Jibarra aims to introduce a novel approach to Mexican cuisine. We take deep-rooted, traditional Mexican dishes, use modern cooking techniques and present them in a contemporary way. You combine that with a unique Spanish & South American wine list, and margaritas made with the best tequila and freshest ingredients and you get amazing results. We are located in the historic Raleigh Depot building. The former train depot, built in 1912, provides an open, high-energy atmosphere. In the center, our Tequila Tower dominates the space, showcasing all our premium tequila bottles. Whether it be a casual weekday lunch or dinner, a multi-course experience or just hanging out at our bar, come check us o

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lizlan on Citysearch

13 years ago

I crave this food every week. – First of all I MUST reply to the last review of this so called "FOODIE ". It sounds to me like you're a complainer, and would like to get your food for free. Try writing a more constructive review next time, if you are a self proclaimed "foodie" and really know something about the food you're tasting. The tortilla soup has a very distinct flavor from the Crab soup. Yes, they are both salty, and spicy, but with totally different complexities. I have not yet found a better crab soup in the triangle than the Chilpachole de Jaiba. I have to have it every week. Everytime I go I try a different entree after the soup. I have not yet been disappointed. It only gets better. The Cabrito (Goat) is exceptional. I have to say this place really should make Mexicans proud!

A Yahoo Local User on Yahoo! Local

★★

13 years ago

I dont know where to begin. I start with the good stuff. It has a cool vibe. Its really beautiful inside. The presentation of the food is great. You will feel like you are having your own Iron Chef America.Now for the important stuff. Service--Not great. The hostess was not very friendly. She didnt know the specials (if there were any) and didnt offer to find out. Our waitress took 15 minutes to come over for our drink order. The margaritas are small, exspenive and not that great. The highlight of the meal was the "muse" a small portion of some corn. The guacomole was horrible with no flavor. The pork rind on top was stale and chewy. The soup (blue crab someting) smelled like wet dog and taste like vomit. The fajita steak was so rare in the middle I had to ask my husband to stop eating it so I wouldnt throw up. The pepper/onion mix was oily. The carne asada was pretty good. They did not ruin grilled steak strips, potatoes,and flour tortillas. Our bill for 3 beers, margartia, soup, guacamole, 2 entrees was \$66. I would have rather gone to Taco Bell.

triomama on Yahoo! Local

★★

13 years ago

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pamelac on Citysearch

13 years ago

This is the worst excuse for mexican food – We are self proclaimed FOODIES, eat out often and love to try new places and love GOOD FOOD. Stumbled on Jibarra, looked inside, thought it looked like a great place. Not very many people in there at all, but put it on our list of places to try. Just this week, Friday, we decided to go on a date night with another couple and went to Jibarra. The menu was certainly different and we were excited to try this modern mexican. We ordered chips and salsa to begin with, the salsa was excellent, but very sparce and the chips, well, let's just say the bowl that they came in was about the size of a toddlers cereal bowl for $2.50 each time you asked for a refill. There was barely enough for 1 person to enjoy. We also ordered the guacamole which was very bland, we added some lime and salt and "doctored" it up and it was a little better. Again, very small portions. We went on to the next course...My husband and bff ordered the blue crab soup and I ordered the tortilla soup. The presentation was awesome....it should have stopped there. The broth that was poured over the base ingredients that were in the bowl was all the same....once poured in, the blue crab soup and the tortilla soup tasted almost the same...the only difference is that you could taste a slight seafood flavor in the crab soup. It was awful...we sent them all back. Next course, my husband and his friend ordered the special of ravioli with scallops and gorgonzola....tasted like they dumped the entire container of sea salt in the dish. They couldn't finish their entrees as noone bothered to refill their waters and they were dying from the salt intake. I ordered a skewered chicken with traditional fajita veggies and tortillas. The chicken was moderately warm, the "traditional fajita veggies" were ice cold and when asked, we were told that was the appropriate way to be served. If you can wrap around this, moderately warm chicken, ice cold veggies and hot flour tortillas. By the time you wrapped the tortillas around the chicken and veggies you ended up with a slightly cold version of a very dull and forgettable entree. We were so very dissapointed as we loved the location and were really hoping for so much more....we asked to speak to someone in management just so that we could express our thoughts. Again, we dine out several times a week and most of the time together, we love different types of food ranging from the awesome Chinese food at 5 star to the sushi at Sushi Blues. We loved Prime Only's steak and sushi bar, etc. When Hector Jibarra came to our table and explained to us that the flavors that we were experiencing were the way they were intended. The overly salty "special" was most likely that way because it had gorgonzola in it and the cold veggies were intended to be that way, the base or broth used for all the soups and sauces was their signature sauce or sorts. Everything tasted very redundant as if they has one sauce in the kitchen and they made the soup out of it, the sauce for the ribs out of it and they are extremely heavy handed on the salt. This time, there were about 3 tables occupied when we got there and only one more joined us as we had this experience. Doubtful that this restaurant will be around for a very long time. With the lack of care exhibited by the "family" management. They were not in any way customer service friendly as even though we had sent items back and sent the chicken and veggies back and they merely microwaved them and sent them back out, there was no mention of compensation, took nothing off of our bill.....we figured with 4 or 5 tables on a Friday night, they needed every dime that they were billing, regardless of satisfaction. Overall the experience was horrible and these Foodies WILL NOT WASTE our time or money again. With 4 people, we left there with $120 less in our pocket, still hungry with an awful taste in our mouth....don't bother.

