Fred's Mexican Cafe

This second-story hot spot snakes around several blocks of downtown Huntington Beach, creating a serpentine sequence of nooks and crannies wherein you may eat, drink and be merry. Your experience starts at the hostess desk. Overhead, an angel figurine hangs from a ceiling fan that spins backwards. The entry is illuminated by a chandelier straight out of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. Lettering on the wall commands you to “be nice or leave!” Locals come for the food, partiers come for the drink and tourists come for the view. Everyone is likely to agree that the chicken chingaderas are one of the most unusual dishes on the menu. It’s an appetizer described as a Mexican egg roll, made with a dozen staples of the Mexican kitchen: chicken, rice, beans, cheese, corn, cilantro chipotle peppers and more are stuffed into a flour tortilla that’s dipped in bread crumbs and fried. Enjoy your meal inside in a themed section, on the ocean-view terrace or among the grass huts and fire pits in the patio bar.