El Sombrero

Another typical Americanized Mexican chain-​like restaurant. I was hopeful that this hidden gem would surpass my expectations but judging by the décor and the same menu compared with other mexican restaurants (but a different color)… I knew the answer before I ate it.
It seems like most of these restaurants stick to the same menu, ordering their food from the same distributor and loading up on Pancho Villa decorations. I try nearly the identical chicken (pollo) chimichanga with the only difference being the portion of chicken, rice or beans. The sauce is sweeter than most, which is a drawback for me however the chips tasted very fresh. The entrée itself was no different than any other place. I could see myself eating here if I lived down the street but I’m not going to travel 30 minutes to eat here when I have 4 others almost identical to it in Spring Hill.
It seems like one of these places opens every month and depending on location and service, they thrive or close their doors. Luckily this is the closet restaurant to the nearby neighborhood but I have a feeling if another one were to open that offers better prices but identical food, it will be a taco shell of its former glory and close. Why can’t we get a different brand of mexican inspired food instead of the Taco Bell sit down eateries?
Pros:
If you live near it, then boom.
Cons:
Nothing extraordinary here.

Love the California Burrito. Salsa is excellent
Excellent Mexican Restaurant. Staff very friendly
Very excellent Mexican food

On our Brentwood/​Franklin try em as we find em tour decided to go Mexican. Found this location friendly and enjoyed the mariachi background music. Margaritas and sangria tasty. Plenty of chips but the salsa flat and boring. This is the same bowl you use for your dinner plates. Just tomatoes blended. No onion or cilantro. Thin and flat. Ordered a la cart to get a wide sampling of your typical Mexican fare. The chili poblano said stuffed with Mexican cheese and covered in sauce. Mine had just a hint of cheese (one step above none) was barely warm and the sauce was a thin tomato goo which in 55 years of eating real homemade sauces was the worst I have encountered. My enchiladas were ¼ inch thick like a crêpe and lacking in substance. My steak taco was in a pre made shell. The beans tasted like a whipped can type and not fresh. Now I know this is Tennessee but the point is it’s not that hard to bring some touch of real Mexican food here. 4 out of 5 of us figured no return to this location. Looks great for beers and a game. Not pricey so gave it at least 3 stars.

Extremely nice staff and excellent margaritas! Food is always good and nothing beats having a neighborhood watering hole.

This is a great place! Better than average «standard» mexican food for Nashville. Don’t go in expecting the «best mexican you’ll ever eat». Although, there are a few dishes here that I like better than any place else in town. Quick for lunch. Decent prices. Good Value. Good portion size. Most always have a lunch special on the board. For example, I was in for lunch today and had a chimichanga special for $ 5.89 including soft drink. Cool Springs folks should head over and give it a try.

Not quite as «dirty» as I like my Mexican food. Which may be a positive for some.
I typically judge a Mexican restaurant by its chips and salsa. Both are clearly store bought and not fresh.
The only happy hour drinks available are sangria and tequila sunrise.
Staff is incredibly friendly!
I’ll probably come here again. More authentic than anything in the Cool Springs area

Great Food! Best Mexican in town. Great service, friendly staff. You won’t be disappointed. Very kid friendly.

Good food, but their service is severely lacking and it is obvious they don’t care for people ordering take out. If the store is within an hour of close time, they will take your call and then just we the phone down and never pick it back up. If you hang up and call again, you get a busy signal because they purposely leave the phone off the hook.
Also, sometimes they can bring out the food timely, yet they take forever to bring the check.
The el sombrero on nolensville road near Lenox village is much better. The operator of the Franklin store should be ashamed.
I’m sad because I know they will probably end up closing shop and a lot of people in this area would like to have solid restaurant like the one near Lenox village.

