Antojeria Mexicana El Chilar

Not impressed at ALL. I had been craving some GOOD, authentic Mexican food for a while, and sadly there aren’t many good places around here anymore, so I had my boyfriend pick us up some on the way home. Usually I go for the more authentic choices when it comes to Mexican food, but today I was in the mood for a real good super carnitas burrito. I like my carnitas a bit crispy and seasoned well, this meat was not that. The burrito was very bland and was mainly just meat, rice and beans. Super is supposed to have cheese, guacamole, salsa, and sour cream as well. They were very stingy and only a little bit of sour cream literally at the last few bites. Also the salsa verde that I had on the side with the chips was extremely salty which I thought was weird. Won’t be eating here again.

I just recently discovered this place close to my new job. I was happy to see a Mexican place so I strolled on in with a taste for a good enchilada. The man behind the counter told me that the meat is served on the side of the enchilada and not inside of it. UM. OK (confused look on my face). That didn’t sound good, so after viewing their menu, I played it safe and ordered tacos. Both of the people working there look like they are having a bad day and hate everybody. Neither one of them said «hello» when I walked in or «thank you» when I left. They both totally turned me off and I will not be going back there. No wonder there was no line on a busy Wednesday. Hurry up and go out of business so we can get a better restaurant in that space! Won’t be spending my hard earned money in that place!

I really hate giving bad reviews, but not as much as I hate rude customer service!
After shopping next door yesterday my stomach growled with fury, so I figured I’d check out this spot. Bad idea. Horrible attitude from the man behind the counter from the start, but I’m the type of person to give people what I’ve received from them. I work in customer service and it’s shocking that this place is still open. The food isn’t bad, but it’s not spectacular either.
I walk in and this guy just had a negative attitude. You would think he would have been there all day but NOPE! It was 12:00 p.m. After ordering my nachos, I ask if they have a bag. The guy says «we don’t have a bag» in this rude tone. Mind you, they didn’t even ask me if I needed a bag! The woman who made my order was at least making an effort — she got me a bag large enough for my order! Whenever he said no to something, she found a solution.
No. I doubt I’ll be going back. It’s a shame. I like to and try to support local places, but im not spending my hard earned money at a place where I don’t even feel appreciated. Poor woman though! She tried!

Just had a delicious chicken super burrito. Good salsa bar too, spicy!

I was on a mission for a burrito and stumbled upon this place after finding Happy Burrito around the corner closed for the holiday week. I ordered a bean and cheese burrito — easy. But, the beans had a slightly burnt taste to them like they’d been sitting out a while (I DID go in at around 2:30pm, though), and as the star of the show, it left something to be desired. I used salsa (they have an open salsa bar) to try and disguise it. The other thing is the price. I literally got a bean and cheese burrito and it was $ 7.18 with tax. I feel like that is more expensive than had I sat down at a restaurant and ordered the same thing a la cart. It could have also been the time of day that I went in, but it seemed like of the 4 people working in this tiny place, 2 were sitting down, and 2 were busy with other things and it felt like I was inconveniencing them. I am giving a 2^nd star on the review because… well…I ate the burrito. But, I should have just walked back to work when I found Happy Burrito closed and saved my $ 7.18 for 7 burritos at Taco Bell.

The worst! I ordered steak nachos. I WENT at my lunch hour, customer service was OK. But food was NOT. steak in my nachos was chunks of fat that were painful to my teeth. VERY SLOPPY. I will NEVER GO HERE AGAIN.

I I came in they wouldn’t sell me a bag of chips for $ 1 cash five minutes later and Asian woman comes in and they sell her a burrito and don’t give her any trouble they told me I couldn’t buy a bag of chips until the boss thought you then they thought I was standing waiting for the Bossen told me to move out of the way and get out of his store so he cleanl

The doors were wide open at 10am. So I walked in hungry seeking a burrito or enchilada, which I haven’t had for a good while. There was a lady standing in the corner between the wall and the food area talking to a guy wearing an apron who had his back to her. I gave a big smile and said hi. The lady looked at me for a long moment with anger on her face as though I wasn’t supposed to be there, she then said very abruptly «we’re closed!» I said oh! «We open at eleven!» Well I won’t be going back at eleven or any other time. I’d be happy to spend my money elsewhere. So my tummy and purse became happy at
Denny’s.

