Thanks to Miguel's Jr Homestyle Mexican Restaurants for hosting our picnic dinner and providing us with a few other Miguel's Jr goodies.
I'm a longstanding customer of Miguel's California Mexican Cocina sit-down restaurant in Foothill Ranch. I go for family meals where we eat our fill of fajitas and homemade flour tortillas or many times for business lunches ordering lunch specials. So I was intrigued to learn about their Miguel's Jr Homestyle Mexican Restaurants. You might be familiar with one of their Inland Empire locations -- the first of which opened in 1975? But now there are four locations in Orange County: Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Orange, and Tustin. Each one has a drive-through and each one is nearby to a number of park options so you can easily bring your Miguels Jr dinner to the park and enjoy your meal outdoors with your family.
The menu is thoughtfully simple and "fiercely fresh" with most items costing around $6 or $7 - and a few coming in just under $10. You can choose between:
- Famous Burritos
- Tacos
- Taquitos
- Combination Plates (tacos, enchiladas, taquitos, chile relleno, and chile verde pork) that come with Spanish rice and refried beans
- Nachos & Quesadillas
- Salads & Tostadas
- Kid's Menu for 12 & unders that includes a drink (called Little Chips)
- Breakfasts Burritos and Plates until 11am during the week and 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays
Chile verde marinated potatoes can be added to burritos, quesadillas, and tostadas. I am a huge fan of those potatoes. They are also generous with their rice and beans. The Carne Asada inside the tacos is served medium rare and in large ½-inch chunks. But you can request for it to be chopped finer. I was surprised we could get Chile Relleno at a to-go restaurant. The California Chile Burrito actually has a Chile Relleno inside the burrito! Note: Tortilla chips aren't included and cost just a little over $1 extra - or get an order of fresh guacamole and chips for around $5.
You must try the fresh squeezed lemonade (our favorite) or homemade horchata. I'd come back just for the lemonade!
Here are links to the locations and the menu.
Costa Mesa (141 E. 17th Street)
- Castaways Park - for a view of Newport Harbor (no picnic tables, but benches)
- Fairview Park - to see sunset over Huntington Beach
- Mariner's Park - near Mariner's Library
Huntington Beach (19620 Beach Blvd)
- Discovery Wells Park -it has 3 picnic tables on the grass and 4 more under the gazebo
- Peter Green Park - great playground with covered picnic tables
- Wieder Regional Park - nice grassy area for picnic blankets
Orange (1325 N. Tustin Street)
- Santiago Oaks Regional Park - tucked away in the hills above Orange
- Grijalva Community Park - has tons of picnic tables
Tustin (2855 El Camino Real)
- Pioneer Road Park - feel like you're picnicking in the Old West
- Tustin Sports Park - very close to the restaurant with a shade cover
- Citrus Ranch Park - if you have the energy, bring your food to the top of the hill and look out over the foothills
Please let me know if you have different/better park pairing ideas!
We tried the menu from Miguel's Jr on Beach Blvd. in Huntington Beach. Next time, I'm getting a breakfast burrito!
Disclosure: Miguel's Jr hosted dinner for our family of four - for the purposes of writing up this blog post. After seeing their press release, I thought this would be a fun post to write where I could pair the restaurant locations with nearby parks - as I've done in the past with other restaurants. So I contacted them (not the other way around) and they were a very gracious and supportive of my idea. As always, all opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure policy here.
