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    La Cocina de Ricardo

    4.0 (615 reviews)
    ModerateMexican
    Open • 11:00 am - 9:00 pm

    Order La Cocina de Ricardo Takeout or Delivery

    La Cocina de Ricardo Photos

    Business Info

    LA COCINA DE RICARDO ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Outdoor seating
    Happy hour specials

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    Recommended Reviews - La Cocina de Ricardo

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    All our Margs!
    Erandi W.

    FOOD: I still continue to come here, and the service and food is still great to me!! The menu is big so there are a lot of choices and it's hard to choose what to get sometimes. I usually tend to get the 2 item Combination plates, but I have ventured and got other things as well. I still like the food here! There is also a lot of vegetarian options as well as my family is vegetarian and they do enjoy coming here and having a variety of choices. SERVICE: We still see the owner when we come in and he is still so warm and friendly, always smiling and treating his guests well! Always great to see a small business that knows service! AMBIANCE: When you walk in, you can definitely tell you are in a Mexican Restaurant. I really like the traditional decor and the pictures around the restaurant. There are two rooms in the restaurant with seating on both sides. One side has the bar and some seating there as well. As my last review said, I will continue to come back here for great Mexican food, great service and good prices!

    Mario's new margarita flights!

    Mario's handcrafted margarita flight. Lime, peach, strawberry, and spicy mango! Yum!

    Taco  Tuesday!
    Tony J.

    Happy taco Tuesday! This is a great place to have tacos, authentic, Mexican food. A margarita perhaps too. But today taking just taking the food to go. Family asked if I'm going bring tacos home, so this is my location to swing by. I called in the order in advance and the tacos are generously prepared quickly, waiting for me. In my opinion, the shredded beef tacos are delicious. Generous with the sauces and chips. In addition, It's a great price as well. So when I feel like going to an authentic Mexican restaurant, this is one of my top choices, especially on taco Tuesday when I can't beat the price.

    Beer and c hips salsa
    Michelle T.

    It's been a while since I dined here. I remember how good the chips & salsa were and this time was the same - delish. Restaurant wasn't crowded, plenty of tables available in the front and back room. The server took our drink order quickly and service was great the whole time. We had the albondiga soup, the pulpo and a sope dish. Everything was really yummy and fresh. Portion size was perfect, we brought home a good amount of the pulpo. Great frijoles, that's always my way to know if a place is legit!

    Corri C.

    Our favorite place to come to. Big bowl of white pozole with a side of taquitos is our go to. This time we got the oysters with ceviche! Delicious! Very nice staff and the restaurant is always very clean.

    Enchiladas De Mole
    Harry P.

    Tasty authentic Mexican food in an unsuspecting strip mall in Lake Forest. Mole was great but the chilaquiles was a bit too salty for me. I'm a bit sensitive to salty food so I'm sure it's really for other folks. Fun decor like a fancy Mexican restaurant. I'm coming back for the mole!

    Pozole Rojo, Fajitas, extra rice and sour cream, chips
    Jennifer L.

    The servers were so friendly and the interior was cozy! I'm in the northern OC area, but had ordered caldo de res from here to my workplace nearby, and the caldo was perfect. I had to make sure my SO and I came to dine in despite the long drive. I ordered pozole and he ordered fajitas with an extra portion of rice and sour cream. The chips and salsa are so addicting that by the time my pozole came, I could barely make a dent in it. Everything was delicious and my SO, who is very picky with food, agrees. We definitely want to come back.

    Morgan S.

    What a delightful treat!! A super cute mom and pop Mexican restaurant. The servers were very nice and helpful. The chips and salsa were fantastic - and they kept them coming! For dinner, they had a variety of yummy looking options. I ended up try the guarachon and it was AAAAMAZING!!! I devoted my plate because it was epic. It's essentially a large flat tortilla smothered in beans with a whole bunch of goodies piled high. It was like a salad on top of the fat tortilla. I'm already wanting to eat another one because it truly was to die for. The quality of the food in the dish shone through. Absolutely insane!!

    Skinny spicy margarita and breakfast burrito were so delicious. Ask for Mario to make you this same margarita!

    Mario makes the best drinks. Always a huge smile and great service. Really enjoyed the breakfast burrito.

    Pozole
    James L.

    Came here with some coworkers for lunch on a weekday, was not busy and we were seated immediately. Loved the inside and the ambiance, the decor make you feel like you walked into an authentic restaurant in Mexico! They have a few big TVs inside that had the soccer games playing. I heard it gets very busy and lively during the weekends, especially when there is a sporting event being broadcasted. We ordered the pozole, which is a traditional Mexican hominy with meat and garnished with shredded lettuce, cabbage, chili peppers, onion, garlic, radishes, salsa, and limes. It tasted extremely healthy and hearty. All the staff were extremely friendly and there is definitely a family feel to dining here.

    Carne Asada. Hidden under the delicious sides but worth the hunt.
    Fred F.

    Service is always friendly here. Ambiance is standard for food genre. Food is delicious. Only down side this visit was margaritas were very sweet and felt like had zero tequila. Other than that, La Cocina is a hit!

    Chili Verde was excellent, with rice & beans, Celantro, onions, lettuce and choice of corner flour tortillas. So good!!!

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    2 months ago

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    2 days ago

    We were very deceived by these 5 star reviews. The only thing worse than the food was the service!

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    Mario A.

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    11 months ago

    Great happy hours, prices and size of plates. Great service. Good food. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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    1 year ago

    The food is excellent! Service is always great And my favorite part, ambience and margaritas!

