Guapo

These folks have put serious attention and detail into the décor. They have just opened 3 months ago as I write this and clientele is slow in building. The food is good and the lunch price was very reasonable. Al Pastor tacos and two sides for $ 6.50 lunch special. Their dinner prices are higher and I will return to try those and update this review. I think it is unfair to compare this new place with the old Mexican restaurant that used to be here El Cero. They are night and day in quality of the food and décor. I mean they really aren’t even in the same ballpark. And for Tequila lovers out there they have a great selection. Final positive is their outdoor patio is going to be great in spring summer. I did not have any negative experiences here at all. I’ll be back.

Went for an early dinner the other night. Not crowded, service was quite good. Adrian, a partner, stopped by to introduce himself and provide a small portion of guacamole on the house. Main course portions were modest in size but they were very good and with the chips and salsa and guacamole we did not go home hungry. We’ll definitely be back!

What a beautiful place. First thing that catches your eye is the beautiful murals in he wall. Very cool feel to the whole restaurant. It is a little hard to find, but that’s what Hidden gems are all about. The menu has a variety of different items but the staff is well informed on explaining them to you. My waitress was the sweetest. My husband and I both got the steak tacos (Tacos de Carne Asada) !!! And they were THE best I’ve ever had !!! This isn’t your average NC Mexican restaurant. The tacos were not huge and over stuffed street style, the were delicately prepared to make every bite delicious. And don’t let the size fool you, the steak is quality steak I was full with two tacos and it come with 3. You can taste and feel the authenticity of the food and the time it took to prepare it. Steak was cooked to perfection and I have no clue what they use as far as the shell but it is to die for ! Don’t make ANY substitutions they got this recipe down to the T !
I will defiantly be coming back and am eager to try one of the Empanadas !

Food was actually quite tasty/​flavorful, but the service was horrible. Took 10 minutes to get our drinks, another 10 to get salsa for the chips, waitstaff knew nothing of the beer selection, etc. They’re new here (replaced what used to be a nice local Mexican establishment, «El Cerro»), so I’ll provisionally give them 3 stars for the good food, but unless they up their game and learn how to service customers I won’t make this a frequent destination. And they need to invest in a sign with the name of their business rather than one that says, «MEXICAN REST.» (no joke!).

Very disappointing. I rarely rip a place for being bad but the place that was here before was really good and cheap. Now it is over priced, stale, and tasteless. Sigh. The days of the 5 dollar speedy lunch are over. Did I mention we were the only people here?

I did not write a review after my first visit as they were open about 6 weeks… long enough to have the kinks out, but they really didn’t. I figured I would give it a second chance and write the review after that.
All in all I think the place has potential but it is lacking polish. As a veteran of the food and beverage industry it is pretty clear that there are two clear issues. One is food delivery, the other is staff attentiveness.
Both visits were poor to awful on the delivery time of food from the kitchen and both times the restaurant was probably ¹⁄₃ of capacity. Our orders were main stream (tacos and fajita’s) that took nearly an hour to make it to the table from the time they were ordered. If you ever get near capacity things will go from bad to worse quickly
The staff attentiveness is likely tied to the food delivery time from the kitchen. The servers actually stay away because they know they are going to catch heat from customers on where there food was. The bartender came to our table and bought us a beer and glass of wine for the wait… we did not say anything to prompt that. Giving away drinks/​food to help «satisfy» customers will not give you a long shelf life as those are your margins.
Management/​Ownership needs to get better processes in place especially in the kitchen. I am not sure if you are short staffed there or have people that cannot handle the role but it needs your attention. If you do not address this soon this will be a restaurant of another name in short order. You have Publix opening soon and that will help drive traffic to you… but traffic is not something that can be handled right now.
On the positive, the food was good, not great, but good for what it is.
Good Luck!

