We love El Talpense, formerly Celia's. Staff is hardworking and friendly. Food is delicious! Our faves include Chile Relleno, anything with chile verde, pollo asada, or carnitas. Great house margaritas and generous portions. Pricing seems quite faur. Good variety salsas and nice fresh chips.To-go option works well for us, but we enjoy eating there with friends as well.
Berkeley has a strange dearth of Mexican restaurants when compared to the rest of the bay area. That's what makes El Talpense invaluable. They've got it all, and it's all good food. Street tacos ?. Super burritos ?. Free chips and salsa ?. Quesabirria tacos ?. Happy hour drink deals ?. Enchiladas, tamales, rellenos, etc. A great spot near campus. Also low-key a great spot to go and watch sports on their TVs.
Large and varied vegan menu! The vegan refried beans were delicious- I would have to say much tastier than most nonvegan versions. So happy to be able to have vegan enchiladas. I highly recommend the vegan fajita quesadilla- crispy on the outside, creamy and cheesy on the inside with carmelized onions, bell peppers and mushrooms. The vegan Aztec soup is bright, creamy, tangy and filling. Very gracious owners, clean and cheerful, spacious, fun decor. This new restaurant is one of few that are truly family owned and the care shows. Nice area of Berkeley near campus with coffee and frozen yogurt shops nearby. We love it.
Good food, great cheap margs, very sweet staff!
Edit: Business responds to say that I must've ordered the guacamole dip (as if that excuses it being $13?). The reason I called it a side, was because it came in a small molcajete and there was basically as much guac that came with the happy hour taquitos. I checked out the price of guac and chips at many other mexican restaurants around the university and none were price gouging like this business.$13 for a SIDE of guacamole - more like mashed avocado with no flavor. Total rip off and their margaritas are gross. Basically tasted like we were just drinking straight up margarita mixer. Their happy hour taquitos were actually decent and reasonably priced, but they couldn't make up for everything else. Save your money and go elsewhere.
Five stars is not enough! The food is great and affordable! The servers are awesome and friendly. Service is fantastic especially for for people with allergies. Even the food is packed neatly when you get takeout. I wish I could give more stars for this place!
It's family style Mexican cooking. Family owned and the food is good. Almost everything is from a family recipe.
Always a great place to eat. Food is always great and the staff is always friendly
Scammers, we ate here, split check, BOTH of us left an $8.50 tip, HOWEVER when we got out bank statements the tip on BOTH transactions were for $10.00, called restaurant and talked to them, they claim it was an "honest mistake", really an honest mistake on both transactions for the exact amount of $1.50 each.This is a new scam that bars and restaurants are doing, you leave a tip, they change it at the end of the night by anywhere from $1.00-$3.00 more, most people NEVER notice it. The restaurant offered to change it back and give us our $1.50 each back, but ONLY if we gave them our FULL debit/credit card information. NO THANK YOU.
Good food and drinks. Great service.