Socal Cantina Reviews

If you want to have a quick bite and a chilled beer, this is the right place. They have lunch promotions and food is tasty! Gracias chicos !

Love this tapas bar!!! Friendly attentive staff, fresh flavorful food and great innovative drinks. Understated, walking down Brickell you may miss this gem that is outdoors next to Lolitas. Go in, sit down, have a drink and stay a few hours before realizing it. It's a taste of laid back classy California in the middle of Brickell. Great for a pregame or end to a wonderful night! Don't miss it ; -)

AJ is the best! I enjoy this hidden gem of a restaurant as the food, service, drinks and so much more are always on point. Tacos, chips & salsa are awesome! I love my spot for taco/tequila Tuesday. 🙏🏼👍🏼🙌🏼

I love Socal cantina,it’s unique and original !!! Great drinks and great service . The food it’s amazing and now open for lunch ... perfect

SoCal was a short Lyft ride away from our hotel and it had decent reviews and we were hungry. Neither of us were impressed. The service was very lacking, the drinks were expensive and weak, and the food was just ok. The restaurant itself was pretty cool, nice outside area to eat with a few TVs to catch the game.

This is a must go! If you are in Miami don’t even think about it, just go! These are some of the best tacos you will ever have!!

This place is honestly the best, the people that helped us did everything to make sure our visit went well. The drinks were very good, I highly recommend it. The food was given to us quickly and it was delicious!! SoCal is the place to go if you really want to enjoy yourself. My friends and I are definitely returning. Thank you for the wonderful service!

Wow! This place is great! From the Queso dip, to the tacos, to the specialty margaritas and other assortment of drinks! This place rocks! And the staff is incredibly fun and outgoing. Always a good time.

This restaurant is located in a good part of downtown. The restaurant itself has really good food with a nice authentic selection of dishes. Very relaxed and chilled out atmosphere with friendly staff.

I have been staying in Miami in the Mary Brickell Avenue area for a few months and have stopped at SoCal Cantina a few times. It’s a nice restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating, located right on busy South Miami Street . The menu is very standard Tex-Mex food, tacos, burritos, nachos, quesadillas etc., as well as a good drink menu including cocktails and beers. The prices are reasonable and the restaurant does have discounted prices during happy hour, and a Taco special one day a week- I think Tuesday. I have spent a fair amount of time in Mexico as well as states with large Mexican populations like Texas, Arizona, so have had very authentic Mexican food, and consider the food here good But nothing special. It’s a good place for a drink and decent Tex- Amex food. In my opinion, I have found the Latin food in Miami ( Cuban, Peruvian, Argentinian) to be very good but the Mexican food mediocre.

Since moving to Miami, I’ve had difficulty finding a decent bar to hang out in that wasn’t stuffy. SoCal cantina really makes you feel at home. Between the super friendly regulars and the knowledgeable but still fun staff, this place really stuck it. I highly recommend venturing out from a standard vodka soda or jack and coke. Their cocktail list has some truly amazing finds on it!

A nice place for a cosy dinner. Tacos are good and drinks as well. As the name is saying, it is a cantina style.

A little hidden as they operate inside of another restaurant called "Dolores but you can Call me Lolita". But what a great spot. The staff is relaxed but on point and very welcoming. You can tell they love this place and want their guests to think the same. Well count me in! Gardner's margarita was out of this world and apparently won best margarita in Miami. We had the nachos with chicken and most of the tacos. Those nachos were intense! And the Surf and Tijuana tacos were our favorites (required a second ordering!). My girl had the laguna beach/vegan taco and said it was one of the best non meat tacos she's had. Highly recommend, I'm going back this trip without a doubt!

Best tacos and Coctails in hole Miami you have to tried them are amazing!!! I tried the Gardner’s margarita that the server told me that won a prize for best margarita and obviously it’s like it’s amazing and service it’s wonderful 🎉🎉🥳

Great outdoor vibe. Great music. Amazing food, drinks and service!! Dog friendly. They a tv to watch the games too

Great food atmosphere and decent prices highly recommend it was such a cool spot for lunch. Julio was our server very nice guy

Julio was amazing ! Super great vibes and great customer service. Definitely will be back to see him and hang out at this spot

Great bites and delicious beverages, this is one spot not to pass up when in Miami. Whether you're a local or just passing through you should swing by SoCal Cantina. The cocktail menu is guaranteed to have something to please your palette and there will be a taco to satisfy your hunger. Highly recommended!!!

This place really is a hidden gem! They are located inside a place called “Dolores but you can call me Lolita”. Look to your left when you walk in for literally the best tacos and margaritas in Miami. The tacos have a lot going on and each has its unique ingredients but the flavors go together so well. And the drinks are quite inventive and dangerously delicious. The socal special with the foam and burnt orange was unreal and apparently the Gardener’s Margarita won best margarita in Miami? And the music was laid back-much different vibe then the rest of the area and I was digging it- sublime and slightly stoopid for the win! I Can’t recommend enough!

