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    Nopal Mexican Restaurant

    2.7 (48 reviews)
    ModerateBars, Mexican
    Closed 11:00 am - 10:00 pm

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    NOPAL MEXICAN RESTAURANT ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Loud
    Good for groups
    Outdoor seating

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    Recommended Reviews - Nopal Mexican Restaurant

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    El Nopal Burrito - house specialty
    Andrea H.

    I'm headed to Arizona in a few days, but I just couldn't wait that long to eat some Mexican food. My local insurance agent recommended this restaurant since it is nearby her office. Even though there is a decent sized parking lot, the spaces fill up during happy hour and many people park in the gravel and grass. The restaurant is small and looks like a pink hacienda from the outside. It has a nice patio area with tables. The spring weather was nice, but no one was dining outdoors. Instead, there were a bunch of smokers camped out at a table temporarily getting their nicotine fix. Inside, the wrap around counter bar was packed. There were several booths that were filled too and a few tables wedged in between the bar and the booths. Apparently this is a popular place for happy hour. It was 4 pm on a Thursday in June. The clientele were all white and mostly in their 60s with grey hair. They seemed quite jovial and familiar with each other as if this was a regular hangout. The bartender greeted me from her station behind the counter and asked me to seat myself. The table I chose was covered with a bright red and green, vinyl table cloth. It was a bit grundgy to the touch. The walls were tourquoise. Multicolored sombreros and colorful wall art hung high on the walls. Free chips, salsa and pico de gallo were delivered to my table along with a menu. I selected the El Nopal Burrito which was supposedly a house specialty. It was filled with rice, pinto beans, and meat and covered with cheese and sauce. On the side was a dollap of guacamole and sour cream. It reminded me of something I might get at Taco Bell, but at 3 times the price. I realize taste is a very subjective thing. However, if you've spent a lot of time in the southwest or south of the border, you might be disappointed with this food. It was bland. The chips were obviously from a commercial entity probably made cheaply in the midwest where corn is readily available. The salsa also appeared to be from a mass-produced source. There was plenty of food, and I was happy with the large dollap of guacamole on my plate. Many other restaurants skimp on this. I was also pleasantly surprised that they had the pink packets of Sweet-n-low which were great for my iced tea. Sadly, no one ever bothered to check on me during my meal, nor did I get a refill on my drink which was empty for half of my meal. Next time I'll save money and time and swing through the Taco Bell drive through. If I want a good quality Mexican meal, I'll wait for my next trip to the southwest...thankfully that's only a few days away.

    Incredible value
    Kenneth N.

    Solid 3.5 stars. Upon a recommendation, to try their chicken quesadilla, passed with flying colours. Lots of meat, even more toppings and sides. Even the wraps were nicely made. As with most Mexican restos, the complimentary chips a great start. Not as spacious as it looks from the outside, as left side is the bar, then a hallway to the right side of dining area. a bit hard on your touche lol, wooden booths. Great service.

    Breanna T.

    Service was fine but I asked for no mushrooms in my fajitas, just use extra onions. I got charged for adding onions. My fajitas was full of grease, I moved all of my veggies and meat to a separate plate. Not highly impressed considering this was my first experience here.

    Mole Pollo/ Mole Chicken.
    Karla A.

    OK after last night's poor Mexican food, I was hopeful of Nopal being much better...it was!! Just a neighborhood place like the Cheers bar--very welcoming and comfortable. "D" our server/bartender was quick with menus, chips & salsa. We ordered draft Modelo and looked over the menu. Honey ordered the Mole chicken and I had the shredded beef chimichanga with rice & beans, sour cream, guac and jalapeños. That is my go to choice every time. Here come the plates...looking hot & fresh!! Honey was extremely happy with his tasty choice which came with fresh tortillas and my chimichanga was fat & full of flavorful shredded beef and fried crispy!! The jalapeños were fried and seasoned with a seasoned salt....they were three nice peppers and quite tasty--not too hot. I must say we will be back and fajitas will be my choice. It's nice to be welcomed to the neighborhood with good food & service.

    Lunch veggie express burrito. Seriously under $6 and fed two!

