Jorge’s Restaurant

ur better off hitting Taco Bell
— menus are old, nasty and disgusting
— salsa is too freaking HOT, you can always turn up the heat, but U can’t turn it down
— margarita’s on the rocks are nasty :(
— food is NOT seasoned…
* they do NOT have a NON-​SMOKING section on the patio

I’ve been going here for years and love it. I’m really surprised by some of the negative reviews, especially people saying it’s boring food — that is definitely not true. Maybe it’s not your personal preference, but it’s not boring Tex-​Mex options either — they have lots of seafood, different sauces, chilis, etc. True, there aren’t a lot of vegan options — but that’s not a reason to rate a restaurant with 1 star.
One of the best parts is definitely the drinks. The frozen margaritas are STRONG and I especially love Mexican Martini Thursdays.
I love the Green Chili enchiladas, that used to be the only thing I’d order. I’ve now branched out and will occasionally get fajitas, the fish or shrimp tacos, or the veggie enchilada (spicy!), but I always come back to the Green Chili, it’s just so good. The queso and salsa are fresh and tasty.
The service is usually pretty good even when they’re busy and the food comes out fast. The patio is nice when the weather cooperates. I’m surprised how many Austin folks don’t know about it. I’ve introduced so many people to Jorge’s and they all go back!

A native Austinite’s perspective — hipsters and foodies be damned!
I’ve been going to Jorge’s on Hancock since my college days in the 1970’s. I’ll have to admit that at that time I was really only interested in their margaritas — rumored to include Everclear. Whatever the ingredients may be, they were, and are, THE MOST POTENT MARGARITAS IN AUSTIN.
When I was a kid in the 1960’s, the go-​to Tex-​Mex restaurants in Austin were Matt’s El Rancho (it was on 1^st street then), La Tapatia (E. 8^th), and El Gallo (still there on S. Congress). La Tapatia is no longer with us, but Matt’s and El Gallo remain, with very little change to their original menus (NOTE: there were MANY runner-​ups — too many to list here).
Jorge’s, the newcomer in the 70’s, was instantly inducted into my ATMF (Austin Tex-​Mex Faves). In addition to their killer margaritas the menu was classic Tex-​Mex and their cheese enchiladas were, and are, the best in town.
If you are a hipster or a foodie there is no way you can appreciate Jorge’s properly — just skip it and go downtown or to SOCO to eat — you can show off your Birkenstocks.
For the rest of y’all… I’ve never had anything on Jorge’s menu that I didn’t like. This is an old-​school Austin Tex-​Mex restaurant, with all that implies.
TIP: Ask to sit in Luis’ section! Traditional Tex-​Mex waiter — impeccable service.

I give it 4 stars as I am a fan of traditional local places with a legacy and establishment that make you feel comfortable and wanting to come back… plus the margaritas were really good!
I wish I could write about the food, but being that I was here for an informal meeting that involved drinks and ideas… I will just admit that I should have eaten more… lol.
Never been to Jorge’s and I admit I really like the house-​converted-​restaurant. The patio is large and open, the inside is spacious between tables, and I really appreciated the local family vibe from the patrons and others who frequent the place. You could easily see local residents came here to socialize and have a nice time
We order chips & queso and were not disappointed. Through the night we had many refills of the chips and then the drinks followed. The chips were home made and cooked on site. Every now and then you’d get a chip that was not fried correctly. but that did not matter; they were firm, strong, chips that would hold any amount of salsa you could put on them.
Personally, I liked the La Chiflada Rita… I don’t drink ‘ritas too often, but this one was smooth and tasty. Enough for a few more.
The wait staff was slow at times, but they were always attentive to the needs of the table since it seems that they were covering a few extra tables out of their sections. kudos for that, team work goes a long way to help customers.
I don’t come to this area often, but if I do and I have the need, I will stop back into Jorge’s for a great selection of ‘ritas and Happy Hour choices.