Ok I wish I would have read all of the reviews first before coming here.
Red flag, when I placed my order the guy behind the counter had a bad attitude. He looked at me and said «yeah». I should have ran right then and there.
Secondly, I ordered the fish taco special $ 10.00, it included two little tacos, rice and beans.
Once I received my food the first think i noticed is I didn’t have a lot of fish. For a whooping $ 10, all i received was a lot of veggies.
Bottom-​line the food was ok, portions were laughable, and the service was poor. If you don’t believe me read the other folks post.
This place will probably be around for another 6 months or so. There’s way to much good competition for poor service, and mediocre food.

Why did Unilocal removed my review of this place? Service is horrible and customers will get ripped off.
I hadn’t been to this place in about a year. Went back today and their super burrito has become regular size and they skimp on fillings. The short dude with a crooked mustache actually yelled 3 salsa max when i attempted to get soem hot saue for my burrito. Service was horrible, he didn;t look like he wanted to be there. He didn’t really wanted to give me my change. Was probably praying that i say keep the $ 2 something change. Tummy starting to feel weird now. Probably beause there’s barely anyone there so the food could be from the day before. I doubt they sell all the food each day. Or maybe it was the bare hand that’s used to wrap my burrito. Stay away. go around the corner if you want decent service!

Food is good so far. However, the elder lady working there always has something rude to say. The first time I asked for a side of Spanish rice and black beans. Not a complicated order. She gives me Spanish rice and pinto beans. I kindly reminded her I wanted black beans and she snapped back at me saying, «Next time, pay attention,» and rolled her eyes. I was shocked she would say something so rude, I had no comment back because I’m not the type of person to snap back. I gave her the benefit of the doubt thinking she was maybe having a bad day — although that’s no excuse to give poor customer service. That was strike one, until today. I had 3 meals I wanted to order on the phone for my company. I called twice and was hung up on. I walked over to order and the man was very sweet and accommodating. The same elder lady was there and snapped at me again saying, «Next time order on the phone!» Really?! I told her that I had called and I was hung up on and she had no response.
ONE star for poor customer service.

This is the place to go when you’re in Oakland. We discovered this place while I was receiving treatment at the nearby acupuncture school.
We have had both steak burritos and tacos. Both are satisfying and flavorful. The green sauce is particularly good. The meat is very high quality. Service is fast.
Right across the street from Liba Falafel, another favorite.

Burritos and I took a break from each other for a while, so it had been several months since I was regularly visiting this place. Man, the two times I’ve been back recently have been such a disappointment – my burritos felt empty and floppy, and something was crunchy inside that wasn’t supposed to be? The rice maybe? Dear god I hope it was just the rice.
Anyway, I hope this place gets its act back together. I want to love you again.

The tacos were minimally edible at least, which was good because I needed something to cover the bad taste in my mouth after interacting with the awful man behind the counter.
The back story: I came here hungry, and with sticky hands after driving on a long road trip. There are no bathrooms or customer hand washing facilities here — so, after ordering, I asked the cashier/​food preparer/​guy-​behind-​the-​counter if I could use the hand wash sink right behind the cash register.
«Absolutely not!»
Well, fair enough — I’m sure the health code wouldn’t approve. «Could you just wet a few paper towels and give them to me?»
…angry stare and silence.
Wow — ok, not gonna happen. I poured a plastic cup of water from the water cooler and took it to the gutter to rinse off my sticky hands, while angry-​man-​behind-​the-​counter slopped some grey carne asada from a chafing dish into tortillas.
Upon finishing, and before passing over my food, he decided to start talking again: «See how you were using your phone? That’s why we don’t let you wash your hands, you just contaminate them again!»
So? If you want tasty Mexican food, look elsewhere. But if you want an angry lecture on HAACP, this is your place!