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    9 years ago

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    11 years ago

    Well located with summer fun events and a great "Where everybody knows your name attitude" Great Service and good food.

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    14 years ago

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    Ohhhh man. Good food, the kitchen cares. However, I can't leave a good review due to the Manager…read moreViolet. Walked in as a complete newbie off the street and she took my order and let me pay $20 for 2 tamales/2 sides when I could have had 2 tamales/ 3 sides for $14 on special. I asked her after why she didn't say anything and she told me to look at the menu closer, that I didn't have "common sense". I mean dudddde, I was looking up at the menu, the special was on paper on the counter. Would it be so difficult to anticipate I'd like to pay significantly less for more? Like WT...I was completely shocked when she said she WAS the manager.

    I ordered a #4 - 2 Tamale with 1 side. For the Tamales, I selected one Aztec and one Cascadia, and…read morefor my side, an Avocado Cilantro Lime salad. (I did not understand that 'avocado cilantro lime' is the dressing, not the ingredients of the salad.) My husband uncreatively copied my order, only with a single change - he had one of his Tamales "wet" (with a green sauce). Since my husband asked for one of his "wet", neither came wrapped in the traditional banana leaf. (Both of mine were wrapped together in one leaf, so that might explain it - they get treated as a pair.) Oddly, though he asked for green sauce, there was only a white sauce visible. Though the container was filled with a sauce, too, which probably was the green sauce. He said it had a "touch" of heat, but not enough to really make a difference. I'm not that familiar with tamales, but I did enjoy these. We both would have enjoyed some sort of actual hot sauce, but even without it, these were quite tasty.

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    California Tacos and Fresh Juices

    4.3(391 reviews)
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    I asked for crispy chicken tacos, they are " crunchy" on the menu. Thank you for a true, crunchy…read moretaco de pollo. Gracias, por mi abuela's taco, bueno! Gracias I highly recommend the crunchy taco here, the only place in town that does them right. Thank you all so much, I'll be back. George

    Ok, California Tacos -- we are on strike two. I stopped there today for a quick takeout lunch. I…read morewent up to the register to order and in the middle of the transaction, the woman at the register answers the phone and proceeds to take the caller's order while I wait. Normally, I would expect the cashier to ask a caller to wait until our transaction was complete. I handed her my credit card and my burrito punch card to record my purchase. She handed back my credit card and the beeper. When my order was ready, she walked the bag over to me. When I got to my car, I noticed I didn't have my punch card, so I went back in and asked for it. The cashier began to argue with me that she had given the card back, but I said I didn't have it. I asked her for a new card, she still argued. Then she grabbed a new card and punched it once and tossed it down. I told her it had 5 punches on it and she begrudgingly punched it 4 more times. Let me clarify that this is my third punch card with this restaurant, and the card is full with 10 punches. I'm have literally spent hundreds of dollars here. But I will not tolerate good food with crappy customer service. Ok, end of rant!

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    Don Samuel Mexican Grill & Tequila Bar - Logo

