YEE: El Cholo Grand Opening Party

Hell Yea! The El Cholo Grand Opening YEE was YES!
Yes I had a great time!
Yes I got to hang with a bunch of great friends!



Yes to the food!


Yes the service was Great!




Yes our OC CM delivers again!
Thanks Ryan C for hooking us up!
And thanks El Cholo for having us as guests!

Thanks Ryan C. and El Cholo for the opportunity to enjoy a great party at El Cholo. There was a TON of people — not all Unilocalers — but there was plenty of food and drinks for everyone which was great.
We got to enjoy some great appetizers — quesadillas, taquitos, mini tostadas, chimichangas and plenty of chips and salsa. There were also margaritas, beer and wine for everyone. But it was hard for non drinkers to get a drink. Eventually water came out and a bunch of people ran for the tray.
Overall, great night. Thanks for opportunity for meeting up with friends and some good food.

If people review Katie B hugs, they should review Ryan C handshakes because he is one cool guy.
El Cholo grand opening, the place was packed, not with Cholo’s but with suburban families in the booths and Unilocalers in the party room. Crowded at first, relaxed later, a place to talk with Unilocalers, mingle while the El Cholo staffed served beverage and snacks.
Crispy taquitos and chimichangas were part of the food sampling offered. Wine and beer were among the alcohol served tonight.
Hard to find parking in the El Cholo lot, but found parking nearby. Staff was very cool and dressed well, well-​mannered too.
Glad to see Lily. I finally met Angela C, Kim L, Jennilee E (The impatient), Trina D, Alex W, Peter H (or H), Ben W, Rob, Mineverala T and Grace C.
Song parody of Rupert Holmes 1979 «Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
I missed Mexican that’s crunchy, and some drinks, smooth and strong
Watching Unilocalers chillaxing, so I parody song
While Unilocalers are just checking in, chimichangas are fed
Lily L with a lovely cup and Kim L not yet fed
If you like partying alotta, in a taquito train
If you’re into El Cholo, and have fun on the brain
If you worked hard until the night time, so long to the day
Then this is the place you look for, your Mexican escape
I did not have beer or wine, or soda for caffeine
I avoided the salsa, and the guacamole routine
Though I see most others loved it, not just a fad
And though I am not Unilocal’s poet, I recite just a tad
Yes, you like partying alotta, in a taquito train
Not much into lean food, burritos on my brain
Have you been hungry for so long, and needed a drink all day
Then this is the place you look for, your Mexican escape
So chatted up all over, in tight, crowded space
I see Unilocal smiles in an instant, El Cholo is the place
Good to see Unilocal’s OC crew, for an hour or two
And like the best kind of Unilocal events, plenty of booze
So I waited with high hopes and she walked in the place
I knew her smile in an instant, I knew the curve of her face
It was my own lovely lady and she said, «Oh, it’s you?»
Then we laughed for a moment and I said, «I never knew»
So you can, party alotta, in a taquito trai
If you’re into El Cholo, and have fun on the brain
If you worked hard until the night time, so long to the day
Then this is the place you look for, your Mexican escape
If you like partying alotta, in a taquito train
If you’re into El Cholo, and have fun on the brain
If you worked hard until the night time, so long to the day
Then this is the place you look for, your Mexican escape
Yes they like partying alotta, in a taquito train
Not much into lean food, burritos on my brain
Have you been hungry for so long, and needed a drink all day
Then this is the place you look for, your Mexican escape

Hey you, Greasy fingers. Yeah you. The one in the black glasses and black shirt. I saw you dancing around the servers multiple time coming back for more after you feed your lazy friends. Saw your extremely greasy fingers touch everything. I hope you enjoyed it, cause you kinda grossed me out.
HAHAH
Other than that, it was a great time at El Cholo.
I definitely liked the mini tacos. The free margaritas was a nice plus. Also the mariachi band was cute too. Good times!

Holy cow, place was packed!
I see a margarita, but it got jacked!
So I went to the salsa bar to get a taste,
Ah f*ck, I was too slow to the race,
Hold up, wait a minute, what do I see?
More magaritas and cervezas and other boozy?
Hooray for El Cholo, keep us happy,
In a room that’s about 800 sq. feet, also serving appetizers that’s not so healthy.
I love El Cholo and their LA Lemonade,
Too bad they weren’t serving it, I would’ve been a total fade,
Good seeing everyone (Lili, Minerva, Ben, Cousin Ryan, Vince, Drew, Roy, Trina, Jen)
Another YEE in the books that’s totally fun!

