Los Cuates

Cute little spot on busy King Street. We met some friends for dinner on a Friday. The food and drinks were okay. Nothing jumped out and said «these flavors separate us from every other Mexican restaurant.» Our server was busy with a large table next to us. They didn’t seem too interested in keeping us there any longer than we had to be. We flagged someone down for a second margarita, but the check was delivered soon after that.

I love this place! The carne asada fajitas are amazing, hands down the best I’ve ever had. The endless salsa is delicious, also.
It gets pretty crowded on weekend nights, and it pretty much always takes a little longer than anticipated to get a table, but that should just tell you how great it is – everybody is trying to get a table and no one wants to leave. :)

It’s okay. The salsa tastes really good but is really thin in consistency. The nacho platter was good and it’s decorated nice inside. Granted I don’t really eat Mexican much so I don’t know what’s «good» or authentic.

I came here one day for lunch. I sat at the bar and the bartender took good care of me. I ordered a chicken burrito with rice and beans… It was absolutely delicious and very fresh. I would definitely eat here again. Among all the many choices on King st., this is a hidden gem

Whoever said this was authentic Mexican food should be slapped hard.
Not even close.
Never been more disappointed with Mexican food.
I ordered the tamale plate. They were soft like mashed potatoes. No firmness to the dough. WASN’T COOKED LONG ENOUGH. Everything else was plain without any flavor.
The service staff seemed to be bored.
The restrooms needing a lots of attention.

Went here for the first time the other night. It is a very small kind of hole in the wall place in Old Town. We sat at the bar and ordered the jumbo margaritas which are enormous. I think the bartender said 3 margaritas worth of tequila in each.
We ordered the queso blanco for an appetizers with some chips and salsa and tortillas and they were all very fresh. For entrees we split a quesadilla and some enchiladas. The enchiladas were very good and came out pipping hot same with the quesadilla. We had asked the busser to bring us a box for our leftovers and she accidentally threw it away and the manager came up and remade our entire meal to go. Good experience and friendly staff will be returning.

Delicious Mexican food!
I called ahead and placed 5 separate orders for pickup. Everything was ready when we arrived and most importantly each order was correct and served with a bag of tortilla chips and salsa. The salsa was good with a kick of spice.
I ordered the steak and shrimp fajitas. The steak was absolutely delicious with great flavor and seasoning. The meat was perfectly tender and tasted great with the sautéed onions and peppers. The shrimp was ok. Not seasoned well at all and kind of bland. But next to the steak anything would taste bland! The rice and beans that were served with the meal were good.
Every person in my group had nothing but great things to say about their food. I will definitely be back.

As usual, this place is great. The food is always flavorful, and the staff extremely attentive… The have a great Bar selection and the Sunday Brunch is outstanding…

I pretty much live behind this place so it has become a go-​to for us. The guacamole and salsa are fantastic. I pretty much get fajitas all the time, which are pretty simple. Sometimes I’ll go rogue and get one of the delicious shrimp dishes. What I love the most about this place is that they go out of their way to acknowledge that we are regular customers, the bartender will give you a little extra something in your Margherita, and they act like it’s a big deal that we are there. It’s little touches like that that keep us coming back. There aren’t a lot of places in Old Town that treat their customers like they are important to their business, Cuates does that right.

Pretty pathetic excuse for Mexican food, sad to say. We had brunch food, but the «food» term is of questionable applicability here. Having lived in Mexico and various parts of the U.S. with good Mexican food, this was hardly edible for us. Even for DC’s low bar for Mexican food, this wasn’t great. Wife and I both felt sick the rest of the day.
De Cuate-​mala en Cuate-​peor!