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    Mario A.

    Thanks, Brad! We look forward to seeing you again soon!

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    Page 1 of 16

    La Cocina de Ricardo Reviews in Other Languages

    Ask the Community - La Cocina de Ricardo

    When do they serve menudo, is it only certain days?

    What is the taco Tuesday deal?

    $2.50 tacos choice of crispy it soft with either shredded beef, chicken, or pork tinga. Price is only good with purchase of a drink.

    Is pozole gluten free?

    I think pozole is gluten since it is made with hominy.

    View All 5 Questions

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    Tacos De Birria Estilo Guadalajara - The  best tacos

    Tacos De Birria Estilo Guadalajara

    4.6(679 reviews)
    0.7 mi
    •$$
    Outdoor seating
    Private events

    The finest #1 Birria expert restaurant in the entire world in my opinion…read more There will never be another like Tacos De Birria Estilo Guadalajara. The team working here Maggie, Moses, and other amazing servers and chefs and the owner Jesus are what make this place so special. If you want to eat real high quality food at great price, something you can eat everyday then come here. I have nothing but good things to say about the entire team and the effort they put into providing the finest Birria dishes you will ever eat. I used to eat here daily working nearby and I'm soon going to move closer just so I can go eat here everyday again for the rest of my life.

    Notes: Starting off acknowledging another review I saw on here. Basically said the review was just…read morefor the drinks and gave them a 1/5 while in the same review stated, "I love the food." ‍ like do people not understand the concept of reviewing? This frustrates me to no end; places with tons of reviews may not be affected by a single bad review but lesser know spots with just a few reviews really do (on the overall rating). The food didn't take too long to come out so they were speedy enough. Also it looked like they were on the grounds of a church. Like are they just there or are they technically using part of the church? Also not a ton of parking so might really depend on when you come. Anyways on to my stuff, I teeter between 3 and 4 on this one. I ordered their taco Tuesday 3 quesabirria plate, a quesaasada and quesachorizo tacos just to try them. Pros: good crisp of the tortilla and generous cheese amount in the quesatacos. Good portion of consommé and not stingy with the limes and chili oil etc. plenty of seating. Cons: asada was tough, chorizo super salty, quesabirria were inconsistent in terms of amount of meat in each taco; some were well filled others were pretty bare. On that note my brother did mention it tasted very different the day we went, compared to when he usually comes. I'm not saying the overall flavor was bad on the quesabirria, I've just had some really good ones and this wasn't quite it for me to be at the top. The rest of the table enjoyed it though so that does kind of keep them a little higher in my book.

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    The best tacos De Birria on Orange County ,jesus uses the World clase meats .

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    Quesataco

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    Fish taco

    Xclusive Mexican Kitchen - Taco Sampler

    Xclusive Mexican Kitchen

    4.6(605 reviews)
    0.9 mi
    •$$

    My sister and our pups went to eat at this wonderful little restaurant after a great hike with our…read morepups Kobie-Star and Willow . We sat outside in their outdoor patio where they had a couple of TV's -one with the basketball playoffs going on ( my favorite)! The staff was just amazing and welcomed us and our pups and brought out water for both pups without us even having to ask for it , love that . They have lots of food to choose from but we stuck with the traditional combo plate : Cheese enchilada and carnitas taco - mine was a crunchy and hers was soft taco ( both were delicious). I also ordered a delicious blended strawberry margarita and it didn't disappoint. Our servers were : Enrique and Alfonso both were great . They brought us extra bean mixture dip for the chips as their dips and chips are AMAZING as is their food . If you haven't tried this place, you must try this place as not only is the food great , the people that work here are really amazing and that made our time here even better . We checked their hours and found they are open ALL DAY something like 8AM for breakfast -10 PM like what ??? Not everyday but most days , this isn't fast food either ... You have to try this place and for those who want to eat inside it's nice inside or sit at their bar or sit outside at the really big outdoor eating area , you can't go wrong ... Stop by after a Target run it's near by !! Thank you to you all for helping us and our pups - Enrique and Alfonso we will be back for sure !! Thank you again ! Prices very reasonable! Location corner in center - plenty of parking Margarita $$

    Xclusive Mexican Kitchen seemed pretty promising - I like how they had Taco Tuesday so I came by to…read moregive it a try. The menu was pretty interesting, lots of variety. I will say - the ambiance is pretty cool - there are a lot of different liquors along the walls. ITEMS I TRIED - Taco Sampler: my husband got al pastor, steak, and carnitas. I got chicken and al pastor. I personally liked chicken the best because the other meats were a bit too salty for me. The meat however was just okay, didn't really taste too authentic personally. PARKING: pretty easy as it is in a plaza SERVICE: it was somewhat slow, and they charged us more despite it being taco Tuesday, it was about $10 more on the receipt. However, they did promptly take care of it once we asked about it. PRICE: for 3 tacos, you got it for $11 with the corrected price which was a decent deal. Overall, I think it was solid but I won't be craving this spot or suggesting it to others!

    Photos
    Xclusive Mexican Kitchen - Dining Room / Kitchen

    Dining Room / Kitchen

    Xclusive Mexican Kitchen - Taco Sampler (3) - chicken x2 and al pastor x1

    Taco Sampler (3) - chicken x2 and al pastor x1

    Xclusive Mexican Kitchen - Xclusive asada tacos, grilled onions and mushrooms

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    Xclusive asada tacos, grilled onions and mushrooms

    La Cocina de Ricardo - mexican - Updated September 2026

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