips, etc. was the best to cool my mouth down.  Definale sour cream, but that was no big surprise.

I had a steak burrito.  The steak was pretty tasty, though salty.  The burrito itself was nothing unusually great.  It was satisfactory.  The size was decent, but not HUGE like I sort of expected since they had two smaller burritos on the menu.  The prices looked great until I figured out that they are a la carte and if you want rice & beans and coelslaw it's an extra $3.  The steak burrito was $10.  Definately pricey for what it was, but then this is Los Altos and everything here is pricier than I expect.

The service was sufficient.

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Elite '08

13

133

Nathan C.

Campbell, CA

I'm kinda surprised at the poor reviews this place has gotten. It's some pretty good Mexican food. I usually get the chicken enchiladas, which are quite tasty. The fajitas are pretty good too. The only thing that irks me about the place is that they don't take cards. Very friendly and prompt wait staff. I usually hit this place for lunch, and it's usually pretty quiet.

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5

102

stevie G.

Palo Alto, CA

Yummy bathroom!  the food is too sweet but still pretty good.

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43

62

Michael R.

Mountain View, CA

Es muy blando.

The service was prompt and friendly. We sat outside on a nice day in a shady spot away from Castro Street. Pleasant.

The salsa had spice but not much flavor. I ordered the soft taco with chicken. I should have asked for black beans. I've never like refried. The chicken and the rice were dry, the plate was very hot and big, but these was nothing to make me want to go back again.

Josh had a burrito. It was muy grande. He wasn't loco about it. Chipotle has better food.

In the words of our gov'na, 'Hasta la vista, baby.'

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0

20

H S.

Palo Alto, CA

I would have given this place 0 stars if the system would allow it. My sister and I had lunch here this past saturday. It was right next doors to ciana spa and we were ready for some food after an ultra relaxing facial followed by a pedicure.

The handwritten note on the menu should have tipped us off - "Only first basket of chips are free". The salsa looked like it was poured from some cheap costco can - absolutely no flavor. Inspite of this, we ordered a veg burrito and cheese enchilada. the food arrived quickly and was tasteless. the guac was bland, the tortilla for the burrito was actually dry and the vegies seemed to have escaped out. the burrito resembled a large version of a frozen burrito for a lot more $. plus, for an $8 entree, guac and sourcream were charged extra! who eats mexican without that??

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