Abuelo’s

The Happy Hour menus is great as well, there is a good variety of items on the HH menu. It’s only served in the bar, but there is a good amount of seating in the bar, there are high top tables and bar seating. I like the great options on the Happy Hour menu. There is a chip trio you can get and that was actually refreshing to have other options. The chips and salsa they bring out at first goes great with the trio. I wasn’t much of a fan of the quesadillas though, there little to no meat in it. The chimis were good, they actually come out like little tex mex eggrolls.
I think I’d prefer to order from the regular menu, the food has a better portion size and there is actually meat in the items that come from the regular menu. Good enchiladas, there are a variety of items to choose from on the menu.
The staff is friendly, there is ample parking and the atmosphere is nice. A nice place to go to and get away from the mall.

Your green salsa has stolen my heart. Your enchiladas with fried egg on top is FANTASTIC. Your customer service is outstanding.
I just love Abuelo’s. The décor is beautiful. It’s inviting. The patio is relaxing. There is a lot of seating and fans for when it’s a warm night.
The food is top notch — see above. I could eat green salsa for days. Oh wait I have. You can get it to go.
To add — although we usually go as a family my husband worked with the manager to plan a retirement party for his boss and the manager was amazing. My husband said he was extremely easy to work with and everything turned out perfect!

I have eaten at Abuelo’s several times over the past few years and they are always consistently good. Had lunch yesterday and my wife and I shared «The Monterrey» plate. Definitely enough for two people. The waiter brought two small plates so that we could serve ourselves from the entrée plate. Everything was great and the service was excellent. It seems that we end up here every time we go to the Barton Creek mall. Keep up the good work.
Update: In answer to Bobby’s question below: No, I’ve never ordered the Monterrey plate before but I have a friend that orders it and also
shares it with his wife. Another friend eats the WHOLE thing. Great dish.

After having been here for many times and just thought I should give this Restaurant a great reviews.
I dont know much about Mexican food and how should they be authentic?! But i do know that I like their food. Especially Prime ribs.
And for that, i have brought in a a group of friends for dinner. They went out of their way to make reservation and let us reserved the prime ribs. One of the main reason we like to come here and my kids love their prime ribs.
Manny and Monica were our servers and they were tremendously great: friendly and courtesy.
Just wish they more days for the prime ribs instead of just Thursday and Sunday.

Loved it. After ordering great margaritas, we informed the waitress that it was our first time visiting and we were treated like royalty. Not only was the food good and the service attentive but the gm personally introduced himself with a free, delicious flan! We’ll be back

We had the Juarez; food was good. The Server was awesome, very nice guy. The damn mimosa 9 $ for one, we had two yep that’s 18 $… Are you kidding me. Should have went to The Park or Trudys or anywhere else.

I also prefer independent home cooking, but I havent found many in Austin. Abuelos I believe is a national chain. Abuelos has good food, with right amount of heat. The food presentation is always good, service is attentive with a smile and the prices are appropriate. The space is clean and now that they added their patio… amazing. This is surely one of the best patio spaces in Austin. Not hippy dippy best, but fine dining best. The only complaint is their downgrade too those stupid little electronic machines at the end of the table for self ordering and pay. Luckily, its not pushed on you but rather optional. I highly recommend this location for food for any occassion.

Love Abuelo’s — haven’t found one since leaving Oklahoma until recently finding this one. Too bad it is a long way from Leander but it was as good as I remembered. Service = Awesome. Food = Fresh, hot, and plenty of it. Salsa = several tasty choices.
Now put one in Cedar Park /​Leander and I may be visiting once a week.

Coming from another city I don’t see how some people call this good food it’s not. Its far from tex mex food. It had found a rock in my beans so they were not cleaned out good enough and my beans tasted like water. Also they don’t served tortillas u must ask and pay for it. So in my book no I will not be back at all.

Amazing food.
My husband and I are always looking for new places to eat on date nights and we happened to be at Barton Creek Mall doing some holiday shopping and decided to stop in here. It was amazing! We ordered the bacon wrapped shrimp and steak fajitas and they were delicious. The service was great and the food was very good. Then, our waitress asked if we’d ever been before. We told her we hadn’t so she offered us their flan on the house.
I am NOT a person who likes flan. I’ve had it a million times because I’m originally from Brazil and its very popular. This was hands down the BEST flan I’ve ever had anywhere. It was absolutely delicious. I will definitely go back here because it was an overall great experience.

