Cocina Mamá Cholita

This place is a hidden gem : I ordered empanadas with rice and mole sauce - delicious! I also tried all of their drinks of which tasted fresh and not overly sweet like most restaurants. I also ordered chile rellenos to go with rice and beans. Let me tell you - I felt like my mom had cooked - authentic, fresh, made from scratch and super delicious! My bestie and I can't wait to try more items on the menu. Excellent restaurant !

The hospitality‍: we were greeted by Jose (business owner) and his mother. They were both super kind and attentive. Both put their heart and soul into their food and service.

Cleanliness : this restaurant is probably one of cleanest restaurants I have visited in San Francisco. Although they were closed, they allowed us to finish our food in the restaurant. The level of cleanliness and attention to detail with their cleaning was impressive, not a common theme in most restaurants for sure.

Clean food, clean restaurant, exceptional service and authentic Mexican food! What more can one ask for? Nothing !

This restaurant is now in our rotation, and for Mexican food, it's my number 1 spot in San Francisco. I am raving about them to family and friends !

Jose and mom - we appreciate the hard work and love you put into your restaurant !

Give this gem a try - you won't be disappointed!

I was not impressed with the food. I felt like it lacked flavor. The portions were great.

The service was good but they kept on coming to our table every few minutes to ask if we needed anything else.

There's only street parking and sometimes hard to find.

FOOD:
I got the chicken tacos and the mole plate. The chicken tacos were packed with meat, with the chicken being juicy and perfectly cooked. I would have preferred a bit more flavor for the tacos though, but overall the tacos were delicious and very satisfying. The mole plate was great as well, the sauce had a spicy kicked and the dish was packed with flavor. The restaurant gives free salsa and chips, one of my favorite salsas was the mango salsa. It was spicy and sweet, with a nice fresh mango taste.

SERVICE:
The servers were very nice and attentive.

AMBIANCE:
There is a cozy interior with a more casual ambiance.

Overall I was very pleasantly surprised with this place and would come back here. The prices are fair and the food is great.

We drive here on Sunday for lunch and when we walked in the restaurant was pretty empty which there's nothing wrong with that since it was nice to have a quieter lunch.

Service was okay, everyone was super nice but for a restaurant that had only 2 tables to serve with us being 1 of them we found ourselves looking for someone to either give us napkins or give us more water and also to get our check.

Food prices were fair for SF specially since the portions were pretty big unfortunately that's all I can say in terms of good things. The mole enchiladas had one of the worst moles I've had in a while. It tasted burnt and the enchiladas didn't compliment the dish in terms of taste. The quesabirrias didn't have much taste either and very oily but the consome also lacked flavor, you're better off going to Tacos El Patron for anything birria. We finished our meal with a flan and it was so dense that our spoon had a hard time going through it- it was overly sweet and just hard to get down.

I'm very surprised at the meal we had and experience overall since this place has a great rating but I guess we can't really trust that nowadays. I don't think I'll be coming back or sending friends over to try them but at least now I know.

Great service. The food is amazing!! You got to try the quesadillas birria!!
Easy to get there but public transportation. Friendly, clean environment.

After trying mole in Mexico City recently, I'm glad to have found a great spot for it in SF! The mole enchiladas were incredible.

It had notes of smoky, bitter, spicy, and a little sweetness. If you don't like bitter food, don't get it but it's definitely grown on me! The mole has so many nuances and flavors! The corn tortillas and chicken inside were also really good. The rice and beans were flavorful, and the salad was fresh.

The chips were great too. Little thicker size and the salsas were delicious. I loved the creamy mango habanero salsa and the red salsa. The green salsa had a spicy kick too.

Great attentive service from the waiter and decent amount of seating inside. Clean cute interior.

This spot has the best mole I've ever had in my life. The other dishes we tried were great too, like the birria burrito and chicken tinga, but the mole is the reason we'll keep coming back. Their guacamole is super chunky which I love.

This restaurant is a sweet and simple family owned spot and the service is excellent.

I found this place thanks to a Yelp event! And I'm soo glad I did because this place is a Gem!
The staff is super friendly, I got to meet the owner and his mom and they are just the nicest, they told us that they have their traditional recipes.
When we tried the place during the event they gave us a variety of things which I enjoyed (specially their birria, that birria is something else) .

I had a family gathering just two days after the event, had no time to cook but needed to bring something to share with the family, those empanadas were sooo good that I needed to share them with the people I love.

I called ahead and placed an order of 18 empanadas, also got my self some Carne asada bowl for lunch an horchata and some flan to share. They packed everything very nicely, I ate my bowl in between meetings in my car and it was very fulfilling, their portions of protein are generous and I enjoyed it a lot, but couldn't finish it all alone .
I also love that their horchata isn't super sweet. That was my second impression.
Then, later that day was time for the gathering with the fam and let me tell you!! Those empanadas flew out of the table, they overshadowed the things that my other family members brought and were made at home. They didn't last and people kept asking for more when the table was full of other delicious things to share. They said that I should have doubled my order, they sent enough salsas that people used their salsa for the other food .

And last for no least I need to tell you about their flan it's really good, it's not super sweet and it was a good consistency more like a leche asada which I love!! And everyone else that tried the flan that night agreed. I could have said that I made it my self and they wouldn't believe me
I'm definitely coming back and keep trying things on their menu, I'm obsessed by now

Wow... a true hidden gem. We were greeted by Jose, and the hospitality followed by the food made this one of those special experiences you rarely have going out to eat, particularly any more. It's hard to overlook the cleanliness of the restaurant as you enter and that certainly carried over into the flavors of their delicious, authentic Mexican food. The empanadas were served hot with complimentary salsas, and the taste test of their mole over rice has me ready to go back for more. Fresh and true to their Mexican roots; this is my new go to spot for bringing loved ones.

I didn't get into the Yelp event here, but I bookmarked it anyway because it looked so appealing. I wasn't sure if it could live up to the hype and high rating, but it sure did. Now it's one of my favorite Mexican restaurants!

The mole enchiladas are my favorite. I can be picky about mole and even refried beans, but Cocina Mama Cholita's really hit the spot. The chicken inside the enchiladas were also super juicy. I've also tried the green enchiladas, but I ended up just missing the mole.

I've only gotten takeout so far since parking is tough, but service is nice. They even give drink trays when we order 2 aguas frescas. The only downside is sometimes I find myself craving them when they're closed (like Monday and Tuesday), but they deserve a break after all the good work they're doing the other days of the week!