This is my go-to happy hour spot whenever I'm in Miami. Their drinks are great and well priced for Miami, even when it's not "happy hour" My favorites are the Grass Clippings, the Gardner's, the SoCal Special, and the Chile Mule. (ok, I like them all!...) Great tacos and great service, also...

Fantastic food with an even better bartender! Highly recommend the Gateway cocktail and the Anaheim tacos! Great outdoor space, clean and well managed

Socal is the best, every time i go i get something new and you can’t do wrong. each taco has its own unique flavor.

Best tacos and margaritas in Miami! Great atmosphere, and service. Music was on point! Will definitely be back for more!

This spot was on point!!! Thanks to Julio!!! All our drinks were absolutely delicious and exactly what I ordered and craved!!!

Best tacos in Miami hands down, great cocktail menu, good vibes all around. Ask Gary as your bartender, he’s the best!!

Amazing service , the staff is so friendly they make you feel like family not just a customer. I highly recommend this spot it’s truly a so cal vibe

What a great find!! Louis is amazing ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Great drinks and eats Outstanding service Amazing atmosphere Cheers friends!

Stumbled upon this place by mistake but so happy we did. Bartenders are fun and they make amazing drinks. Vibe is great. Didn’t try the food but can’t wait to go back!!

Best drinks in downtown Miami. Tacos to die for. Friendly staff. Leo is one of the best bartenders in South Florida, and a damn good magician too. If you can't have a good time here, you can't have a good time. This is my favorite bar in the WORLD!!!

Seriously the food is okay but the service is awful ...like this blond guy who works at the bar should be fired immediately .. I didn't like the drink he made me and I told him that I didn't like it and it also was something I didn't order...so I didn't drink it...I wanted sweet drink not tequila sour...so instead of offering me something else I might like or ask how I like the food for example in return I got yelled at and treated extremely poorly .. I MEAN HE REALLY CALL ME MEAN STUFF AND WHEN MY GIRLFRIEND STEP UP FOR ME HE TOLD HER TO MAIN HER BUSINESS AND THAT I'VE BEEN DISRESPECTFUL TO THE BAR BECAUSE I DIDN'T LIKE MY DRINK... This was unacceptable behavior in so many levels and so neither I or my friends will be back there ever !!! I shouldn't have to pay either for your crap service and drinks so consider this as one time deal only because the food was okay but I do hope this review can reach out to the right person so you may learn some basic respect and find ourself another job that suits u better !

Hello again friends and travelers! So I’ve walked by the SoCal Tacos joint (part of the Dolores Lolita complex on S. Miami Ave. in the Brickell area) many times and finally decided to try a taste pre-– movie last night… Have to say I was pretty impressed… The guacamole was delicious and so were the spicy ground beef tacos… A little pricey for what you get But still worth a stop in taste… Enjoy!

My favorite tacos AND drinks! Happy hour goes til 8pm with specialty cocktails. I recommend Gardner's Margarita, Socal Special, or Grass Clippings. If you're not into tequila and like something spicy, try the Chile Mule. Taco Tuesday are BUSY but that's because the tacos are amazing AND served with $5 regular margaritas, you can't go wrong!

I’m a local and have been frequently coming here since they opened in this great location. The staff, good music, food , service & prices are one of the best you will find in this pricey area!

This place is great, it seems like a hole in the wall (they are located at the outside bar of another restaurant called "Dolores but you can call me Lolita"), but they serve world class cocktails (mainly margaritas tho...). We had Socal Special, Donkey Punch and the Gardener's Margarita. All were superb with their own flair, the socal special had this cointreau foam that tasted like an alcoholic creamsicle, the Donkey punch was a tequila mule but had a huge punch of flavor, and the gardeners was possibly the best drink I've had it had every flavor and apparently won best margarita last year?!!? The food was great as well Fish tacos to die for (what is that surf sauce???). And the chips were so addicting, good guac too.

Very good Service. Julio was a great server. He was patient and kind. The food was also good. I recommend going there to eat.

Great service. Amazing drinks. Delicious tacos. The menu is minimal, which makes the ordering process quick and efficient. The surf taco is a must try.

We flew down from Orlando , where we were visiting our son ... To go to Miami Open Tennis, which was a brilliantly staged event . We ate here on our first night and what a great choice. Clearly very popular with locals, great food at very reasonable prices and super cocktails.

Wanted somewhere casual to go for dinner and found this little gem close to our hotel. Food and drinks were fantastic! Our waiter was extremely helpful. Lots of gluten free options on the men too.

