Elena's Mexican Restaurant

My new favorite place in West Portal! Went opening week, and yes, it was a long wait and packed, but definitely worth it (went down the street to Sherwood's for a few drinks while waiting). The space is very cool, vibrant, and refined (and quite large for SF). Enjoyed the drinks, QUESO, combos, etc. Once we were sat, service was outstanding, and food was solidly tasty. Brings a ton of energy to the neighborhood!

Brand new Mexican restaurant in San Francisco specializing in high quality cocktails and excellent thoughtful food preparation with wonderful service to accentuate the experience. Clearly deserving of being one of the top ten Mexican restaurants in the greater area which is enriched by flavors inspired by the vibrant Mexican community in the California Bay Area.

As you walk in, the restaurant immediately opens up to a beautifully imposing bar on the left and ample seating throughout the entire restaurant . This restaurant is new and highly popular so be prepared to wait 30+ minutes in high time. The tables and seats are lush leather and the bar counter is beautifully marbled. Everything here screams quality and beauty but also had a really welcoming vibe. Feel free to wear what you’d like in other words. It’s also very very clean.

The cocktails were amazing and the bartenders ultra friendly. The standard margarita was excellent and didn’t contain fillers or artificial ingredients - it tasted real. I’d highly recommend the “coconut” based margarita. One of the best drinks I’ve had. They are not watered down either, 1 or 2 and you’re going to feel it. They had a good variety of offerings and in my hour of watching them make drinks, they used real ingredients and didn’t water them down.

First impressions of the food were fantastic. Free chips and salsa are standard which felt like they were made within minutes of us sitting down. Super crispy and the salsa felt fresh and delicious. The food wasn’t overly salty or relied on strong spices to make it stand out. The food speaks to you based on the quality of the ingredients and the care put into its preparation. The Mexican rice was fluffy, the creamy tomatillo salsa on the enchiladas had just the amount of spice and cream needed to augment the flavors of the chicken. Really excellent dishes here and I can’t wait to come back and try others.

The service and location are also hard to beat. Everyone was really friendly despite how packed they were. Our bartender/server “Barbara” was incredibly helpful and the service was fast. It took 10 minutes from ordering to get our food, and 5 minutes to get drinks despite being very packed. The location has plenty of street parking but you might need to walk a tad. I’ll tell you now, it’s worth the walk.

If you’re looking for a top location for Mexican food in between San Jose and San Francisco, this is it. Incredible experience.

Love the vibe, high ceiling structure and interior design here. We came here on Valentine’s lunch. It’s busy as usual. Hard to get seats even for the bar area. Luckily our table was ready before bar seating was opened. Great service. They serve complementary salsa and chips which are tasty and I love the thin crispy type chips very much! Chopped salad was very good and fresh as well. Margarita it’s refreshing. Will definitely come back to try other dishes next time 😊

For now I'll rate it 3 stars as it was their opening day and there were still some things to iron out. What we loved: the beautiful venue, plenty of windows/natural light which was beautiful at sunset, elegant dinnerware and a great menu. Go-to item: chicken enchiladas with a caveat (read on). The bar area is very long and offers the best meal experience as it allows for easy communication with bartenders and servers. What needs improvement: Due to opening night, everything was chaotic. Our server made a mistake and we ended up getting our food extremely late which, as we got home, made us question whether the food was handled properly :-x The staff appeared stressed out and unprepared for the frenzy of opening night. I'm sure it will take some time to improve--just wish they wouldn't keep repeating how busy they are as it's off-putting to the guests. Last gripe, parking is insanely hard in West Portal so be prepared to spend time finding an open spot. Overall, we were happy to support Original Joe's latest sister restaurant and wish Elena's much success.

We had an amazing night and meal here! The food was so good as was the atmosphere. The only thing I’d like to note is that it took 2 hours for our party of three to be seated, granted it was opening day and the reservation system won’t kick in until March (according to our waiter) So for now my verdict is that if you choose to dine here expect a fantastic meal with great service but be prepared to wait a bit before getting seated.