Uncle Julio’s Bethesda Row

Good for a quick Lunch at The bar. Fajitas Was ok with free refill of nachos. Food Was ok i got better thing in other place.

On two different occasions, we’ve dropped in here because I had a hankering for some chile rellenos. On both visits, they were all out of them. Two strikes and you’re out by my rules. On the second occasion, my request for a simple change to one of the sides was missed.
Servers were friendly enough, on the rare occasions that one stopped at our table. The staff seemed to be spending a lot of time attending to large parties of young women celebrating birthdays.
Parties? Birthdays? Sounds like it might be a tad noisy? It’s actually unbearably loud. The two of us struggled to communicate at all. The restaurant is very badly designed – concrete floors and all hard surfaces, plus lots of kitchen noise. Add to that the loud music (unintelligible except for continuous, repetitive bass notes) and dozens of tables of other guests shouting at each other to be heard, and you have a miserable environment.
We won’t be back.

Started out with phone ahead for 630 pm dinner
6.45 pm we started to go to our table
The hosts took us to a table next to wall
They were busy with less servers and buss help
We ask to sit at a booth with a Reg server to serve us dinner
The seater was rude nasty and quick to answer us badly because we requested a different table.
This is when she lied
She said the table we wanted had a 2 day reservation hold
This is Not the policy at all
For a friendly restaurant we been eating at for over 20 years started at the original location a few blocks away.
We had to ask for manager .
He was very professional and helpful.
Moved us to another table with a server.
All we wanted to do is go to dinner and relax
It didn’t start this way
Very sad
As we ate dinner
The same hostess was doing the same thing to another family
She yelled at her follow worker in front of everyone
I would not want this server working with the public.
Attitudes and other priorities don’t belong at a good restaurant in Bethesda MD I hope the next time our time will be smooth and normal friendly.
I didn’t make an issue for the whole place to her
We acted professionally and class act.
Not like the nasty attitude hostess.
Thanks for the memories to start our week

The service was good, the food was ok. I was so looking forward to celebrating my son’s 25^th birthday there. I made a reservation online and indicated that it was a celebration. I am a lover of Mexican food and this missed the mark with me. The salsa was bland with hardly and flavor or spice. The food was ok, not at all what I was expecting. The cocktails was awesome.

Always a great experience! I love their atmosphere, food, drinks, and the best homemade salsa & chips. Never disappoints. I would recommend trying the Guadalajara plate. Super delicious!!!

Better than average texmex and very kid friendly. Our favorite place to eat with the kids in Bethesda. Service can be slow at times but the quality of the food more than makes up for it.

One of my favorite Mexican places in the area. All the workers are nice and the prices are good. Hope that this place stays open for a long time. Also it is very kind and family friendly.

The service here was good. We sat in the bar area and out waitress Domeka was really nice! She put in the extra effort to make us welcome and have a good meal. Waters were full the whole time, food came quickly.
We started with the guacamole. I love Uncle Julio chips first of all and the guacamole was a great dip for them. There were chunks of the avocado and it had good flavor.
We also got the BBQ chicken quesadilla… this was really addicting! The melted cheese paired really well with the BBQ sauce… really well! I would definitely order these again! It came with a side of guacamole and sour cream for dipping (of course the guac in it was really good!)
Then always a favorite we got the chicken and steak fajitas. They come out on a hot sizzle platter with onions and peppers cooking under the meat, a side of beans and rice and some cheese, sour cream, guac and pico de guillo as well as soft warm tortillas. I love the make your own style, but after one full made tortilla and all the other food I get too full to make another tortilla and just pick at the meat and veggies dipping it in the guac. This is a good way to eat it too though!
Overall nothing special about this Mexican food, but it was good and I would come again!

I love Uncle Julio’s! I’ve been going to this location more times then I can count and each time I leave happy and satisfied :) Their food is delicious although I have noticed they have been making minor changes over the years to more commercialized ingredients to accommodate the bigger restaurant. I looove their fajitas, hand rolled chicken tamales, tortilla soup, carne asada (omg talk about flavor!!) and we can’t get enough of their salsa and chips. My husband literally drinks the salsa! Ask them to bring out the spicy version of their salsa if you’re looking for a little extra kick ;) The little sopaipillas with powdered sugar and honey drizzled on top help end the meal on light sweet note. Also their weekend brunch menu is on point.

Uncle Julio’s is the go to Mexican restaurant in Bethesda Row. It’s right across the street from the actual Bethesda Row. It looks very much like a Mexican restaurant from the outside so you can’t miss it.
The inside is HUGE and great for groups and they have a great happy hour.
My colleagues all rated this place 4 stars, but I am going to give it a three star rating only because it tastes like your average Mexican restaurant. Nothing amazing, but definitely not bad. I ordered the shrimp tacos and the server was more than willing to sub out the corn tortillas for flour ones (Winning!). It was good, but nothing to write home about.
If you love, love, love Mexican and are in Bethesda, stop by, but don’t make a special visit just for this.

