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Charlie's Cafe
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
9 reviews for Charlie's Cafe
9 reviews in English
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Review from Jordan v.
Port Moody, BC
5/24/2012
Carlos and staff are great, and the food is wonderful! We leave with full bellies and smiles whenever we go. The kid loves it.
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Review from Diana L.
4/19/2012
This place has the charm of a neighbourhood restaurant. I got the pleasure of meeting Charlie, and he drew a cute picture of him and his wife on my take out box. The service is great, and the food, which is a generous portion, is fairly priced and tasty. I love how it is in Port Moody because there are no other decent Mexican restaurants around. The food was a not quite as flavourful as I would have like; I didn't have as much of a spectrum of spices and herbs as I would have liked. However, I would definitely go back. It's a cute place to bring a date (which was where my date too me :) )
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Review from Chantal R.
Maple Ridge, BC
2/15/2012
My husband and I were surprised to find tasty real Mexican food out in Port Moody of all places! On top of that Carlos and Isabella are incredibly nice people.
The only "negative" about it is: I wish they had tamales... -
Review from Megan G.
Vancouver, BC
11/8/2009
For cheap Mexican that never lets you down, Charlie's is where it's at. It's inexpensive, and the decor is a bit hokey, but tasty and filling as Mexican should be.
Tonight I had the chicken chimichanga which was tasty, but I would have liked a side of salsa... also, the rice portion was much larger than necessary, but aside from that it was great. Worth a visit if you're in the area. -
Review from Andrew L.
Port Moody, BC
10/24/2008
There is only one thing that I have when I go to Carlos, or Carlie's - Enchildas Verde - chicken.
I should end the review right there - that's it - go eat them!
We've been going to Carlos from when he was in a much smaller location across the street, and his food kicked ass - they ran the big bad Mexican restaurant out of business, and came across the street and occupied their space!
Real stuff from all over Mexico decorates the walls - maps, tacky souvenirs, blankets, etc
Real Mexicans work as the boss, and the chef.
Real Mexican food, from the salsa, to the words in the menu, to the very authentic cooking
But really, get a Mexican beer, have some spicy, fresh salsa and chips to share, and get enchiladas verde - ask for the chicken - it comes with refried beans, rice, chips - a great plate for $10.95, i think
Lastly, if you see a "cute" little Mexican man running around making jokes and making sure that everything is fabulous - that's Charlie - or Carlos, in Spanish - love him!Listed in: Port Moody - My Neighborhood
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Review from Doug G.
7/15/2010
Great food, slow and usually bad service
The food here is always great. Unfortunately we've always had slow, poor service. Don't go here if you need to be in and out in an hour -- they won't be rushed.
The last time we went, the waitress brought us the wrong dish (after an hour waiting for the meal) and then argued with my husband (a Mexican) that it was the correct dish, we just didn't know our Mexican food and that was the dish we asked for. We quietly ate our meals. When Carlos (the owner) came by our table with the check, he confirmed we had been brought the wrong dish. We haven't been back.
The food is always very good -- some of the best Sopa Tortilla I've ever had. Shame the service is so bad. -
Review from Al R.
New Westminster, BC
I had to come back to Charlie's a second time, so I could take some notes and get a better idea of what it is like there.
First off, I'm upgrading from my previous three stars. Based upon last night's experience, I honestly believe that four stars are in order here.
As with my previous review of Charlie's, I wanted to see how long it would take for things to happen, mainly because of all the complaints by reviewers about how incredibly slow the service is. So, with watch and pen in hand, I timed all the main points down to the minute. I'll leave you to judge whether you think things took too long or not.
The food: Man oh man - the food was outstanding! I enjoyed it even more than I did the first time we ate at Chuck's (yeah, I like the sound of that - 'Chuck's Mexican Restaurant'!), and the first time we ate there, the food was very good.
I had a Mex Plate #3, (beef burrito, soft taco, and crisp taco, along with rice and refried beans); I had them go 'heavy on the beans, and light on the rice', and they did it up pretty much the way I asked. I could have ate the whole thing, but I would have had to force myself, and I didn't see any point at all in doing that, so I ended up taking about 1/3rd of it home for a tasty late night treat later.
My wife had the Mex Plate #1 (same as last time). You can check the previous review for any comments about that.