This is the closest restaurant to my home, so of course I was delighted when it opened. Mexican is one cuisine I can eat several days in a row and not get tired of it.
When they first opened everything was awesome. But I will admit there had been a slight decline in service and even in food quality. We kind of slowed up on going there for a bit. But I have to tell you in the last several months we have been there weekly! I have not ever sent anything back or had anything come out cold. The wait staff are very friendly and attentive.
Recently I had a dinner party at my house for 50 people. I had them cater. We had chicken & beef fajitas, rice, beans, chips & salsa, cheese dip, tortillas & all the toppings. It was awesome! Everyone loved it and it was really affordable. It was however a ton of food.
PROS:
* Decent Mexican food at an affordable price, plus it is close to home.
* Something on the menu for everyone.
* They Cater!
CONS:
* Well it’s TN so sitting in the bar is almost always 1 – 2 tables with small children at them. (not all children behave in public)
* Can get a little loud at times.
I recommend the Blue Margarita and Guacamole Casero (NO Jalapenos for me).

3.5 actually. I’m not a big fan of Mexican food typically; but ended up here at lunch time today and was very pleased. Especially nice is that this restaurant is in McKays Mill in Franklin. I’m doing a project at the hospital and it took less time to get out to McKay’s Mill than it would have to wade through Carothers or the Cool Springs area for lunch. The food was delicious! I had shrimp tacos… very fresh, good sized shrimp. The slaw served with them was tasty without being doused in mayo. kind of unusual but so good. Chips, fresh salsa and yummy guac. Nice looking full bar too, but we’re not allowed to have drinking lunches anymore so that part will have to wait. Will definitely be back! Oh… and the service was polite and friendly. This place is a winner, hope the location works out for them.

We were heading into Cool Springs to do some furniture shopping for our new house and were craving Mexican food. A quick Unilocal search led us to El Sombrero, where we were excited to see what all the Unilocal fuss was about.
Sadly, this experience was kind of a bust for us. The salsa was meh, and the chicken fajitas we’d ordered with no oil came drenched in both oil and some sort of salty, overpowering seasoning. The plates were fine, but we both agreed we wouldn’t be back again. The $ 7.95 lunch special was a fair deal and the portions were plentiful, but they won’t be luring us back anytime soon.
As much as we like to support local restaurants, we both agreed that we’ll head to Chuy’s the next time we’re in the area looking for decent Mexican food near Cool Springs — or stick with our local spots before we head out.

Since El Sombrero is super close to my house and Unilocalers have been reviewing it, I had to come and check it out.
Very disappointed. Where to start. Not one thing can bring me back here except maybe a zombie apocalypse.
Overall this place is sloppy, top to bottom. The staff are happily ditzy and don’t seem focused on what they’re there to do. The tables are not cleaned well. The food presentation is sloppy.
The margaritas were terrible. The ice was half melted when they arrived. They tasted of sour bottled lime juice.
The chips were bland. They were warm – give them that. The queso tasted canned.
We ordered tortilla soup, chicken tacos (corn tortillas), fish tacos, carnitas, and the tamale sampler.
The fish tacos smelled very fishy and I worried that my number one son shouldn’t eat it (my family loves fish and eats lots of sashimi). My husband pointed out that it was the muddy smell of cheap farm-​raised tilapia I was smelling. Gross.
My tortilla soup was thin, salty, chock full of bland white chicken meat and otherwise tasteless.
The chicken tacos my number two had were just gross. The chicken was shredded and mixed with some sauce that just turned us all off. They came out already put together and wrapped in foil so the tortilla was already mushy when we opened it. The corn tortillas themselves were bland, not worthy of notice.
The tamales were really bad. Inexcusably hard, congealed corn meal. Probably frozen and microwaved, although I’ve made my own, frozen, and microwaved them and they still tasted great. These are an embarrassment to any establishment claiming to serve Mexican food.
The entrees are very expensive considering their quality — in the $ 10-​$ 12 range. That burns.
The staff are not snappy not do they seem to be concerned. Not that they’re not friendly – they are, but not sure they would know what to do with any frank comments on the crap food.
This is not authentic Mexican in any way, shape, or form. That’s okay. Just like Americanized Chinese food does and can please, so can FakeMex. But, this place needs good management for starters.
In the Cool Springs area, there’s Oscar’s Taco Shop, Cozymel’s, Chuy’s, and Los Primos. Oscar’s is totally unpretentious and great value. They are snappy, with it, and care that you are there. You can have a nice cerveza with your meal. Food is hot and prepared right there where you can see it. Cozymel’s is a funky, sit down joint. The cocktails are fresh and good. Excellent tortilla soup. The chile relleno is a fusion baby but a damned fine dish. So, Chuy’s is for the Chilangos. Those ultra light chips. For the adventurous, there’s Los Primos, which is my hands down fave. No chips and queso at Los Primos, but you’ll find lengua, grilled jalapeños, and tasty corn tortillas por menos dineros.
Compared to all of these, El Sombrero does not rank at all, except as a cruel joke. But, in a zombie apocalypse, I might go back.
Adiós, Gueuy.