Summary: Homemade tortillas, quality ingredients and a big place gives these guys 4 stars. Limited breakfast /​brunch menu knocks it down to three. Sorry! But those are the breaks. (BUT BACON back to 4!)
If you’re in Rosedale /​Allandale or the surrounding areas and want to brunch with a group, I suggest to mix Jorges in your regular rotation.
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I’m going to have to agree with most of the sentiment here that the food here isn’t amazing but it is very good. It’s also a solid brunch spot since it isn’t overcrowded and the service was great!
I was uninspired this morning and with a Groupon in hand I found myself at Jorges for brunch with my roommate. We were promptly seated (cute hostesses never hurt) and waited upon. The restaurant is pretty large and it was kind of amazing that they weren’t more packed at 11.30 on a Saturday. I wish they had a more expansive brunch menu but they had what I was looking for, Migas, so it was a match.
The Migas plate was exactly what you’d expect… PLUS BACON. The two strips of thick cut bacon bring Jorges back up to four stars. I was served a generous plate of eggs mixed with fresh tomatoes, peppers, onions and corn tortillas. I got flour tortillas as my included side. The fresh homemade taste (I confirmed that they were indeed made in house) really made a difference.
The refried beans were very good. Solid flavor and that oh-​so-​smooth consistency.
I’d become a regular if they catered more towards weekend brunch (specifically breakfast items). Also, they kind of skimped on the starches (which in hindsight wasn’t a big deal but I figure what’s a few more potatoes and refried beans?
Also, instead of chips I would have gladly paid a few bucks for a basket of breakfast pastries. As a texmex restaurant, why not get some mexican baked goods and have them around for the weekend brunch crowd. I’m just sayin’.
My roommate ordered his eggs over medium and they came out cooked perfectly. Runny eggs make all the difference. Good job kitchen!
Anyway, places like Zocalo have no fear of being run out of town but Jorges could be a dark horse ready to be a brunchtime contender. I’ll keep them on my radar.

This place is great mainstream Tex-​Mex.
Notice I said «mainstream tex-​mex.» This is not a place that you’re going to find crazy experimental tex-​mex, or authentic mexican items on the menu as well.
It’s tex-​mex the way the average texan (hispanic or not) has grown to love tex-​mex.
Dishes are made with fresh ingredients, and enough flavor/​salt/​spice to give a really good taste. They also cater enough to your taste to where you can ask for it to be hotter or more mild depending on your dish. Chips/​Salsa is one of the best also — always fresh and spicy.
Price range is between $ 7 — $ 15 (sans soda)
Customer service isn’t amazing, but I don’t need people to faun over me, I just want my food timely and exactly as I ordered. They did that.
I really liked this place and will be going back.

Jorge’s has been the usual Friday night spot for a group of friends and I for a few years now, but no more. We’ll be moving somewhere else.
The place has been going slowly downhill for some time now, which is sad. The place is an institution and clearly something has gone wrong with the ownership/​management of the place. Small things we were willing to overlook for quite a while, however, tonight’s combination of bad service, food, and drink reached a new low.
Service has always been slow, but tonight it took forever to even be acknowledged by our server. (Note: I believe there is only one really good server at Jorge’s these days and if you don’t get her you’re basically screwed.) Drinks were brought with well liquor when specific brands were specified – and if you drink margs there. almost every Friday you can tell the difference. Appetizer orders arrived after entrees. My entrée order was wrong and when I pointed this out, the server wanted to argue about what I ordered and when the correct food was, well, not good.
In short, we spent our time planning alternate locations for our next outings.
Life’s too short to waste it on bad TexMex. Especially when there are so many better options in this town.

SHITTY Service.
We waited at our table for over 15 minutes before we even got a drink. Food took forever. Had to ask three servers for more salsa, and the food was just okay.
BUT!
The margaritas?! Holy Shiz! Whoever says Baby A’s marg’s are dangerous… you will never be able to handle Jorge’s. HOLY SMOKES. I live down the street from here, and see my summer consisting of A LOT of Jorge margaritas.
YOWZA!

I made my way to Jorge’s for the first time when I was down in Austin visiting family recently. My sister and her husband are regulars here and often talk fondly of Tex-​Mex Friday. So a big group of us came in for lunch and enjoyed some fine patio weather.
The food is standard, above average Tex-​Mex. I got a bit o’ tortilla soup along with the Mitsy Special. The soup was a good rendition, on the mild side, but still flavorful. I loved the Mitsy Special because I love Hatch chiles, and I was very pleased to see them all over this menu. Others ordered enchiladas, tacos, taco salads, combination plates, etc. Nobody had any complaints.
Service was very good, especially considering the size of our parties. Food was a bit on the pricey side, but it’s all good. I’d love to come back again.

