Casa Bonita is a legendary Mexican themed restaurant located just outside Denver, Colorado whose kitschy fabulousness makes it feel like a fever dream. It’s a place where you’re greeted by mariachis, entertained by cliff divers while you eat, can catch a show or two (magic or puppets!), and are encouraged explore at your leisure. Visiting Casa Bonita is pure bliss because it requires you to forget about the outside world while you’re there.
As reservations go from being invite-only to opening up to the public, here’s everything you need to know before visiting Casa Bonita.
About Casa Bonita
Casa Bonita is located about 15 minutes due west of Downtown Denver at the corner of a strip mall in Lakewood, Colorado. Located in a space previously occupied by a department store, Casa Bonita has been described as the Disneyland of Mexican restaurants.
It was featured in a 2003 South Park episode (#107 if you’d like to watch it) and mentioned in many others. After it closed during the pandemic, South Park creators Trey Park and Matt Stone’s fond memories of the place led them to buy for $3.1 million dollars and spend over $40 million on renovations. A documentary about Casa Bonita is coming soon. Be advised the trailer below includes language NSFW or kids.
Yes, this seems like a ridiculous amount of money but can you put a price on the joy that nostalgia brings? I think not.
Anyone can stop by to see the iconic pink tower and take some pictures in front of the fountain, but reservations are required for going inside and visiting Casa Bonita.
Everything You Need to Know About Visiting Casa Bonita
If you’re South Park fans like us, have fond memories of visiting Casa Bonita years ago, or have never heard of the place, here’s are 10 things to know about the dining and entertainment experience.
How to Get a Reservation at Casa Bonita
We’re huge fans of South Park and as soon as we heard Trey Parker and Matt Stone bought the restaurant that was the focus of South Park Episode #107, we put our names on the list to receive an invite to make a reservation. According to a local TV interview, there were 400,000-600,000 people on the Casa Bonita waitlist for the soft opening that lasted for over a year. Along with hundred of thousand of others, we patiently waited and one day, the highly coveted email came just as we were finishing breakfast.
You would have thought my husband won the lottery. Well in a way he did- he won the lottery to choose a date for a reservation to Casa Bonita!
The dates he was given to choose from coincided with an already planned trip to Denver. We selected our date, the time for our reservation, decided if we wanted to upgrade to Cliffside Dining (keep reading for more information about cliffside dining below), and paid the set cost for a ticket.
Reservations used to be invitation only but last month Casa Bonita announced that at 3pm CT on September 16, 2024, they will be accepting reservations for October and November 2024. *cue confetti and mariachis*
Mark your calendars. Set an alarm. If you’ve been wanting to go, your time is coming very soon!
Arriving to Casa Bonita
When you arrive to Casa Bonita, you’ll want to check in with the person outside. They’ll have your name and reservation and once you’ve checked in, you’ll wait outside until you’re let in for your reservation. The ticket above probably indicates a section and table we were assigned since once we got inside and presented it, we were whisked away.
Expect a Security Check
Weapons, vaping, and strollers are prohibited inside Casa Bonita. Entering the pool is also not allowed.
Before you enter, expect a security check. Since we live in the Washington, D.C. area, we don’t bat an eye at security, but since this isn’t the case for everyone, don’t be alarmed by having to walk through a metal detector and having your bag checked before you enter.
The FAQs page specifically states the following items are not allowed when visiting Casa Bonita:
- Weapons of any kind
- Vaping or smoking of any kind, including e-cigarettes, is not allowed
- Casa Bonita requests you leave them in the car.
Once you’re cleared by security, you’re free to enter Casa Bonita so be ready to take it all in!
Yes, You Can Bring Your Kids
While you might not allow your children to watch South Park or bring them to see Book of Mormon, also by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Casa Bonita is a kid-friendly experience. Kids ages 3-12 are $24.99 while those under 3 get in free.