Thanks Ryan and El Cholo for a fun time at this grand opening event. We arrived around 7ish and the room had already filled up. I live nearby another El Cholo but I liked the layout and location of this El Cholo.
El Cholo was super generous with all the finger foods and the complimentary beer, margaritas and wine. The food servers and waitresses overall did a solid job considering the large turnout of hungry & thirsty Elites and plus 1’s. The Mariachi band was also a nice surprise for entertainment.
It was awesome to finally meet Elite friends Angela C and Kimquyen L and was great to see Annie W and Marc W from last year’s Spring Break event in Las Vegas.
I’m looking forward to the next Unilocal event!

I love being Elite. I especially love Elite perks.
The area was slightly crowded but after a while it definitely thinned out. The food was pretty tasty. A guy (not a Unilocaler) asked me if I came from a big family. Wha?! I guess I love to eat and every time staff came out with flautas, quesadillas or mini tacos, I couldn’t help myself. The chips, salsa and guacamole were also delicious.
The drinks were definitely plentiful. We kept getting served house margaritas and delicious beer. Great free food and alcohol? Amazing.
I also loved the live mariachi band. I am definitely going to come back for dinner. I have heard amazing things about Irvine and LA, so I will be back to check this place out. The layout is spacious, the food is good and the event was very generous.
Thanks Unilocal

We arrived an hour after the event and we were packed in like sardines. These events are best for mingling and meeting new Unilocalers like Angela C, Tracie L, Gab and bumping into more familiar faces like Sandy K and Christine =)
The variety of drinks like beer, wine, margaritas were flowing in and out like it was going out of style. With such a huge turnout, we were still able to try bite sized taquitos and beef nachos. I also noticed the waitress wore beautiful mariachi dresses that went well with the Mexican theme restaurant.
I’m glad it was held in the Anaheim hills, because it got us to venture out to this beautiful and rolling hills of a city.
Thanks Ryan for hosting another event to be introduced to a huge list of places to try =)

I was kinda sad when I got waitlisted for this event, then when the one and only Bob T asked me if I wanted to be his +1 since his wife couldn’t make it, I was really happy =)
So there we were, in our merry way going to El Cholo in Anaheim Hills
Parking was kinda hard, it was full so Target was the solution =) hopefully it was only because of the event, because that can be a pain in the… for the costumers.
This event was planned by the media from El Cholo, aren’t they nice?
Mexican antojitos, beer, wine and margaritas on a Thursday night.
I only was able to try like 2 things, because as you guys know I’m allergic to spicy food, but the taquitos I tried were really tasty!
It was great to see so many Unilocalers that I haven’t seen in a while
my dear Vince The Dragon
Finally got to meet in person the cool blogger Wendy, and say hi to Minerva =)
Even got to scare people
muahahaha
right Ben ???

Thanks to El Cholo crew, they were super nice and helpful regardless the heat and how crowded the event was. Kudos to them!

Thanks Bob T. =) fun times!
Great event.
Ciao darlings. Until next time =)

Count me as a fan of events like this and please, count me in for the next one – I was one happy camper by the time my plus one had to put on his little designated driver hat on and drive me off in our chariot.
The margaritas they were passing out were yummalicious. El Cholo didn’t stop there but made sure they had best drunk food to go with it – chips with salsa/​guac, quesadillas, taquitos and chimichangas. Sure, it was a bit crowded in the beginning but about an hour or so in the event, if you weren’t getting your fill, I’m not sure what to say to that.
The mariachi band was rocking, the waiters/​waitresses were super sweet and there was a boatload of both new and old Unilocalers to meet and catch up with.
Can’t wait for the next event!

It’s hard to be overly critical when El Cholo is feeding me and feeding my drinking habit. Some things I liked was the separate mingling room away from the rest of the restaurant. I’m pretty sure the capacity of that room for seating was like 30 something and they had about that in tables, but then jam another 50 people on top of that and it’s a night club dancefloor. I’m fairly certain I got groped in the mêlée. 1 star for that.
I’m not gonna lie I was impatient and bought 2 beers at the bar, I fully support the establishment, but they were slammed and I’m talking slammed at the bar too. 10 minutes for a beer, but on my 2^nd they made up for it and apologized. Actually the whole restaurant was packed at least until 8. I’m usually not a fan of margaritas, but they do them right over here. Staff was alternating between bringing food and drinks for separate doors every 8 minutes or so (yeah someone timed it). I got a few taquitos and quesadilla’s at the end and chips to snack on, but no plates to eat off of and as Vanessa H stated some people were basically guacamole thieves. Gobbling it up like they have never eaten it before. I didn’t get a taste, but I was more concerned with drinking anyhow, but it was unfair. Oh and l noticed a lot of people forgetting to tip the staff. That’s just rude. I rewarded them for their work as the delays and crowds weren’t their fault and they did their best.
Mariachi band was belting out some tunes for the first few hours, nice touch.
I liked the décor a lot, rustic looking carpet, painted adobe replicated walls, great light at sunset. I think the service was only lacking in that there were so many people they just couldn’t get through to clear plates and bring new one’s. Let the staff through people. I wish they had some sort of announcement to welcome us and say a few things about El Cholo. Bathroom sinks were really cool.
As many of you know or found out I love the «afterparty». It’s because I can’t turn it off, once I start enjoying myself I want to continue. A few of us moved to the bar area after the event instead of my patented walk to local dive bar MO.
It was great meeting some new OC Unilocalers and giving you all a taste of how we do it in NCSD. I look to return the hospitality to fellow traveling elites. I know this wasn’t an all Ryan production and as he said it fell in his lap, but as we all know it was a pretty amazing event.

