El Charro Avitia

Family friendly Mexican restaurant. Free chips and salsa, great margaritas and chicken fajitas. Kids bean and cheese burrito and grilled cheese, something for everyone. Friendly staff and clean restrooms. Glad we stopped here on the way to the airport! Fast and decent prices.

Awesome spot, had their Mexican Pizza after seeing the new Star Wars movie, excellent food and service!

Quick Linch–
Calamari strips appetizer with very light and crispy coating served hot and yummy with lemon. Chili relleno big perfectly stuffed with cheese and perfectly cooked. Wife had jalapeño margarita and it was spicy! Will be back again.

My favorite Mexican food restaurant! Fresh, hot food that tastes delicious.

El Charro Avitia is a great Mexican food restaurant. Went there with family and enjoyed the food: tasted great and generous portions. The décor is nice, the service great, and the prices reasonable. Dinner prices are naturally higher than lunch, but also come with even larger portion sizes. Their chips and salsa is extremely good as well. Highly Recommend!

Chip & Salsa’s Yummy, Great Margarita, Lots of Good Food and a Fire in the Fireplace made this night Great!

Ate here for the first time today. Fantastic service, fabulous food and priced right! A must try! Our new favorite when in Carson City :)

Mediocre food. Nothing special. The place can use a major face lift as it looks like a dump from the outside.
The kitchen staff wears ball caps and no hair nets. Has to be a health code violation.
The wait staff «Kelly» mid 40’s and super helpful. She is far better than the restaurant.
The food looks like something from Taco Bell or Bueno but at twice the price. It is super bland and lacks any seasonings to enhance the natural flavors of even the beans.
They dropped off two salsas to the table when I arrived and a carafe of tap water. Both of the salsas tasted had a metalic aftertaste to them. Makes me believe they uses canned ingredients for their salsa. Even fast food restaurants are trying to make more things in house, it’s inexcusable for a sit down restaurant to charge $ 15 for a $ 8 fast food plate worth of food.
All in all, this may be a good place to get liquored up, as it seems nearly every table has margaritas. I had a beer but only one. It wasn’t enough to help with the review. Well, I did give them 3 stars instead of 2, but that’s because of the wait staff.
I’d pass if I had the option.

Great Service. l
Loved the atmosphere; I love the old times murals around the room and the family Avitia’s memorabilia spread throught he restaurant.
And Bruce’s Margarita (one of their Specialities) made the pains of the day fade away.
I had the Carnitas; they were cooke to perfection along with the beans and rice.
And the table shared a generous portion of some of the best Guacamole that I have had!

We had a surprise party and it was buffet style. The staff was awsome, prices were good, food was great. From the planning through to the end of the party they were there every step of the way making sure everything was perfect. To have 60 people all agree that the food and service was top notch is not an easy thing to do. One of the guests is planning a party for her mother in April and will be calling for reservations.
Thankyou to all that helped to pull the party off without a hitch.

I have been coming here on and off for 25 years, as well as the one they used to have in Bishop CA. Used to be one of the best Mexican restaurants I had been to. We ordered the calamari appetizer and that was excellent. But the wife ordered the crab and shrimp enchiladas and they were trash. Imitation crab and those tinny canned shrimp only they had picked up the can taste. She took 2 bites and said no more. I ordered the chili Verdi Burrito and the meet was good but it was not cooked with the green chilies they just laid them in there and they were canned green chilies so they had a strong lemony vinegar taste not good at all. Seems like they are skimping on everything and I have a feeling that they won’t be in business very much longer. I no we won’t be going back again.

El Charro, fun bar with free chips, salsa and refried beans. On Wednesday & Friday get free wings too! Delicious fish tacos and the home made chorizo is perfecto! Love this place!

Best Mexican food in town. Great enchiladas, burritos, and tamales. For desert, try the Fried Ice Cream. Delicious!

Here’s the deal with El Charro: the Mexican dishes and regular are pretty standard fare, decent without much deviation from most «traditional» American Mexican restaurants. What sets this place apart is the bar. If you eat here, always try eat in the bar. They have free, delicious bean dip, chips and salsa at all times. They also have a «bar only» menu with 11 different medium sized appetizers all under $ 6 from 2−6pm.
Forget the Mexican dishes, the best dish from El Charro is the chicken wings: a full wing with incredible mild spices, no sauce on the wing. These are the best wings in the area and that includes Tahoe/​Carson/​Minden-​GVille. You can also get them for free (like the bean dip) in the bar on Friday evenings from 6−8pm. Also, search the local newspaper, there are always 2 for 1 coupons for house margaritas. A great deal.
I live in Tahoe and this place is a regular stop for many locals who come to the valley to go to Costco, pay .50 cents less per gallon of gas, etc. Don’t pass it by!

I grew up in Carson and ate here my whole life. The margaritas are awesome and the staff is always really nice. My absolute favorite is the chicken fajita gordita. It has to be like a million calories but it is so worth it. I also like the carne asada tacos, they don’t use super cheap meat like a lot of places. I always make it a point to hit this place up when I am back in town visiting friends and family and I highly recommend it.

I ordered a beef chimichanga. The chimichanga was delicious shredded beef and the tortilla wasn’t too thick.
My husband ordered a green chile stuffed with beef, almonds covered with cheese and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. Plus rice and beans.
But the green chile was crunchy, seemed to be under cooked. Otherwise everything else was great.
Friendly staff, good delicious salsa.

Food– good
Price — over the top
Atmosphere/​comfort — comfortable and quiet enough to talk to your friends
Staff — nice
Food is decent, but not worth what they ask for it.

The only thing I like here is the chicken chimichanga. The refried beans from the bar are also great. They put cheese and jalapeños in them. Awesome.
The chimi is crispy loaded with chicken. Has lots of sauce, lettuce, sour cream and guacamole on it.

My sister and I were farting around in Carson City again and she said she wanted to eat here as she did often with her husband many years ago. So we arrived around 1:30 pm.
We were greeted and shown to a table at the back of the room on the right. It is very old school in style; of which I like.
What I found odd right off the bat is the hostess and both waitresses looked like they should be working in a Norwegian smörgåsbord rather than a Mexican restaurant. Another odd thing was between the hostess, waitress and busman the word guys was said 22 times. Last time I looked my sister is not a guy.
But non the less the service was good and friendly as was the busman, he even asked if I was happy while in the restroom, and yes was my answer.
The food from the chips and salsa to the rice and beans and main was all very good.
So yeah I would go back.
And thanks guys for an entertaining and good meal.

We usually enjoy this place but tonight had an entirely different experience.
We were trying to decide which kids meal to order my son since he’s 3 and picky. Our waitress said that there is a kid’s quesadilla meal but it wasn’t on the menu. My husband asked if it comes with a side of rice and beans, since all other kid menu items come with them; she said yes.
His quesadilla comes with a scoop of each, no more than ¹⁄₃ cup each, which is a perfect size for him.
Then we get our bill… my 3 year old’s meal was more than any one else’s as they charged us for the $ 6.95 kid’s quesadilla, plus $ 3.50 for rice and $ 3.50 for beans. Really?!? We asked our waitress and she said the quesadilla doesn’t come with rice and beans like all the other kid’s meals. If they were determined to charge us for a whole side, then I’d expect an actual serving, not ¹⁄₃ of a cup. Make up your mind! Was it a kid meal or a side? You can’t claim side dish and serve a kid portion.
So disappointed. We will not be back.