    Don Samuel Mexican Grill & Tequila Bar

    3.3(19 reviews)
    2.6 mi

    I am giving them a 3 star only because they are new. If I had this type of an experience at an…read moreestablished restaurant, I would have given them a 1 star. Perhaps things will improve over time. My son and I decided to try out the new Mexican restaurant in Ferndale, and that was a mistake. First for reference the restaurant wasn't that busy, they had 5 tables with customers (counting us), and 2 wait staff serving those 5 tables. The first thing we noticed was that the service was really slow, then we noticed that between the two wait staff one of them was doing a really good job and the other was really slow and far less attentive. The service was super slow to even take our drink orders, another group than came in after us had their drinks before our waiter even took our order. After a while we noticed that the tables on the other side of the restaurant were getting chips and salsa, but not on our side of the restaurant. Apparently with our waiter chips and salsa were items that needed to be ordered, rather than just bringing them to the table at first contact like the other waitress did. This really lacked any type of theme. The bar area had some Mexican tequila, but as far as the theme, it looks like a big warehouse that was converted to a dance hall that is now being used as a restaurant. For ambiance in the restaurant they had a TV with a message on it from Pandora saying "Are you still listening", which makes me think that they had some type of music on, but that Pandora timed out on the streaming. My son (22 years old) described it as cafeteria style seating and that it felt like eating in a cafeteria, not a Mexican restaurant. Perhaps that's enough, but next came the food. Looking around the restaurant as we were seated I notice that all the plates on the other tables looked like huge piles of rice and beans, and I wasn't in the mood for a massive pile of rice and beans, so I decided to order the Taco Salad. The salad was describe as this "Taco Salad: Lettuce, tomato, cilantro, and choice of meat topped with sour cream and avocado". Ok, that sounded really good to me, and there was even an option to get it topped with carne asada, or carnitas for a minimal extra charge. Yumm, that sounds good. Well when it arrived, perhaps a better name for it would have been the rice bowl. It was one of those tortillas fried in the shape of a bowl. It was mostly filled with Mexican rice, and it was topped with a light sprinkling of lettuce, cheese, salsa, guacamole and ranch dressing. Now keep in mind that the whole reason that I ordered the salad was that I didn't want a pile of rice or beans, and what did I get, the salad "rice bowl" that was mostly rice, and barely salad. So then I wanted to bring it up with them that I had not ordered the rice bowl, and that I was expecting salad items in my salad, and not a pile or rice. However it wasn't until after my son had finished his meal and we were ready to leave that they even came back to check on things. When it came time to pay, they didn't seem to know how to use their credit card machine, and after fumbling around with my credit card for a while, they said that they could only take cash. My rating (scale of 0 to 5): * Atmosphere... 0, its a warehouse space. * Service... 1, the service from our waiter was horrible, it appeared that the waitress did a good job with her tables. * Cleanliness... 5, the area was very clean. * Food... 2, maybe its just me to think that a rice bowl is not a salad. Perhaps they need some time to work out the kinks, train the staff to be service oriented, improve the atmosphere and for the chef to learn how to prepare what is stated on the menu. Give it a while, but for now I wouldn't recommend Don Samuel Mexican Grill & Tequila Bar. Any of the other Mexican restaurants in Ferndale or Bellingham would be a better choice.

    This restaurant/nightclub in Ferndale was an unexpected delight Pacific highway and industrial…read moreroad. It is north of Pacific Commons Center. The two of us were amazed by the attentiveness of the server, and both owners. Charming people and good food. This place gets packed on Thursday nights when they have line dancing ($5 cover includes instruction) and often has specialty international and Latin music in many saturdays. Sunday's they have family style events and karaoke. There is ample free parking and easy access from Pacific highway.

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    Outlaws Saloon - Shot menu!!

    Outlaws Saloon

    3.3(25 reviews)
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    On a recent Saturday I headed north to Ferndale for a friend's 50th bday soiree at a popular local…read moreMexican restaurant. After sipping on some margaritas and nomming a quesadilla, we all headed to the after-affair at nearby Outlaws. Confession: even though I'm a dive bar fanatic and lived in nearby Bellingham for many years, I had never been to Outlaws before! Well, now I'm kinda regretting that. This place is what you'll find in a lot of dive bars: kinda dark, but with a lot of neon, and a lot of locals hanging out on a weekend night. In other words, it was perfect! Having already enjoyed a couple of margaritas and facing a long drive home later, I settled on a pint of my trusty fave, Mac 'n Jacks, while the bday crowd enjoyed a variety of shots and (apparently very strong) cocktails. We played some pool, sat around their HUGE communal table, and just enjoyed each other's company while the 80s tunes played and the bar filled up. While I didn't get to try any food while I was here, there are rumors going around that their wings are amazing - so next time I'm up that way, I'll have to check 'em out.

    Its a dive bar....so it's a fun night. I came for the mechanical bull but was told it was no longer…read morehere. Apparently some liability issue from previous time. No more mechanical bull and shuffle board. The only thing left is a pool table. Came to celebrate a friend's birthday. Bartenders are great there and met some regulars who seem great too. Try one or two shots off their shot menu. Too many and some never heard of. Per the Bartender she only need the shot number not the name. Wish they had some live music or a juke box but maybe they do and we were too busy talking and playing pool to notice or dance. Can't wait to go back for another fun night.

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    Nopal Mexican Restaurant - bars - Updated July 2026

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