Hoping Matador Cantina Hits the Bullseye

 Matador Cantina

111 North Harbor Blvd. 

Fullerton, CA 92832

This is one of those restaurants I had to double-check to ensure I had yet to write a review. It seemed like I had been here before, but then I realized it was just for drinks and an appetizer. Adding to my confusion was the at least weekly emails I used to receive from their former PR firm. With so many emails announcing special events and new menu items, I quickly put them on my restaurant wishlist but have just made it here. 

Matador Cantina has been around just as long as this blog. Opened for business in 2009, Matador Cantina is located in one of the oldest buildings in Fullerton, dating back to 1899. From the time they debuted until about 2014, they won numerous awards for their margaritas, got lots of love for their Taco Tuesday, and had glowing reviews from many bloggers and print media outlets. 

Almost as rare as writing a restaurant review blog in 2023, Matador Cantina still has its opening Executive Chef from when they first opened their doors all those years ago. Chef Dave Dennis has even added General Manager to his list of duties. He describes his food as a fusion of authentic and contemporary Mexican cuisine, with some South American flavors thrown into the mix. We grabbed my parents for a long overdue meetup and headed to the restaurant. 

We visited on a Sunday at 4pm, just as the stragglers from the Sunday Funday crowd exited Downtown Fullerton. Parking was no problem at this time between meals. Like many older buildings, Matador Cantina is long and narrow. Coming in from the Harbor Boulevard entrance, there's a long bar to your left with TVs hung above it, showing sports when we visited. The other side featured a row of booths where we were seated. 

The dinner menu is split into starters, tacos, quesadillas, burritos, salads, and restaurant specialties. Appetizers hover around the $13 mark, while more substantial entrees range between $12 to $25. These are reasonable prices for this area of town. Tacos are listed at $6, but on Tuesdays, they offer street tacos for $2.25 and specialty tacos for $3.25 after 2pm. Matador Cantina also offers a weekend brunch, and they have happy hour every day except Saturdays from 2 to 6pm. Now that you have some background about this place let's see what we had on this late afternoon.  

As is my custom when eating in a Mexican restaurant, I'll start with a shot of the Chips and Salsa that came to the table when we were seated. The chips were fresh, and the salsa had a smokiness with a tinge of heat. It had a good consistency to it. Katie ordered the Guacamole ($11) for the table. The guacamole at Matador combines onion, tomatoes, cilantro, serrano chile, garlic, and lime. It was okay, but I expected more flavor with these ingredients. The avocado was the prevailing flavor, which is fine, but the other ingredients failed to show up in my bites. I was also not really a fan of the tostadas that this was served with. They were too over-fried, so I instead used tortilla chips that came with the salsa. A much better choice. 

Starting off the entree portion of our evening is Katie's selection of the El Gaucho Pasta ($16). Yes, pasta at a Mexican restaurant. The pasta came with a delectable cilantro chimichurri cream sauce, a distant pesto cousin, but not as oily. The grilled chicken was moist and tender, not something I usually say about chicken when eating in a restaurant. The plate was rounded out with garlic bread, which I did not try. Katie was delighted with her meal choice here. 

Also excited about his dinner was my dad and his Drunken Shrimp ($24). The shrimp was sauteed in a garlic and butter sauce that had my dad singing its praises. Joining the shrimp was some diced zucchini, which went well with the sauce. This plate was finished off with some cilantro lime rice and two pieces of the same garlic bread that came with Katie's meal. Again, not a typical dish that you'd see at a Mexican place, but my dad could not have been happier. 

So, leave it to my mom to get something I'd expected to see when we walked into Matador Cantina: a Shredded Pork Taco ($5). The corn tortilla was filled, stuffed to its gills, with pork, lettuce, and pico de Gallo. My light-eating mom struggled to finish this but gave it a game effort. She was happy with this taco but wished some cheese was included in it if they could have found some room. 

Everyone was excited with what they had ordered, and then there was my Carnitas ($16). When this was placed in front of me, I was surprised by the amount of pork included on the plate. These were some massive hunks of swine. Unfortunately, most of the bites for me were on the dry side. These carnitas lacked the fattiness that I like mixed with some lean parts when I order carnitas. There was no variety here, just dry lean pieces of pork. The cilantro lime rice was good, and the refried beans were okay, but I wish there had been more to help alleviate some of the dryness of the pork. Disappointing. 

Even with my less-than-stellar dinner selection, everyone else left Matador Cantina very happy with their meals. This is definitely a Mexican fusion restaurant, as shown in the pictures above. I would visit again, but I'd steer clear of the carnitas and try some of their specialty tacos, steak a la plancha, or seafood enchiladas. The prices here were reasonable, and they offer some excellent deals for happy hour, taco Tuesday, and other daily specials. We experienced good service on this visit, and their was not too much complaining about their service on Yelp, so that's a good sign. Now, I can officially cross them off of my restaurant wishlist. 

Out of five red capes (because matadors use capes to get bulls to charge them), five being best and zero being worst, Matador Cantina gets 2.5 red capes. 

For more information about Matador Cantina, head to their website by clicking here: https://thematador.com/