As I stood in line I watched the guy prepare food and there was no hand wash process in between making other food and when the lady notice he put onions on after not asking for them he put his hands in the food to remove the onions This place is horrible from the customer service to food, theses guys are not cooking food in the restaurant, there’s not even a kitchen, and when you ask where do they cook there food they get mad and ask you to leave this is not the type of Mexican food I want. If I was you I would pass this place right on up.

Are you kidding me? I PAID for extra cheese and it doesn’t look like extra cheese. I asked for a tiny bit more on my barren nachos and you won’t do it, and will charge me extra again? Eff you guys.
Also, I just realized I asked for chicken, and I know I asked for chicken because we both repeated it… and there is certainly no chicken ANYWHERE to be found.
Don’t waste your time here.

I came here for lunch today and ordered a regular carnitas burrito and a fish taco. All of the orders come with a side of free chips but they are usually on the crispy side. They have a salsa bar and are limited to 3 small to go containers of salsa.
The cranitas burrito had rice, beans, cheese and carnitas. The burrito was rather dry and there wasn’t much meat inside. It would hep if there was sour cream or guacamole to add to the texture of the burrito.
The fish taco was huge and overwhelming The fish is fried and is sitting out with all the other meats in the hot prep area. The taco was piled high with lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, cheese and tomatoes. I would pass on the fish taco next time.
This place is small and gets crowded at lunch time.

Service took forever and food was just ok.
There was only one person doing both the cooking (or rather, assembling since everything was already cooked) and taking orders/​register.
The lettuce that came with my chicken salad tasted a bit… off.

Just had a terrible experience at this place. Reasons:
— The service was awful. It took a solid 20 minutes to get through a line of 3 people — no idea why. The woman behind the counter was holding a phone to her ear the whole time and just seemed really distracted and wouldn’t acknowledge the customers in line. The woman in front of me got fed up waiting and just told her to keep the change and left. I thought their register might have been down or something at first, but then when I went up, she was off the phone and processed my card right away. She was just being derpy and disrespectful.
— The woman who made our food was not trained on how to make food. And like, this is simple stuff — tacos, burrito. My burrito was wrapped so poorly, I had to eat it with a fork because it fell apart. The contents were stacked in a very bizarre way (lettuce/​guac on the top, meat/​rice on the bottom). My partner’s order was just wrong. Ordered a quesadilla plate — just got the quesadilla. They asked what beans he wanted, forgot the beans. They didn’t give him chips, and when he went up to ask for chips, the woman behind the counter openly ignored him.
Lunch should not leave you angry. This left us all very angry and very stressed out. The food itself was average — but with the number of taquerias in this area, I will take my business elsewhere.

This was quite the walk from Lake Merritt Bart Station, but quite worth it if you are looking for quality, affordable mexican food.
I ordered a super large burrito, which comes with guacamole, lettuce, and sour cream. I felt like this place gave less meat compared to Chipotle, but it was still a solid burrito. The order also came with a side order of FREE chips. There was a large bowl of salsa right in front of the cash register that was a bit spicy, but they also had some other flavors off to the side.
The place was quite small and could probably fit around 10 people inside although there was some outdoor seating also.

I’m a recent transplant to Uptown from Fruitvale (aka Oakland’s taco truck ground zero) so you know I have high expectations for my Burrito Carnitas.
El Chilaaaaaar [the extra As are cuz I’m singing it]!
Muy delicioso & yummy in el tummy. Not AS awesome as my favorite Fruitvale truck (missya Guadalajara!
) but it’s pretty damn good.
Plus they boast a truly rockin’ salsa bar & super friendly staff.