Breakfast at Fresca's

Just found out from Twitter recently that three locations of Fresca's Mexican Grill (Brea, Huntington Beach, Tustin) are now serving breakfast. I tried it this morning in Tustin and got the "Huevos McFresca's" (hmm, now that name sounds familiar) which is basically a breakfast torta with "scrambled eggs, grilled ham, melted cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise on a fresh Mexican roll," with potatoes, onions and peppers on the side. Other options are huevos rancheros, chorizo con huevos, chorizo burrito and chilaquiles. Each selection comes with a glass of orange juice.

Fresca's Mexican Grill - Review #3 (Quick Stop)

Fresca's Mexican Grill 1621 Edinger Ave, #6 Tustin, CA 92780 (714) 259-0499 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch Official Site

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Made a quick stop at the new-ish Fresca's Mexican Grill in Tustin (almost in Santa Ana) recently to follow up on the Fast Food Maven's recommendation to me to try their shrimp tacos. Fresca's is Orange County-based and similar to a lot of other fresh mex chains around here but it does have a few touches of authenticity you wouldn't expect.

So I ordered a shrimp taco and a chicken taco and loaded up on some chunky red salsa, some of the hottest escabeche I've ever had, some salsa verde and some horchata:

The thing I liked about the shrimp taco was that the shrimp were very fresh and plump and meaty with a hint of pineapple glaze and pineapple salsa. I wanted to get some flan but I've been trying to not have too much dessert lately.

They are also advertising some pretty good deals:

Fresca's Mexican Grill - Review #2

Fresca's Mexican Grill 41 Auto Center Dr Foothill Ranch, CA 92610 (949) 454-0404 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch Official Site

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UPDATE: This location has closed down.

Here's Johnny Automatic back in action with our first review of a place out in Foothill Ranch:

Dropped in on the relatively new location of Fresca's the other day. This one is in a new strip mall up in Foothill Ranch. Christian reviewed the Lake Forest location about a year ago. Like him, that location was a place I used to frequent when my work was nearby.

As Christian noted, this small chain is like a lot of other quick casual Mexican places. It's right in the same group as Baja Fresh, Rubio's and La Salsa. I find these places to be just enough Mexican to brand them as such but not enough that you can't offer it as a lunch option to a wide range of eaters. So it seems a lot of these places are intentionally corporate-think safe. You will not find lengua or buche offered at any of these places.

In fact this is the kind of place I don't really want to like. The menu looks like it was calculated by an MBA. It covers all the familiar territory with a token dish to cover the range of familiar Mexican dishes. It also Americanizes lots of stuff. Instead of tortas they serve Mexican subs on a Mexican roll, but with mayo, mustard and a side of chips. They also carry salads and the new trend, the rice bowl.

But over the years I've had plenty of satisfying meals here. This time I went with a suggestion of one of the comments here. I tried the Yucatan Fundido. It is described as "two grilled flour tortillas filled with a chicken/vegetable mix and topped with a jalapeño cream cheese sauce. This runs $6.50 as a combo with black beans and rice. Now as far as I can tell fundido is Spanish for fondue. So I suspect this whole concoction is made up out of whole cloth. Upon ordering you are handed a serving of tortilla chips. So the next stop is the salsa bar. And this is one of their strong suits. They have 3 really good hot salsas (as shown below) and some mild salsas that I didn't try, because what the point? The Japonesa, salsa arbol and en fuego were all good. But my vote goes to the excellent "en fuego" salsa. It is deeply smoky, thick as paste, and seriously hot.

They serve black beans as a side, which is a nice variation. Unfortunately they aren't terribly memorable but not bad either. The same is true of the rice, but I think of rice as a salsa vehicle. For all its questionable authenticity, the Yucatan Fundido is really quite a tasty item. I'd be hard pressed to find the jalapeño in the sauce, but it is flavorful and a nice compliment to the whole dish.

As a bonus, this location has a very nice patio that is perfect for a lovely warm November day like when I went. Fresca's fits firmly into the category they have intentionally picked for themselves. But there are places they rise above the pack. Careful selection from the menu will give you a good lunch choice and the hot salsas do not disappoint. But ultimately all of these type of places are about predictability and that they have in spades. Sodas, commercial agua frescas, beer and wine to drink. 3 and a half Speedys:

Thanks, Johnny!

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Fresca's Mexican Grill - Review #1

Fresca's Mexican Grill
22681 Lake Forest Dr
Lake Forest, CA 92630
(949) 837-8397

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Entree: Ranchero Burrito
Drink: Watermelon Aguas Fresca
Dessert: Flan

UPDATE: This location has closed down.

Fresca's is another place I used to make fairly regular jaunts to from one of my old places of employment. As far as unique identity goes they don't have much. They even have possibly the most generic name of all the fresh Mex grills since when you translate their name all the way into English it is simply, "Fresh Mexican Grill." The food is at least serviceable and they have a big salsa bar (one salsa is called "Japonesa") and your food is made quickly and you can see it being made. And this visit is the first time I was aware of them having aguas frescas. I don't know if the flavors change but today they had cantalope, horchata, and watermelon. I ordered the watermelon and it tasted a little mass-produced but not bad and I'm trying to cut down on soda consumption so it did the trick.

Mile-long Salsa Bar

Special of the day, the Ranchero Burrito

Not too inspiring but not as mundane as you think they might be, Fresca's Mexican Grill earns a three and a half Speedy Gonzales rating: