La Barrenada Restaurant

The food here was delicious! I think they are known for their red snapper because they serve red snapper burrito and red snapper fish and chips. I ordered the garlic shrimp burrito, it was super garlicky and the shrimp was cooked perfectly. I don’t like over cooked shrimp, it becomes too chewy. Friendly service but on the slow side. I would recommend coming here while visiting the boardwalk. Have a good day!

We came here because we didn’t want all the fried foods that you’d find on the Boardwalk and it was just across the street. The food is a bit on the expensive side for Mexican food, but it is in a touristy area. There are lots of sticky tables and chairs available (turn over is fast as well) for use. While you wait, they have free chips & salsa to munch on. Having worked in the Mission in SF, the food was no where near as good, but wasn’t horrible. Really liked their horchata though.

Wow pretty surprised by the reviews.
I came here in November cos it was close to the boardwalk & I wanted a fish taco. Really hit the spot after running across the beach 1,000 times. The waitress was super nice. Just ordered the taco and it was decent … they brought salsa & chips which were also fine. Nice little snack at a nice little place.

Tiny little spot near the boardwalk. Food was decent and priced right. Not a bad place to grab a quick bite to eat.

The location is a good one, the place seemed nice enough and the staff were friendly however I highly recommend staying away from EVERYTHING on the menu. I’ve eaten all sorts of strange stuff around the world and it takes a lot to make me squeamish. I’ve only ever had something I couldn’t chew up and swallow twice and this was one of those times. I’m not sure what it was but it had hepatitis or botulism written all over it. I will say that I’m extremely thankful that I’ve had hepatitis vaccines. It took a couple days but I was sitting on the toilet with a trash can in front of me. Whatever it was that went into the seafood salad I had was BAD, not cleaned and stored properly or something. I’ve eaten at weird places in Mumbai India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Iraq, etc without incident but I got sick from this.

It’s like the only place to get a taco or burrito near the boardwalk. And its decent enough. In fact, the food was totally reasonably priced. The drinks, though, were crazy expensive.
Check it, 1 chicken taco plate (which was good), 1 super carnitas burrito (good but way too much rice and not nearly enough carnitas), 2 baby bean and cheese burritos (both enjoyed by the kids); 1 bottle of coke, 1 can of 7 up, and 2 apple juices — $ 32.
$ 11 of that was how much we paid for drinks! Does that sound weird?
Anyway, you can do better, but if you’re already parked, you’re fine with this place. Just bring your own water.

OMG one of the girl here is such a smart mouth !
i asked for chilli verde and she question me and say you mean salsa verde? i looked at all my friends and im like seriously? so after she corrected she went to get some one elses order and she actually said chlli verde ! i coulnd believe it !!! stay away from this place i know there isnt a lot restaurant around here but make sure you have the patience to deal with their customer service !

I don’t think this place deserves the two-​star rating. I’m not sure what people were expecting of this place, but I enjoyed my time here and would come back.
This place is busy, being at a very prominent spot by the boardwalk. However, the turnover on the tables is quick, so you only need to wait a little bit to seat yourself.
For Mexican food, this place is a bit expensive — but the selections are huge. I got the shrimp burrito, and this was the most massive thing ever.
The servers come with your food, and they are super nice, checking multiple times to make sure we are good, even with the line to the cashier stretching to the door. The food was decent. Would be 4-​stars if it wasn’t for the price, but nonetheless, this is a great place for no-​frills food to satiate the belly.

D’oh! Did NOT look up reviews before going here.
I appreciate that this was one of the few restaurants open late and it’s walking distance from the Boardwalk, but that’s about it.
+ Huge portions
+ Plenty of seating
+ The staff busing and cleaning the tables were efficient (as we watched them for the 40 minutes we were waiting for our food)
+ Free chips & salsa brought to your table while you wait
— Expensive
— Disinterested/​discombobulated staff taking orders
— They forgot our order (we got served after the group before us FINISHED EATING) and didn’t receive any explanation or apology as to why
— Requested two cups of water and they sold us two bottles of water
— We were overcharged (see above) and I overheard another family behind us being charged the wrong amount, too. WATCH YOUR RECEIPT HERE. Also, if paying by credit card, they do not give you an itemized receipt, only a copy of the signature slip.
Food:
Carne Asada Nachos– not great, not really memorable. It was huge, though.
Fish Tacos– salty, big portion, but not great.
When we came in, there were about 3 groups that knew one waitress that worked there, which makes me think their only business is from people that they know. And unsuspecting tourists who forgot to check Unilocal.
Wouldn’t come back and wouldn’t recommend to anyone.

Extremely slow service, creepy customers and my Carnitas Super Burrito tasted swiney (if you’ve ever had bacon in Ireland, you’ll know what I mean). Yucka.

I thought we’d be smart and not eat at the Boardwalk to save money. Ha! I was soo wrong! At least the food on the Boardwalk was flavorful.
I got the garlic shrimp plate: it was overcooked and flavorless. Seriously, no salt was added. Just garlic. I’m ok with low sodium, but this was pretty bad.
Dude got the steak fajita because they ran out of chicken. I could make better at home. The steak was super tough and stringy. Also flavorless.
Of course, we spent more money because we went back to the Boardwalk to eat.

Shrimp quesadilla! Yum.
They don’t give you guacamole or sour cream tho. Only refried beans, Spanish rice, and lettuce. Bare minimum. Not the best Mexican restaurant but it satisfied our drunken appetites. Probably wouldn’t come here again though.