While anticipating a late arrival on a Thursday night in this area, I looked for a place that would have the kitchen open late as this place did. We arrived around 9pm and it was kind of busy (mainly bar drinkers and not so many dinner eaters at this point). It was a seat yourself place that is outside. We found a table near the entrance that was clean, so we sat down. Here's the worst part of the evening... it took almost 15min and me asking someone to be waited on. After ordering our drinks and an app, I had to flag the waiter down again in order to get our dinner order placed and replace the drinks we finished a short while ago. I received the "Tijuana Tacos" I ordered (2) and my wife got her (2) San Diego Tacos. The app we ordered was the Queso & Chips. All of the food and drinks were AMAZING! The queso is something you don't want to skip as it has to be the best we've ever had! We came back a 2nd night just to get the app of queso & chips because of how amazing they were! Had it not been for the slow service, we easily put this place at a 5 star!

This is our go-to place. It never looks like there are tables but there are round the side, hightops. The music tends to be old skool, reggae and Caribbean and rock, fantastic sound system, loud but you can easily chat at a normal level at the side tables (perhaps not in the bar). The nachos come with cabbage which sounds strange but works. The drinks, especially the margaritas and excellent and inexpensive. It's a very atmospheric place, with extremely friendly if slightly inattentive staff, but you forgive them because they are so nice and will chat.

I don’t go out often but SoCal has provided such a good, comfortable and “just be yourself” environment it’s made me more open to the night life! Never thought I would find a place that offers such a “homie” experience 🤗 Thank you guys!

Great vibe. Local spot. In the heart of Brickell. Best tacos ever and freshest margaritas ever. Socal is the most affordable place in Miami and the highest quality food and drink.

Great food, incredible cocktails and a great location. The grass clippings cocktail was incredible. Great flavor! I had a variety of the tacos. I would recommend them all. My husband had the ribs and they were also full of flavor. The outside patio was nice and had great atmosphere. My only complaint would be the service. Poor service to say the least. It took forever for someone to greet us. My food arrived 10 min after my husband's food. No one checked up with us after we received our food. I was ready for another drink for almost 10 min before someone came near the table to ask if we needed anything. I HATE the servers using the POS system to hover over you to see how much you leave in tip. I would go again and just hope the service was better.

If i had one bad thing to say... Id just wish they had beds so i can live there. Besides that.. Best tacos and drinks in miami. And at the best prices

I was pleasantly surprised when I went with a friend for happy hour. We grab a couple tacos each, which were amazing. And the drinks were excellent, my fav was the Gateway.

Tacos are really good with enough options to satisfy all tastes, the Surf taco is a must try!! Drinks are amazing, very fresh and unique. Will definitely go back!

Fernando is the best bartender!! It just opened a few months ago and it's next to a fun hostel. A great atmosphere and tasty drinks!!! In a prime location too with fun games too :)

We arrived in Miami, after a long flight delay, hungry and tired. We didn’t want to travel to far from our hotel in the Brickell area as we needed good food and drink to soothe our nerves. I got online and found SoCal Cantina, which was a 10 minute walk from our hotel so we decided to give it a try. The place was very busy at 8 PM on a Wednesday night, it is not a very big place, so we sat at the bar. The menu is short and sweet with tacos, burritos and a couple of other items. First thing we ordered was one of the bars specialty margaritas. The bartender worked his magic and presented us with two works of art. They tasted as good as they looked. The bartender highly recommended the tacos, so my wife and I ordered 3 tacos each, and some guacamole to start. The fresh made guacamole and house made tortilla chips were very good. The tacos were fantastic. We tried the surf, the Santa Monica, the Los Angeles, the San Diego, and the Tijuana. All of them were excellent, the flavour of the various fresh ingredients came through and the protein, whether fish, pork, beef or chicken, was cooked and seasoned/spiced perfectly. I added hot sauce but only because I like a little more spicy heat on my tacos. Definitely a place we will return when visiting Miami.

Fantastic tacos, some traditional, some with some SoCal flair. Amazing drinks with fresh ingredients. Staff is attentive and fun and this place is in a great location. Highly recommend for all kinds of occasions.

I admit I was skeptical about the number of five star reviews, but after eating there I get it. Best tacos ever. I had the Surf Tacos. Amazing. My husband raves about the pork tacos too (can’t remember the name). The classic margaritas were handmade, fresh and delicious. If you love tacos, don’t miss this place. Note: it is very casual, all outdoor sidewalk cafe. The night was hot but the drinks kept us cool. Don’t miss the Kahuna cake for dessert! All around great!

Julio was absolutely amazing! So kind, so accommodating, so handsome, so smart!!!!!! He was so extra and always asked us what we needed. Was super attentive. Literally couldn’t have asked for a better experience in Miami!!