Zapata’s

Authentic Mexican food! The menu is diverse and offers something for everyone. This is the best Mexican restaurant in LKN!

I am not a big fan for Mexican cuisine, but this place is awesome. The ambiance is great, the service is very knowledgeable on the menu and even helps to provide you specialty dishes. The food is extremely delicious. Always freshly prepared. It’s one of my favorite restaurants in Cornelius area.

They have the best El Presidente margaritas around. High quality ingredients and no sweet & sour mix. Food is okay — drink enough margaritas and you won’t care. Guacamole is disgusting — very chunky with lots of diced tomatoes and onions. Street Tacos are a fave. Service is okay.

Love this place! I used to eat here all the time, but then moved away. Work brought me back into town, so I had to stop in for lunch. It hasn’t changed. Food is absolutely delicious and the price is right. A little backstory: I didn’t eat Mexican food for over 15 years because I couldn’t find any I liked… Zapatas is the restaurant that intrigued my Mexican tastebuds. Best Mexican restaurant I’ve ever eaten at.

Excellent, long-​lasting Mexican restaurant in Cornelius. Great service and quality food prepared extremely well! The best place for a great tasting margarita. The street tacos are the ticket!

My favorite restaurant. Ordered the grill street corn taco with chicken. Loved it. Been here few times the service and food always excellent.

The absolute best Mexican food in North Carolina. Great food and great service. You cannot go wrong with that! I especially love that their food is not loaded with cheese sauce and you can actually taste the flavor of the food. Their arroz con pollo is one of my favorite dishes!

Tuesday night here for dinner. Seems like everything closes early on a weekday. Called restaurant to make sure they open for it was 9:15 PM. They said they were going to close at 10 PM.
It was a rough day. Sort of like a Seinfield episode or Murphy’s Law. My friend’s car broke down, he had to get rental, could not get rental for his license expired on his birthday. Went to DMV and had to take test. Sweating bullets and worried about not test will not get licence therefore no rental car. OMG! No wheels in NC. DMV was great up in Huntersville, just need to pass test by identifying road signs. Got 10 out of 12– Thank goodness passed. Now, able to rent car. Life is good again.
Reached Zapata’s by 9:38 PM and we were the only one’s at the restaurant. We had the Guacamole– Freshly made and so good. Fiesta time with a glass of Margarita and a Corona. Like the filling in both the Chicken Quesadilla and Shrimp Quesadilla with rice and beans. Life is good. Day was not so bad and for it ended with a delicious meal and drinks to boot.
Will be back here for lunch and late night dinners.

It is just good, solid * not fancy* mexican fare. Service is good and friendly. Always welcoming. We go a couple times a month. Is it the absolute Best I have ever had, no, but I do not live near Abuleos. Good solid food that we keep going back to. Better than most in the area.

Delicious! Guacamole was fresh and authentic! It was nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy the scenery. Staff was very attentive.

This was my first time eating there, service was a little slow it took him awhile to take the drink order. Food was good, but not amazing, I have had better Mexican food. The restaurant is really nice though and has a great atmosphere.

By far my favorite Mexican place anywhere in the us.
So happy to get a chance to come back here again. Rarely I am excited about dinner, this is one of my exceptions!
Best place, best food, great portions, awesome family service!

Great chips, below average ketchupy salsa, great refried beans, other than that .way over rated, my steak fajitas were chopped so fine it resembled hamburger, seriously over cooked, waiter asked if I liked the food, I said no, it was actually way below average, he said oh, and walked away, he came back with our check and started away again, I asked if I could make a comment, what disturbed me most is that you don’t care why I didn’t eat my fajitas. Needless to say I won’t be returning.

Excellent Mexican with Service
We’ve been going to Zapata’s on and off for probably 20 years. Located where it is, you have to look for it.
Food is excellent. My wife is not a fan of Mexican or Tex Mex but put a peanut sauce on it and she’s ready to go. As for myself, i prefer a traditional beef dish be in tacos’ enchiladas etc or seafood like shrimp.
This place fill the bill across the board. Good Food and great service.
Atmosphere is OK and typical of Mexican restaurants.
All in all, it’s good and a regular dining place and I would recommend to anyone in the area or traveling through.

Staff was inattentive and not particularly friendly. The salsa is very odd and not good. Our water glasses were never refilled and we were not checked on even after waiting almost 20 minutes for our food. My pollo fundido was covered in slices of american cheese which was disappointing. The person I was with had the fajita chimichanga and the filling was charred black to the point of being inedible.
I would not return. Try Taxco in Huntersville instead. The décor isn’t as good but the food is fantastic and the staff is genuine, friendly and helpful.

This is our go-​to Sunday dinner. Kids eat free so the price is very good on Sunday. The mole is pretty good and the burritos are gigantic. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything that wasn’t good, but the more authentic plates are definitely better than the Americanized options. Surprisingly, the burger is not bad.

This was really disappointing Mexican food. Their décor should’ve tipped me off to turn away once I entered (ripped seats and worn out tables and carpet, dark lighting), but I foolishly went in anyway. Big mistake.
I think their salsa was just diced tomatoes from a can. The rice was flavorless and not worth the calories. I ordered one pork taco and two chicken enchiladas, hoping that I could enjoy leftover enchiladas the next day. Nope. The taco meat was questionable at best, and the chicken enchiladas were cold inside, like they had just been reheated from frozen status in an ineffective microwave. I didn’t eat much of my meal and felt like I wasted my money.
Their chips were good. Their refried beans were delicious … but it’s pretty hard to mess up refried beans. They ALWAYS have a coupon in the Valpak mailers, but even with that I don’t think I’d go again.

This is an update to my earlier review. My second experience here was significantly worse. The service was slow, the salsa was mediocre, and the food was almost inedible. Maybe we caught them on an off day?

The food was decent but I couldn’t get past the cleanliness and the filthy table that my arm kept sticking too. Way too pricey for this kind of Mexican food.

This place is awful, I’m shocked by the positive reviews. The house margarita is bright yellow because of an over abundance of sour mix, it’s almost too sweet to drink. The salsa is like water, no thickness at all. I had the spinach enchiladas, and you normally expect these to be filled with sauteed spinach and cheese, but at Zapata’s, they’re filled with spinach dip you buy in tubs at the grocery store to eat with potato chips.
While the service was solid, the food leaves much to be desired.