El Norteno

I agree with a review I found on here for this place… JUST DON’T! My family and I ordered dinner to go, we were staying right next door. We sat down expect ion some decent authentic Mexican and what we got was horrible. Not only did we not recognize what were traditional Mexican dishes, what we were served was pathetic. Tortillas that are soggy to the point of falling apart, salsa that tasted like crushed tomatoes with a hint of onion, rancid tasting chips, more peppers and onions than meat inside the entrée. Not happy at all… JUST DON’T.

this place is exactly worth the a-​ok rating. tried it with some friends for their margarita special on tuesday night. good thing their food is better than their margaritas. i ordered the peach one and it wasn’t bad. but there were giant chunks of ice in it and it was pretty watery. my friend had the strawberry one and had the same complaint.
now for the food. the tacos weren’t bad but i’ve definitely had better at many other places. but the chicken was actually superb. didn’t like the rice at all which surprised me. usually i like anything that has rice in it. the salsa was watery and the chips weren’t warm like i’ve had at other places. plus the menu seemed a little overpriced for what you got.
the server was very nice and polite and our food was quick. not someplace i would suggest myself but i wouldn’t hate coming back.

Tried this place out recently — it seems to be recently reopened, and I was very pleasantly surprised. They’re not fancy, but they do very good, solid Mexican food at a good price. I had the chile relleno, which a lot of Mexican places don’t do well, but this was very good — plenty of real queso blanco, a whole pepper (de-​seeded!), well cooked. Everything else I tried had a similar feeling — the chicken in the quesadilla tasted made from scratch, and everything was fresh. Service was quick and good. The AC could have been set a bit higher, but it wasn’t awful. Overall, this is the best Mexican I’ve found in Gainesville.