Lovely perk event & lovely to see Jenny L., Trina D., & Drew M. — it’s been a long time! Thanks Ryan C. for making this event happen.
My +1 and I got there at 6:30pm and there was a line out the door. I asked a waiter where the Unilocal event was and he pointed me in the right direction. I checked in with the lovely ladies at El Cholo and my +1 and I immediately headed for the chips and salsa bar.
Later we perched in a prime spot with Jenny L., grabbed some cervezas and got our hands on some hand-​passed appetizers such as chicken taquitos, chimichangas, and some other bits.
Nice touch with the mariachi band keeping the masses entertained, but I will admit, it was crowded when we first got there. I felt like we were herded into a giant room and then all of us were elbowing each other to get a hand on some grub. If you weren’t lucky, the servers ran out of everything before you got to them. Also noticed some people grab n’ go without tipping their servers. Hope this was fixed later in the night because the staff was working HARD!
Overall, a nice Perk event for Elites — look forward to the next one!

A nice busy gathering with various groups including Unilocalers at El Cholo in Anaheim. I never knew this area was part of Anaheim, so it was a lovely discovery. Mariachi played and servers brought out appetizers and drinks for everyone. Thank you, Anaheim’s El Cholo!
Before the room got crowded, the dishes and drinks were flowing until the rush. I didn’t mind the room filling up (beyond max; 37) since I was in good company.
Drinks — Margarita, Heineken, Bud-​light, Corona, House White, House Red; per request Soda and Water.
Food — Fried, Fried, and more Deep Fried! Taquitos, Quesadilla, Chicken Chimichanga, and Chips with Salsa and Guacamole.
I don’t think El Cholo was expecting the number of people attending, but I can see they were trying their best to accommodate everyone. Their staff was really patient and nice even when they were getting swarmed by hungry and thirsty people, eeks!
Thanks Ryan for hooking us up! And Thanks Walter for letting me be your +1!
Till next time, SYOY!

Definitely happy I was invited to attend this YEE but this wasn’t a typical Ryan C. production. It was put on by El Cholo themselves and Unilocal just happened to be invited. This isn’t the first El Cholo that I’ve been to. I have been to the ones in LA and Irvine. It’s a chain not unlike El Torito.
I’m pretty sure they didn’t expect all those people to arrive at once. The room’s capacity was 37 max and I’m pretty sure we broke all fire codes for safety at that point. It was crowded. I could barely walk 5 feet into the room before taking refuge by the girls checking people in near the entrance. Food and drinks were passed around for the entire 2 hours. If you left early because you didn’t want to wait, you weren’t alone. We stuck around and had plenty of bites throughout the evening. The mariachi band was in full force when we came in but left shortly after a short set to entertain the rest of the patrons in the restaurant.
My only issue was a lot of the DDs complained that although alcohol was served they didn’t bring out any water until the end of the evening. They also could have provided a non-​alcoholic beverage to people who weren’t consuming alcohol too. But as it is, the event had plenty of food and drink. It was just hard to breathe with all those people in the room at once. They could have staggered our times or even used a larger space for us. It’s not like they didn’t know we were coming.

