El Rincon de Cortez

We walked in, hostess directed us to the back area since there was 6 of us and no one came to our table for more than 15 minutes. We got up and left. Won’t go there again. The review requires a star rating to post, that’s the only reason it got a star.

The food here is pretty good. I went during sunday afternoon and was seated right away. The waitress was nice and the place felt homey. I ordered the plate of chile rellanos. This plate was huge it was two big chile rellanos served with beans and rice. The beans and rice were good felt homemade. The chile rellanos were too cheesy for my liking but if you’re a lover of a lot of cheese you’ll love them. Unfortunately, i felt like i was just eating chile filled and topped with melted cheese. Overall, the portion size was great for the price but too much cheese in my entrée.

Well we kept hearing about the #4 so at 7:45 we walk in. The open sign was on and the hours listed said 8 pm.
We walk in and an employee was mopping the floor and said «we’re closed» we said the sign is on and the hours listed says 8. He shrugs and keeps mopping. Looks like they don’t need any customers.

Four and a half stars.
Theres no place like home… theres no place like home… theres no place –shut up Dorothy and eat your breakfast. Seems like the older I get, the lazier I get, and the desire to drive all over town looking for a good meal no longer appeals to me. Thank goodness I am finding really great places in my own back yard. No, a little farther than my bbq grill, but not by much. El Rincon de Cortez is less than a mile from my house, an though Ive driven past it many times, it never jumped out and bit me until I searched Unilocal for nearby Mexican breakfasts after I found Avila’s closed for their annual vacation break. And what a delightful find it is. Excellent food, service, atmosphere and reasonable prices. Being creatures of habit, my wife chose the Machaca plate while I went for Enchiladas Montados (green of course). The Machaca is Type I– comes with melted chile con queso sauce. The put it in a bowl on the side so you can apply it any way you want. Instead of the traditional chips and salsa starter they bring you sweet Pan dulce. But if you are like me and live for good salsas, ask and ye shall receive. We did, more than willing to pay extra, but we got it immediately and complimentary. Getting our food from the kitchen took a teeny bit on the long side, but. Not enough to be detrimental. Next trip i’ll try the menudo. If it works, this could turn out to be at the top end of my breakfast places.
followup Visit: well sadly, the menudo didn’t stack up. Just wasn’t very good although I cant pinpoint why. It was very meaty but didn’t have that je né sais quoi. Same goes for the chorizo and egg burrito. Weird aftertaste that lingered. One bite of the burrito was enough.
Second Followup I always like to give opportunities for redemption. Today’s menudo more than made up for the disappointing last visit it was really good today, enough to add this to my list of favorite breakfast stops. No it isn’t the Good Luck Café but no one is. It was good enough to rank in the top 5 menudo places of El Paso. (I know everybody has their own top 5, so this is mine alone).

Good authentic Mexican food. The people who work there are friendly and have excellent work ethic. I recommend this restaurant.

So good, and happy that it’s so close to UTEP so I can go during lunch breaks. I love the charm of this place, and the staff is always friendly. I always get their nachos or flautas and both leave me very satisfied. The queso fundido with green chiles is pretty greasy, but hey, it’s still amazing. The prices are like anything you’d find at other mexican restaurants. My only complaint is the chips they give you with the salsa taste like they are store bought, yet the nachos use homemade chips. I wish they used the homemade chips for the salsa as well.

BUG IN MY LETTUCE! Can you believe it. At first the food was ok, big servings, good service, so I was going to get a to go box. when I look down and see something moving in lettuce… a bug! So I call the waitress and show her. To my surprise she tries to jokingly brush it off and say «oh its just in the lettuce, the food is fine» I told her I would take a picture, which i did, and she replied «you can do what you want». So I told her i wasnt gonna pay for it and she went to talk to her manager who said it was fine to comp, but NEVER did I get an apology from anybody. Not from the waitress, not from the manager, not from the cook, nor the cashier who took it off my bill. nobody. I most certainly am going to post this review everywhere i can.

It was 8am on Saturday and I wanted a good mexican breakfast. What can I say even on the weekends I am an early bird! To my surprise restaurants usually open between 9am-​11am. I gave this place shot since it was the only place open at 8am.
Typical mexican restaurant décor. There was not a hostess so we sat ourselves (no biggie). You can choose to sit in a booth or table, whatever you prefer.
Instead of the usual complimentary chips and salsa this place offered sweet mexican bread. The bread was a little stiff but delicious. I just dipped it in my coffee to soften it up a little. Still, it shouldn’t have been hard in the first place.
I ordered red chillaquiles and they were okay. Although none of my chips were burn I could smell it. Sauce was good. The beans were good. The steak was hard and burnt I wouldn’t even feed it to my dogs.
They did have horchata which is a huge plus!
There was a fly going around which made me speculate that the restaurant is not as clean as it should.
Our waitress was very sweet and because of her I wanted to give this place a higher rating but unfortunately I can’t. The food is not to par.
Will I come back? I will wait an extra hour and go to L&Js instead.

