The Haute Enchilada Cafe, Gallery & Social Club

Sad really. Went here for fathers day after finding a wayyy too long of a wait of at our favorite seafood restaurant down the street. Our first clue should have been how easy it was to get a table at noon on fathers day.
Strike One: We were seated in about ten minutes after requesting a table on the patio. Once seated we were ignored for 15 minutes. Only after my mother walked to the front and asked for a server did anyone come by… 10 minutes later. So 25 minutes in we ordered our drinks! 2 ice teas 4 waters and a margarita managed to take another 10 minutes to arrive. Over half an hour just to get a beverage? It really did seem like we specifically were being ignored as people after us had already been served appetizers.
Strike Two: My mother ordered crab cakes. What were served more resembled vegetable patties? They contained carrots, and had a sweet flavor one would expect from sweet potatoes or overcooked carrots. And worst of off there did not appear to be any recognizable crab. The owner even stated «we do not use lump crab» we found this very strange as that is how one makes a crab cake. The crab cakes really just resembled patties of fried pureed vegetables with an extreme sweet flavor reminiscent of baby food.
Strike Three: My girlfriend ordered a burrito which was supposed to contain saffron rice, chicken, chorizo and deep fried avocado. First of all the burrito was served on a plate of cold sauce which made the burrito cold and soggy. Then after several bites of nothing but rice she decided to open the burrito and look inside. It was shocking she found two tiny pieces of children and ONE tiny peice of chorizo and ton of rice. Not what you expect from a 17 $ burrito. But even if the rice had been good all would not have been lost. Unfortunately the rice was wayyyy overcooked mixed with peas and while yellow bore no semblance to any saffron rice any of us had seen before.
Strike Four: I ordered a pork super burrito. And it was super full of over cooked rice. It was almost as if they cooked the rice in a slow cooker and left it there all day (week?) to continue over cooking. Then the meat (what there was of it, there was about two tablespoons of meat to go with my three cups of overcooked rice) was dry stringy and tasted like nothing but sugar. Then there was the red salsa which tasted like tomato and vinegar. That was it there was zero flavor in anything that even vaguely reminded me of Mexican cuisine.
Strike 5: My father ordered a dish (cannot remember what it was called) which was supposed to have a over easy egg on top. His egg came over hard and was very disappointing.
Over all hands down worst Mexican food I have seen. And some of the worst food in general. They don’t seem to know any seasoning except sugar and can’t even cook decent rice? In the end we complained and in the end the owner stopped by to ask what was wrong when we told her the above complaints she said «this just how we make crab cakes and we have served these crab cakes for years». When asked about the lack of meat in the burritos the only comment was «at least you got to taste the meat». And when asked about the terrible service we were told repeatedly «that’s just the nature of the beast». This is an owner in denial and we felt like we were on an episode of kitchen nightmares. Bad restaurant, bad food, bad service and a bad attitude. The best part about our meal here is we didnt pay for it the Owner wound up
comp’ing the food. But did so with an attitude like we just wanted a free meal. Do yourself a favor and stay from this overpriced, sticky sweet, not remotely mexican excuse for a restaurant.

Super cute that the owner sent me a message that she was sending me a gift certificate to come «try them out again». A week later I realized it was all a scam. We live 2 hours away… postal mail should have arrived days ago. I called her on it… .her response: «gift certificate is off the table». Alrighty. Why bother to attempt to make amends. So strange. We were over you weeks ago! never ever ever ever. Go at your own risk is my only advice to anyone who attempts to dine at this joint.
FYI Kathy K and Carson L and others who have experience the atrocity that is the HAUTE Enchilada!

