La Calera Mexican Bar & Grill

Liz Lobo _{on Google}

Apr 7th, 2024

Most of our food was delicious. My tamale was hard and dried out but they brought me a new much better one when I told them about it. The tortilla soup was not like any Ive had before but it was good. The margaritas were good but nothing special. I would likely choose this restaurant again over other Mexican ones in the area.

Akitin Collins _{on Google}

Apr 3rd, 2024

GREAT FOOD. Large Portions.
Kid-friendliness: I took my Granddaughters and they had a ball.

Naor Wallach _{on Google}

Mar 27th, 2024

Mar 2024,
I know they are doing well. However, it must be due to something other than the dishes we tried at lunch, since both lunch specials were NOT special. In fact, the Mole (Special #27) we really not good. It was only sweet and light brown in color. All the complexity one expects from a mole was just not there.
This one, and the chicken served in the other one was dry as well. We were very disappointed the food. The service was excellent and the prices are very reasonable.
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Just opened on Valentine's Day of 2022!
Have seen the signs for months and waited for it to open, so when we heard that it opened, we tried it out. The layout of the building is unchanged from the previous iteration, but the interior has been redone with Mexican murals and themes. The menu is mostly Mexican food as well - with some American dishes for those who are not in the mood for Mexican food, I suppose.
We met the owner and had the chance to ask him a few questions. As to why open a Mexican restaurant when there are several others already nearby, he believes that he has something new to offer. Specifically, his chef is from Honduras, and he will be evolving the menu by adding Honduran dishes in time - I cannot wait as I have not seen Honduran food in Pittsburgh before!
Clearly the restaurant is still in its early days and they do not have their procedures down yet. While were seated right away, there was some confusion on who our server was as we were asked by three different people for our drink order. Then, after it was delivered, all three of them hustled and bustled by us while we waited for any of them to take our food order. We decided to wait and see how long it would take for them to figure it out ... and it took them a while before one of them came over and took the food order.
The food came out on very hot plates and the cheese was melted together. This tells me that either it was sitting under very strong heat lamps, or was placed on the plate and then microwaved - not unusual, but not the best practice either. We did enjoy some of the offerings more than others.
We got a basket of unsalted tortilla chips with a trio of salsas almost as soon as our drink order arrived. Well, two came with the chips, but since I love spicy food, I asked for their hottest salsa and they brought me the third one. The mildest one is a smooth tomato one with a slight hint of some other flavoring. The medium one was very nicely flavored and had chunks of tomato, onion, cilantro and more and was delicious. The spicy one was hot (spice, not heat) and smoky and very pleasing to the palette although somewhat oily. Chip refills cost $4 each.
We got the Vegetarian platter and the Shrimp in Garlic butter. Both came with rice and refried beans. The sauces over the vegetarian entrees were on the sweet side which surprised us. The garlic butter was very strong which we liked - but some might not. The vegetarian Chalupa was actually more like a tostada with shredded lettuce and avocado on it. All the food was reasonably tasty but not extraordinary.
I will definitely want to come back when they roll out the Honduran specialties as those will be unique items. I am hopeful that by then they will have also cleaned up the process problems and I will be able to move my rating from a 4 star to a 5 star rating as I really want them to succeed.