We came here at the last minute on a Wednesday evening because we had a Groupon. There were only a few customers dining so we were a little concerned. Two of the staff greeted us with a nice smile and we were seated immediately. The restaurant is very clean and actually smelled a little of cleaning agents. They had an unusual décor and very colorful. I love the wall mural. The dinner menu I thought was a little pricey. There is really nothing for less than $ 11. However the quality of the food is great and the presentation was wonderful. The plantains were very fleshy and cooked to perfection. They came out temperature hot and had a nice crispiness on the outside. The salsa was very sick and the cilantro tasted fresh. I ordered an appetizer of taquitos and it was quite filling. Would go back but probably if the lunch menu was more reasonably priced.

We tried this place on a brief visit to the area. There was virtually no one in the entire establishment at dinner time, so that should have been a red flag. I’m a idiot sometimes. This would prove to be one of them.
The next clue as to how bad this place was going to be was when I went to the bathroom where there was no operating soap dispenser or hand drying device. They DID have indoor plumbing. By the way the door sounded when I entered I thought I was about to urinate in a chamber pot.
The chips and salsa are good. I hope my friends don’t read this and realize that I didn’t wash my hands after using the bathroom and still partook in the community basket of chips.
The drink specials were decent, but do not expect prompt beverage service. I watched our drinks sit on the bar for a solid ten minutes after being poured. My empty little mason jar of water was ignored many times. I wasn’t drinking alcoholic spirits as someone had to remain sober in order to dictate an adequate review of this Bar Rescue candidate.
Some guy named Adrian said he’d be taking care of us. At Guapo this means telling you drink specials and then walking away. In fact, I wouldn’t say anyone «took care of us.» Some nice man with a neatly kept mustache who claimed to be a vegetarian brought us baskets of chips (until he cut us off at three) and took our food order. I say he claimed to be vegetarian because he doesn’t eat beans. Vegetarians should eat beans.
All the food is overpriced. I’m assuming to give the illusion that it’s made from scratch. Maybe it is, but if you’re not a third generation Mexican Matriarch, there’s NO REASON for you to pretend to know how to hand make Mexican cuisine. I saw the chef, he looked more like what you would expect at the Iron Skillet, not your Abuela’s House.
Three of us ordered arepas (which no one tells you are just hot pockets) and one ordered enchiladas. For sides we had an assortment of black and pinto beans and yellow and cilantro rice. The entrees weren’t any better than what you’d get at any generic Mexican restaurant. The rice was hard like it had been dried out. The beans were pretty good, but beans are good the second you dump them out of a can. Nothing was hot. It probably sat around in the back for awhile. It took a long time to get the food.
In fact we asked for the check as soon as mustache sat our plates down. It came several minutes after we finished eating.
Overall it was a pretty terrible dining experience. I have buyers remorse. Again, I am an idiot. Please let my mistake serve as a warning to you. Do NOT waste your hard-​earned currency at this place. Let it fail so some young entrepreneur can put a sweepstakes gambling joint in the building.

I ordered some food to go, and the guy said 15 minutes. I show up 10 minutes later and said very politely that I had a Togo order, and he said. «Yeah but you just called…» in a very rude way that would imply I had called and shown up expecting my food within 2 minutes. He said to wait at the bar which I was planning on doing anyways but his snappy tone took me back a little bit. As I expected the food WAS ready when I got there and he handed it to me with a rude look on his face… Even if you hate your job I have nothing to do with it. I would suggest hiring more friendly people, but he seemed to be an owner or manager…

We were here on a Saturday evening and it was not busy. Upon entering the door & waiting to be seated-​some staff or maybe the manager/​owner just looked & did not even acknowledge us. I was put off by that and then the hostess came & sat us. Nice décor. I had Camaron (shrimp)Tacos with black beans/​cilantro rice. Shrimp was okay and cilantro rice was so good. My husband had Enchiladas Potosina (3 types of enchiladas –steak/​chicken/​cheese). Taste was okay too. Server wouldn’t know if we liked our food as she did not even ask us but at the end our meal, she only asked if we are ready for our bill ! Love trying out new restaurants but this one doesn’t have that really good Mexican food taste that will make us come back in a hurry. Overall was just okay.