Hor-Hay’s is Bor-​ang: the type-​A, mediocre Tex-​Mex joint located on a busy road next to your neighborhood watering hole. Though quite affordable, the fare is somewhat mediocre and unthoughtful. The service is quite good, if that is worth anything! Also, very inviting atmosphere, but nothing to write home about.
The offerings span all across the board, from pozole to tamales to even something called fideos. That is pretty much all I can emphasize. Now, let us proceed to critique every component of the meal.
Funny that they spike the guacamole, which by the way is a tad too smooth, with lettuce. I have gotten lettuce in some of my other not-​supposed-​to-​have-​lettuce edible items recently as well, a Vietnamese spring roll to be exact! The guacamole was a bit bland as well. Undersalted guacamole sucks.
Pozole: the ancho broth was quite zippy, but the thin broth was a little too light for the heavy pork and hominy. The pork was adequately tender, though. Plus, they load you up with swine, but I would have certainly enjoyed an abundance of liquid. Good accompaniments of cilantro, onion, cabbage, and cheese.
Fideo: very unique Mexican chicken noodle soup. Great texture, not too oily. Best of all was the flavor component, but the chicken was boring, and the broth was just too dang salty!
I would not recommend Jorge’s unless you are looking for something straightfoward in the area. Give it a shot if you desire a joint that offers something for all Tex-​Mex palates. I mean they really shoot for all cylinders: burritos, enchiladas, and combo plates. Eh.

As many of the other reviewers have mentioned, I want so badly to like this place. Not only is Jorge’s literally around the corner, the Tacos Garcia in Amarillo (where I grew up) has been my family’s favorite since I can remember.
This is NOTHING like that place.
My husband and I order take out this afternoon, and here’s what goes down:
1. My call is answered on the 5^th ring at 2:00pm on a Saturday. Guy who answers incredulously repeats my request, «uh, TAKE-​OUT? Um, yeah, uh…» and then doesn’t put me on hold, says to someone else, «uh, you want to do this? Some lady wanting take out… yeah, I don’t know.»
2. A girl finally grabs the phone and takes my order. Says it will take 10 minutes. I’m thinking, «only 10?» OK.
3. Hubby goes to pick up order. Not very busy. No one at hostess stand. Waiter-​guy walks out of the bar area and hubby asks him, «I’m here to pick up a take-​out order. Do you know where I go?» To which the guy says, while continuing to walk away, «I don’t know. It’s somewhere.»
4. After a few minutes with no help, hubby sees gal walking around w/​plastic bag and it ends up being our food. Hooray.
5. When we open up the bag, the food is cold. COLD. Again, we live 60 seconds from this place, and the hubby arrived to pick up the food exactly 10 minutes from ordering. Seems suspect. Upon further examination, part of my order is missing, and the part I get looks like a small, slimy, seed-​filled pepper swimming in a yellow cheese pool (a relleno perhaps?), which also envelopes a tough, burned-​edge partially-​rolled tortilla (resembles a cheese enchilada, I guess). OH — and the guadalajara chalupa is sitting on top of all of this mess, so not only is the chalupa soggy, burned around the edge, and sticking to the cheese pool, the guac has begun to brown. This is supposed to be the Viernes, minus the forgotten quesadilla, but instead is a greasy, tough, cold yellow mess.
6. Hubby gets the red chile enchiladas. I work in Taos every summer — trust me — this is sub-​par red chile at best. Tastes like it was made with powder, not real chilies. Order was also wrong for the enchilada filling, and the rice was DRY (so was the un-​ordered chicken inside one of the enchiladas).
We completely stopped eating when I found a hair in the brown-​chip bag (yes, the chips were almost as brown as the bag). What a waste of $ 24.
We had placed this order as an, «OK, we’ll give them ONE more chance» situation.
Well, that’s that. And I mean it this time.

