El Arroyo

El Arroyo has amazing drink specials throughout the week, my friends and I always go here to celebrate anything! Birthdays, landing a job, you name it! I’m not a huge fan of their food, however, a lot of my friends recommend the nachos! They’re half price on Friday’s from 2 to 6! I think they are so popular for their gorgeous patio! I don’t know why anyone ever sits inside when I go there. Nothing wrong with the interior, but the patio is their main attraction!

Wasn’t too impressed for the price. Not bad food, not great either. I could take it or leave it. 2.5 stars, but there are no half stars on Unilocal

El Arroyo has been a restaurant we go to regularly for the last five years. The food is great, expect Tex-​Mex, the atmosphere is unique, and the drinks are killer!
The staff was very helpful and had a great attitude! Great drink specials like Margarita Wednesday.
Live bands on weekends is the cherry on top!

This is one of my favorite places to have lunch. Good for families. Love the drinks. The service is nice as well

This Place is a Must Visit because they have The Best Margaritas In TOWN! I also Love the Environment on the Patio especially when the Live music is Rocking! Great place to Get Down in Aggtown! Side Note I prefer Paper Napkins which are available instead of those Black Cloth Napkins.

El Arroyo never disappoints. Great food, great ambiance, great waiters & staff. The chicken chimichanga & the big beef burrito are tasty, highly recommended. Of course the freshly prepared guacamole has too be part of your meal too!

If it didn’t have a patio, this place wouldn’t be in business. Food is mediocre at best. Margaritas are just okay. Chips and salsa are good. That’s about it. Just blah. We live very close and have frequented El Arroyo for years so this review isn’t based on a one time experience.

I love this restaurant so, when I got home late from work tonight, I asked my wife to come out to the patio.
When we arrived, I noticed that they closed at 11p. It was 10:35. I suggested maybe going somewhere else. My wife was super hungry.
When we walked in, I asked if it was too late to order food. The manager/​host said «No, The kitchen is open for another 20 minutes.
He seated us and brought chips and salsa immediately… problem was, no one would wait on us.
I told my wife that I suspected they wait staff, who were all hustling to get out early, cleaning under tables, we’re obviously more interested in going home early.
10 of the precious minutes to order were already gone without any acknowledgement of us from the wait staff. I said to my wife, «Apparently, they wait staff is running out the clock.» So, she asked for our waiter.
We were prepared to order and know the menu well. When the waiter took our drink orders, he returned in record speed, drinks in hand, with the sad news that the kitchen was closed. He delivered the news with compassion and eloquence.
I asked for the check and expressed my disappointment to the manager/​host.
The waiter then returned and offered to buy our meal… wasn’t the point.
Honestly and integrity are still of value.
If the kitchen is open… it’s open. If not, then it’s not.
I come to Arroyo’s for good food and great service.
Incredibly disappointed, embarrassed and hungry.

Love this place. Fajitas are amazing. I also love to sit «outside» in the big room. Their salsa is also delicious. Definitely one of my favorite places. Weekend nights can be a little crazy, but I’ve never had to wait for a table at lunch.

Love the patio. I’m sure that’s why most people go.
I got the queso as an appetizer. It was VERY bland. But you have the option of adding stuff into it and I didn’t add anything, so I think I will do the add ins next time.
I got chicken fajitas with corn tortillas. The chicken was pretty good, nicely cooked and seasoned. It came with onions and bell peppers. It also came with rice, beans, and pico, cheese, etc. The beans were just ok. A little too liquidy. Rice was good. The corn tortillas were just mediocre. They did not look homemade. But the flour tortillas are homemade and are wonderful! Get those instead of corn.
My sister got the Diablo shrimp, which she loves. They’re shrimp wrapped in bacon on a bed of rice. It comes with a special sauce.
I would recommend this place, but I would recommend going at «odd hours» otherwise, you’ll face a large crowd and parking nightmares. My first time, I went at 6pm and it was super packed. This time, I went at 3:30 and it was perfect. Chill atmosphere and parking was good.
Food is good, atmosphere is fun.

Patio was nice, place was packed and we drove an hour to get here because we had seen the place packed a few nights prior with live music. Look like a happening place.
Food, ehh
Sent back the daiquiri, sent back the ceviche. Food overall was boring. The Mexican rice was flavorless.
The service was friendly, fast and pleasant.
Go for the atmosphere not the food.

Poor service !! Never got refills had to wait forever to get our check. Basically after she gave us out food she never came back by to check on us.

This is the place to go for a good time and good food and drinks. My son and some of his friends came to town for a ballgame and as it was late we took them here. It was a Saturday night, there was a band and we had a blast! We sat outside as the weather was nice. My mate and I ordered the Nachos and they were Great and enough for us to share. What really impressed me was one of the guys in the group was a vegan and I was worried about what he could get. The waiter could not have been more helpful finding him something that he could eat. We had the Guacamole made at table side and I don’t usually like Guac and it was Yummy! The margaritas were Fresh, tasty with enough Salt. The band was fun. The only complaint I have is there is not enough parking for the large crowds they get! I can’t imagine going there and Not having a good time.

Authentic Mexican look on the outside, modern look on the inside.
Nice and spacious w/​a full bar that has 3 tv’s.
Really nice patio, for those perfect weather days.
Staff is courteous and fast. Food is really good.
Give it a shot when you are in the area.

