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View Margarita's Menu

A Look At San Gabriel Valley Restaurants by SanGabrielValleyMenus.com

Margarita’s in Pasadena – Buffet, Brunch or Off the Menu

By Bill Coburn

Margarita’s in Pasadena is a medium-sized restaurant on Rosemead Blvd., that has a “cantina,” banquet facilities, and some pretty good food.  Whether you want to order entrees off the menu, are looking for large party trays to go, a banquet room, Sunday champagne brunch, or a weekday lunch buffet, stop by Margarita’s, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.  We haven’t been.

Katie and I had eaten the buffet lunch in the past, and were impressed with the selection of food that’s offered at a very reasonable price.  We decided to stop by and have dinner as a family the other evening, though, and order off the menu.  Katie started out with a Cadillac Margarita, and said they didn’t scrimp on the tequila.  I began with the albondigas soup, which came out with one of the biggest meatballs I’ve seen in an albondigas, as well as plenty of cabbage and some zucchini.  I let Keelan chow on the zucchini (at his request), and I enjoyed the rest of the soup.  I didn’t really expect to enjoy the cabbage, as I’m not a big cooked cabbage fan, but this was really good, and I suspect it had to do with the broth.  The broth was really delicious, and it wasn’t just me that thought so, Katie took one spoonful and remarked on how good it was.

For an entrée, I ordered the Shrimp and Chicken Al Mojo de Ajo, Katie ordered a combination with an enchilada and chile relleno, and Keelan ordered the Nachos.  Margaritas offers Nachos by themselves, or you can order beef (shredded or ground) or chicken on them.  Keelan decided to upgrade a little, and ordered carne asada for an extra buck.

Keelan’s Nachos were huge.  They were smothered in refried beans, with lots of diced up chunks of carne asada, tomatoes, and plenty of melted cheese.  I tried them, and they were quite good, and I’ll probably order them on a future visit.  I don’t usually order nachos, but that’s because most places don’t give you the option of adding meat, some do, but most don’t.  Keelan and I both enjoyed the carne asada, and he was pretty filled up long before he ran out of food.

Katie said her meal was quite good, and pointed out that the sauce on her enchilada ranchera was different than she expected, thicker and more tomato-ey, and she was really happy with both the enchilada and the chile relleno.

I was really impressed with the amount of food that came with my dinner, a very tender double breast of boneless, skinless chicken, 4 large grilled shrimp, rice, and a huge helping of steamed vegetables.  On the side was a great big ramekin of Mojo de Ajo sauce, with lots of garlic.  Everything tasted great, and got even better when I asked the waitress if she had some Tapatio or Cholula I could get to heat it up a little.  While they do have both, she brought me some homemade stuff instead, she called it Salsa Picosa.  Good stuff, lots of heat, and a nice addition to the meal. 

After dinner, we ordered the flan, and instead of an individual flan as most places give you, we got a slice of what appeared to be a pie-sized flan.  Garnished with whipped cream and powdered sugar, it was a delicious ending to a great meal.

I went back the next day for the buffet, as it had been a while, and I wanted to refresh my memory before writing about it.  The buffet includes cold, fresh sliced pineapple, cantaloupe and watermelon, crisp green salad or Caesar salad, and Mexican breads to get you started.  For entrees, there’s cheese enchilada, chile relleno, chicken with vegetables, pescado veracruzano (they use sea bass, in a mild red sauce), chicharrones, potatoes with vegetables, rice and beans, and a taco bar with tortillas made fresh right in front of  you, and your choice of carne asada or pollo (chicken) asada.  There are also a couple different kinds of cake for dessert.  This menu may not be exactly the same when you visit, but it will be pretty close.  Very good stuff, and I think they lost money on me.  I couldn’t get enough of the pescado, and had quite a bit of chicken and vegetables as well.  The carne asada tacos were quite good, the rice and beans, potatoes, everything I tried was good, though a couple of the potatoes could have taken a few more minutes before being served.  They weren’t bad, just a little harder than I would prefer.  The cake was a nice finish.

There’s also a Sunday brunch that we’ll be stopping back to try before too long.

You can view Margarita’s menu by visiting SanGabrielValleyMenus.com and clicking on the Margaritas link.  And if you mention the website, you can get 10% off, so stop by and tell them you saw them on the web at SanGabrielValleyMenus.com.

Bill Coburn is owner of SanGabrielValleyMenus.com, a restaurant website featuring dozens of  restaurants’ menus, as well as downloadable coupons.  He has nearly 20 years experience in the restaurant business, and has been eating for much longer than that.