My first thought on entering Abuelo’s: Why haven’t I come here before? I literally work right down the road, and this easily earns two more stars than Lupe Tortilla! This is a real fiesta restaurant, similar to what I’m used to in Shreveport, LA circa 1999! Fantastic food, great service, not as long as a wait as you would anticipate on a Friday night!
Service: ¹⁰⁄₁₀!
Super attentive servers who take the initiative on what you could be wanting next! They even take the time to explain their delicious range of sides which are missing from their menu! «Which one of these salsas is your favorite? I will bring you more in a small bowl!» OH YES, BRING MORE OF THAT GREEN NECTAR.
Food: ¹⁰⁄₁₀!
I would give this Tex-​Mex 11/​10, even ²⁰⁰⁄₁₀! I really enjoyed my plate of chile rellenos, tamale, taco, and enchiladas! It was easily way too much food for me, but I definitely ate it all. Husbae had the fajitas, and they were on point. Perhaps the green bell peppers could have been cooked a little more.
Atmosphere: ¹⁰⁄₁₀!
It’s a fun mix of fun, Tex-​Mex, and trend. They even have ipads on the table to order desserts or more drinks! Be careful if you have kids, though, the games are $ 1.99 for unlimited games and it’s easy to purchase!

The Bartender JC is legitimately the best Bartender I’ve ever had. Makes a STRONG margarita. Worth sitting at the bar, and the better the tip, well you know how it goes.

It’s alright. We have been here a few times. The staff is friendly but the food wasn’t the best this last time we went. We ordered a tamale and it was cold and too dry.
Also, almost 7 EXTRA bucks for bacon wrapped shrimp… Nope.
It’s a bit too overpriced in my opinion. Staff is nice, though.

Back Finally… was the first review we ever did on Unilocal… and we have a lot of restaurants under our belt. just over 90 mex/​Texmex since 2011… and this place rates very well. décor, customer service and ambience is top notch. screams high end restaurant… I mean you get real life cloth napkins… you do pay a bit extra for all that but well worth it… customer service says a lot. water, chips, salsas always stayed full. plates of food were Hot… and stayed hot. all 3 salsas were fresh tasting and both the tomato based varieties had a great kick… added some to the queso for an extra punch… Wife has come a LONG way… she is all about flavor… no more sauce on the side. she likes it spicy… one thing we are both a fan of… Papas Con Chile… just order it… wife enjoyed her beef enchiladas. flavor all around… see tastes everything separate. meat, tortillas, sauce. has to have layers of flavors… and for me… The Ultimate Taste Test… The Monterrey… BOOM…6 item platter of Goodness… no need to describe it. and Yes.you will have leftovers. Very enjoyable experience all around!!!

I’m not crazy about chain restaurants but my husband and I have eaten here several times after shopping since there really isn’t anything else around.
I think the food is good and our service has always been decent. I would go out of my way to eat here, but if you’re at the mall and need some Mexican food, this place does a good job!

My most recent visit was better than my last. There were some very minor lapses in service, but I could tell they were trying.
I arrived about 1:30 PM on Thursday, June 18. I headed to the washroom to wash my hands (it’s weird to me that people don’t wash their hands before eating). Everything looked clean. I took a seat at a table in the bar area and waited for about a minute until someone brought me some chips and a trio of salsas served in a three-​compartment dish that was so small it made scooping with my chips very difficult.
Then I waited three or four (five?) minutes until the manager came over and asked if I’d been helped. He brought a menu when I said that I hadn’t been helped, and he took my drink order. He returned with my drink and then left me alone with the menu. I have to say at this point that I think it’s a little silly to expect the bartender to serve the tables in the bar, especially when he also has to make drinks for servers.
The bartender came over and asked if I was ready. I asked about the queso appetizer and what size it was. Priced at $ 6.99. He said it was really big, so I asked if there was a smaller version. He said there was and that it was «$ 2 or $ 2.99″ – it’s actually $ 3.65). When he brought the queso, I ordered Mi Abuelo’s Manjar, which is what I usually get. But this time I got it with carnitas, which I’d never had before. No charge for the substitution – nice. The queso tasted off this time. It was like it had too much milk in it and not enough cheese. It was pretty thin – not thick and gooey like it usually is. Maybe they’re trying to maximize their profits, or maybe it just wasn’t a good day for ordering queso.
Pretty good meal. I was stuffed when I left. The only other thing I’ll say is maybe they need to train their waitstaff to pull plates (even if it’s not their table) when a guest is finished with their food. I saw a few servers and a busser walk by with nothing in their hands who could have pulled my dirty dishes. Help your bartender. Also, the papas con chile that was served with the enchiladas amounted to four bites. Same with the beans.
I’m hoping to write a 5-​star review next time.