My wife and I love Tex-​mex and we eat the stuff at least once a week. We recently just moved to Texas and so far, we’ve found some great places. That is until we went here.
We were looking for a another location and we’d passed this location a few times so we thought we’d give it a try. They had live music so we figured even better.
It was quite crowded and we were told it would be a 30 minute wait for a table but that the outside bar portion was open seating. Great. We decided on that until our table was ready. It was in the bar area but not at the actual bar. Here’s where the fun started.
The server rolled up and asked if we’d like a drink. We ordered the healthy margaritas, which were quite good. We didn’t get a menu, were not asked if we’d like water and received no chips and salsa. The server did take our name off the wait list for a table though, telling us this was a good place to sit, and also the warmest.
About 10 minutes passed and we asked the guy who brought our drinks if we could have chips and salsa. Another 10 minutes passed. Still no chips. A few spots opened up at the end of the bar. We figured we’d move because we could see the band (2 guys and they were quite good. Best part of the night), it may be warmer, and maybe we’d get chips and salsa and maybe someone would actually bring us a menu.
We sat there. It was warmer, crazy enough. We finally got our chips and salsa (chips were stale and salsa was mediocre) and ordered the bacon wrapped shrimp as an appetizer. It came fairly quick, brought to us by one of the dozen servers standing around. With so many servers standing around, we wondered why things were taking so long. The server who brought our appy, initially passed us. We had to grab him.
We ran out of salsa. Of course, that wasn’t refilled or asked about. We asked it to be refilled and 10 more minutes passed. We asked again and the bartender apologized and brought us some. Kudos to him, he was trying, at least. We also ordered our food. I got the mixed fajitas and my wife got the lite zucchini with chicken on top.
Again, came out in a reasonable time. My fajitas came as only chicken with no beef. It also has 3(yes, 3!!) tiny strips of mostly raw green pepper and some onions. I asked about the beef and the bartender again made it happen and the beef was brought out.
My wife’s food was decent. Mine was slightly average. minus having decent veggies. As I was eating I bit into something weird. Told my wife when it happened. Needless to say, my stomach has been gurgling since last night.
Bottom line. Quite sure we won’t be going there again. That’s too bad. The atmosphere was cool, with live music and we love Mexican food. But the service was atrocious and the food was barely average. 2 stars because of the music.

Sub-​par Mexican food in a cool atmosphere. Parking here is just the worse. Restaurant setting is really nice though. The patio is awesome too. However, the food isn’t close to great. It was too bland and did not taste good. Cool place to drink but otherwise, avoid for a meal.

This is one of those Mexican places that you either ‘love’ or you ‘hate’.
The service is OK, but the last two times I’ve been there, the place wasn’t very clean.
They have an excellent patio and entertainment… It is convenient if you have kids in sports (right across from the Harold Patters Sports Complex)… good to go to ‘after the game’.
The food isn’t that great though. It’s ‘just ok’.

Patio, music, service, drinks… all are great. But the food, not so much.
The presentation of all dishes is very sloppy and the flavors are more like the ones of a coffee shop at a gas station.
On the other hand, you have that drinks are served really cold and that they have live music in the evenings… So in the end it is an OK place to have a good time listening to live music and having a drink and maybe some «snacks».

El Arroyo is a fun little joint. It’s not the greatest Mexican food in town, but they’ve found their niche and worked it well for themselves.
Décor is what you would expect. It’s a little cramped in the back room tables, but other than that, it’s a fairly nice place. «Ditch» jokes are fairly common.
Service can be pretty hit or miss. Lots of young kids working, which is nice to see, but sometimes they can be downright bad as servers. Luckily, there are also some kids in there that will pull up the slack and take care of your table as well as their own.
Food is pretty decent. It’s comparable to the Tia’s we used to have or an On the Border. Like others have said, it’s not super standout, but there’s nothing wrong with it. The tortillas and the salsa are actually pretty good.
I think what keeps us coming to El Arroyo is the patio, music, and margaritas. The margaritas are pretty good and there’s usually a nice bar special going on. The patio is great on a nice day. Combine with a drink and some music and it’s a nice way to spend the evening.

Had the expectation of a big group; however we ended up with less than 10. Service was quick, attentive and polite. Drinks came out right away and the entrée were served within five to ten minutes after ordering.
For my drink, I opted for the peach swirl, upon a recommendation of our server. Was a good value as it was happy hour; however, it tasted like a weak frozen margarita with a splash of peach flavoring. The peach flavoring made the whole drink taste like dish soap and I wasn’t the only one who thought that!
We had all joined their email club and were each give a complimentary cup of queso. Turns out any of th freebies are one per table, which is completely reasonable.
I ordered the combo beef and chicken quesadillas and asked for the pico to be be inside, so it would be cooked and not water logged. Food came out great and super fast. They included a side of pico, guac and sour cream, so it turned out to be pretty and tasty.
Two friends split the combo fajitas for one and while they each had a hefty serving for dinner, there wasn’t much to take home.
I ordered the Pablano Enhilcadas to go, for pescatarin hubby, with black beans as everything else has meat. I was quite tickled when the waitress volunteered that the rice was made which chicken stock, which eliminated that from a side dish for hubby. He said the sauce was thick, almost like a homemade pasta sauce, with lttle kick at the end.
Overall, patio dining was ok, but they had all of the tables and chairs squished so close it wasn’t really comfortable. They did have a tiny smoking section, on the south side of the deck, which is nice for those who need it.
So, to close, I would go back for patio ambiance, service and food quality. Not the best ever, but they sure do a great service to South Arlington!