We took an out-​of-​town friend here for dinner, although we’ve never been.
Damn.
I want to love Jorge’s. But I just can’t.
Mainly because the only thing I can get at Jorge’s is a beer. (Wait! who needs food if you have beer?!).
The beans and rice are not vegan. Take away all cheese, meat, seafood, and a vegan can maybe eat a salad here. Maybe.
Stick with the beer, chips and salsa.
The meat eaters ordered a taco plate and pozole. The taco plate was a monster, like it would take me four days to eat it. But our friend finished all of it, and then looked miserable, like he had just made a terrible mistake. He did, as he was up all night with stomach «problems.» The other meat eater said the pozole was okay, and pretty good.
I want Jorge’s to be great, mainly because it’s right down the street. But I drive by it. And just keep on driving.
You should too.
You’re welcome.

Not a winner, winner to this chicken dinner.
I’ve been here 3 – 4 times with coworkers for the lunch hour and I wasn’t impressed. These service is okay and food comes relatively promptly but it certainly lacks the nuanced flavors that other famous Austin area institutions have injected in their offerings to the «Tex-​Mex» category.
I’ve had their Chile Relleno and their vegetarian option enchiladas as part of the lunch special. Everything is okay but not particularly anything to write home about. The queso leaves something to be desired. It just lacks flavor, spice, heat, kick, anything. The food is bland, with grease being a huge culprit. For many places, the grease is where the flavor is at but not here. I’d recommend a pass and would advise anyone to find another lunch spot unless what you’re after is a cheap and tasteless meal. The beans were this off color of brown gray that left an unsettling mental picture in my mind as I dragged my fork through it. Hmmm.
Just say no.

I ate a few times at Jorge’s back in the early 90s and liked it but hadn’t been back until the last year or so when friend suggested it for lunch. I have been back quite a few times and have always had a good experience… well, until today.
The food was good as always. My friend had calabacita and I had a fajita taco salad. She often has that dish and is always very pleased. I had not had the fajita salad before but it was really good… and pretty big. The problem we had was the service. I kid you not, my friend had to refill her own tea because the tea pitchers were closer to us than our server ever seemed to be.
I don’t recall ever having such bad service so I didn’t deduct any stars… this time. We are lunching again in about a month so if we decide to dine here again, we’ll see if the service is any better.

Some stuff about this place is wheeeee! and some is meh. I call that 3 stars. Let’s just go straight to the list…
Awesome:
Chips. A little extra salt and I could make a meal of these things
Salsa. Super awesome, flavorful, spicy. I could bathe in it, and while it would be painful, it would also induce tears of joy.
Skinny margarita. Sometimes a girl wants a drinkypoo that isn’t a billion calories.
Veggie enchiladas. Again, sometimes a girl wants some tex mex that isn’t a billion calories.
Meh:
Everything else I’ve had there. The fajitas were definitely not my fave.
The prices. The skinny marg was about 8 ounces and it was 8 bucks with standard well tequila.
Service. Not bad, but definitely slow and they are not the most attentive in the world.
I will absolutely return for a skinny tex mex fix, when it’s worth the money to not just make something similar at home. Plus, it’s about a 3 mile walk there and back from the house, which is just perfect enough to call a workout and justify said yummy food. :)

Wow, there are some scathing reviews here about Jorge’s! I felt like I had to stick up for them because I have been a regular there. My wife is from West Texas which is where Jorge’s got started. They love it there and I was introduced to it in Midland. When I moved to Austin, I was happy to find this Jorge’s, and basically it’s all the same stuff.
I have never ever seen a cockroach there. That’s not to say there aren’t any, but I just want people to know it’s not some dirty roach laden nasty restaurant, because it’s not. It’s usually pretty clean and always pretty packed when I go, which means that people like the place.
Anyway, we love their Santa Fe red chili sauce. That is by far the best, and has a really strong chili pepper flavor, which we like. That is actually probably the main reason we go there. We specifically ask for that sauce on whatever we get. I typically get some kind of enchilada (they are all pretty good), with that sauce on it, and maybe a grilled (crunchy) taco. Get the charro beans and not the refried.
The margaritas are awesome, and really strong. My wife loves the «Splendita» and I get the regular frozen. One will do me just fine because they are quite potent.
The service is really dependent on the waiter you get, and we have gotten some bad service there. However, we have also gotten awesome service there. Now we just avoid the bad waiters and get seated where the good servers are. Our waiter (I forget his name now, but he has black hair, tall, and skinny, and looks like he could be Mexican) remembered what we like to eat and tells us the scoop about how good the various sauces are that day.
Long story short, this is a solid Tex-​mex place, and don’t get the wrong impression from the other reviewers. This is my opinion, and the opinion of many hard core Tex-​mex lovers that I know.