There are 4 kid-friendly meal options for those 12 and under to choose from including:
- Rice, bean, and cheese burrito with green chile sauce
- Mac & cheese with chicken tenders
- Mexican hot dog with fries
- Mexican burger with fries
Casa Bonita’s original menu can be seen inside El Museo
After you eat, kids will have a great time exploring the various parts of the restaurant and partaking in the entertainment. Wait staff encourages everyone at the table to be done eating before getting up to explore. More on entertainment below!
Cliffside Dining is Worth the Extra Cost
An adult dinner ticket to Casa Bonita is $39.99 but when making your reservation, spring for Cliffside Dining! When we made our reservation in July to dine in August 2024, it cost us an extra $5 extra per person and was totally worth it to be able to watch cliffside dining from our table every 20 minutes.
We were seated at an amazing table right next to the pool with an unobstructed view of the cliff divers as we dined. The footage of the divers in my Instagram Reel was taken from our table!
The cliffside dining seating is tiered, with different levels to provide nice views for all. Even though some areas are farther away from the diving pool, it seemed like adults on the upper tiers could see just fine. We invited some kids on the upper tiers to come stand along the ropes on either side of our table so they could have a better view since there were plenty of room for them to do so.
Can you select which section to dine in? I’m honestly not sure.
A follower who remembered visiting Casa Bonita as a youngster asked me what section we chose to dine in. Since my husband selected Cliffside Dining when making the reservation, I don’t know what other options, if any, there might have been to choose from when choosing the regular dining option. Perhaps there is an ability to choose from one of the many other non-cliffside seating areas when you make a reservation or maybe you’re automatically assigned an area. Sorry I can’t tell you but if you know, please if you’ve been and are reading this— do share your experience by leaving a comment!
Your Ticket Price Is All Inclusive
The Casa Bonita FAQs state that “In addition to our adventurous world of exploration, entertainment and play, each ticket includes an entree of incredible Mexican food, chips & salsa, a choice of a fountain soft drink, and of course, sopaipillas!”
This is all true! When visiting Casa Bonita, your ticket price includes the above and a 15% service charge as tip. Expect to pay extra if you’d like to order alcoholic beverages or fancy mocktails with your meal. There are also some entertainment experiences that are an additional charge but there is plenty to do without spending more than what you originally paid for your reservation.
Besides the cost of our ticket, we didn’t pay for anything else except for the merch we bought before leaving. More on merch below.
What About the Food? Is it any good?
Whenever I go somewhere new, I love getting a preview of the menu and reading reviews to guide me to the best dishes on the menu. There are plenty of articles about Casa Bonita’s food but take their criticism of the food with a grain of salt.
From our reading, we expected the food to be mediocre but it exceeded our expectations. Chips and salsa were at our table when we sat down. We loved the chunkier consistency of the salsa and the just-right heat. Servers came to take our drink orders quickly but gave us time to decide which of the 8 options to order from the menu.
The 3 of us dining chose #1- Enchiladas (son), #2- Carnitas (husband), and #8- Taco Salad with carnitas for me. I’ve never been able to resist a taco salad. There’s just something about the fried tortilla and crispy lettuce! I appreciated that the flavor of the chipotle chiles came through in the aioli dressing but not in a mouth-on-fire kind of way and while not advertised on the menu, I loved that my salad was topped with a hefty portion of guacamole (yay for guac being included at Casa Bonita!) but wish the carnitas I ordered for my salad were on it, rather than in a metal cup on the side. The carnitas were still quite tasty though!
And when we were done, we raised our flag on our table to indicate we were ready for an order of the sopaipillas.
What are sopaipillas? Sopaipillas come at the end of your Casa Bonita meal as dessert.
These fried squares of dough are like beignets, minus the mound of powdered sugar. Sopaipillas arrive piping hot with a cup of honey on the side for dipping or pouring. We received an order of 6 for the 3 of us which was plenty but their deliciousness also made us want more.