Been several times, even took dad here for fathers day. Nice little place, Service is excellent. Server was at my table less than ten minutes after I ordered apologizing for the delay and I didn’t even think there was one. Food came out shortly after that. They have a big menu and big portions. They have a lot of offerings I havnt seen at other places. Food was is very flavorful and the price is right too. Soo much better than the place close to the house I have been going too. No loud music and even the night it was crowded and we were sat next to a large party, it wasnt annoyingly loud.

I have recently moved to Franklin. I am from the Southern California area and I take my Mexican food as serious as a heart attack. First of all this Mexican restaurant doesn’t have horchada or jamaica water. Below i am just going to rate the food we got, with a quick note so I don’t waste my time on why I wont be returning:
Fish ceviche. C– Mushy fish, marinated in mostly lemon, not lime per the menu
«Street Tacos» C These are tacos but not street tacos. 1 tortilla and they fell apart.
Carnitas C Nice try but tough and dry.
Beans. B+ Probably the only thing worth talking about
Rice. C+ Over cooked and dry.
Enchilada C– Cheese not melted, canned sauce.
Margarita C They use premix off the shelf mixer… enough said
Chips C Nothing special, not home made. From a bag/​box and heated.
Salsa D+ Bland, in fact we added my cilantro and onions from the «street tacos» and only then we could choke it down

It is really nice to have a good neighborhood restaurant. El Sombrero’s interior is well appointed and not as garishly overdone as most Mexican Restaurants. The food is very flavorful and was cooked to perfection on our visit. There was nothing we would have changed about our meal.
While the menu isn’t overly creative, there are still more unique dishes than most of the other awful Mexican places we have here. That is probably a factor of the clientele.
Of there was one item keeping this place from getting five stars is that there isn’t a window treatment done to keep the car lights from blasting you while eating dinner. It was a constant annoyance for me since our table was up against the window.

Hip Hip Hooray! A Mexican restaurant literally two minutes from my house! I love my authentic Mexican food, and I’ve never lived so close to a Mexican restaurant. So thankfully, ever since El Sombrero has opened it’s doors in the McKay’s Mill subdivision, I’ve been very pleased. Nice and clean on the inside, good service, and the food has been great. Salsa above average but not my favorite.
Pancho’s Place still is my favorite Mexican in Franklin, but El Sombrero is still a solid choice and we’ll be regulars there due to convenience.

Location is why the restaurant is busy; food is not very good. The fajitas didn’t have much flavor and the steak was overcooked and tough. The peppers didn’t have grill or smoky flavors and lacked onions. Dish needed more seasoning and wasn’t very hot. The cheese dip with chorizo is a great starter. Drinks were typical fare at tex mex restaurant.

I went back a second time and the food was really good. I went with the chicken special and stuffed myself. Once again, the service was excellent!

I’m glad to see a Mexican place that is more along the lines of authentic than the gringo fresh mex places that abound here, ala Blue Coast Burrito, Swanky’s, Moe’s, et al
I had a steak and a margarita. mm bueno.

It’s nice to have a good restaurant in the neighborhood. Food is good and prices are fair. I had the fish tacos which are tasty and my wife had the tamale trio and that was fantastic. Their margaritas are real good and their large draft beer is well… Huge! Great value all around.
I am not even concerned about service since it has been open for about a week but it was good. All the staff members were very welcoming and appreciative of us being there.
It is a 100% improvement over the first Mexican restaurant housed there.