El Meson

Meson is /​almost/​there. The food was delicious and authentic, but the lack of proper accoutrements detracted greatly from the experience. Upon entering, there were two shabby, laminated menus for the entire lunch crowd to pass around and share, with no menu posted on the wall. Napkin dispensers were notably absent (one paper towel roll for the entire restaurant to tear sheets off of manually), and there were no soap or towels in the men’s restroom either. All in all a disappointing experience, one that could be vastly improved with a small investment in signage and sanitation.

I love this place, I think their mole is A+
I try just about every mole plate I see at Mexican restaurants. This one is deep and rich, i’m about it. Also their potato, black bean, bacon & cheese breakfast taco is AMAZING. I get it once a week– love this place.

Perfect hole in the wall. breakfast tacos were delicious! definitely going back again

Worst Mexican food I’ve ever had. The chicken inside my enchiladas tasted like BBQ sauce? And the beans were extremely watery and the rice had absolutely no flavor and was way over cooked. I grabbed both salsas they offered and they were both equally gross.

I had a few breakfast tacos, and they were made to order, and were overflowing with homemade flavor. The salsas were good, and the people were nice. I love the atmosphere. You feel like you’re at a taco stand on a lonely road in Mexico. Very authentic surroundings. Very rustic and homey. I can’t wait to go back.

Oh man. The breakfast tacos here are to die for. The hot sauce and the service are some of the best in town. Totally a hidden gem. Food truck next door is also owned by the same guys. I bought a breakfast burrito the size of a baby for $ 3. Not to be missed.

Fast service. It’s a little hot inside but the food was pretty tasty. They have a self serve salsa bar. We got the pastor plate and beef enchiladas both good. Not the best but hit the spot.

This place is super close to my house so I decided to give it a try. I ordered the Piapan and my roommate ordered the Pibil and some chips and hot sauce. When I arrived the lady behind the counter was extremely nice and gave me my food. I was also given small plastic cups to fill for my hot sauce. To make a long story short both of the meals were bland with no flavor at all and not very good and the hot sauces were way too hot for normal human consumption. Not going back and wouldn’t recommend.

First time here, so I ordered that day’s lunch special: chicken mole and chose black beans. Got my number, filled my drink and found a place to sit. This place is in the middle of a warehouse district.
First time I’ve had mole, so I can’t really judge. It and everything else was well seasoned and flavorful. The complementary ensalada was crisp, but the rice was overcooked. Except for the ensalada, the portions were generous.
I plan on stopping by at least a couple of more times to try more of the menu.

El Meson (the location on Burleson) is currently my favorite Mexican food in Austin. This is not Tex Mex, but more traditional dishes like moles and cochnita pibil.
The pipian (green pumpkin seed mole) is one of my favorites. When they have the red mole on the specials board, you can get it with shredded chicken (even though I haven’t seen it on the menu). Clearly they put some time into their sauces, and it shows.
The salsas are perfect. If you’re looking for some heat, get the small squeeze bottle. I can’t tell if it’s chile arbol or habanero, but whatever it is, it’s hot and delicious.

Looks like a hole-​in-​the-​wall, cashier speaks perfect English, and the food is great! Couldn’t ask for anything more.

The staff/​owners here are so very nice! They’ll walk you through the menu and talk to you about your day. The food was fresh and tasty. I had the fish taco special and hubby had the tacos El Pastor and we were both very pleased (in fact he goes in there all the time and was taking me for the first time today).

Food was decent. Rice was sort of Asain style.

Im with Melissa A. on this one, this place is. lacking. But its not beyond saving. Smaller and rustic, but put together well. Chips and salsa were great. Chips were perfect and crisp, salsa fresh. I went for a bowl menudo and huevos rancheros (their spelling not mine) and thats were I went wrong. Beans were watery and under seasoned. Seemed they rushed them before they could thicken in the pan. The potatoes were swimming in a something like a V8 drink. Did not mix well with my watery beans. My eggs perfect an that helped. After some salt and pushing the potatoes to the side the meal was saved.
The menudo came first I should mention and was so overflowing with juice. Seriously thought the guy was going to burn me. It came with plenty of tripe which I love but lacked the homeny. ⁷⁄₁₀ rating on that.
Im not sure that I will return.

