The New E

Ordered a taco burro with beans. The burro was good, but messy. After a few bites the whole burro fell apart. I then noticed there were no beans, which I paid extra for.
Since the flavor was good, I’m sure I will give it another try. But I will not be ordering a burro.

I’ve been eating here since about 1975. Went there again today to see what it was like in its latest incarnation.
The salsa is about as spicy as it always was.
Ordered carne assada tacos plain and a carne assada chimi. The carne assada (in the tacos and chimi) has the texture of a meat product but not much flavor. So the tacos weren’t bad but they were bland (even plain tacos should have some sort of flavor). As for the chimi since it came with lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, cheese and guacamole, it tasted like those things.
Overall, a pretty big meh. That being said, I’ll probably go back if for no other reason than old times sake.
I gave them a 3 (agian, old times sake) but in reality it’s closer to a 2.

There is a sign on the building that says that Espo’s will be re-​opening soon.
Anybody know details?

I love this place. I hadn’t visited this establishment in over 17 years. As I told this to the gentleman that took my order, his response was «It hasn’t changed at all (the food)» and I totally agree. I remember way back then, I would look back into the kitchen and see Nana’s, Mamas and Tia’s cooking, which to me says this place is truly authentic. I had ordered what I always got before, the green chile plate and just for funsies, I tried one of their green tamales. I swear the tamale tasted exactly like my Nana made every Christmas!
The green chili plate comes in a foil pan filled with the green chile, beans and rice. All the food touches so if you don’t like that sort of thing… ask for them separated. Oh! I forgot to mention as I had also forgotten that it comes with a huge taco as well, I seem to remember them coming in shredded beef and this one was ground beef but it was still very delightful.
I ate outside on the patio and it was a little loud but I was alone so if I had someone to talk to I probably wouldn’t have noticed much. They gave me bottle full of green salsa to compliment the meal and I had bought a soft drink that was refillable. It was a small cup 12 oz I believe so I had to refill a lot since I’m such a wuss a eating real chile (yah yah I know I know, I also don’t speak Spanish either).
Anyhow I noticed that you can buy the tamales by the dozen there, I’m not sure how much that would be since I know I paid something like 3 dollars for the ONE I had. I have to say, prices sure have gone up. I asked how much for a tortilla and almost choked when he said 3.95 or 4.95 depending on the size (12 in or 14 in). I said… uh maybe I’ll just stop at Food City and get a whole dozen (but boy are they delicious).
In short. I love this place. It is not fancy, you can be very casual when going there. It is safe to say, this is the spot Hispanic people go to to get REAL Mexican food. Filibertos is kinda a joke in comparison to this place and be prepared to pay for the upgrade in flavor.
I will definitely be back for more! As a matter of fact, I want more now!

As a Chandler Arizona native, I have a VERY warm place in my heart for Espo’s Mexican Food… I’ve been coming here since I was old enough to eat a burrito!!!
Dont come here expecting fancy schmancy ambiance… Come here for Delicious, Authentic Mexican Food served up fast in a very casual setting.
You cant go wrong, everything on the menu is delicious & prepared daily.
This «Mom & Pop» restaurant opened its doors in 1974 & has been Family owned & operated for over 40 years.
Great if you want good food fast & aren’t trying to wine & dine.
We usually call ahead & pick up our food to go, but there is also a small dining room inside & an outside patio with seating as well.
My favorites are the shredded beef tacos and the bean & cheese burritos… and they have the BEST Green Chili!!! Everything on the menu is delicious.
See More Here:

We called them early this morning and asked if they could create a family style meal for one of our teams… not only did they do it… they nailed it! We had MORE than enough food for the team, in fact I am sure they will have plenty to eat on for a few days. The service was fantastic. The food was delicious. The prices was excellent!
I will take the family here from now on!

We liked it but probably not enough to come back.
We got El Presidente, which is a green chili and carne Asada burrito. It was spicy and a good flavor, but I wasn’t loving the carne asada texture. And although the flavor was pretty good, it needed pico or guacamole or something to give you a break from the spice and the flavor.
The carnitas burrito was better, and the carnitas texture was great. Love that. But again, it needed something to mix it up a bit. It was just meat and spice.
Next we got the green chile tamale. That was very good. But usually tamales aren’t enough alone for me to love a place.
Really what Espo’s needs is a salsa bar with limes, different kinds of salsas, but especially some pico.
Finally, the folks at the counter were nice. However the table was sticky and there were several flies buzzing me. It had an interesting smell that wasn’t Mexican food. Not bad, but didn’t make it more appealing either.