Came to Guapos for dinner with my family, food is awesome service a +10 and the bar is very broad as far as tequila selection, awesome craft mix drinks as well as craft beers!
We will be back for more because we cant get enough!

If I could give this restaurant less than 1 star I would. This is a neighborhood destination for us, previously we visited El Cerro in the same location. El Cerro was’nt a great restaurant either, but you could get a decent margarita and dinner for $ 10. When El Cerro closed, we heard a New Mexican restaurant was opening we were thrilled. We ate there the first week they opened. Big mistake, bar was not open yet — who opens a Mexican restaurant without margaritas? The service was HORRIBLE. Dirty dishes on tables everywhere, which was weird, because there were not that many people in the restaurant. No management visible anywhere. Our waitress was so inept and flustered, she did not know the menu, and come in how hard is it to learn a Mexican menu? The real reason we won’t be returning though is the prices. Expect to pay $ 10.95 for a mediocre quesadilla, $ 13.95 for a taco plate. Tonight we went to one of the other restaurants in the quad, Guapo was closed. I asked our server if he knew how they were doing, he said all he has heard is how expensive they are. We will not be back.

Great food and service! Brings plenty of flavor to Cary! I love the quesadillas and the chicken tacos

One of the worst restaurant experiences we have had in a long time. We were seated quickly but took awhile to get a waitress to come wait on us. So we gave her our drink (teas) and food order at the same time. The chips and salsa are really good.
We ordered the enchilada postina to share. It was three enchiladas with three different sauces and choice of two sides.
We got our order in about 15 mins. However our lunch was STONE COLD. The cheese enchilada’s cheese was NOT melted at all. We told the waitress and she said she would take it back and make it right. However we didn’t have time and we didn’t have faith it would be any better.
The WORST part is they said they would take half off and we still paid $ 10 for two teas and complimentary chips.
We will NOT be back and would caution others to go somewhere else. What a shame.

We stopped by around 7 this past Saturday evening Even though the restaruant was fairly empty there were a lot of dirty tables with just drinks on them, so they seated us next to the kitchen, which I HATE. I would have asked for a better table, but most of the others were dirty, and the waitress seemed really frazzeled so I didn’t want to bother her. The deco is odd for a restaurant, brightly painted day of the dead murals. Why this theme we didn’t understand, but it was interesting to talk about while we waited a VERY long time to for our food. We ordered our drinks and my husband’s tea came right away, but my margarita took 15 – 20 minutes, and did not have any salt on it as I had ordered. What was also odd it was in a tall soft drink type glass. For 9 bucks, I thought it would be presented a little nicer. The bartender also seemed quite frazzeled, which again was odd since the place was empty and mainly kids. The drink was ok, nothing special. We were told 3 – 4 times a waitress would be bringing our chips, and they came shortly after my drink. (about 25 minutes) The chips were from a bag, but the salsa was really good, thick and lots of cilantro. I am glad we had this, because when we were finally served our food a little over an hour later (around 8:15) As we waited for our food, we watched the them rush in and out of the kitchen, and we could see there was a small little cutout for the waitresses to get their food and the cooks (we could see there were two of them) were very disorganized. So I agree, I don’t think it’s the waitresses fault, although our waitress only had to worry about three tables, she still was very frazzeled. By the time we got our food, the place was just us and two other tables. A lot of people did walk out without getting food, so we know we weren’t the only ones waiting a long time. Anyway, the food. My husband ordered Quesadilla which was thin and had very little filling. For such a long wait, we expected it to be better. He ordered rice and refried beans with it that came in these little corn shells, also prepackaged. I ordered the steak taco, which was three little tiny flour tacos (3 inch round) with a couple cubes of meat in it, a couple of drops of some sort of salsa, and no avacado which it stated on the menu it would have. Luckilly, during our wait, they did bring us some guacamole which was also pretty good, which I put on top of the taco. The steak was very well made, and fresh, but had no seasoning. There was also nothing mexican about either of our meals. The tortillas were obvously from a package, there was no spice at all to the food, no peppers or onions on anything, which I usually expect with a mexican dinner. At least offer some sort of salsa on the side to put on the food, something to make it mexican! The rice was dry and neither one of us ate it, it was yellow rice, and also tasted from a box. The refried beans were bland and tasteless, and again not homemade. They put some parmasean cheese on my husbands, which we thought was odd.
I doubt we will be back, if we want to spend 50 dollars on a meal and spent an hour and a half in the restaurant, we would probably pick somewhere else. Its a shame, because it was not the usual chain store type mexican food, they are trying to be different, but they have a long way to go especaily when you charge 15 – 18 dollars for a dish. I gave it two stars becaue the salsa and guac were good. Oh, and don’t go into the ladies room! It was filthy, with hair in the sink, and there was no toilet paper to be found in any of the stalls. Luckilly I had tissue in my purse.

