Celia's Mexican Restaurant

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A Bay Area Mexican restaurant institution since 1960, serving enchiladas, fajitas, burritos, and house margaritas at the Laurelwood Shopping Center in San Mateo daily from 11 AM.

Celia's Mexican Restaurant at 3190 Campus Drive in San Mateo's Laurelwood Shopping Center is part of one of the Bay Area's most enduring family restaurant stories. The chain traces its roots to 1960, when Celia and Perfecto Lopez, immigrants from the small town of La Mesa in Jalisco, Mexico, opened a tiny café on Judah Street in San Francisco's Outer Sunset District. They originally served burgers, fries, and milkshakes. When Mrs. Lopez quietly began sneaking enchiladas to regular customers, lines formed out the door within a week. The menu changed, the name changed, and Celia's Mexican Restaurant was born. Rather than franchising, the couple brought relatives from Mexico, trained them in the kitchen, helped them save money, and supported them in opening their own Celia's locations — each independently owned and operated by family members using the original handwritten recipes Celia kept in a drawer at home until her death in 2012. The San Mateo Campus Drive location has been part of the Peninsula community for decades. The menu covers the full range of Mexican-American classics: enchiladas, tacos, burritos, fajitas, chile rellenos, tamales, quesadillas, chalupas, chimichangas, and the signature Expresso Burrito — a giant flour tortilla filled with rice, beans, cheese, and choice of meat, topped with guacamole, onions, tomatoes, cotija cheese, and house sauce. A kids menu, seafood options, and a full catering program round out the offering. The restaurant is open daily from 11 AM, with online ordering for pickup and DoorDash delivery available.