The Opinionated Loudmouth: Celia's Mexican Restaurant
We have our habits, and one of them is a powerful hankering for kickass Mexican food. Now, the Bay Area's abundance of taquerias and taco trucks is well-documented, and we have developed real dependencies on a number of them ourselves. But we come here today to talk about a sit-down place with fajitas, combinacion plates, and a full liquor license, a place where rice and refried beans are the default side, a place where the margaritas and tortillas are top-notch and there's never any talk of paying for the endless bounty of hot, salty chips and fresh tongue-burning housemade salsa — it all just keeps comin'. In short, a California restaurant with a Tex-Mex heart. And friends, that place is Celia's Mexican Restaurant.
SFist Lydia, contributing
Inauspiciously situated among a number of chain establishments near Serramonte mall, there's nothing much about Celia's exterior that would make the average motorist weave past the Hollywood Video and the Outback Steakhouse to get to it, though as the locals and regulars jamming the parking lot know, this is definitely not mall-Mexican. The multi-level interior can handle anything from first dates to grandma's 80th birthday party with an atmosphere of fun and liveliness minus chaos — a difficult balance to strike, but Celia's has it down. Unless we're bringing family visitors, we tend to hook left into the bar area, where many days we can find our friend Y.M. (who practically lives there).
One recent visit, we met up with Y.M. for a weekend lunch; we found a booth by the windows and just as our chip-and-salsa consumption got underway, the bartender brought us a round of Y.M.'s special margaritas ($7.75 each, the name of which we can't tell you, because that would be like telling you what's in the [name redacted] special at Tom's on Broadway in NYC, and that's the sort of thing you have to earn, bub). In addition to their good selection of Mexican beers on tap, Celia's has a number of great 'ritas by the pitcher or glass, rocks or frozen, but if you've got something different in mind, they're happy to mix it up for you.
That goes for the food, too — Y.M. ordered an off-menu grilled chicken burrito, with whole beans instead of refried, topped with green salsa and accompanied by a dish of sliced jalapenos and other peppers (about $11.00). We considered the flat-out amazing Pollo en Crema — chunks of chicken breast sauteed with onions, bell peppers and spices in a sour cream sauce ($12.40) — but ended up ordering the huevos rancheros ($10.50), three fried eggs in salsa atop a corn tortilla with rice and refried beans (best. hangover. breakfast. ever., except maybe the black beans/rice/eggs plate at La Rosita, on 108 & Broadway, but we digress).
Our dining companion could not resist his favorite dish, the Carnitas Adobadas ($12.60, chicken, steak, or combo), a huge plate of chicken marinated in a special sauce made of Anchote Yucateco (spiced anchote seed paste) and sauteed with onions, tomatoes, and green bell peppers. With the awesome lard-free hot flour tortillas as an accompaniment, we stuffed ourselves silly and still had leftovers; one almost always does at Celia's, unless you're this Samoan guy we know who can eat the entire Cancun Platter ($14.60 for crab, prawns and chicken sauteed in wine, then topped with Monterey Jack and baked) and still pick stuff off of everyone else's plates.
But portion size is only part of the story — nothing comes out of a 55-gallon drum here, unlike at the alleged Tex-Mex place where we waitressed in high school. In all seven locations — family-owned for 35 years — Celia's uses first-world cuts of all meat (skinless chicken breast, well-trimmed steak and pork, thoroughly deveined prawns, etc.) and everything is fresh, flavorful and housemade, from the chips to the margarita mix and back.
Next time you'd rather not wait on the street for an hour in front of Puerto Alegre, or want to reward yourself for a long soul-sucking slog through the nearby Home Despot or a successful prowling of the Serramonte Target next door, head over to Celia's — it's worth the drive all by itself.
The particulars:
379 Gellert Blvd., Daly City
650.755.6213
Other locations in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, San Mateo (2), San Bruno, and Antioch