I really wanted to like this place, I really did! So the night started off good, but ended badly. We got seated quickly (which is good) and didn’t have to wait long to put in our drinks (again, another pro).. So than the ordering of food. I asked for the spinach enchiladas with NO cheese (or dairy of any kind) with red sauce, and one avocado enchilada. We had called prior to coming about the refried beans and told they were made with vegetable oil only. Than we get to the restaurant and the waiter (Andrew) told us that the beans weren’t made with pork or lard, and maybe chicken broth. So than he checks on that for us, comes back and says the beans are backed with pork and so than we had to tell him to change it to black beans… forgetting we said no pork.
My husband orders the chicken enchiladas and his food comes out normal. Well when I get my food, I take a bite in the spinach enchiladas and realize that it is spinach in cream and not at all what the menu said it would be. I told the waiter this and he says «do you just want to scrape the enchilada off onto another plate?» … I said yes, but I need to order another avocado enchilada to replace what was messed up… Lets just say that statement was completely glazed over! 30 min later (hadn’t come back since then), when I am done… he comes to the table saying «are ya’ll done with ya’lls plates?». and so I asked about the enchilada. he goes «oh, I didn’t know you wanted another one, I never put that order in.» …
The plate is $ 9.49 for two enchilada… why would I pay for 1 enchilada and a screw up in the kitchen? Eventually I told the waiter I was already full and didn’t want that second enchilada because you can’t heat up guacamole. that wouldn’t’ work or taste good. So I asked for a discount because of the constant mess ups with my food. The manager came and comped my ticket by 50%. So I will say they handle the situation quickly
So now the Pros:
Delicious hot sauce
Great happy hour (strong ass strings)
decent prices
great red sauce
tex mex food with a good atmosphere
Pay for your ticket at your table
Outside seating and bar
cons:
Horrible veggie options (cream sauce on spinach enchiladas isn’t vegan/​dairy-​free friendly!)
refried beans made with pork/​lard
They don’t tell you at the computer game thing cost money ($ 1.99)
waiters can be forgetful
Food is so-​so
The quac enchilada wasn’t good and tasted like I took quac out of the package and wrapped it in a tortilla. blah
I will probably be back only for happy hour and appetizers

Really good food, very helpful wait staff. Went here for lunch on Cinco De Mayo and was seated right away.
Prices were rather high for the amounts of food served

We’ve been here many many times. For the most part I like the food and service here. I have had occasional little problems but nothing to cry about. Several things stand out about this place from the décor to the presentation of the dishes to the quality of the food. All worthy of a visit. Also to note is they use the Ziosk at the table! You can call your waiter, split your check, pay out, play games, peruse the menu etc. So cool.
The one dish that really stands out here is the Papas con Chile. It is their signature dish and it is simply ball kicking amazing. A sinful delicious mound of whipped red potatoes with sour cream, four cheeses, peppers, garlic, and, jalapeño! I don’t eat sour cream, but, I eat this. People, this dish is worth writing home about! Love me some Papas con Chile!
Went in for lunch today and I got the Tilapia Veracruz with veggie medley and sub’d the rice for the addicting Papas con Chile! The tilapia was cooked perfectly and was topped with a delicious sauté of shrimp, scallops, tomatoes, olives and poblano strips. The veggies were nice and crisp. Not over done at all. I love me some Abuelo’s. For Mex/​Tex-​Mex this is one of your upscale joints that I enjoy taking out of towners too. I was gonna go four stars on this one, but, writing about the Papas con Chile bumped this up to five!

I came for dinner on Valentine’s Day. I had a great experience here, because the food we ate was exceptional as well as the service we got. My waitress checked up on me, made sure my chips and salsa, and drinks was refilled, removed empty plates and we were offered a sample of some beans we weren’t sure of to taste. I was here with my wife and twin infants and felt very well attended to.
I don’t remember what my wife had but I had the ground beef and chicken enchiladas I ate were very delicious. The salsa were very tasty and the meat and cheese in the enchiladas was of generous proportions. The enchiladas was well seasoned.
Overall we had a great experience and I would come here again. This was my second time here. The service was better than the first time however, hopefully I didn’t get great service because it was Valentine’s Day.
I would recommend the enchiladas here and the prices aren’t bad either between $ 10-​$ 15