My mistake for not looking up reviews. It was dreadful… Got our money back and went elsewhere. A quick peek in the back reviled a bank of microwaves.
AVOID… the resulting diarrhea is not worth it.

The fish tacos were possibly the freshest, most flavorful I’ve ever had. Two good sized grilled fish tacos (red snapper) came with a healthy serving of delicious refried beans and rice, chips and salsa, all for under $ 10.
Order placed at counter with friendly helpful staff. Time of day was late lunch, so restaurant was not busy. Chips and salsa were delivered to table relatively fast. Server said our tacos would be up momentarily.
Food was delivered timely, hot with very fresh ingredients. Server came by again to see if everything was fine.
I’d definitely go back.

La Barrenada was my attempt to find a new taqueria to replace the old and bland ones I’ve been going to for the past 3 years.
I went here this weekend so it was off-​season and not packed.
This place looked promising enough. A vegetarian menu, large menu with colorful pictures that looked really appetizing. I ordered the double vegetarian taco plate and my bf got the regular veggie burrito.
No one was before or after us, though there were about 3 other men in the restaurant. The food was expensive. $ 7 for two veggie tacos. and the drinks were even more – $ 2.25 for a Jarrito? and $ 4.50 for a large horchata? gross.
After waiting 15 minutes, my bf’s burrito came out. What were they doing in the back? joking around? there is nothing but beans, lettuce, tomato, salsa, rice and guac in there. Most taquerias can wrap that up in 5 minutes tops with a line out the door.
I had to wait an additional 5 minutes for my tacos to come out. When they did, I was so disappointed… they were the tiniest taco shells I’ve ever seen. The «double» taco advertisement is such a scam when two tacos here is the equivalent of 1 large taco at las palmas.
Anyway, the actual taco itself was pretty yummy. fresh lettuce and tomatoes, and savory taste.
the 2 guys who arrived before us, did even get there order until after we did… so they waited at least 20 minutes for their food. and it wasn’t even crowded!
overpriced, time-​consuming, and a petty quantity of decent tasting food. the Unilocal hivemind has spoken

Muy bueno. Al pastor es tabien. Quesadilla con camerones e ajo es número uno. La mesera very nice and friendly… sorry, ran out of Spanish. Very nice after a day on the boardwalk!

Bad cashier, good food.
We waited in line to simply place an order for like a half hour! That’s ridiculous. The lady in front of us got close to punching the cashier (would have been entertaining honestly) but luckily for the cashier she didn’t. We finally got to the counter and the cashier walked away. For no reason she just left. There were at least 5 people waiting behind us and we had been there for like 30mins and she just leaves. Eventually, she came back and took our order. She was rude the whole time and had a lot of attitude.
In the end we got great, filling, pretty cheap food. 4 stars for the taste/​location.

Came here for lunch on 4^th of July with bffl and her family. This is based on the chicken quesadilla and the slow service.
Chicken quesadilla tasted bland. It came with a spoon full of guacamole, sour cream, and lettuce. The cheese they used was so thick! And the cheese was not spread out.
Best thing: It took 25 minutes for us to get our order.

Wasn’t as good as I hoped. I was starving, ordered the chicken burrito combination plate. It was advertised on their menu as coming with rice, beans, tortilla’s, and a salad. I got my burrito, the beans and rice, and when inquiring about this, was told that the tortilla the burrito was contained in was the actual tortilla that was mentioned on the menu, and that the salad only came with the first item on the «combo plate» menu.
That is not at all what the sign says, but whatever. The food was rather bland, and the rice was really crunchy.
Since I do not drink soda, I asked for a water, and was directed toward two pitchers that had luke warm water in it. No ice. No frills.
They basically are surviving on the income from the Boardwalk, otherwise their business wouldn’t be as profitable and they’d maybe be inspired to change their menu.

We tried the other Mexican place across the boardwalk before and I was not impressed. A friend recommended La Barrenada so decided to try. Unfortunately my chicken taco plate was not very good. The chicken was not flavorful and the tortillas were rubbery. The beans and rice were ok but did not help make the plate any better!
Prices here were also expensive, considering its right near the Boardwalk. makes sense but still would not pay $ 7.50 for a taco plate next time. Might as well pick up Chipotle and bring to the boardwalk myself!
The service here was friendly but otherwise the food didn’t cut it for me.

I’m still a bit confused on what to rate this place. So I’ll just give them a three and call it a day.
Came here on Thursday morning with a co-​worker. They had just barely opened up (it was around 11 when we showed up) and we were seated right away. The waiter instructed us to order at the cashier, pay, and have a seat and our food would be taken to us.
They have a large menu, everything looked delish! But I opted for some chicken tacos. My friend also wanted me to try a margarita (I don’t drink liquor, I’m a beer type of gal), so I ordered a strawberry margarita. 3 tacos, and a margarita, total was $ 14. Something was wrong with their machine because he must’ve swiped my car a dozen times. Inconvenient (stupid Wells Fargo).
A few moments later, he returned informing my co-​worker and I they were out of strawberry and could whip up a lime margarita. We were fine with that.
Chips were served, and o-​m-​g, the chips was delish! Seemed a bit oily, but perfect for a hot beachy day! Food came, and tacos were good. Nothing too big to brag about. I took a sip of my margarita and almost yacked (my co-​worker took a sip and looked like she was in Heaven). Went to the waiter and told him I was having a hard time drinking the liquor and if I could just get a beer instead. He exchanged it with no problem, though I think I did pay a bit more for the margarita than the price of the beer and didn’t get refunded (but either way, it was my inconvenience for ordering the margarita and not liking it).
I’ll probably return again when I’m in Santa Cruz again.