Restaurant Reviews

  • Food
    5
  • Service
    3
  • Value
    4
  • Ambiance
    2
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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.

Carne asada tacos, a la carteI'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!

Guadalajara, Clovis - Margarita Guadalajara, Clovis Guadalajara, Clovis

Comments

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bradley  |  Wed, 2009-12-30 11:32

Address:

1365 N Willow Ave, Clovis, CA 93619

NE Corner, Willow/Nees

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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.

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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.

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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?

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