disappointed, we came to celebrate my son's graduation, the appetizer was good, the hostess that serve us was very polite and attentive, she took our order, the manager came to our table, he was very nice and respectful! great customer service from hostess and manager however the server was not nice, kind of rude, and it felt he was not happy and bother to be there. We didn't order dinner because of that and left disappointed. read more

We happened to be in the area with no idea where to get my dinner. We came into this restaurant with no knowledge. It is a great surprise how both food and drink are. We sat at bar because it was the fastest to get the seat. Bartenders were so attentive and friendly. Bartender Lauren is so cute, gave us great recommendation with drinks, chat with us for local information. Food (tacos, guacamole, octopus) all taste great with generous portion. Actually you should think one order for two people. All and all, this is a great place to check out if you are in the area read more

I would like to say that the location itself is beautiful and the food was ok. Where I have a problem is that I walked up to the bar to get a drink and received the slowest service ever. I would have to stand in a line for a crazy amount of time to get to the front of the bar and the line was never too long but the time it took for them to serve the drinks to everyone was terrible. They would take my drink order and start the drink and in between every ingredient in the drink they would stop and have a conversation with other bartenders. They clearly all hated their job. No one smiled no one ever said thank you and the turn around time on the drinks was horrid. At one point I asked for a water and watched as they took 10 minutes to put ice in a glass and fill it with water. They had 3 whole bartenders and they had zero sense of urgency or care in the world to give a service. I would recommend this place if you want to take pretty pictures. I would not recommend this place if you actually want to eat or drink anything as you will be here for hours waiting on the most basic stuff. read more

Great atmosphere and delicious food. Our waitress Yarely was very attentive and gave great customer service. Will be coming back :)

I took my family to Palenque for the first time Saturday night. What a great experience! We started with delicious Cadillac Margaritas! The restaurant itself is gorgeous! The food was so delicious. We ordered Carne Asada and it tasted like filet mignon! It was the best I've had! We also ordered the Birria Barbacoa. Wow, just wow! Definitely try the guacamole! Very unique! The winning dessert was the brownie ala mode. Laz was our server and he took excellent care of us! The staff was friendly and helpful. We didn't stay for the club night but we plan to go back for that. I highly recommend Palenque! read more

A hidden (for now) gem, we had decided last minute to go someplace local as we live just right across the street near 17th st and remembered this place had just opened. Having a wide variety of upscale Mexican cuisine in a relatively small radius in Costa Mesa we were a bit skeptical if this would meet the standards of being a standout place or just another Mexican restaurant. We were not disappointed. The drinks were very good, we ended up ordering the mezcal suavecito and the margarita trio (highly recommend). We started with guacamole and chips which were delicious and ordered the Mole entree and carnitas. Mole can be hit or miss, more so good Mole is definitely hard to come by and wow did Palenque not miss a beat on the Mole. Shout out to our server Laz as well, very professional and attentive, great recommendations on food and drinks. Overall the food, drinks, atmosphere and service were top notch, we can't wait to come back and try out the brunch menu as well. read more

Palenque Kitchen - The margarita trio and suavacito - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

See all

Palenque is a great Modern Mexican Restaurant. The decor of the place is definitely top notch, the lights are dimmed for a perfect setting. Not to mention that the LED lights really bring out the restaurant and gives it it's own astonishing character. Shout to our server Laz, great service and recommendations, one of the most professional servers I have ever came across. For drinks, I got the watermelon margarita, and it was definitely hard to not order more rounds of it. Albondigas are a must for apps. And I had the zarandeado which was a great cut of fish. For dessert, we had the churro with ice cream. It threw me off how it was not a traditional churro (filled churro kinda like a sandwich) but it doesn't matter because it was amazing. And that's what's great about the restaurant, it has its own style where you can't find at many other places. The restaurant has great potential, and I'm for sure coming back to check out Brunch. read more

Palenque Kitchen - Watermelon Margarita - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Costa Mesa, California

Amazing food and ambience. The drinks are strong and good. Food is tasty. I ordered the branzino and ceviche and it was delicious 10/10

