Little Onion Mexican Restaurant

Excellent -- finally an authentic dine-in Mexican restaurant in Irvine! Beautiful environment, tasty menu, great service, overhead heaters keep the outdoor seating comfortable on a brisk evening. There's a bar area with sports on the big screen but located so I wouldn't call this a 'sports bar' environment. Lively and fun, give it a try!

Celebrating a birthday can be a task, but two birthdays with a picky eater can be a little daunting. Luckily, the picky eater wanted Mexican and I found this spot to fit the bill that included tamales and enchiladas on menu! It was a great win for me since the picky eater was my dad!

I tried booking a reservation through OpenTable, but the time slots available were awful so I called to see if I could get something better. I was able to snag 6:45pm that evening!

I forgot to mention on reservation that we were celebrating birthdays, so our waiter thought we were here to celebrate Lunar New Year. It happened to be the same weekend, sure, but we had more pressing events. Once that cleared up, we moved into chips and salsa + reviewing the menu.

The wait time to get our orders in & food to table was a bit long, so we filled up on chips prior since it was there. I wasn't too hungry, so I decided to get the shrimp ceviche as my main. Boyfriend got the carne asada plate while my parents had the Pick 3 Combination Plates.

The portions were massive all around! The carne asada plate came with Mexican corn and choice of corn/flour tortillas. The combination plates had about 5-6 options to choose from: tacos (crispy/soft), enchiladas, chile relleno, taquitos or flautas and tamales + side of Spanish rice & refried beans! A lot of food to take home!

I also took home a small portion of my ceviche and chips. It wasn't as smoky or spicy as noted on the menu with the addition of Serrano chiles, but definite profiles of citrus (sweet and sour). It was very refreshing and surprisingly filled me up.

As with birthdays, they celebrate with a sombrero and song. Birthday person wears the hat! It was quite enjoyable to watch my dad smile ear to ear with embarrassment! Complimentary dessert were the churro sundaes with caramel and chocolate drizzle. Very sweet end to a meal but easily shared to get a taste.

Overall, birthday success! Everyone left happy and full.

Food and ambience was good. HAPPY Hour was good value with the chicken nachos. The regular menue is a bit more on the elevated cost side of value.

Food is great. Service is great. A little pricey but I'm okay with it. They have some very good happy hour deals. They could probably improve on the portions for children but the quality all around is top notch.