| La Casa Garcia 531 W. Chapman Ave. (just east of Harbor) Anaheim, CA 92802 (714) 740-1108 (714) 740-0514 Fax Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch Official Site |  |
La Casa Garcia has been serving Mexican food in Anaheim since 1973. The Garcia family still runs the whole operation including the restaurant and a catering service. Frank Garcia came to California from Texas and offers up Texas-style "barrio" food. That included the menudo they still serve everyday. The menu is extensive and they are open every day breakfast, lunch and dinner.
My wife Thea and I stopped in for lunch recently. They had been serving a lunch buffet but we found out they stopped doing that to put their efforts into some new projects. Fortunately they have a nice selection of lunch specials and a special board to boot. Their Texas roots show up here as BBQ ribs are added to the Mexican entries. So here you have a real Tex-Mex place unlike the chains that have abused that title.
You'll see from the interior photo that the walls are covered with donation envelopes for the yearly Thanksgiving dinner that Frank Garcia & his family have put on for the last twenty years for anyone who needs a meal. Check it out at http://www.wegivethanksfoundation.org. That alone should make you want to drop in spend your dining dollars here.
As is typical the meal started off with chips and salsa. Health nuts and vegetarians beware as we confirmed the chips ARE fried up in lard. You can taste the difference and they are great. Add to it a kickass thin spicy salsa and it is hard to get past the chip munching.
I ended up ordering the Enchilada de Pollo Rancheras con Queso, but I was tempted by a number of the seafood dishes they specialize in. The chicken was super moist and tender. Clearly it had been simmered for hours in a savory mixture. The enchiladas were topped with a ranchera sauce and lots of cheese. Guacamole and sour cream were served on the side. The usual rice and beans sides were included. The beans were quite good and the rice was a good foil for that spicy salsa.
Thea went with the #1 combo which was a cheese enchilada and shredded beef taco. She found the enchilada sauce different than the usual ones but quite tasty - a little more tomatoey than a pure chili sauce. The hard shell taco with shredded beef was an old school classic.
The sodas come in giant glasses. That will be helpful for those of you how eat too much of the spicy salsa. I feel we need to go back and try more of the menu. The classic items we ordered were very good, but a whole breakfast menu awaits us as well as some tempting seafood and caldo (soup/stew) choices. But clearly this is a classic old time Mexican diner with a loyal clientele. Hopefully with the new generations of the family involved it will last another 35 years.
We just checked this place out on Sunday after a trip to the "D-Land" just up Harbor. I was interested in supporting the place, given the owner's track record in helping so many folks out on Thanksgiving. But I was really suprised, as was my wife, about how good the food is here. I ordered the barbacoa plate and really enjoyed it. It was exactly as barbacoa should be (though I wish I could find a place doing it with goat!). They have great chips and their quacamole is excellent. Although the place is something of a hole-in-the-wall, the food is really what will bring us back.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it. I think there are a couple places that actually serve goat.
ReplyDeletethey indeed may have the best chips in all of OC.
ReplyDeleteall i truely heard/read was "chips cooked in lard" and "barbacoa the way it should be", and i was there!! so tasty! i will be back, gotta share this beautiful place with the world!!!
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