Restaurant Reviews
Guadalajara (Clovis)
Reviewed by jamescollier on Sep 12, 2009
What's it like?
It's exciting to see a local favorite like Guadalajara expanding, especially during a time when other restaurants are closing up shop.
Their new location is considerably different than its sisters: it's a new building, it's part of a shopping center, it's in north Clovis. Oh, and the space used to belong to a Thai restaurant. That may not sound significant, but effects ambiance, since the family that owns Guadalajara has left the entire decor as-was; the only substitutions have been the music and menus.
I've been twice now—for lunch on Labor Day, and for dinner last night. Both times, I've ordered tacos a la carte, and I'm not sure how they've done it, but they've actually made the carne asada better. The new location also offers homemade tortillas.
I wish I could I could leave it there, but it's important to realize that this is a big undertaking, and the family is still working out kinks. The layout of the space is a bit odd, the clientele is different, and there seems to be high volume—while that's a positive, it puts a strain on a diner's experience during these first few months.
I trust that they'll work through these, and update the decor; last night a nearby patron even mentioned talks of expanding into adjacent space. Still, I can't help but feel that the new location is less "the real deal"—less genuine—that the locations in south and central Fresno. It's certainly less of a draw for me.
Okay, back to the positives: I could live off of Guadalara's salsa!
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Comments
bradley | Wed, 2009-12-30 11:32
Address:
1365 N Willow Ave, Clovis, CA 93619
NE Corner, Willow/Nees
jamescollier | Wed, 2009-12-30 11:35
Thanks Bradley - when I wrote this, the address wasn't showing up in Google yet, but I updated the review with the info.
greg.goforth | Thu, 2009-12-31 14:09
James, I'm assuming you ordered the Margarita by the pics you provided. What did you think of it? I thought the food was amazing, but the margaritas left A LOT to be desired. It was syrupy, which was weird, and had a generally unpleasing flavor. Other than that I had a great experience there.
jamescollier | Mon, 2010-01-04 23:19
Yeah, that was the house margarita. I don't remember mine being syrupy, though I honestly don't remember it much at all - I think it was a fairly standard mix, maybe heavy on salt if anything. Maybe chalk that up to the bartender?
Nancy (not verified) | Wed, 2010-02-17 23:14
This place has the best Carne Asada tacos I've ever eaten. They were simple, delicious, perfect. The salsa is great and the rest of the food that I've tried (chile verde, rice, beans...) has also been great. The true test will come when I try their Albondigas, which I don't even know if they have...but it's just always my true test. Their service is lacking however. It seems it's always the owner/manager - who is so friendly and personable it almost makes up for the lack of service and one other server. I think we got one out of the three drink refills we needed and our chips weren't refilled until into the meal - even though they were empty far before that. The strange thing was the place wasn't full, maybe half - 2/3 full and there were three servers total. Hmmm. Don't tarnish your beautiful self yet Guadalajara, keep up the god work - just need more efficient servers. Tonight the one extra server also doubled as the bartender...and I ordered the on-the-rocks margarita for happy hour - and it was very syrupy. I've never quite had a margarita like that - but not in a good way. The dip in the bottom of the traditional margarita glass acted like a reservoir for the poorly mixed margarita. Unfortunately, once in the glass with the ice - the cold margarita is almost impossible to mix and almost too sweet to drink. Whether using a mix or not - the bottom line is it should be mixed well. And it wasn't. This I'd like to see change, because it has the makings of a great place - tacos, margaritas, great food, happy people.