If I could, I’d have left the stars blank. ZERO.
It’s unfortunate because we’ve been loving Jorge’s for quite some time. Their margaritas were always good, the guacamole tacos always yum. The place has taken a dive. It’s f’ing disgusting now. Don’t go. Just don’t go. Even if you loved it before, don’t do it! You may not have an appetite to go back after hearing what happened to my family last Friday night.
It was a typically crowded Friday night at Jorge’s. Myself, my husband and 2 kids were there for dinner. It took a longer than usual time to get our food, but whatever, we were willing to be patient. My son had ordered a quesadilla, the kid kind with nothing else on the plate. When all the food came out, he picked his up first and shouted «Yuck! There’s a bug under my quesadilla and it’s still alive!» It was a roach, and it was indeed, still alive. Holy crap… I nearly threw up on the spot. Thank god for the strong liquor drinks we had!
I immediately flagged down the waiter to take bug and quesadilla back to the kitchen. He simply said «sorry, I’ll get another one right out.» He acted as if this happened multiple times a night and he’d lost interest. Great. A good 10 minutes later he was back with a quesadilla, no bug. My son pointed to a green spot on the tortilla and said it looked like the same one he had before. Needless to say, we all lost our appetite. Poor kid couldn’t eat either. Gross, gross, gross!
So you think we’d get any of this disgusting food taken off our bill? Nope. Not even the bug-​laden quesadilla was off! UNBELIEVABLE, right? So I flag down the waiter and suggest that he do something about that since we’d all lost our appetite. He claims he spoke to the manager (he was totally lying). I got the feeling that he was tired of going to a non-​responsive manager about problems like this. He took the bill away again, and when he came back, he had only taken off the kids meals. Yay, we saved $ 8. There were no further offers.
We were so disgusted we just paid our bill, left no tip and vowed to never return. Oh, and tell everyone we know.

Went there with 17 people in the party and they had no problem with separate checks. The waitress was great and was always smiling and helpful.
I can’t eat anything spicy and had beef tacos which tasted good to me. But really I wouldn’t know a good taco from a bad one, just moving here.
Jorge’s sits in a little neighborhood, but had ample parking.

Moldy chips and the manager on duty didn’t seem to care. In fact he decided it was a good time to grocery shop.
After many years of pretty good food and service, this is our last visit.

Went here last night for a friend’s birthday. I had high expectations, uncomfortably based on their outdoor signage. And of course, my friends apparently enjoyed dining here before.
We got a couple glasses of wine at the bar. Terrible pinot. For $ 5.09 a piece. Then we moved to the smaller bar near the bathroom. No incident to report, other than there not being enough chairs.
Next we were seated. Our server was friendly and courteous. We were brought chips and salsa and our next drink very quickly. We chose chardonnay this time and it was equally horrible to the pinot. I know drinking wine at a Mexican restaurant is not ‘intuitive’, but how hard is it to stock a decent house white?
Then: our food. Suddenly, Jorge’s revealed his true self: a dirty jhore.
The food was beyond awful. I should have known from the thick flavorless tortilla chips that I had to salt with provided salt shaker. My gf and I split the ‘green chile enchiladas’. They were basically cheese, and had odd red coloring. And they were cold. The rice and beans were bland and so were the ‘baked beans’. And I’m pretty sure they use American cheese. So this is what tex-​mex is supposed to be? Ugh.
Our bill was $ 50! Maybe we drank too much. The meal was saved by our birthday boy’s wife, who brought homemade chocolate fudge pocket cupcakes. Incredible.
Good service, terrible food, overpriced. O and the hostess was a bitch! She was drinking a POLAR POP.