clarkm on Citysearch

13 years ago

Terrible experience – Went to Jibarra for the $5 dollar lunch special they were running last week. Great concept, but it seems they may have not been ready for the crowd. There was a little bit of a wait and the bad experience started when the manager was telling everyone to move away from the front door in a very impatient and rude way. The food I ordered ( beef tacos) took nearly 45 minutes to get to my table and the waitress only checked on me once during the entire time I was there. When I asked to speak with the manager, it took her another 15 minutes to get to my table, and she had such chip on her shoulder acting like I was doing her a big favor for coming in to the restaurant to eat. The food was good, but there are plenty of other great restaurant choices around downtown if you're looking to eat within your lunch hour, and expect to be treated with courtesy.

LizM1234 on Citysearch

13 years ago

Good Food - Very bad service – The food was good, atmosphere great, but wait service was too slow. We left saying we'd have had a completely different impression if our waitress had been knowldedgeable about the menu and attentive to our table. We'll eat at Dos Taquitos Centro next time.

foodangel5 on Citysearch

13 years ago

Great food, but the service was a little slow. – I went here a couple of weeks ago with my husband and parents. Service was a bit slow, and for some reason they were out of shot glasses (???), but the atmosphere and food more than made up for those cons. The guacamole was FANTASTIC and very well priced. My mom had the salmon, which was perfectly done; my hubby had the osso bucco, which was falling apart tender and delicious; and my dad had the tacos de carne asada, which he said was great. I had the fajita de arrachera, which unfortunately wasn't as good as my family's entrees. It came out very rare, which I normally would've been okay with, but I'm pregnant, and so didn't want to take any chances. I just wish either I had remembered to ask for well done, or the waitress had asked me how I'd like it cooked. (She knew I was pregnant.) I sent it back to the kitchen, and the waitress was very apologetic. Unfortunately, though, meat doesn't do well reheated, and so when it came back well done, it was tough as leather. To make matters worse, I had only a butter knife to cut it with, as I had trouble flagging the waitress down again. So, the moral of the story is, if you're ordering beef, to be sure and tell them up front how you'd like it cooked. My hubby and I are planning on going back, but I won't be ordering the fajitas again.

lyn2003 on Citysearch

13 years ago

Awesome downtown addition! – Me and a girlfriend went to Jibarra about three weeks ago. The place is awesome! Gorgeous decor, exciting Mexican food, upbeat music, and friendly staff. We sat in the high tables area, and started out with some tasty margaritas that our gorgeous Hispanic waitress recommended to us. The two exotic flavor margaritas we tried came with an edible orchid. What beautiful presentation! We had the salada completa, which was a wonderful salad to share. Then took another great recomendation to eat the Conchinita Pibil appetizer. This food is special, and the margaritas are addicting!! After our meal, we moved to the bar to have some more margaritas, and bartender was very corteous and knowledgeable about the tequilas. We took some pictures with the tequila tower behind us to share with our friends our awesome find in downtown Raleigh! I'll become a regular for sure!

Bryanm23 on Citysearch

13 years ago

Awesome! – I went to lunch today at Jibarra with my wife. It was my birthday saturday, and I was looking for someplace different and special. We went all out with appetizer, entree, dessert. First of all, service was great, we got great recommendations and everything was served quickly. Food was hot with excellent presentation. And best of all, it was delicious. We had the cochinita appetizer, which was marinated pulled pork and sweet onions wrapped in a banana leaf (served with warm tortillas). This was a recommendation from our server, and it was super. I highly recommend it. For the entrees, we had the burrito de arrachera and the torta de cochinita. The pork in the entree was similar to the pork in the appetizer, and again was very good. It could probably be placed on better bread, it was sort of a plain round roll. Nothing exciting. But again, the pork was very tasty. The pork dish came with a side of steak fries covered with chipotle aioli. Excellent. I was jokingly calling them mexican cheese fries. I liked them a lot. Fries were very crispy, and the aioli was flavorful and had a kick. The burrito was also very good, the steak was cut in small pieces and very tender. We got a house salad on the side. The salad was ok, it could use a more flavorful dressing and more interesting toppings in it. For dessert, we had the pan de natas, which was a bread pudding/custart with a tart marmalade on top, served with chocolate ice cream on the side. Very, very good. Again, excellent presentation. The interior of the restaurant is very nice, in the historic Depot on Davie St. near downtown. I liked having parking right outside, as opposed to struggling to find parking at many downtown eateries. I plan on going back very soon.

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