We can see why Cartman dreams about them! Oh, and they also come with a handful of wet naps that were certainly needed.
What about food sensitivities and allergies? While we were dining, we overheard the table next to us asking about leaving items like cheese off certain items and substitutions. The staff graciously took their requests. The Casa Bonita FAQs also states: “We are a nut-free kitchen, and gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options have all been clearly denoted on the menu.”
Take Time to Explore Casa Bonita
When planning your visit to Casa Bonita, clear your schedule! You’ll want to give yourself plenty of time to enjoy the full experience without having to worry about being somewhere else at a certain time.
Entertainment is offered regularly, and announcements are made before cliffside diving, Sorsoro, and the puppet shows. In between the shows, take time to notice all the little treasures hiding in the nooks and crannies as you explore. Don’t be afraid of going upstairs or downstairs and through the other dining areas. If you don’t venture up, down, and all around, you’ll miss out when visiting Casa Bonita.
I included highlights in my Instagram Reel but other things not to miss include the following.
View this post on Instagram
1. See the cliffside divers as often as possible, preferably from different vantage points. You can even go behind the waterfall!
2. Take a selfie with Cartman (it took us awhile to find him!)
3. Find Man Bear Pig (he roams around the restaurant with a handler and we happened to run into him twice!)
4. Enjoy a magic show with Sorsoro
5. Catch a puppet show in the Plaza by El Mercado
6. Explore the Gold and Silver Mine while being mindful of the diners inside. There are a couple free things to do inside.
7. Take a photo with the jail bars
8. Wait in line for face painting. It’s free!
9. Take in the history at of Casa Bonita by El Museo near the exit
El Museo features the history of Casa Bonita plus details about the renovation. You’ll learn about the early years of Casa Bonita, see relics from the past, learn how many gallons of custom pink paint it took to paint the exterior, and how Parker and Stone took care of existing Casa Bonita employees during the renovation by paying them their regular rates to volunteer in community nonprofits.
El Museo is a must for anyone who visited Casa Bonita in previous years or is a South Park fan who is familiar with all the Casa Bonita mentions in various episodes.
There are additional things to do that require payment via a Casa Card, a card that you can load money on to pay for optional activities like caricature drawings and the assayer in the mine who will create a Casa Bonita coin for you.
I think I might have seen a squished penny machine in the plaza of Casa Bonita but didn’t have any change to use it to add one to our family’s collection. There was also a nook for a fortune teller who might have also been extra but we kept missing them during our visit so weren’t sure if it was included or extra.
We didn’t do any of the extra paid activities and still had plenty to do during our 2 ½ hours there, one of which was spent eating and watching the cliff divers from our table.
Do We Have to Exit Through the Gift Shop?
When visiting Casa Bonita, you don’t need to exit through their gift shop like you do at many attractions but it’s worth stopping in El Mercado to pick up some merch. You can get a sense of available merch on the Casa Bonita on the El Mercardo at Casa Bonita website but more is available in person.
There are actually two gift shops inside Casa Bonita- one off the plaza by the puppet show and the other is near the museum by the exit.
What is the Founders Club?
“The Founders Club is the most prestigious club in the world, composed exclusively of Casa Bonita’s earliest supporters.”
If you entered your email into Casa Bonita waiting list a reservation, chances are you received an email about the Founders Club. If you didn’t, check your spam or read the Founders Club FAQs about how you can get the link resent.
Founders Club members get early access to reservations when they open on September 16th and a discount on merch. Other benefits include a membership card and preferred access to events.
As Cartman says, visiting Casa Bonita is “totally worth it.”
If you’ve been to Casa Bonita, share what your favorite part of your visit was and if you’re hoping to go, let me know what questions you have!
No compensation was received for this post. Casa Bonita tickets and merch were personally paid for because yes, the experience was “totally worth it.” Also- every member of our family is a proud card carrying member of Casa Bonita’s Founders Club!
Thank you for the article, it was very useful for me.