What’s not to love about free food and drinks courtesy of Unilocal?I was happy to get to come up to El Cholo for their latest location opening in Anaheim Hills. El Cholo was one of the first Mexican restaurants I visited after moving to LA, and although they have a few locations in Orange County now the restaurant will always remind me of that awkward first date back in college, at the location on Western.
I arrived around 7pm and was promptly shown to a back room where Azya C and I checked in on the Unilocal list. It looked pretty crowded, but that was because most people were milling around the entrance (the source of the food, we quickly realized), and so at one point we hung out towards the back to take advantage of the nearby open door and get some fresh air. The crowd definitely thinned out after about 7:30. I’m guessing that those complaining about the crowd probably planted themselves in the most dense areas to try to get at the food as soon as it came out. A fine strategy, but understand that you’ve made the choice to suffocate yourselves in order to get your grubby hands on those taquitos. ;)
I’ll be honest — the reason that some of the food went so quickly is that people were scooping up more than their own share of things like the appetizers and guacamole, and taking it back to their tables/​groups. It was annoying to be two feet away from the guacamole table and see other Unilocalers make off with half of the bowl within a minute of it being brought out. If you want guac brought to a table, go out and get a table and order the fuckin guac. Or, I don’t know, maybe these people don’t get fed at home.
We found that being patient towards the back of the room did have its merits. The food came out more slowly, but was probably at a better pace for us so we didn’t gorge ourselves.
Also, I heard a couple people complain about water/​non-​alcoholic drinks not being available, or not available until late. It took me 15 seconds to request a Sprite from one of the servers, who brought it out right away (this was sometime in the 7:00 hour, when they weren’t so overwhelmed).
All in all, this was easily a 5-​star event whose only drawbacks were more likely the result of other Unilocalers, not the restaurant and certainly not Ryan C!

I was definitely «in» when I saw this event here in Anaheim, and on my spring break!
This YEE was Happy Hour with a bunch of Unilocal friends, with FREE beer, FREE margaritas and FREE appetizers — pretty cool perk for being a Unilocaler.
We arrived at the «peak» about a ½ hour into the event — El Cholo set aside a room for us — and it was packed! I felt a little crowded at first, but as we moved to the back of the room there was a little more space to breath!
At first the crowd overwhelmed the servers — it was tough to get a drink or food — A few people asked for soda’s that never came. I thought briefly about bailing out and getting a table in restaurant (as I saw a few people do!) Didn’t really matter to me though since I was enjoying hanging out with everyone! The crowd thinned out in about a ½ hour — next thing I knew nonstop maggies, beer and food were coming my way. In the end we were very satisfied.
The servers were very nice — even after the way they swarmed upon at first! I always dropped a tip on their tray — which I could tell they genuinely appreciated.
The semiprivate room is a nice place for a casual event, keep it in mind for an medium size dinner or luncheon type thing — maybe around 50 people or so.
Can’t fairly evaluate the food — bite size appetizers, the beer was cold, margaritas on the rocks were good — I’d have no problem ordering a few.
Great seeing everyone! Thanks to my +1 Lili H, for filling in for my wife at this event!
Mostly I want to say «thanks for having us» to Ryan C and El Cholo. The idea of the event was to introduce the place — I appreciate it — figure the least I can return the favor and visit them for dinner sometime.

Fun Event! Great margaritas and appetizers.

This was definitely an event where I feel extremely confident about doling out 5 stars. Thank you Ryan C. for hooking up the certain Unilocalers that you did with this event!
The Beers, Waters, and Margaritas were a flowin for those wanting to wet their palates.
There was a live Mariachi Band rockin out the choons for those present which totally helped set the mood/​vibe for being in a Mexican joint.
There were various types of appetizers like Mini Tacos, Chicken & Beef Taquitos, Quesadillas, and Mini Tacos as well as house chips & salsa with homemade Guacamole to give all in attendance an idea of the food served at this joint. The staff was very kind in delivering these with smiles and grace.
Best of all there were great people in attendance that made coming to this intimate (sorta) event even better. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a lot of great new people.
I loved the humbleness of this get together that seemed to keep everyone in good spirits.
I’m so glad Hion put the bug in my ear on this one!

I was a little worried when I first arrived… I was starving and the chips & salsa bar was empty! My +1 and I quickly learned that food & drinks were being passed around and eventually figured out the prime location (s) to stand.
We started out near the entrance… that’s where the passed appetizers would come in from. The poor waiters though could only get as far as 8 – 10 feet before they were mobbed. It was extremely crowded tonight so to get out of everyone’s way, we shuffled our way towards the center of the room. Score!!! We ended up next to the door where they were bringing out alcohol and were able to quickly grab Coronas & margaritas before they were gone.
Tonight’s event was so much fun! The free food & booze were great, but IMO the best part of tonight’s event was…
** Seeing old Unilocal friends again (Roy B… even though he never remembers what I look like, lol)
** Meeting Unilocal friends in person for the first time (Sandy K along w/​his lovely wife Christine), Vince V, Kimquyen L, Marcus L, Lili H)
** Making new Unilocal friends (Minerva T, Duke D, Annie W, Alice C, Bob T)
Thanks Ryan C for putting together tonight’s event. I had a blast and can’t wait until the next event to hang out with all my fellow Unilocalers!

Thanks Ryan C. for organizing this event. Had a great time meeting other Unilocalers while enjoying the appetizers and drinks. the room was pretty crowded but there was plenty to go around.
The live Mariachi Band was great and kept the entertainment going.
Overall awesome experience.