Disappointing is an understatement for our experience at this restaurant yesterday. It was Father’s Day and, knowing its popularity, I called early in the week for a reservation. I told them we were a party of 8, and wanted to be sure we could get a table; we were advised to arrive before 11:30 and «should be fine». We traveled from Oakland, Half Moon Bay and Monterey, looking forward to a celebratory lunch together.
The trouble began when the hostess informed us that they cannot make room for tables of more than 6 and that we would have to split up. We found adjacent tables inside and asked if we could put them together, but they would not allow it. So we sat six at one table, and put the two kids at the table next to us, all the while trying to ignore the dirty looks from the staff and the woman who appeared to be the proprietor. They even (brusquely) removed a reserved sign from the two top that one of the staff had kindly placed there as we waited for our daughter and her family to arrive. Not exactly the warm welcome we expected.
Our server did her best to take care of us and she alone saved this review from zero stars.
The food was mediocre at best, and overpriced for the portions and quality. My husband’s two small huitlacoche and shrimp enchiladas ($ 26) were skimpy and kind of tasteless, my sister and I ordered the local salmon salad, which was a small piece of overcooked salmon on a pile of (Costco?) spinach with maybe 6 pine nuts (I had to hunt for them) and a vinaigrette ($ 20), the mole enchiladas ($ 19) were deemed pretty good but the black beans side dishes were cooked in a salsa (!) that at least two of us didn’t like. The Brussel sprout salad ($ 15) was the only thing that got an unqualified thumbs up. It took several requests for us to get a side of sour cream for the kids’ quesadillas ($ 8 each), and by the time it arrived, they were no longer hungry. I should mention here that several of us are Mexican citizens, so we know good Mexican food when we eat it. We also know good Mexican hospitality. This was not good on either count. Plus, it’s a Mexican restaurant — they shouldn’t discriminate against larger families!
When the bill came, we were stunned. More than $ 215, before tip, including a very annoying $ 2.50 surcharge for the sour cream. To be fair, that included a sangria and three Bloody Mary’s, but still… $ 26 for 2 skimpy enchiladas?
Even our departure left a bad taste in our mouth. When my sister tried to thank the hostess for trying to accommodate our «large» group, she did not even acknowledge her. And the final irony is that the whole time we spent there, there were several nearby unoccupied tables.
We’ve been to Haute Enchilada on other occasions, and chose it because it promised good food, a nice atmosphere and family-​friendly prices. To a person, none of us will ever be back.
They seriously need to look at their attitude.

This place looks good when you walked inside. But you look around their more waiter and waitress than people. The menu was overpriced. The food was terrible. (Cold, Small portions, and no taste like what the menu describes) Don’t waste your money. Live and learn experience especially you see the Owner come in with her black poodle dog and place it on a customer’s table while customers are eating inside. Very UN– sanitary, against the health code law. on 06 11 2016 and then they use the same towel to clean other customers table off as the one were the dog sat on. Live and learn save your money. This is what we ordered not what was expected when received:
2 Haute Enchiladas Al Mole 18.95 (Gluten free, nuts & seeds), Petite Tamale Trio 16.95, Octopus Cadiz Salad 16.95, House Mixed Baby Green Salad with choice of dressing 8.95

I just so happened to come upon this eatery on my way back to my hotel in Monterey from Santa Cruz, of course at the suggestion of Unilocal,and it was very nice! I would agree with the previous ratings it has received. The staff was very attentive and friendly, and the food was very good as well! I did not feel rushed as you do in some restaurants! It is very nicely decorated with a lot of colorful art! I would definitely recommend it!

Sitting here on the beautiful patio of The Haut Enchilada enjoying a wonderful Happy Hour margarita and creative appetizers. So reasonable for such good food and drinks! Our dog is with us and treated well by the staff. Now we’ve had dinner: crab cakes and sand dabs. The crab cakes were a bit salty but tasty. My husband loved his sand dabs. And to top it off we shared a very yummy piece of carrot cake. We will return!

Blonde and I were wandering around Cali and decided to stop in. wow. so damn glad that we did.
Had the green tamal soup with the mini tamales and poblano bisque. fantastic. Deep flavors and the tamales cut up into the soup made it awesome.
The blond had the shrimp Ibiza while I had the Paella.
The blond couldn’t stop talking about how good the shrimp was and I concur cause I got plenty of samples.
The Paella was fantastic and made it into the top 5 of my paella list, only behind Paella I’ve head in Lisbon and Barcelona. the chorizo in it was very tasty and not so powerful that it took away from the rest of the ingredients.
They have a pretty extensive list of tequilas which the blond tried one in her Marquita.
When I come back this way I’m stopping back in that’s for sure!
*** Google sux. this took twice as long to type because it wanted to make me use words it didn’t like. pile of crap Android