Visited here with a friend on a Thursday evening about 2 weeks ago, around 7:45pm. When we walked in, there was a rather large group of seniors, who looked to have been already been served. There were two other small tables. The waitress/​hostess told us to pick anywhere to sit. We sit on the far right. About 10 minutes later, she finds us! We order a strawberry marg and a glass of wine, chips and guac ($ 5). The chips and guac come out fairly quickly and it’s good. The guac was a little spicy so we asked for our drinks, and the waitress told us that the bartender was waiting on another table so we would have to wait till she was done. She took our food order and I requested two waters but it seemed like such a complicated request. The waitress seems a little frazzled and upon looking around the room, there is only one bartender who is also a waitress, two waitresses, and a cook. The cook constantly comes out of the kitchen to deliver food. I found this to be rather odd. We receive our waters and ask again about our drinks. We look at the bar and they still haven’t been made. It’s 8:30 now and we still haven’t received our drinks. We asked a total of 4 times. So at this point, we just left. And didn’t look back. I’m not sure what their issue was and I doubt I’ll ever go back.

Nice renovated layout and décor with an open concept that is much more inviting than the previous business. Nice outside eating area as well. The salsa had a great fresh taste and the queso was great as well. Enchiladas were good, with the steak probably being my favorite. The Arepa was good but the steak one seemed to be missing the black eyed peas and caramelized onions. Yellow rice and black beans were well flavored as well. Everything we had was good and the service, while just a little slow always ensured our drinks were filled and thus I don’t have any real complaints about Guapos. I’d definitely go back for lunch.

Lunch on a Saturday. They’re new — I’ll come back for dinner for a second chance. Good chips and salsa! Menu offerings sufficient for variety, full bar, attentive wait staff. Directly next to back-​in-​the-​day café. One arepa with steak, 2 corn tortillas shaped into small bowls-​maybe 3 inches in diameter held a modest amount of rice, a second one held refried beans. My companion had carnitas — pork tacos. All very tasty. Pricey at $ 9 — 10. Only a few other customers were there yet we waited 15 — 20 minutes for food preparation. The plates were served directly from kitchen so not an issue with wait staff. Summary: I’m not yet ready to say «too slow, too pricey for portion sizes.» I’ll return for a dinner and see if we can get to 4 or 5 stars.

The interior decorations of this place are rather bizare. There are skulls and paintings of random strange characters in bold colors. I don’t know how that plays in with a Mexican theme. This was my first taste of Arepas. I’d say that the steak inside of it was delicious but I didn’t like the rest of it. The Arepas shells seemed dry and oily at the same time. The chicken quesadilla was just ok and the cilantro rice had too much cilantro. If I came back here I would certainly try the grilled flank steak. If it is as good as the steak in my Arepas then it would be a good meal. The service was ok but since we were about the only ones in the restaurant it was hard to mess up. I might have given it 3 stars but the $ 11 and up prices for entrees should have resulted in better food.