I’m from the Southwestern US and this was probably the most authentic Mexican food I had while I was visiting the area.
The chips were fresh and crispy, although many of them in our baskets were pretty small (what do you call pieces of chips? smaller chips? chiplets?). Anyway, the salsa that came with them had a nice flavor and a little spice.
I had the chorizo and egg enchiladas off the brunch menu, one of my kids had a quesadilla, and my wife and other son shared the steak tacos al carbon. The quesadilla was kind of boring (what can you really do to cheese and a flour tortilla besides pair it with guac and salsa?) My son just likes the cheese and tortilla, and he was happy. Apparently, the steak tacos were good by our standards: they disappeared pretty quickly. My enchilada plate was two egg+chorizo enchiladas with a light cream/​chili sauce inside and shredded cheese on top. There was not much spice, and the flavor was subtle, but it was nice. I put a little of the salsa on top to give the enchiladas a little more kick. The only nit I have is that the cheese could have been melted a little more. But, it was 30 degrees outside, so anything WARM was nice :)
The house potatoes were cooked well (as in, the potatoes were not hard or crunchy). They had an orange color, but I didn’t really detect any specific flavor. They looked like they were cooked in oil with a little chili powder or paprika in it — just enough to give them color. I usually like a little salt and garlic, at least, and probably some chipotle, cumin, or cayenne to dress things up a bit. Again, a little of the salsa helped.
Everyone agreed that we’d come back if we were in the area again.

Decent food, horrible service.
I actually like their Masitas and their Guacamole. What I don’t like is waiting 30 minutes to get a salad when I arrive BEFORE the lunch rush. Finally had to just pay for my soda and leave. Even that, I had to just leave cash, since the staff couldn’t be bothered to print a check. Very disappointing.

We ordered take-​out from here last week. Enticed by the menu description, we paid $ 20 to try out the Camarones Brochette Fajitas as one of our entrée choices, which when we got it home to dig into, consisted of 7 – 8 medium-​to-​small shrimp, partially raw, stuffed with cold, unmelted cheese and a slice of jalapeño, wrapped in several layers of raw bacon underneath an outermost exterior of cooked bacon. (Rather than wrapping the shrimp sensibly in a half or a third of a strip of bacon, they went ahead and rolled each modestly sized shrimp in an entire strip of bacon, like the mob getting rid of a body by rolling it up in an area rug, guaranteeing several layers would remain fully raw by the time the exterior layer was cooked). Needless to say, this dish was completely inedible.
As our second entrée we got the Costilla de Puerco Fajitas. The pork ribs were pretty good; not fantastic, but solid enough to enjoy. We also tried the Chile Relleno, which was pretty decent as well. Unfortunately this was the high-​point of the meal. Both of our fajitas entrees were served with a garnish of raw slices of white onion (rather than the «sauteed spanish onions» promised on the menu) and a few large, clumsy chunks of raw celery and raw green pepper with an anemic-​looking quarter slice of tomato. The «refried beans» were simply whole cooked pinto beans surrounded by a bland, starchy brown fluid, with no sign of garlic, onion, spices, or seasoning – they both appeared and tasted as if someone had simply opened a can of pinto beans and poured it into to-​go containers, can-​water and all. The included sour cream tasted spoiled and was filled with bits of coagulated protein.
There are much better places to spend $ 60 in Old Town.

It’s right on King Street in a prime spot. We were greeted and sat right away.
The salsa is a pico de Gallo consistently but full of flavor, I loved it.
The table side guac was rather disappointing. The don’t give you a good size for the container it comes it. It was also not spicy, like we asked. And it wasn’t mashed all the way and really lacked flavor. I didn’t like it all that much.
The chips are good. Light and fresh.
I got the skinny marg. Huge disappointment. You could tell they used the cheapest Tequilla and didn’t add fresh lime juice. I didn’t like it, and didn’t finish it.
We got the fajitas for two. There was three of us, girls. It’s HUGE and could honestly feed four people. Two of them being men. Seriously. It comes with chicken, beef, shrimp, and a rack of ribs. All for $ 41, not a bad deal, spilt. The chicken was really good! Great flavor. As well as the shrimp. Grilled and tasted good. The beef had good flavor but it’s a really poor quality of meat. It was very chewy. I couldn’t eat it. Ribs were good. They give you sides of rice and beans. Beans are basic but tasty. The rice was rather disappointing and dry. They give you plenty tortillas. A bonus, they give you a saucer of butter to add to the sizzling fajitas. Talk about unhealthy, but a delicious cheat meal. They do not give you cheese though?!? Lost major brownie points for that. I shouldn’t have to pay extra for cheese.
Overall, good though. I would come back. They were very tentative with refilling drinks.