Best Mexican food I have had since 1999, when I moved to AZ from Texas!
My Fiancé‘ and I have been researching /​tasting different authentic Mexican food restaurants for our wedding reception and Espo’s uses the best quality ingredients and the food is delicious hands down. The prices are reasonable and Leon «The Owner» and staff are awesome and friendly. We highly recommend calling Leon for a sampling and meeting for your wedding.

Here I was thinking for some bizarre reason that their carne asada would be better than morenos or mi casita in chandler and boy was I wrong. I had come here for (street tacos) carne asada tacos hoping I would find another joyous Mexican place I would be fond of. Their carne asada had a very weird texture or lack of I should say with very little flavor or crispiness in the slightest its almost like they boiled it and threw it on the stove and swished it around til it got hot but not crisp obviously.
If their carne asada was amazing id be in heaven with how ginormous the size of those things are. I wish someone would have warned me that they are no where near street taco size they are like street tacos on steroids. I am in love with the usual street tacos because my stomach will only allow a max of 3 in my stomach at a time. The pico de gallo has a lot of minced jalapenos so beware. My spicy tolerance is slowly diminishing where I can no longer handle extreme heat like that. I do happen to like their red sauce though it is spicy enough for me to handle to dip my not as spicy food into to add the heat with each bite.
Not much to really say besides I wasted a lot of money for two tacos. So overpriced and the longest wait known to man for 2 tacos. 30 minutes for 2 tacos is crazy. I understand you are busy but 30 minutes really?
I doubt ill ever return to this establishment.

I recently went to lunch at Espos, and engaged in an epic battle for a churro.
As I approached the counter to get my chorizo burrito and churro, the churro was missing and a plate of sopapillas was there instead. Before I could say anything, the woman behind the counter said bluntly, «We’re out of churros, so I gave you sopapillas.»
I thought about it for a second, and realized only a churro was really worth the extra flab my friends would see at the pool that weekend, and told her, politely, I’d really just prefer to not have sopapillas.
«You just want your dollar back?» she barked, as if I had asked her to drive to the U.S. treasury to collect one. I said yeah, I just love churros, and don’t think I need anything else.
She huffed to the register, grabbed a dollar, and handed it to me.
Now look, one doesn’t want to be petty, but really, the churro (after tax) costs $ 1.26. As I looked at her face that was saying, «Why couldn’t you just eat your damn sopapillas like I told you to?» it occurred to me I shouldn’t have to pay Espos twenty-​six cents for a churro I never got.
«I think it was a $ 1.15 on the menu,» I said.
Oh man, now she was pissed. Saying nothing, she hit a few buttons on the register, «returned» a churro officially, and handed me $ 1.26.
All of that drama might be worth it, if the chorizo didn’t taste as bland as watery ground beef. Sorry, Espos, I’ll just drive to Someburros a block away.

AMAZING!!!
I have lived in the valley for 25 years and have always struggled to find great Mexican food until now. This is a charming southeast valley authentic joint that must be on your list of places to go!
The green chili is some of the best I have had on either side of the boarder and now with the recent addition of top notch Mexican beers it even tastes better. Their fresh chips and salsa is spicy goodness, I could have just had that for dinner!
Go out of your way and make sure you stop by this well done Mexican delight!
Great job Espos!
Brook

Really cannot say enough great things about this little taco shop on Chandler Blvd. To say its a taco shop doesn’t do it justice. We had a fish taco, carne asada taco and the el presidente burrito and they all were excellent. We also got the chips, salsa and guacamole but we also added a side of their green chili that was out of this world!
The have the bomb cocktails too! We started with their black cherry mojitos and ended with a drink called «The Mail Order Bride» that literally was so good I could have drunk ten of them!
Definitely my new fav Mexican food place!

I would give Espo’s more like 3.5 stars. The machaca beef is top notch as well as the cheese enchiladas but the service is so so. The last time I dined here it took over 15 minutes for our order to come and it was only two machaca taco’s and two cheese enchiladas at 6:45pm on a Wednesday. It was not busy and no one informed us that the wait would be close to 20 minutes.
The food is pretty good and I will be returning but I do think that service could be a little better. Also the hot sauce/​salsa is really good.

