Gema

We have been to Gema at least 10 times since they opened, and it never ceases to impress. We often bring a couple guests for their first time experience, and it never disappoints. The ambience is so inviting, chic and fresh; as soon as you walk in, you know you are in for a special night.Sara, the owner is often there working the front of the house and she always makes us feel welcomed. The chef is also part owner which makes this place special as both the front and back of the house are invested in doing the best job possible. Service is always great. The staff know the menu well. Drinks are divine, both the alcoholic drinks and non-alcoholic agua frescas. The food is awesome. Think Mexico City gourmet. My husband is obsessed with the birria and tortillas. We are so lucky to have this local gem. Thank you Sara!

First Time We came here for a last minute date night on a Friday evening around 7:45 pm.We were seated quickly and started our lovey dinner with drinks.La Santa for me. It's a cocktail/mezcal forward concoction that went down smooth.Mezcal for my hubby. We chose a light to medium level of mezcal. You place your order and they bring out the dishes as they are ready. This was the perfect amount of dishes, as we wanted to try a little bit of everything.We enjoyed each of these dishes however if you had to pick two dishes from the ones we got:1. Langostino 2. Birria short rib(Get a few extra tortillas)3. Pear Salad to have something cool and crunchy.The service was great and so was the attention to detail. It was a lovely find and I'm so glad to have found this place!

Finally made our way here for dinner. I recommend a reservation, which we had as the inside has limited space when full. Nice, chill vibe, warm dim light ambiance with a bar area to sit. Waitress brought out a complimentary bowl of mole sauce with 4 larger tortilla chips. It was a nice touch and held us over before first dish came. Got the camerones flameados as appetizer wow was it excellent! Excellent flavor and Smokey taste to shrimp. I was really anticipating the main course since the first was delicious, but unfortunately the halibut was very bland, not a good cut of fish as it had brown and pink throughout, overall didn't wow me like the first dish did. Was bummed about it actually. I may choose to come back and give it another shot in the future.

Beautiful restaurant! The food was amazing! Can't wait to come back! The service was top notch. Go! You won't regret it.

I'm really not even sure where to start with this review. We were really looking forward to this dining experience but left feeling really defeated and upset with the overall whole experience. The food was good even though it was barely warm.It started with requesting a tequila manhattan which they said they could do easily. I drink manhattans and tequila all the time and both attempts were very wrong. I don't know if they don't have sweet vermouth and just didn't want to tell me? Regardless it was terrible and not a manhattan so I sent both back. It was foamy almost like there was citrus in it. We ordered all of our food at once as we were told to do. It was more than an hour before our salad and vegetable dishes arrived. When we asked what was taking so long they said it was coming soon and they were sorry. It continued to take so long that we eventually asked for a manager. Instead of understanding where we were coming from, she continued to tell us again "it's a scratch" restaurant with a very defensive attitude. I mentioned how multiple other tables seemed to get food faster than us. She said this time table is normal for their restaurant. The way she talked to us was really rude honestly and made us feel worse. So much worse actually that we didn't finish our entrees and left. Not a way you want to feel after paying $300+I've been to plenty of "fine dining" restaurants and never experienced something like this. Unreal. Unfortunately I would not recommend it. Plenty of other great Mexican restaurants nearby. The food will be good, cost less, have great customer service and come in in a timely manner!UPDATE: in addition, Gema went back after our dinner there and canceled our reservation on Open Table. Not sure WHY they would do this other than to stop Open Table from sending me the automatic email to submit a review the day after our reservation. Now I have no way of providing honest feedback about a bad experience on Open Table. Clearly they are trying to monitor reviews in their favor only.

