This place sucks, those from out of town wont know any better… When the lease was given over to a company from the east coast(that claimed they would make it more authentic) they ruined the place. Go to Old Town, see the sights, but boycott this shitty place. Now it’s just a lame crippled shadow of what it once was. BTW you will find better shops and restaurants outside of the park itself.
Jenni G.
Place rating: 2 San Diego, CA
This place is alright … the house margaritas are a shocking glowing yellow /green color which was a little alarming. Service was pretty slow and everyone was starving by the time the food came out, so no one was very critical. My tamales were OK, but were very skimpy on the meat inside. With so many places to try in Old Town, I doubt I’ll be back here
Hideki K.
Place rating: 5 New York, NY
«Plaza Del Pasado = SD’s Best CaliMex», says the East Coaster. Located within the park in San Diego’s Old Town is Plaza Del Pasado. The wait is supposed to be insanely long, but my friends and I got lucky with no wait(probably b/c it was Memorial Day). Everything was good here, even their salsa for the complimentary chips. There must be crack inside of them because they were crazy addictive. There is live music here and the margaritas are entertaining. By entertaining, I mean they come in ridiculously huge, scorpion bowl type sizes. I had the fish tacos here. Next time I’m in town, I’ll be back here. It may be a little touristy, but it’s a fun time at Plaza Del Pasado.
Chris C.
Place rating: 3 Union City, CA
This is one of those places you will never come across while driving around. Located in Old Town, the only way that you know that Plaza Del Pasadois is if you come here. Plaza Del Pasado kind of reminds me of the cantinas that you will find in resort towns in Mexico. Nice outdoor feeling with a nice and festive feel too it with lots of American tourists. The atmosphere is friendly and a good spot to meet an old high school buddy while I was traveling in San Diego. We got here and the line was long. We probably waited about 30 minutes before we got in, the people behind us were probably waiting about an hour plus. We were watching the lady make hand made tortillas and chips, so we knew that would be fresh. We finally got called and made our way to the seats. Looking over the menu they have quite a nice selection of mexican food. Prices here are what you expect for a tourist stop so expect to pay a little bit more. For the most part you’re looking at between $ 8 — $ 15 for most items. We all put in our order for food and margaritas and chatted away. The one thing I noticed is that service is a bit slow here. It took a while to get our chips, then the margaritas, and finally the food. The 3 of us went through close to 2 baskets of chips and salsa(which were quite good and fresh) before our food arrived. The food came and I give them credit for portion size, lots of food. I ended up getting the fish tacos which were pretty good. Nice amount of fish in there seasoned just right. My fiancé got the veggie fajitas and there were also good. My friend said his burrito was good too. The margaritas that nice were decent, good amount of flavor to it. Overall we ended up spending about $ 70 for the 3 of us including tip. Food here was good, but on the expensive side. While the service was friendly, it was also slow. I think we were here for close to 1.5 hours. And honestly, I think about 30 minutes was the max I would wait to eat here, if it was longer, I’m sure there are many mexican places in San Diego that offers comparable food and atmosphere. Overall many positives and a couple minuses gets Plaza Del Pasado 3 star rating.
Mikaela H.
Place rating: 3 Yorba Linda, CA
This restaurant is located smack-dab in the middle of Old Town. We were walking around, got hungry obviously, and decided to try the place out. Right off the bat, the servers were already friendly and always very accomodating even though it was very busy. I believe it is outdoor seating only. So if you are like me, and birds(any animal/insect is accurate, too) freak you out, then don’t eat here. It being outdoors, small birds are everywhere– even landing on your table, a foot away from your plate– looking for crumbs. But it IS San Diego so there are plenty of mexican restaurants around, of course. The food was mediocre. The best one was the complimentary salsa they give before the actual meal comes. I kind of wish I tried one of the other ones. I suggest you do just that.