Kika’s Molcajete

Between May and June 2026, Irvine’s Trade Food Hall lost an authentic British fish-and-chip shop (London Chippy) and gained something less rare around Orange County: a new Mexican restaurant. But much like its predecessor in the small space next to Trade’s bar, Kika’s Molcajete leverages an atypical level of focus to stand out from conceptually similar alternatives. The menu is super short – five tacos (asada, carnitas, pollo, cochinita pibil, birria, $5.75 to $6.50 each), four burritos with the same meats ($16 to $18.25), chile relleno ($18), one molcajete ($29), and shrimp ceviche ($18) or fajitas ($20), plus a few sides ($2.50 to $9) and drinks, including aguas frescas and a delicious fresh lemonade with free refills ($4 each). Unless you arrive on a day when additional specials are available, that’s it for menu choices unless you want to convert a burrito into a bowl; there aren’t even any desserts.

What’s here, however, is consistently high quality and at least partially impressive in quantity. Tacos come out on seemingly scratch corn tortillas, overflowing with tender meat, dollops of fresh guacamole, and sprinklings of white onion and cilantro – enough toppings to make even spicy birria meat ($6.50) go down smooth. Carne asada ($6.25) and cochinita pibil ($5.75) use similarly strong steak and pork, arriving with limes and radishes on the side if you need more sour or bitter flavor; you almost certainly won’t, These aren’t as meat-heavy or value-packed as Tacos Los Cholos tacos, but Kika’s toppings make them more filling.

This approach continued with Kika’s chips and guac ($9) and shrimp ceviche ($18), each pairing huge quantities of freshly made tortilla chips with extras. A bowl of guacamole was excellent in freshness and reasonable enough in size for the medium-sized bowl of chips, while the ceviche arrived with twice as many chips on its circular plate, augmented by the unexpected addition of a package of green salsa Tostidos. We weren’t thrilled by the ceviche, which was a small puck on the plate, too light on citrus, and paired with finely minced veggies that were hard to scoop up, but at least the ratio of shrimp to veggies was high; there were more than enough chips to take home, too.