Elsa’s Kettering

Food and drinks have always delivered high satisfaction. The patio at this location is great! My only criticism is organization among the servers. We tried to place a food order for more than 20 minutes because wait staff assumed someone else was taking care of us. We seemed to always have a different staff person at our table completing different tasks, just very disorganized. Eventually we got our food and drinks and enjoyed the rest of the night.

It was only a matter of time before I jotted a few words down about one of my favorite places… I come here often. The Mexican food is pretty average… I like the soft tacos with chicken fajita meat. The pizza is good & the wings are some of the best I’ve ever had… Buffalo Garlic is my favorite. But, what we really come for is the Bad Juan. I get mine on the rocks with a smidge of frozen strawberry or raspberry on top. This location is my favorite during warmer months because of the patio.

We have been to Elsa’s multiple times for date night and family dinner. We always have excellent service and the food is delicious. The Bad Juan Margarita is no joke. One or two tops would be all you need and they have multiple flavors to choose from.

So some of this rating is admittedly nostalgia, because I have spent a lot of time here over the years, although not recently. Yes, some things on the menu are not good. At all. But you just have to know what to order!
Elsa’s Kettering has the best wings in Southwest Ohio. Period. My favorite — breaded drums with jerk sauce. The drums are HUGE! They look more like small legs than part of a wing. I can eat 5 at most when I’m starving. I also love the Mini Super burrito with ground beef. Something about the beef and cheese together is oh-​so-​good. And then there are the famous Bad Juans. There is a reason they refuse to serve you more than 4! Since I’m being a Good Juan I didn’t imbibe but have on many occasions!

Bad juans. Need I say more? I expected these to be bigger but they are tiny and pack a punch! Love this place.

The Bad Juans were great but that was the only positive in my experience there. Food was very slow coming out and when I did get it it was very bland and not hot. When I said something to Tammy the bartender she asked if I would rather just scold my mouth and took it back to the kitchen. Later I heard her laughing about it and making jokes with the regulars at the other end of the bar. I then proceeded to move away from the bar and sit at a booth, the waitress was nice but the booth was so uncomfortable and it actually had a spring sticking out of it that poked me. So overall if you are going to this location sit outside on the patio and drink bad juans and that is it

They have the best buffalo chicken pizza I have ever had. Great patio. They could clean up inside a little.

Kitchen was slow, food was abyssmal, service was clumsy, and seating was uncomfortable.

Stale chips, $ 9 burrito that would be $ 1 at Taco Bell. Would be better of going to Taco Bell for sure. Also got a piece of chicken that was $ 14. Will NEVER return there.

Nope… never again. Stopped by a few weeks back one Sat afternoon. Nice patio, but 20 min wait for server… she knew nothing about their famous margaritas, so waited another 10 min for the bartender I come over and to our surprise… he knew nothing about them either, other than they were premixed… so we tried a couple and they were not very good…
Took another 30 min to get food ad a refill on the, average at best, margaritas… no refill on waters and waitress never checked back in… after another 15 minutes another waitress came over and said that she had just been assigned our table, as the other waitress was focused inside… wow.
I felt bad for her getting a room of unhappy tables, so have et a decent tip (more than the other server would have gotten for sure).
Oh yeah, food was average bar food. Cheap, greasy cheese and nothing that stood out.

Not a fan of the Mexican menu. Taco shell was very stale, cheese has no flavor (suspect it is not real cheese). Chili is so-​so but has that fake cheese on it.

This was my first time in Elsa’s and I was a bit disappointed. Everyone I know in Dayton raves about the food here, but I just found it to be not that good. I had the Fajita burrito and was expecting something great. What I got was a nice burrito covered in a really awful cheese type of sauce. The burrito itself could have been better, but it was very bland. There definitely needed to be more onions and peppers in the burrito to bring out a real fajita taste.
The service was great. Our waitress was awesome especially since I came with a group of 5 moms and 5 kids under two. I would recommend maybe thinking about getting more high chairs for situations like this as stay-​at-​home mom’s love to go out and socialize especially over lunch.
I really don’t know if I would go back and try Elsa’s again or not. It would take a lot of talking into I think at this point.

Showed up at Elsa’s around 7:30pm on a Saturday to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. My group of eight waited an hour or so for a table to open up (Elsa’s doesn’t make reservations). The wait was not bad because we had a place at the bar and all the chips and salsa anyone could want. I enjoyed the chorizo burrito alright, but the main highlight on the food list was the chicken wings. They were very good and I’ll go back just to have them again. Very succulent and the spice was just right and the sauce was generous. The waiter put up with a whole bunch of crazy and did a good job. I had a blast and enjoyed the outdoor patio area. Will definitely return.

All 3 stars go to the Bad Juan’s, cause the food ain’t all that and seems really dirty inside. my buddies also told me the kitchen was gross, and from the looks of it i wouldn’t doubt it.
if you go here and want a good drink you have to try the local favorite Bad Juan’s, the strawberry is to die for, and I’m sure the other flavors are good too. they are heavy on the liquor side so they cut you off at 3!!! but here’s the part i don’t get, they will let you get what ever else you want after you have had your 3 Bad Juan’s. really what kind of sense does that make… i almost think they do that to make people want to «try to finish 3» sounds like a good marketing tool, even the first time i went my buddies were like you have to finish all 3!
the patio area outside was really nice and highly recommended to sit at.