We had a great afternoon stop here on the way from Santa Cruz to Monterey. Traffic was slow in this area like usual for a weekend, so I used that time in the car to call ahead and put our name in for a table, which the hostess happily did. That was worth it, to get a coveted shady table outside on a sunny afternoon at 3pm. Great menu with gourmet edge, and 2 – 3 vegetarian options, $ 12 – 19 per entrée, we both brought home enough leftovers for another meal. The desserts are on display in a glass case inside the front door, excellent chocolate cake, cheesecake, coconut cake, etc. The art gallery is around back in another bldg across the lot, variety of local artists $ 30 – 2000.

The food is good, décor is cute, and the hostess is very nice… But the service is terrible! We waited ten minutes for our waitress to take our drink order. We gave our order at the same time as our drink order was taken. I order guacamole to start but it never came. Our waitress brought out our food and I reminded her of our guac. She brought it out with chips and salsa with no apologies. Once our bill came we saw an up charge for chips and salsa. That we never ordered! And I only ate it because she brought it out! I would have liked to know it was an additional charge! We asked about the charge on our bill and she explained that she assumed we wanted chips and told us it would be removed from the check, but when we got it back we were still charged us for chips! I know it sounds petty, but I’ve worked in the food industry before and this is not how you treat a customer! The food was good, but over priced. The waitress we had was unapologetic and could careless about her service!

Patio dining is a must. Soothing ambiance. Food is amazing! All fresh and uniquely prepared. I loved every dish brought out to us. Can’t wait to try more

We chose this place for lunch after we did a tour of Elkhorn Slough, because it had some gluten free options (my mother-​in-​law has Celiac). We sat in the beautiful outside seating area. When I saw the menu, I was a bit hesitant as most items were $ 15-​$ 20, I thought the entrees might be on the smaller side. Surprise! They were not. I had the Rosemary Chicken Panini. It had roasted veggies on it, and fresh feta cheese. I choose a side spring salad instead of fries. My son had the Pork Cubano (2 Eggs sunny side up, pork carnitas all mounted on top of spanish rice & black beans, topped w/​salsa verde, Queso cotija & roasted jalapeño), two others had the Super Burrito (one pork, one roasted veggie). They were indeed large. My hisband ordered the Spicy Tsunami Sandwich (Pork carnitas on a crusty bolillo, cabbage, pickled red onion, shaved radish, drenched in fire roasted Salsa, drizzled with sour cream and scoop of avocado.). My mother in law ordered one of the specials, Italian Eggs Benedict (Gluten free)
(2 Poached eggs served on top of a polenta wedge organic spinach sautéed with tomato and onion topped with house made Hollandaise sauce dusted with smoked paprika
crumbled no nitrate bacon). My husband’s mom declared it the best Eggs Benedict she’s ever had.

Such a delightful dining experience, We were lucky to have Kim and her husband there this evening. We were greeted by Kim and were seated at a perfect table. (Love Her). Our server was spot right on, almost as if she knew what we wanted. We all had a different items on the menu. Great food, service, and the best time.

I had been looking forward to eating here for almost a year. I’m on the fence. Drinks were excellent. Enchiladas were just ok. I thought the green sauce was way too tangy but after requesting and adding creama (sour cream) to them they were much better. Black beans were great. Rice… blah. Trio of soups were also just… ok.
Service was awesome and that makes up for much, no matter where you are.

Stopped in here with my friend who lives in Moss Landing. I had no idea this cute place existed. We sat at the bar and had a really nice margarita. We ordered a couple dishes. my friend insisted we order the mole. We also ordered the octopus appetizer/​salad. The octopus was super tender and melts in your mouth! The mole was good for mole made from bullion. It would be much better if the stock is made from scratch… but really I still enjoyed it. I definitely will be back to try other dishes!

