The restaurant is located in the Irvine Spectrum, close to where the AMC theater is located. From the outside, it does not look like a Mexican restaurant. In fact, that's what got our attention the first time. It kind of reminded me of a Moroccan Building. For a long time I thought it was a Moroccan restaurant. That's how I ended up here actually.
Wanting to try something different, we thought we would try some Moroccan food. We got there around 6pm, but it was already crowded. We decided to stay anyways when we found out it's not a Moroccan restaurant. It's always crowded, so it can't be bad, right? The place is always crowded, so come early. In fact, we had to wait an hour. No harm done though. Since it's located at Irvine Spectrum, there are plenty of things to do while waiting.
The bar area is not that big, and it gets crowded very quickly. The dining area is not that big either. The tables are small. In fact, a lot of times they ahve to combine a lot of tables together for large groups. One thing I didn't like was how close together the tables were. Not only that our table was small, we were so close to our neighbours that I could hear everything that our left and right neighbours were saying.
Service was moderate. In fact, we were sitting there for a while before we were served our water (we had to ask for it too). But people don't come for the service, I guess, they come for the food. The food really was good. Lots of variety... lots of seafood dishes. The enchillada and chimicangga we ordered were really good. Overal presentation was nice, and they actually tasted as good as they looked. The neverending Chips&Salsa were really good too.
Next time, I will probably try the other Javier's located in Laguna. I really did like the food, but I wasn't too happy with the service, or cramped I felt.
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