When I pulled up to the restaurant, I was picturing the restaurant to be this small dingy restaurant because my friend did tell me that it was a "hole in the wall" type of restaurant. But it wasn't at all. It was a pretty decent sized restaurant with a lot of people waiting to be seated inside the restaurant.
Gloria's Cocina Mexicana:
It's definitely a clean family oriented restaurant. There are red leather booths surrounding the room and there is also a separate Sport's bar room with big screen t.v.'s for customers who want to come in for a drink or take advantage of their Happy Hour from 4-7 p.m.
Right when me and my friends were seated, the Mariachi band began playing and taking requests from each table. At first it was nice to watch the band perform, but the music was REAAALLY loud and I kind of felt bad for my friends because they were visiting from Boston and St. Louis and we haven't seen each other in quite awhile and had planned to get together so that we could catch up on what has been going on in our lives. It just got to the point where my friend turned to me and said "Okay.. I'm a little annoyed now.." I'm not sure if the Mariachi band plays every night but if you are looking for a quiet sit down restaurant where you just want to have a nice conversation with your friends or family, make sure you find out what time the band plays because we were barely able to hear each other talk during the music.
One of the great things about this restaurant is that they make their own tortillas. You can really taste the difference because of the elasticity and texture of the fresh hot tortillas.
Tortilla lady:
Warm crunchy tortilla chips and thick salsa verde was immediately served to us at the table. They were really yummy!
Me and my friends ordered the Carne Asada $8.99. The dish comes with Carne Asada, salad, rice, beans, salsa, guacamole, and your choice of corn or flour tortillas.
When our orders came, the first thing that came out of my friend's mouth was "Wow! This is really GOOD!" I turned to my friend and said, "Really???" I took a taste of the beans and rice and said, "MMm.. this is GOOD!" All of a sudden my friends and I stopped talking.. and we were just concentrated in our meal. I think that's when you know the food is good when everyone stops talking at the table. =) The fluffy rice with the thick glutinous beans blended nicely with one another and the carne asada was thinly sliced and seasoned well. They don't mess with their Mexican food at Gloria's! It's not your typical Mexican-American chain restaurants like Acapulco and El Torito. This is real Mexican food. The service there was also really prompt and attentive. Our waiter was open to answer any questions we had about the menu and asked us if we wanted any refills on the chips/salsa. I think the only downside to our experience at Gloria's was not being able to chat with one another because of the loud music played by the Mariachi band. But if you are just there for the food and don't mind the loud noise in the room, it's definitely worth giving this restaurant a try!
Gloria's Cocina Mexicana
7401 Florence Avenue
Downey, CA 90240
(562) 776-1488
M-F: Lunch Buffet; Happy Hour 4-7 p.m.