Had that nasty Mexican food craving… This one. Hit. The. Spot. Not too unhealthy tho… It wasn’t as salty as some other Mexican food places.
Great for breakfast. Food portion and price was good. My enchilada plate came with beans and rice.
The only problem was that the waitress and I am fluent in different languages… So I lost my chance to go half red and half green sauce. That would’ve been awesome.
Maybe next time…

Love this place for breakfast. the Pan Dulce, chips, salsa. Every thing is always good and the service is normally very fast.

HELLSSSSSSSS YES! My Westside search for the best Mexican is over!
First, a million thank yous to Luis-​armando A for the recommendation. Luis definitely knows his stuff and I would appreciate if any and all people reading this review would bombard him with a ridiculous amount of «Thank You» compliments (link at the bottom!).
He recommended, I went. Walking in, I didn’t think much about the place. It just has a typical Mexican eatery look to it, lots of green and yellow. But one thing that did impress me initially was the size. El Rincon has three separate dining rooms… that’s saying something.
My waitress, whose name I never caught, didn’t immediately come over, but she was covering at least half the other tables. When she did come over, she immediately handed me a menu and took my drink order. The menu isn’t too large, but it does have a good amount of options so I ended up asking for a couple more minutes a few times. Patience is definitely a virtue and not many people have it, but the waitress was super cool about it and gave me time.
Eventually I came to the decision of a dish (that I completely forgot the name of, but I do know it was #4). Enchiladas, flautas, carne con chile, a tostada, rice and beans… and it was all for under $ 10! That’s a heck of a steal.
I came in for breakfast so I had to request the chips and salsa. You can tell a lot about a Mexican restaurant by what kind of chips and salsa they serve. They were good though. I’m not sure if they make the chips themselves, but they were pure salty goodness and the salsa was HOTT (with two t’s) and delicious.
My plate arrived and I’m not going to lie I was a tad bit displeased. All that was on the plate was beans, rice, and two enchiladas. Whenever my order is messed up, I usually just zip it. I’ve seen Waiting… Keeping my mouth shut happened to work out for the better because had I said something I would have looked like a complete a-​hole. The waitress returned with a second plate. That’s right, my less-​than-​ten-​dollars meal took two full plates. My eyes may have been bigger than my stomach, but I finished almost all of it.
And here we are, one food baby later, I can happily say ERDC is my Westside Mexican restaurant home!
*Link to the amazingly awesome Luis:

El Rincon is a staple on the westside, my dad would bring my mom and I for lunch when I was a kid. the food is good and authentic. Prices are very reasonable, the only reason I rate it a 3 is because of service. They are a seat yourself establishment and while its slow that’s not an issue it’s when the rush hits your waiting to be tended to. You can sit there for five minutes looking for someone to help you, then to get a refill could be far and few between. Ill keep going but not during the lunch rush.

Located near /​on the campus of the University of Texas El Paso. Great little diner with a very good Mexican breakfast style menu. The food is good, the restaurant is very spacious and there is a lot of parking. Will be back the next time I’m in El Paso!

I like this place its really home-​y like. Great for groups and family. they seem family oriented. the food is great and the price is fair

Great Mexican comfort food. Daily lunch specials. Great breakfast.

Authentic to me is a place where every customers nationality matches the food. Here at El Rincon most everyone is salt of the earth tex mex and the food matches perfectly. Value /​Taste and Service all rock even during crowded rush hours. If simple perfection moves you drop in.

The is one of my favorite Mexican joints. Voluminous portions, absolutely not shy about making spicy salsa. Try one of the «Mexican Plates:» ether the one without a number, #1, #2, #4 (yes, they occur in exactly that order on the menu). This will be sure to rid you of your hangover, and for only around 7 bucks.

We went here with family while on a recent trip to El Paso and we enjoyed the food. I had the tampiquena plate with the cheese enchilada. The rib-​eye was juicy, tender and cooked just right. It had too much chiles and tomatoes on top for my taste but I just put it off to one side. My mom had the chorizo with eggs and my wife had the milanesa. My cousin had one of the combination plates that came with so much food it actually came in two plates. (He finished it all.) I forget what the others had but everyone said they liked their food.
Obviously my relatives had been there before, but being our first time we have to admit that we liked it. The service was excellent.
We also liked the fact that we were there during the breakfast hours and instead of serving chips and salsa they served pan dulce. Pan dulce with a glass of milk after breakfast was nice.

The service was very good. Unfortunately, the food was rather bland. The beans needed salt. The green chiles in my chiles rellenos tasted canned and had no kick at all. The guacamole tasted like it was just plain avocado without additional seasoning. Pretty disappointing for El Paso.

People rave about the tampiqueña steaks at this place, and maybe they’re good. But if what you’re looking for is decent traditional Mexican food, stay far, far away from El Rincon.
The food is terrible, and this from a frog who now lives in our nation’s capital… the land of a thousand terrible tex-​mex joints.