Cabrera's Mexican Restaurant

Shame on us for continuing to go here. I have NEVER had a good experience at this place and I've probably eaten here about 10 times. Cleanliness and Ambiance - The karaoke is painfully loud and it occurs in the restaurant portion of the space, not the bar. All I want is to eat in peace. The bathrooms are disgusting. The restaurant doesn't look clean either. There is advertising everywhere for movies and sports and other random things. Food - Awful. I've tried all kinds of things on their menu and it's very apparent that they do no use fresh ingredients and they buy the lowest grade meat. My meat tonight was mostly fat. Service - THE WORST. We've had terrible service here before but these are the instances that happened tonight: 1) I ordered Albondigas but the waitress came back and said they ran out. Well that's annoying but understandable. She asked if I wanted Cocido instead. Our menus were already gone so I said sure. She didn't tell me that the Cocido is $3 more! And the soup was awful. Like I mentioned before, the veggies were old and the meat was so fatty that there were just large chunks of fat floating around in the broth. 2) The whole reason we came here again is that we had a coupon from LivingSocial. It was expired but the coupons are still worth the amount you paid for them. So we handed it to the waitress who took it to the manager and the manager said they would not honor the amount paid for the coupon. We went back and forth with the waiter (the manager didn't bother to come out and talk to us about this) explaining that this is illegal and pointed out that fact in the fine print on the voucher. We finally just paid our bill (including the $3 extra charge for the soup I didn't want) and left. This is on the LivingSocial website... "The Merchant is obligated to honor the Voucher in compliance with law." To sum up, I feel like this restaurant is the victim of terrible and lazy management. If the manager was better at his or her job the place would be spotless, the food would fresh and tasty, and they would know the rules of the promotions they participate in. At the very least they could have at least talked to us in the restaurant tonight instead of sending their poor staff who have nothing to do with our issue. more

We just moved into the neighborhood and stopped in for dinner. We ordered the house salad (described in the menu as having chipolte dressing, jicama, black beans, pumpkin seads...) and chicken enchillada's, we told the waitress we were going to split both. We figured it would be enough food to split (since the salad was $7.00 we figured it was not a side salad) we were wrong. The salad came and it was about 1 cup of lettuce with a teaspoon of grated jicama, carrots, beans and pine nuts (not pumpkin seads) and no dressing. We were offered italian or ranch dressing. We asked about the chipotle dressing and the waitress told us it was discontinued!!?? When the enchilladas came there was a very small portion of rice and beans on the plate along with more of the same salad we just paid $7.00 for (also no dressing on the salad and none offered) and a small casserole dish on the plate with what we thought was enchilladas (like we ordered) but was more than likely some sort of Chicken dish, we did not notice it was not enchilladas untill we started eating it because we could not see through the layer of cheese on top. In addition, we ordered flour tortillas but were served corn, and the chicken dish was very salty and the chicken strips in the casserole looked and tasted like pressed chichen, (YUCK). At this point there was no reason to complain we both figured we would just never return. After we got our check (we had to ask for it) an employee asked us if everlything was ok, to which I responded NO and explained our compaint. She just said "sorry". My suggestion is to skip Cabrera's!! Even when it is brought to their attention that there is a problem they offered no solution. more

Let me say AMAZING! this restaurant is located on the north side of lake just a few light away from the 210fwy. I go to old town Pasadena on a regular basis but i had heard that Cabrera's had good entertainment, food & drink specials so i had to check it out myself. i was there after work, to start my weekend on the right foot i would hope :) when i got there the bar was FULL! (OF COURSE, THE LAKER GAME WAS ON) so we had to sit in the restaurant area it was fine, no biggie. We sat at a booth. they have three plasma TV's which we did not miss the game at all! we ordered their menus' "BOTANA" VERY GOOD finger food we ordered 3. The beer was great the service was ok and the Lakers won!! we had an awesome time!!! i will for sure go back to this restaurant and recommend it to anyone who enjoys good food and a good time! they told us they have karaoke friday's so we will check that out.. 2 thumbs up Cabrera's!!! Pros: SUNDAY BRUNCH LUNCH SPECIALS WKN KARAOKES FULL BAR & PLASMAS Cons: gets crowded hard to get a seat at the BAR! more

Actually 3.75 Stars~ Lunch Buffet price: $8.95 Ice Tea: $2.00 Pasadena Carbrera's Mexican Cuisine is a great place to go, not be riped off ... more

i have been living in pasadena for many yrs and after being invited to this restaurant i find it to be a great place to get together with friends. they have kareoke wich is verry good. clients (i might add) enjoy themselves. the food is average, but they have great desserts. the prices are reasonable, and the service has improved. more

we went to this restaurant, after passing by many times. The location is good the parking is good, the service very below average. cleanness poor, food average, price very expensive. It doesn't match the service and ambient. It's not realy a very sofisticated restaurant to be that expensive. The karaoke was good but now they change it to a more of English guy kind of host. Come on guys this is a Mexican Restaurant. they should be more of Mexican hambient, Mexican food, mexican music, why not a MEXICAN KARAOKE HOST? more

We went there on a Saturday night, and the place was not jumping, which should have been our first clue. There were several hispanic groups eating there, so we were hopeful, but these hopes were dashed when we got the bland food. Ordinary, just -out- of- the- fridge enchiladas and tamales. Asked for more picante sauce and they still brought us bland stuff. I don't know what the hispanics were doing there! The only decent thing on the plate I had was the chile relleno - nicely done and flavorful. Also the side dishes were OK: steamed veggies- not overdone, and black beans. The server Alvaro was very attentive- but as for the overall experience, go to Burrito Express for really good food, and save some bucks. Our entrees were over 10 bucks apiece and worth about 2$ in flavor. Maybe we should have ordered the specials, like the Chile Colorado- less likely to be made up last week and warmed up. Pros: Attentive service and clean, simple surroundings Cons: bland, uninteresting food more

I like the food, the karake, the variety of singers, and enjoing my favor drink after my early dinner after church with my family, the prices are ok, I hope that they will keep it that way and don't rise the prices. more

I've been in Pasadena for years and always passed by this place but for some reason never went in...well that was a mistake. This restaurant is family run so the service is good and the food is delicious. It is not in the downtown area but more on the residential side, so you can avoid the busy rush and don't have to drive around for an hour to find parking. I went in and was ansy & hungry and came out satisfied and relaxed. Pros: They have their own parking in the back, the food is good Cons: none more