Far, far and away the finest upscale Mexican cuisine you will be able to find anywhere. This is not a case where you go order a modest plate in order to keep the check total down. No, you go and order your most favorite indulgent dish and prepare to be swept away.
I’ve had the chance to try a little bit of everything here. TAMAL SOUP filled with chile poblano bisque is as fine and rejuvenating a soup as I’ve had. MACHU PICCHU featuring rock cod roasted within wheat flour and organic egg and topped by crispy plantains elevates normal fish taste into something sublime. HAUTE ENCHILADAS features a torrid Al Mole sauce that gets your higher senses wagging. And next time, I myself plan to return to the SKIRT STEAK SAN BARTOLO which is bathed in Oaxacan black bean sauce, and has a perfect flamed outside and chewy but tender pink inside. Desserts and wines are no joke either, don’t rush out.
This is all at seaside Moss Landing, CA, which is twenty-​five minutes north of Monterrey. The splendid outside patio has a fountain, New Mexico style garden and meticulously painted furniture and backdrops, and of course, the whisk of the Pacific hits the nostrils. I love «The Whole Enchilada» restaurant down the street (more conventional, but very good), but when that was so packed and deemed unavailable for two hours, we ended up at «The Haute» and our world changed for the better. Most plates of their cuisine is masterpiece art in design and tongue-​tastic in taste. I was filled with strange, exotic and romantic yearnings by its end. At the same time, I never wanted it to end. #classiceats

Four of us went there after whale watching. The food is fantastic. The combination of flavors went so well together. Each of us had something different.
Crab and Huitlacoche — great
Chicken and beef enchiladas — great
Ceviche and Calamari — great
I forgot the name of what I had but it was called spicy something. It was a carnitas sandwich– great

We were en route to Monterey and we had a great leisurely lunch at this cute café and gallery just off the main marina area in Moss Landing. Somehow, turning a corner lost a lot of the crowd for a nicer atmosphere for lunch.
We ate off the small plates menu, which was sufficient for a light lunch. We had a watermelon mojito, trio of tamales — including one in mole sauce — and a trio of soups. The soups were artichoke bisque, poblano chile bisque and chicken tortilla soup. Service was great but not quick, so come for a relaxed lunch. We ate on the shaded outdoor patio. You can eat inside too. They have an extensive beer, wine and cocktail menu.
In case you are wondering, the same family owns this place and The Whole Enchilada down the street.

The BEST place to eat in Moss Landing! Absolutely delicious food. Great booze bar. Nice selection of wines by the glass. A few hand crafted beers.
The front yard dining patio is dog friendly. And the patio is in a pretty garden setting. Enjoy it on a nice warm day rather than sit inside.
Menu is more adventurous than the average Mexican joint. And the food is well made, pretty on the plate and oh so satisfying.
Service is adult, smart and friendly.
Highly recommended.

After trying to get a table at the ridiculously way too popular Phil’s Seafood in Moss Landing, we gave up and looked for something much more calming and enjoyable. We found Haute Enchilada Café and were we glad we did! Adorable outdoor patio with nice shady tables covered by umbrellas, and very dog friendly. So we hoped the food was as good as it sounded on the menu. Surprise! It was excellent. I had their special Relleno salad, with a salmon stuffed «unfried» chili, quinoa, and assorted greens. It was delicious. Hubby had the fresh sand dabs in a light lemon cream sauce and fried. Prices were very reasonable, service was great as well. Very happy to have found this place. They also have a nice art gallery out back.

Very expensive for what we received. My $ 17 Shrimp and catch of the day ceviche had 6 shrimp and 6 small pieces of fish with a ton of hominy and carrots??? Skirt steak was EXCELLENT. $ 13 for a 4 oz. Chardonnay was crazy. $ 13 for a top shelf Margarita with very little Grand Marnier was a disappointment! Waitress, Lindsey was GREAT but food and drinks were very slow coming. Will rethink going back.
Thank you Kim, for your response. We WILL try again for brunch as the prices were more in our budget. Perhaps offer chips and salsa for free as an incentive. Our party of 4 asked for one basket more and two salsas total and were surprised with the $ 10 charge on our bill. Most restaurants will provide chips and salsa for no charge. And I’ve never been charged for and additional salsa at other restaurants. Just a thought. Thank you!