Food over price and not mexcian food! There was roaches crawling on wall it was hard to find! I order steak shrimp chicken fajitas all there was 3 strips of small chicken and steak strips if by weight 1 ½ oz of meat and 3 pieces of shrimp few onions and 2 pieces of green pepper! For $ 22 I speak to manger and showed him the food and he said that how it is it is very pitiful that that’s what their standard is!!!

I had been wanting to try this place for a while and decided to stop in on a whim one afternoon. As someone used to Chipotle and Don Pablo’s, I knew I would be moving out of my comfort zone a bit by trying authentic Mexican cuisine.
The place had a casual atmosphere. As a solo diner, I was asked if I wanted to sit at the bar — where there was a bank of three televisions — or at the table. I chose a table and was seated at one in the front next to the bar. There are more tables in the back in a lower-​lit room.
While munching on complimentary nachos with salsa, I perused the extensive menu. I ended up choosing the Chicken El Paso that came with a side of black beans and rice. I regret to say that the chicken entrée didn’t turn out as I had envisioned it. It was just kind of bland. But I was hungry so I ate most of it. The staff was friendly and refilled my beverage quickly and without asking.
Ultimately, I think my palate is more used to more «Americanized» Mexican food but it’s no fault of the restaurant. When I have a notion for Mexican food again, I may give Los Cuates another try.

Love this place! I usually order the same this (seafood burrito) and I’m always happy with it! The presentation is always nice and the salsa is on point!
When I ordered delivery I wasn’t that impressed. I felt like those few extra things I usually get when I dine in should have been given to me when I ordered delivery. My burrito was missing the sides (sour cream, guacamole, chopped tomatoes).
All in all I really like this place, but I will probably always just go in and eat rather than order.

This was the best meal we’ve had here so far! I was starting to lose faith in DC/​VA food when we finally came upon this place, not too far from our hotel. The service was good and fast, and the food was pretty great! We had the queso dip as an appetizer with their delicious chips and salsa. Los Cuates has my favorite kind of tortilla chip: thin and crispy! The salsa was also delicious and homemade. I don’t usually care for salsa, but I loved this one!
My husband had the beef chimichanga and I had the chicken fajitas. My husband seemed to enjoy his, and I thought my fajitas were great! My only complaint would be that they charged me $ 2.50 to get some shredded cheese for my fajitas, since it did not come with it. $ 2.50 for shredded cheese clearly out of a bag is crazy ridiculous. I could have a whole bag of the stuff for that. But hey, they’re making money somehow! I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who is looking for a yummy, reasonably-​priced Mexican meal!

Great service and atmosphere. We ordered margs ($ 7.5) which tasted good and strong. They greeted us with free chips and homemade salsa. We ordered the chicken burrito and chicken enchiladas both $ 11. The portions were large, the food was good and came out quickly. The food is typical Mexican. Nothing out of the ordinary. I would recommend coming here for a quick bite to eat and drink.

We went to Los Cuates on a whim. We were in the area and craving Mexican food. Not super crowded for a Sunday evening in January, we were seated immediately. (I’ll admit we called ahead to make sure we had a table for our group of 5). A server came and brought us water, chips, and salsa. Ohh man. The chips and salsa here are awesome! Very fresh, spicy but not too much, you can have as much as you want. They kept refilling our bowls. Props to them for keeping track of our chips and salsa.
My friend ordered fresh guacamole as an appetizer to share. It was delicious! I was super excited we got our guacamole on. Fresh, flavorful, and creamy with some avocado chunks. For our entrees, I ordered the combination chicken tamale and spinach enchilada. My fiancé and another friend ordered steak and chicken fajitas, another ordered taco salad, and another ordered a chicken. Everyone said the food was good. Portions are decent sized, though were a bit full from loading up on chips, salsa, and guac (our fault, I take full ownership for myself).
Service was good throughout our meals. Prices are what you would expect for Mexican food (on the moderate side). The ambiance is cozy yet funky at the same time. The swinging doors on your way to the bathroom add a bit of charm to the place. Good meal overall.