Restaurants in San Carlos

A fire-engine-red edifice and azure doors usher patrons into the technicolor interior of Estrada's Mexican & Caribbean Restaurant, an expansive eatery that celebrates the succulence and spiciness of Mexican and Caribbean cuisine. Semicircle booths with glass tabletops hoist up traditional Mexican dishes loaded with sautéed beef, chicken, and vegetables, as well as platters that circulate the aromas of Caribbean delicacies such as fried yucca and plantains. Patrons who sidle over to the restaurant's full bar receive rewards in the form of south-of-the-border beer, homemade sangria, and Academy Awards for Best Chugging.

Park 77 hydrates palates with drink specials and entertains patrons with beer-pong courts, arcade games, and billiards tables. The neighborhood sports bar boasts an outdoor patio and beer garden, where guests can mingle and wildlife can catch up on favorite sporting events playing on a jumbo, outdoor TV. Inside, pub fare circles the crowds, light emanating from flat-screen TVs flickers across cartoon pinup girls on pale yellow walls, and a long, wood-paneled bar pours draft selections including Guinness, Fat Tire, and Stella Artois. Within the expansive interior, heated games of pinball and skeeball set the backdrop for themed gatherings, such as College Fridays.

Why would an experienced chef who has trained at five-star hotels, studied in Switzerland, and opened a hotel and restaurants back home in India decide to start over in the States? Chef Manoj Chopra explains that he arrived at a new appreciation of his first love, cooking. Chopping, stirring, measuring—somewhere along the way he had lost touch with the simple pleasures of his craft, which he discovered anew after opening Little India Restaurant in 1991.

Chef Manoj’s homestyle cooking fills the buffet table, where steaming cauldrons of traditional Indian cuisine await diners. In the chicken masala, poultry marinated in yogurt and spices emerges nicely charred from the tandoor oven before simmering in a tomato-base sauce. Fresh vegetables and cubes of house-made paneer, a fresh, unaged cheese, are doused in a yogurt-base mild curry, all made with the freshest ingredients possible without kidnapping newly sprouted spinach plants. The buffet runs down the middle of the dining area surrounded by bright yellow walls draped in ivy and woodcarvings. Rich oriental rugs protect red tiled floors from footfalls and curry spills as enormous front windows let in plenty of natural light.

Since 1980, the Ramirez family has tapped into the flavors of its native Jalisco, a region in central Mexico, to fill the plates at La Hacienda. They banned lard from their kitchen and stocked it with lean meats to give each dish a heart-healthy edge. Regional specialties, such as meatball soup, share tables with steaks, fajitas, and enchiladas doused in completely vegetarian sauces. The restaurant is intimate, housing fewer than 10 tables and booths and no bleachers. Colorful papel picado banners brighten the space, which features walls are covered in eclectic Mexican artwork.