Maggie the owner is super nice! She is married to Steve who owns the popular Steve's Steakhouse, located directly above this restaurant.
Maggie fell in love with the island, dined at Steve's Steakhouse, fell in love with Steve (born and raised on Catalina Island), and married him. She worked at Steve's Steakhouse with Steve for a while, before the owner of the building told them that the .
souvenir shop space below Steve's Steakhouse was available, Maggie and Steve secured the spot and created an authentic Mexican Restaurant with an elevated flavor profile that appeals to all.
A sweet woman makes homemade tortillas right before your eyes near the front of the restaurant.
Order the street corn bathed in fresh lime juice, mayo, chile powder and topped with cotija cheese. Eat it off the cob with plenty of napkins or your server will cut it off the cob tableside for you.
Be sure to order the mole braised duck taquitos that offers a pleasing sweetness. They are served with a jicama-apple slaw that is fresh and clean tasting to balance the richness of the duck. It's dazzled with a cilantro crema.
The traditional guacamole is made with fresh avocado, onions and lemon. A dollop of this goes nicely with the crab and corn empanadas. The dough is hand stuffed with cheese, fried and topped with a mild, yet full of flavor salsa verde with cilantro crema.
Salads include Maggie's Caesar with roasted poblano Caesar dressing and topped with tortilla strips and cotija cheese. You can get a half or full size. Add some chicken or shrimp for additional protein.
Street tacos come in shrimp, pork al pastor, chicken verde, grilled achiote marinated skirt steak, and fresh fish tacos with different types of fish depending on the season. They also make lobster tacos from the meat of the claw and a roasted poblano chile sauce.
Enchiladas are handmade tortillas stuffed with lobster, skirt steak, chicken, braised duck, fresh avocado or cheese. They come with cilantro rice or Mexican rice and refried beans or black beans.
Vegetarians will like the potato taco, avocado enchilada or the veggie black bean chipotle burger wrapped in a flour tortilla.
For those who don't like Mexican fare, Maggies serves pasta alfredo, broiled shrimp, N.Y. steak, filet mignon, King crab legs and lobster.
Kids under 12 are welcome to order from a menu with a cheese enchilada, street taco, cheese quesadilla, bean and cheese burrito, kids burger or chicken strips.
They make over 11 different types of margaritas from Skinny to cucumber and Jalapeño. Flavored margaritas are made with blue Reposado tequila and include strawberry, banana, pomegranite, peach, tropical pineapple, watermelon, midori, mango or guava.
Signature drinks include a lava flow, Buffalo milk, Mai Tai or Sangria at the long bar. The bartender also makes 12 different martini's, offer shots of tequila, beers on draught and wines from California, Argentina and Spain.
If you get Sandra as your server, you are in good hands. She is friendly and an island girl. She can answer all of your questions about Catalina Island.
Maggie decorated the restaurant with cool tin ceiling tiles under the bar and below the long bar top that is made from a large eucalyptus tree. The walls are adorned with silver framed mirrors and Chihuly glass inspired colorful pieces. Notice the exquisite piece over the tortilla station.
In the back there are vintage photos of Santa Catalina Island. It's a fun vibe, with friendly servers and excellent Mexican cuisine.
Nothing is more awkward than being on Catalina Island alone! After looking through recommendations on Urban Spoon and checking out the menus posted outside each restaurant, I settled on this place for some Mexi-shellfish dishes. I am so pleased with the result! It's on the main drag with patio seating so I am looking at the Casino from my table as I write this. I ordered a cucumber and jalapeño margarita first, just the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. For lunch I had the crab and corn empanadas (I am a sucker for empanadas and these blew my mind!) and half a shrimp and watermelon salad, a perfect meal to spoil myself after a successful job interview. I am really impressed with this place and I didn't even see it on the list of restaurants through Urban Spoon. You need to try this place for yourself!!
The food is good, but you have to check the prices because they charge different prices than the menu. Finally the corrected the ticket.
The empanadas are really good
Friendly service with generous portions! We came on a Wednesday Summer evening here and though it was pretty busy we were seated quickly. My picky eater was able to get fries with their kids quesadilla, our older child had the kids chicken taco, and we got fish tacos, carnitas nachos, and the shrimp enchiladas.
Everything was delicious with large portions. The nachos had the right balance of chips, cheese, and toppings. The carnitas were delicious. My shrimp enchiladas- I don’t frequently order enchiladas, but the vibe at this restaurant told me to get enchiladas so I asked our server which enchiladas he’d recommend and he highly recommended the shrimp ones, so I went with it and was not disappointed at all. 1) the tortillas for enchiladas are corn & gluten free which can be an important detail for some. 2) the sauce for the shrimp enchiladas was heavenly and addictive. One of the most delicious things I’ve eaten in a while. Highly recommend.
My kids didn’t devour their food but both said everything was good.
Husband had been craving Baja style fish tacos and these didn’t hit the spot for him. No surprise to me, this was not a “Baja fish taco” vibe, but def more of a fajitas and enchiladas sort of spot in my opinion. Would come back for sure!!!
3.5/5
Slow service but Reasonably priced
Ceviche fish tasted like it wasn’t fresh but rather thawed from frozen, but the chips were good
Rice, beans, shrimp fajitas were good but I wish they had a sizzling presentation
We truly had a great dinner experience at Maggie’s and couldn’t have been more happy with our choice for dinner during our short stay in Avalon. The food was delicious, service was superb and location right in the heart of the town!
Chile relleno was very good.. rest all of the dishes we ordered were ok. Crispy potatoes tacos were a disappointment, could use some seasoning in the potatoes. A bit pricey for the taste. Michelada was good.
Firstly I must say the service here is wonderful. Food is good, and ambience is nice. Serving sizes are large. We tried tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas and fish and chips - all were good.
I had the meanest jalapeño ever, needed a good two hours to cool off, the experience was worth it!
Great Mexican food! Definitely worth the visit.
Great food, friendly staff, prices are within reach, even for a tourist spot, def going back!
Super awesome appetizers and plates. Had the duck taquitos , crab and corn empanadas, lobster enchiladas and tried moose milk - it's a drink with some pinnacle vodka and others I can't say the names 😆 plus banana creme. Very refreshing, like a desert. Seats outside to see beach and the staff was very friendly and quick. All we needed was louder dancing music. 😆
Ordered the Blackened Shrimp Tacos and kids Chicken Tenders. The tacos were good. Was pleasantly surprised at the amount of French fries for the kids meal. Pretty good place to eat.
There was no air conditioning when I went. FYI
If you are in Catalina then you need to go here. To start I got the elote corn , beautiful and delicious, then I got the Carnitas plate and an amazing margarita. The Carnitas was cooked perfectly and was occupied by black refrained beans and cilantro rice. The margarita was insane and got me drunk so that means it’s an awesome margarita
Looked for where to eat first on our food tour and decided on here. The Crab and corn empanadas were YUMMY. And the chips and salsa- so good!!! They make it all in house and it tasted so fresh.
This is only our second time eating here, but the food is to die for. Their avocado enchiladas are the bomb. Maggie's Margarita is so delicious, the touch of honey makes this my go to drink. The servers are very attentive and the atmosphere is so fun. Highly recommend the next time you're on the island.
Staff were super friendly and attentive. Food was good...but not great....but the drinks and shots were delicious.
Great decor and right on the main drag across from the beach.
Best meal we had on the island. We LOVE their tortilla chips. OMG! It’s soooo gooood. The salsas that come with it were so good as well both spicy and nonspicy one.
I had shrimp Catalina and it was delicious.
We also got empanadas and they were average. Though I still give 5 stars because of the out of this world chips and salsas
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