I am a Mexican food snob. I can’t help it. I was raised by a sweet, cooking loving Mexican mother, whom was influenced by my two over-​zealous grandmothers. I have been blessed to eat to my fill of massive quantities of authentic, lard laden, spice-​riddled authentic Mexican cuisine. So what’s the deal with El Meson?
What I find interesting is that El Meson is actually a chain. The main El Meson restaurant (which if I’m correct is the second location– if that makes any sense) is focused more on a family, sit down, formal restaurant, emphasizing interior Mexican cuisine, over the more traditional (to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California) border influenced foods. Case in point, I’m not rating that restaurants food, but instead, the less formal, walk-​in, quick lunch, please take a number restaurant located off Burleson Rd. which is more border influenced.
Thankfully, this place does not boast any kind of Tex-​Mex cuisine, nor will you find anything that resembles it with the exception of them offering black beans as a side option. Being that I am a snob when it comes to the food, I will say that the tinga, cochinita pibil and calabacitas are as close to any of my relatives as I have been able to find in Austin. The food is always hot, and the portions are always large, for an inexpensive price. Honestly, there isn’t much of anything I don’t enjoy off the menu. Specifically, for quick morning breakfast runs if you are in the Burleson area, they do make their own flour tortillas, use red potatoes instead of russet potatoes, and have signature tomatillo, habanero and chipotle salsas made in house.
My drawback is the service. As it is a small location, and is built only for breakfast and lunch, they have a tendancy of getting pretty busy, without having enough staff. Take note, you walk in and order, take a number, sit down, and have a food runner bring you your food. Drinks and salsa ‘bar’ (more like a counter with the salsa sitting in containers on top) are all self serve. This isn’t the issue. The staffing issue occurs with the kitchen, as its usually one person in the back, one person in the front, (the main stoves, ovens and prep station appear to be in the ‘back’, while the side station, additonal oven and stove are in the front) and someone running food, while another takes your order. Between 11:30−1pm, you are likely to see a rotation of 20 – 30 people moving in and out of the restaurant either sitting in for lunch or picking up. Doesn’t seem time functional really.
That being said, get there early, or order your to go 10 minutes before your lunch starts so you won’t be waiting when you get there. Don’t ever assume if you have to be back at work in ten minutes, you’ll be able to order and get your food and make it back to work on time. You won’t even clear the order line in ten minutes. :)
Happy eating!!!

After eating tacos here twice I’m now convinced that this place is legit. Everything on the menu is $ 1.85, whether it’s a 2 filling taco or an iced tea. Extra taco fillings are 50 cents. The potatoes are delicious lil red potatoes all chopped up and grilled, and they have a lil salsa bar where you order that has fresh grilled Serranos y cebollas. The fire-​roasted arbol sauce they have kicks ass too! As your attorney, I suggest that you try some ahorita!

I’ve eaten here numerous times and its always a great experience.
Today, I admitted that this is my favorite Mexican restaurant in Austin. Every dish I’ve had here tastes home made and the sauces are all great to boot!
Try to Cochinita Pipin, Tinga, Chilorio and make sure you grab some roasted peppers served by the cashier.

El Meson boasts just the right amount of mediocrity at its finest, really. The outpost of this longstanding institution appeared to me to be of much higher quality. Let’s take a second and see why this no-​frills original of the now highly acclaimed South Lamar joint focusing on interior Mexican falls flat.
Nothing was ready when I ordered. No gorditas – this was justified by the guys saying «we don’t want to prepare not-​fresh masa gorditas.» Point taken. No potatoes; this cannot be justified… how can you dare eat breakfast tacos with a lack of the infamous tubers.
This joint cranks out breakfast tacos and a couple of simple breakfast plates, but I was certainly not excited by anything during my experience at this South Austin eatery. My black beans were bland, my spicy sauteed mushrooms boasted no complexity, and my tortilla ended up being soggy.
On the bright side, the salsas were not bad. The creamy orange must surely be the evil sister to the way-​too-​popular Dona sauce found at Tacodeli. The roasted red was smoky, but I did not find anything to be spectacular about this one.
All in all, a very poor excuse for Mexican grub, and I would highly urge you to bypass El Meson in favor of Mariana’s.

Was I eating at the same restaurant as everyone else? Everything on my plate tasted like dirty dishwater.
I got the carnitas which was dry and fatty and greasy all at the same time… along with the overwhelming taste of dirty rags. Tortillas possibly homemade, definitely undercooked. Refried beans tasted like they were made with dishwater and were as runny. Rice was the only moderately edible item (I can make Spanish rice better and I’m only half guera).
For lunch, $ 7.30 plus a drink, my total was $ 9.90. Chips and salsa were extra. Glad we didn’t get them, they probably would have been subpar as well. Money wasted, at least it didn’t make me sick.

This place is good and pretty authentic. Well, coming from someone from northern Indiana. Take it for what it is worth.
We went for lunch today. You order at the counter and get a number. I got number 13. That is two days in a row. I got 13 yesterday at Coco’s. WTF? Next I will get a food bill for $ 6.66. Anyway, we stood in line and the guy taking orders was on the phone taking an order. We waited and waited and the line kept growing. I think the person on the other line was ordering for everyone at Bergstram Airport. Finally someone came over to help him. I ordered the lunch special. 2 chicken tamales with rice, beans and a soda for $ 7.25 before tax and tip. My partner order the el pastor with rice and black beans. All of the daily lunch specials are $ 5.65 and they have a large selection. Good god, I sound like Sandra Lee on the Food Network. I remember watching her one time on Semi Homemade and she was even saying how much it cost to run the crock pot for six hours. .76 cents.
The chips aren’t free but you get a choice of 3 sauces. My tamales were good, but a little on the dry side. They were hefty ones though with loads of chicken. The El Pastor was legit. It was made with pineapple and lots of great flavor. I always seem to envy what other people buy over my own. I even gawked at the people at the table next to me who were eating enchiladas. They looked incredible. I was almost ready to say to them «if you show me yours, I’ll show you mine».
I all but finished my plate and decided overall this place was pretty stellar. I will probably go back to get some tamales. They are selling them for $ 1.50 a piece right now because of the holiday. I am sure I will get the cheese ones and run over to Texas Chili Parlor to get some… you guessed it chili and put it over them with onions and sour cream.
The lot next store is some kind of storage for Port A Potties which I thought was funny. At least the neighbors are quiet.
That being said El Mason, I liked you a whole lot.
Love,
Moonpie~