The Mexican Plates were about $18 each. They were, in my estimation, expensive; $14 - $15 would have been a fair price, but this is Vancouver, so we usually get overcharged. (Mind you, I've been to other restaurants - and you probably have also - where they are perfectly happy to charge you $18 for a puny little plate with a tiny piece of meat and a paltry amount of bland, steamed veggies. Apparently if you arrange them with some also bland little lines of sauce on the side of the plate to make it look like that part of the plate is taken up with 'something', that somehow makes it okay to charge outrageous prices.) So, bearing in mind that the price was not cheap, the serving size of the Mexican Plates was HUGE! (by Western Canada standards at least; they would probably be just average to a bit on the larger side for a lot of eateries down in Washington State) Yeah, I'd like a cheaper price, but I like the big size even more, so there's some give and take there.
One thing that I have noticed: the food here is NOT strongly seasoned. I've noticed that a few of the reviewers (myself among them) prefer to have things spiced up at least a bit. Charlie's does not seem to major in that department. However, in all fairness, I want to point out that they DO make their own house 'hot (it really isn't hot) sauce'. It may not truly be hot sauce - I think it would be better called 'zesty sauce', but it IS very tasty, and adds the needed zip for people who like things kicked up the proverbial 'notch'. I asked the waitress to bring me a 'whole bunch of it' out, and she just kept it coming until I told her I had enough. But it really did add the missing dimension to my meal, so I have ZERO complaints about it. And as I mentioned previously, there's nothing stopping anyone from bringing his own bottle of preferred hot sauce.
We had one appy - the quesadillitas (basically, mini quesedillas), which had cheese and onions melted inside, along with a bowl of very groovy salsa, which had avocado, onions, tomatoes, plenty of cilantro, and perhaps some other things. We totally dug (and dug into) the salsa; it was anything but bland. There were 7 quesadillitas, so I think that the appy was a bit overpriced (I think it was about 7 bucks). Either dropping the price about two dollars or adding a few more quesadillitas would have made it more of a bargain. But having said that, I'd be willing to order them again, even at the price they charged.
Also as before, I make no comment with regards to authenticity - I'm pretty much in the dark in that department, so understand that my review is not based on that aspect of our dining experience.
Now to the timeline: (note: the restaurant has ten tables. As far as I could tell, all but two or three of them were occupied, including ours.)
6:05 PM We enter the restaurant. We are seated and given menus in approximately 30 seconds.
6:11 PM The waitress (named Dominika - sorry, I don't know how she spells it. Like 'Dominique', but with an 'a' on the end.) finishes taking our order. She had actually tried taking our order earlier than that, but I was not ready until 6:11.
6:41 PM Appy (quesadillitas) arrive.
6:50 PM Main part of meal arrives. We dig in!
7:25 PM We are now officially 'fat and happy'.
At NO time during our visit were we pushed to have our leftovers packed up, or in any way made to feel like we had to hurry to vacate our table. If anything, the waitress came over to chat with us several times.
Argh - I'm out of typing room again! (5001 character limit)1 Previous Review: Show all »
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1/5/2011
Okay, after reading I don't know how many dozens of reviews about Charlie's - everything from the… Read more »
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Review from Ed B.
Port Moody, BC
1/18/2010
We go to Charlie's at least once every few weeks for the nachos. The nacho servings are huge, with lots of cheese, refried beans and 2 types of salsa. If not the best, Charlie's nachos are at least in the top 2 or 3 in the lower mainland.
The decor is pretty awful. It's like a thrift store threw up its Mexican themed fodder all over the walls. That's really the only downside to the place though.
The food is great. We've never been disappointed in anything we've ordered. The staff are really friendly and make you feel at home. -
Review from Janet B.
Vancouver, BC
9/12/2010
My family and I eagerly awaited the re-opening of Charlies for many months. Our first visit back a couple weeks ago was quite disappointing: the new place is very small and lacks any sort of waiting area (which doesn't work well with a toddler for an over half hour wait. Our name was taken and then seemingly forgotten as the waitress tried taking the people in line behind us first. We waited a long time to place our order and the wait for the food was even longer. I can't say if we even enjoyed the food since we were so frustrated. We are pretty disappointed in what used to be one of our favourite local spots.