I was very excited to try Gema - the menu looks great with some familiar Mexican dishes but in a more elevated preparation. The restaurant is on a busy street and parking was pretty challenging on a Saturday night evening - there is no private lot of valet parking offered so we had to circle around the blocks multiple times to find a spot. For a party of 3, we got 2 dishes from the appetizers, 2 dishes from the 2nd course list of the menu, and 2 entrees. My favorites were the lengua (beef tongue) in a bright tomatillo sauce, crispy shrimp, and birria de rez. Overall, all the dishes were beautifully presented and had a unique mix of complementary flavors.I do think the restaurant needs to work on their service/operations - the dishes came out very very slowly (took 45 mins for the first appetizer to come out and 1hr and 15 mins for the 2nd courses to come out...and we had to ask the waitress to check on food multiple times). Understood that they were having a busy Saturday night, but hope that they could improve on the overall efficiency a bit.

I have been interested in this restaurant for awhile and decided to come here on the way to a weekend trip to San Diego. It has unique food on its menu, and of course is in amazing downtown San Clemente. Great location and ambiance inside the restaurant and our waitress was friendly. However, if you are with kids, this restaurant is not for you. There is no kids type menu and while they serve a really good quesadilla, it's not really kid style. The food is on the experimental style Mexican, and not your usual Baja California, northern Mexico cuisine. There was t really anything to order for them. The cocktails were really good. Overall, the food quality was okay. The tostadas did not have much flavor. My favorite item I ordered was beans, which had a meat and chile broth. I think coming here with kids made the restaurant experience harder. But I also think that unless you're a Michelin restaurant you should be more inclusive to the needs of an entire family and not just couples, people on dates, or small groups of friends.

Haven't eaten here, but miserable customer service. Made a reservation on OpenTable weeks ahead of Valentine's Day 2025. Days before Vday, I get a call from a # not associated with the restaurant asking for my credit card information in order to keep the reservation. I play phone tag with this # and in the middle of the work day, I eventually connect with this individual who says I must give my credit card info now or the reservation will be canceled. I explain I'm in the middle of a meeting and I can call back with my credit card information in 20 minutes. The beyond rude representative from the restaurant denies my compromise and cancels my reservation.Restaurants require credit cards via OpenTable all the time. I'm not sure why Gemma doesn't have this be a pre-requisite with their reservation system. Outrageously inconvenient and unhospitable for a supposed fine dining restaurant. Was looking forward to a great meal but instead I'm writing my first-ever scathing review of a place I didn't even dine at.Be better Gema, that was embarrassing.

First off, we have only heard great things about Gema. It has been on our list of places to try in town for a while now, and tonight was a special occasion so we wanted to go somewhere memorable. The ambiance, music, and interior design is beautiful. The service was attentive and our waiter was knowledgeable about the menu. Every item on the menu sounded unique and appealing.The first item brought out was from the chef- mole with fresh tortilla chips. I am a big fan of mole, and this was exceptional. We got two cocktails which were impressive and unique! We ordered the Tlayuda as an appetizer and the Birria De Res entree. The Tlayuda was amazing- the seasoned carne asada was cooked perfectly and had good flavor.The dishes overall are small, but each item was impressive and we were excited for the main dish- Birria De Res. It came out and looked like everything we hoped it would be. The sauce was delicious, the onion was delicious, and the corn cake was so good- BUT the major bummer of our experience was the short ribs- they were bone in (which they told us they don't normally do) and legitimately had MAYBE 4 bites of meat on them. We thought it had to be a mistake! The other couple in the restaurant ordered the same thing and we got the impression they felt the same way.I got two bites of meat, and so did my husband. The rest was just huge bones and fat. We were so bummed... the rest of our experience was great, but for the cost it was a big disappointment to have the main course be what it was, and to go home hungry. We let the waiter know, and he said he passed along our feedback to the chef.

What an amazing experience! The ambiance and design of this restaurant is beautiful and calming. Luca, Ali and our other servers were so kind and had amazing presentation skills when speaking about the restaurant and different dishes. My wife and I had visited Valle de Guadalupe wine country, so we were thrilled to see that all the wines were from there or other parts of Mexico. Food tasted fresh, earthy and creative. Gema is a must try!