Recently visited this restaurant for the first time and the food quality and quantity was great. I had chicken and steak fajitas, and was able to pack a to go container as well. Service was a little bit slow, but the restaurant was packed. Friendly service, will return and recommend. Fairly priced as well, considering the food quality.

Good salsa, food was mediocre.
Horrible service! Had to wait so long to get our food and the check when it was time to go.

Amazing food as always. The table side guacamole is always a good decision. They literally make it next to you. You can even customize the ingredients. Here and Gaithersburg always good service and food!

Horribly slow service. Food okay but not worth an extra hour of my life. Frustrating as repeated promise it will just be a little longer. In future may order delivery after we sit down just to sate our hunger.

We were invited for a promotion to introduce us to their Amigo Espeical Loyalty Program, which included a free dinner for four. So it was a chance to get reacquainted with the restaurant.
Service was friendly, and the food was great, served quickly. Though the dinner was free, I was willing to purchase some additional items, which took some time, we did buy margaritas, after all you have to, its a Mexican place! But I might have gotten coffee afterwards, or some ice cream, but I did not get the chance to order that.
They provided fresh prepared quacamole, which was excellent, and we went through two baskets of chips. Dinner was served quickly, and it was very tasty.
The place is very loud, so it is hard to have a conversation.
For sure we will return, I have never had a bad meal here, just kinda forget that it is nearby.

I don’t play when it comes to margaritas and Mexican food. I stopped in Tuesday night for happy hour while my phone was getting fixed at Apple. I was in the mood for a margarita and made sure to ask whether they could make one with fresh lime juice. I don’t do sour mix. The bartender told me they can do either. The margarita was great! I believe the HH deal is $ 1.25 or $ 2.00 off drinks — I can’t remember. The drink prices are already pretty reasonable. I had the Patron margarita with fresh lime, which was only $ 10 or $ 11 full price. The chips and salsa were also good (although not as good as my beloved Oyamel). I peeped the menu, which looked impressive. They have lots of interesting options. Even different kinds of guac with queso fresco.

Uncle Julios is great if you want a nice chain Mexican food experience that isn’t as small as Guapos. Prices are a little steep, but my mango shrimp tacos were delicious. My friend took me here for their frozen sangria/​margarita swirlys — not for the faint of heart!
Bartender was a little inattentive/​rude, but not much to do about that.

Total upscale Mexican restaurant on Bethesda Row. Reminds me of that fine authentic dining I experienced on a recent trip to Acapulco.
Exotic variety of bar drinks, excellent selection of appetizers, incredible variety of main courses to select from, and some amazing desserts.
For our main course, red snapper and a chicken fajita dish were served quite hot, and incredibly fragrant. The snapper was fork tender and moist despite being grilled on mesquite wood! The chicken fajitas were delicioso (oops, wrong culture) :-)
I highly recommend dining here if you are in the mood for fine Mexican cuisine. I’ll be back soon too.

*Homer Simpson drool face*
I’m a fan of Uncle Julio’s catering, so I was really excited to check out the restaurant. A group of coworkers and I came for lunch on a Wednesday. We were seated immediately and were shocked that it was so empty. That didn’t last long, however, since the lunch crowd hit and it was packed by 12:30pm.
I have to rave about the chips & salsa that are complimentary. The chips are so GOOD! I’m used to this being a mediocre addition to the meal, but we were all digging in to the chips. The salsa held its own, as well.
They have a great lunch menu with prices that are pretty reasonable. Luckily, the portions are a good match. I definitely felt like I got my money’s worth. Everyone else raved about the fajitas. I’ve had that before and can attest to the greatness!
I thought our server was attentive, but not overly friendly. It wasn’t enough to make me feel like I had bad service, but she definitely just me the bare minimum.

I don’t know why Uncle Julio’s doesn’t have better ratings! I think the food is fresh and delicious. The drinks are very good too. I’ve always had good service there.
The only negative things are the location – parking is difficult and you always have to pay for it – and the price. They are more expensive than nearby Mexican restaurants (think Guapo’s). My suggestion is to get an entrée meant for one person and split it. They have fajitas which are priced differently for one vs two people, but honestly I don’t think the amount of food is that different. The entrees for one person are sufficient to share and there’s no charge for sharing a dish.
The drinks are expensive, but they’re fairly strong. My advice: don’t get «the swirl» (a mix of sangria and frozen margarita). Although they advertise it as their signature drink, it’s gross when it starts melting.