My family and I went on a Saturday early afternoon. It was dead so I expected service to be fast. The waitress took her time and it felt like we waited a long time to place our order and get served. The drinks took a really long time as well. I was disappointed because it was not busy. I really enjoyed the drinks and the food. I hope next time I go the service is better. read more

Worth the try. Went for a cocktail and apps. Watermelon margarita enjoyable even for a non tequila lover. Had the Guac, pan con queso and molotes. They've bring a dj in some nights and also do a brunch. I'll be back. read more

Came with no expectation and the food was great. Didn't think I'd land a great date night but it was pretty amazing. Staff was awesome, food was cooked perfectly, drinks were well thought out. Thank you. Ps. I hardly write these but this one deserves it. read more

I tried the salmon Al pastor and it was delicious!!! Service is amazing!!! & I 1000% recommend the drinks so delicious!!!

Amazing service. Arrived on time for our reservation and were seated immediately. The La Paloma and Cucumber margarita hit the spot. Had the Tampiquena plate and the steak was amazing. Definitely ordering again. Will be coming back. read more

Great service from Michelle very respectful and helpful the music is a great vibe for a group and the food was great also the drinks

The ambiance was amazing will definitely be back. Michelle provided us great service and was very attentive to our needs.

it's a good time, drinks are great, our server Michelle was amazing! Definitely coming back

Great ambiance for drinks with friends! Definitely recommend the patron tower for drinks, will be coming again

I wanted to try this place and the food taste better then it looks, it was delicious. I love Mexican food!! And tried all the top places PALENQUE is definitely one of my top ones now . everything was great! Michelle was our waitress. She was very friendly and helpful from the moment she brought us drinks til our check . The ambiance was chill cool night vibe read more

Friends and I decided to come to Palenque to celebrate a birthday dinner and called for a reservation in advanced. We also let the person through the phone know that it was going to be a birthday. We arrived to a table, we were greeted and service was good, HOWEVER... If you have the sweetest time of your life, I do recommend this place. Drinks took 25 minutes to come out, food took over 40 minutes, oh and birthday? Nothing. You have to order a dessert, even after letting them know through reservations. They tried charging us for extra things and we had to review the receipt several times to makes sure everything was good. Honestly, place is a vibe, music is great. Wait time, HORRIBLE. And no birthday experience for my friend. Would not recommend for a celebration, but more for a two person outing. read more

5 stars for fun ambiance and service! This spot reminded us of spots of Vegas with fun dance music and great cocktails. Come with friends and have a great night. Alessandro was also such a quick and attentive host, he certainly makes up for any of the previous poor service reviews because we didn't experience that at all. Would come back with friends! read more

Excellent tequila and mezcal selection, margaritas are original and cocktails amazing. Large portions. Super limey salsa. Alec (our server) was excellent read more

Ambiance was a complete vibe. Just the cutest Instagram worthy spot. Food unfortunately was just ok, drinks were definitely better. A little pricey but overall cute new spot. read more

See all

Food was really good the ambiance is amazing! Michelle our server was really tentative and made sure we were accommodated to what we needed!

I went to eat at this place and the Jamaica didn't even taste like jamaica, how horrible

We stopped by here just to get a drink and some food and were pleasantly surprised. The food was very good, the ambiance great for a bar/restaurant and our bartender Lauren was awesome. Highly recommended! read more

This is my second time here and the food is phenomenal! Highly recommend the prawns as appetizer!! it's fire af!!! Birria, carne asada and enchiladas suiza (chicken) all bomb af!! But when you come here make sure to be seated in Laz's section. His service and hospitality is genuine and top notch! read more

This place is super dope, service was flames and food was fire. the drinks were pretty good too.