I love coming here, it reminds me of my childhood. I’ve been coming here for 23 years and will continue. The owner, Leon, remembers me and my brother and sister running around his restaurant when we were 3, 4, 5, 6-​. It’s just a staple in Chandler, the food is great, we love to pick it up to go and enjoy it at home and watch American Idol haha.
My parents came here before we were born, we take our friends here, I take my boyfriend here. Needless to say we’ll always go to Espos!

Anything below a 4 start is just absurd. The food here is awesome. I had the shredded beef taco, carnitas taco, ground beef taco, red beef enchilada, and the green and red tamales. And I have to say they’re all as good as it gets. The red enchilada sauce and there salsa were really outstanding. And to top it all off, they make their own fresh tortillas.
This is not a mexican restaurant but an eatery. If you are looking for a place with the flare of cinco de mayo and margaritas, this may not be the ideal restaurant. But if you want just really authentic and good Mexican food without all that BS, this is the place for you.

Good traditional Mexican food. Quick too.
Excellent shredded chicken!

Ick! Everything was bland, service was slow, no bathroom.
After reading reviews tried the green chile burrito. No flavor. Same with rice and beans. Bland. My son and husband had tacos and the shells were tough and greasy. My husband ran to the bathroom when we got home.
You have to pay for chips and salsa (they were out of guac). Chips were also tough and greasy.
Won’t go back… ick.

I stopped in here for dinner recently to see how the place looked after their recent «remodel» and I was surprised to see that even though there were improvements made to the exterior (fresh paint, expanded parking lot, and nicer patio) the inside looked exactly the same except they had replaced the rundown, ugly, uncomfortable tables and chairs with others that were only slightly less ugly and uncomfortable. Everything else was exactly the same, including the layer of grime over all the fixtures, walls, and flooring. I was willing to overlook that since we usually only do takeout anyway but once we ate our food my husband and I both agreed that we would not come here again. The quality of food has been going down the last couple of months but this was a new low. I have never liked the place itself but at least I thought the food was decent but nothing we ordered this last visit was even edible. Dry, crumbly tamales, burnt tortilla chips, and carne asada that tasted like the meat had spoiled. The worst part was the crispy taco that was disgustingly soggy and filled with a substance that looked like dog food and tasted like what I would imagine that canned dog food tastes like. I mean, it was worse than Taco Bell. Seriously.
There still seemed to be a steady stream of people coming in the door, again mostly take-​out orders, so I guess their customers are very loyal or else not everyone thinks it’s gotten as bad as I do. I think most of their loyal fans keep coming back since it is so cheap, but there are lots of better options for cheap Mexican food in Chandler.

«Authentic Mexican Food» seems to be a complete lie here. I feel like Taco Bell is more authentic than Espo’s. 2 Stars, because the Carne Asada Taco Salad I got was nothing but a bowl of lettuce, a few chips, and small balls of Carne Asada every once in awhile. They took over 30 minutes to deliver our order. (There was only about 5 people in the entire restaurant, 3 of which were already eating.) Then, they got our orders wrong, and also charged us extra to put something that was already included in the salad on the side. Only good thing: The Salsa, and the Bowl it came in.

I stopped in here to feed my enchilada-​style burrito craving, something that should only be done at a small, hole-​in-​wall place serving Sonoran style food. Espo’s fit the bill on that account, and it has gotten some good reviews recently so I decided to try it out after shopping at nearby Chandler mall.
Right off the bat, I noticed the place was kind of dirty. I wasn’t expecting anything immaculate, but I’ve seen nicer Filiberto’s. The tile floor badly needs a mopping.
My veggie burrito came out quickly and steaming hot. It was mostly a disappointment after that. First off, no sour cream or guacamole came with it which is my expectation for enchilada style. The red sauce was tasty with a very nice kick to it. I still added lots of salsa too which I also enjoyed. But there was way too much of the average tortilla, and the filling was a major letdown. Was I wrong to expect that a veggie burrito would contain veggies? Shredded iceberg doesn’t count! The beans were too liquidy, and the rice had little flavor.
This place did nothing for me, but luckily there’s plenty of other burritos in the sea.