La Juanita Mexican Cuisine

This is one of those hidden jewels that usually only locals know about. It appears that the restaurant is going by the name Kicho's Restaurant now and the food truck out front goes by the name La Juanita's. The food is delicious and reasonably priced. The service is very good especially compared to other restaurants in Carlsbad. There's nothing "fancy" about this restaurant, but it's clean and the food quality is excellent. The building is rather old, but it has had some recent renovation including the flooring. It's not on the main road through town so it's rarely crowded. The employees seem to genuinely care about providing a good customer service experience. They have a very positive attitude and are eager to help. Keep in mind that this is a locally owned restaurant and the atmosphere is very laid back. Usually customers are encouraged to choose their own table and then a server brings the menus along with chips and salsa. Speaking of the salsa, I totally agree with the other reviews raving about the delicious salsa! For my dinner, I selected the Combination #25 consisting of enchilada, chile relleno, and a flauta (basically a rolled up crunchy taco) and sides of beans and rice. It was a delicious and filling meal for a very reasonable price. I highly recommend this restaurant to locals and visitors alike!

This turned out to be a good breakfast choice. Oddly, many of the other restaurants in town were closed on Sundays but we found this one was open and served breakfast. We took a chance and were pleasantly surprised. Friendly service, good food, and the prices were reasonable. If I pass through town again, this will be a place I will return to.

I was in this city only for work for a few day and I came to this place by chance... I got hooked up to this place cause the real taste of this food. So far I had only try the shrimp 🍤 cocktail, Birria Soup 🍜 & 🥩 Beef Costillas. Very very delicious. I drive from Odessa TX to Carlsbad NM (2hrs :35 mins) for work for few days and this is the only place I would like to eat there 🤠

We came to visit and they have good reviews so bright my family for take out. We did not get what we ordered missing a whole plate. Our nachos did not come with what they said it did, Fake cheese no meat no quesadilla. My barbacoa burrito was icy watery barbacoa. They took forever to get the order out. Will never do that again. I would take this all back get my money back but headed to our reservation at Carlsbad Caverns, still hungry too. Can't eat this nasty food. I'm hangry, just wanted to eat some good food.

Service wasn’t that great and to top it off we ordered To-Go - 2 burritos , a combination plate and last a nachos and quesadilla with MEAT , waitress didn’t get that right , waited 30 minutes plus the 10 to be talked to . Order came back with no combination plate . We’re upset we have to leave to the caverns . Will share a plate , check the food there’s no meat in the nachos . The barrbacoa ranchero burrito was cold and wet like it was frozen and nuked in the microwave :/ what to eat now before our 4 hour walk in the caverns !

This place was disgusting. The inside was dirty and crowded. I ordered tamale plates to-go and even the boxes were disgusting. Not to mention they gave me old brown lettuce, the rice was old, stuck together, and very hard. I had one tamale that looked fresh and my other tamale was dark grey and hard. I will never get food here again! I can’t believe that this place actually has good reviews.

If you LOVE NEW MEXICAN FOOD you may not like it. I always get cheese enchiladas with green (the sauce is usually green Chile based) I asked them what the green was and the waitress told me a creamy chicken sauce. So I decided to go with red usually better if the green isn’t green Chile. I received my enchiladas and and it was 3 corn tortillas grilled and stacked with NO CHEESE in the middle of any tortillas. Tons of red sauce in top and a sprinkle of white cheese. No onion anywhere on the enchiladas. The red sauce was different. I’m not sure what to call what I ate but it definitely was not enchiladas, how do you call them that with no cheese? My husband ordered the Barbacoa tacos he said they were alright. Salsa and chips were ok no spice at all chips came in a bag?