Shout out to Lauren! Super intensive, and super sweet. Amazing service, and even better food. Drinks were a 10/10!!! Great atmosphere as well. read more

Amazing food amazing service amazing waitress shoutout LAUREN for the drink recommendations and making dinner a fun time !! Give her a raise manager !! She's the flyest read more

Amazing food, drinks, atmosphere, and service! Iban ensured our drinks were full (and delish) and that our food all came out fast and quickly! We will definitely be back! read more

Came in for brunch. From the time our orders were taken, it took 52 minutes before we got our food. The food was salty.

I was excited to come here. We came for brunch. The parking situation was bad so it took a while to even park. The outdoor seating area looked nice. Inside was also very nice. They had a live DJ. The music was good, but too loud for brunch, but I guess it went with the vibe of the bar sitting in the middle. But we had trouble hearing our server at times. The food took longer than expected to come out. And when it did, some of it was cold (the waffles and French toast). The rest of the food was not bad, but it wasn't that great either. The overall flavor of the food wasn't great, it wasn't worth coming and looking for parking. We did all agree that the mollete was very good. We might order that for pick-up if we were in the area. Overall, don't think we'll come back, but at least we crossed this off our list. read more

the best fucking drinks!!!! friddas maggie is bomb!! the service was fast and the bartender i think is cute!

What an absolute disappointment! Went with 2 other couples and dressed up for their evening dance session. Prior to the dancing, we ordered a drink at the bar and then sat and had dinner. Place wasn't full and this was. A Friday night. Our bill was over $400 for dinner (6 of us) plus we each had 2 rounds of drinks at the bar! So we easily spent over $550 at this place. (The server even had charged us for 2 margarita flights which we caught on the bill.) so after dinner we were enjoying our drinks we had ordered from their bar and were listening to the music. Then some rude bouncer dude comes up to us and literally gets in our face and says "you need to finish your drinks and come outside and get in line and pay for the night club. Whaaat? There was like nobody even there! I then asked to speak to a mgr to explain to him that we had just dined there and were finishing our cocktails. The mgr wouldn't even have a conversation with me. He walked right by me and went back outside. In a time & day where restaurants, as a whole, are feeling the economic slowdown and they should be extending ding the olive branch and be appreciative for their guests this place clearly doesn't care or acknowledge that. I've never experienced this level of rudeness from a restaurant ESPECIALLY after dropping good $! Keep in mind this restaurant is in a "revolving door" center where most restaurants last less than 3 years and then disappear. Don't patronize this ungrateful place. They will treat you like they treated us. There are plenty of better restaurants that treat their customers with decency and respect. read more

Delicious food, great ambience, amazing drinks & desserts , the nicest people , y'all should come won't regret it !

Mango margarita is amazing and the food was great! As Jason Segal once said,"The fish tacos there are the ****". Also, the vibes are

5 stars for this new place. We hopped on Yelp and thought the menu was cool so didn't look much further. We were seated right away. First we were wowed by how cool and fun the decor was! Our server Alessandro came over promptly and told us all about the menu. We don't drink right now so unfortunately we couldn't try the cocktails. But the food was INSANE. We got the canpechana tostada crudo and Cameron Al ajillo to share for appetizers. Both blew us away. The shrimp were so tender and the flavor of the sauce was just like nothing I've tasted. The crudo was so different and so tasty! I'm a lemon and hot sauce girl, but I never added anything to these dishes. For dinner my bf has the birria and was so impressed! I was too full for dinner but will definitely be back. Kudos to management. You can tell the staff really cares. Everyone worked as a team and service from start to finish was 11/10. Will be back! read more

See all

This place was super cool, the food was good and our server was nice and on the ball. This place deserves more business and I'm sure it'll get it once more people find out about it read more

Alec was amazing and such a fun and welcoming server. The ceviche and tacos dorados were so crunchy and flavorful. Great date night :)

Unfortunately after weeks of wanting to eat here! It was certainly not a pleasant experience or one I would like to eat here again. The safe fajita dish turned to be saucy, salty and not good. The churros were good but so overpriced, for small portion. Let me say, if the food was good, I would have recommended it cause ambiance is nice and it has a nice vibe. I really wanted it to be a good experience. Let me say, the manager and server were nice and kind. Thank you for being nice and kind. read more