El Fenix

love the atmosphere, vibe, food and service here!
Wait is not too long on weekend compared to other restaurant which is very convenient for us when we are trying to catch a movie. Fast service and greeting by front desk was awesome! I had the special mexican dinner and katie had the shrimp cocktail. Both tasted perfect and just the right amount of food to go around. I like it!

I have been several times in El Fenix but my last visit after a while I will it was a dissapointment. The restaurant was dirty. Tables were not clean. Very bad smell by tables close to bathroom. The service was horrible. Food was mediocre at best. This will be my last time coming here.

The service was good and the food was just ok until the bug crawled out of my friends taco. I was so disgusted! We will never eat at any of them again!

El Fenix was once at the top of the «Mexican food chain». Here in the last five or so years it has continued to be a disappointment. I think they have changed to cheaper vendors and faster service to get people in and out.
The margaritas here have always been a disappointment as well. Easy mix and overly sweet make for some horrible heart burn haha. Who knows what is up with the chips??? Maybe it’s just this locations practices, but they are always broken up into tiny pieces… every time.
One thing i will say that is a pretty good deal is the enchilada Wednesday lunch special, $ 5.99. Not because i the enchiladas are good, because they are sub par, but because it comes out in less than two minutes and it’s cheap. Eat some broken chips with that and you had a decent lunch for the day.
Service here is pretty good, although the cashier is the most unfriendly person i have met. She takes cash and that’s it! I’ve never seen a smile what so ever. I can’t figure out why they would have her in that position when there are so many other happy people who would make the end transactions much better.

I went on a recommendation from a coworker.
Server unenthusiastic about being there
Quality of food all around not great
Service less than perfect.
I won’t go back

The food that I tasted here on my last visit was horrible and the service was lackluster. How does this place stay open? These issues need to be addressed by the management. Never going back.

I ate here on a whim because I was craving some Mexican food. I only give it 2 stars because that’s all it deserves. First off the restaurant was dirty. The floors look like they hadn’t been swept in days. Several dirty tables throughout the restaurant, it looked as though they didn’t have any bus boys. It wasn’t busy at all when I went so I can’t understand why with all the «free time» they couldn’t clean the floors and tables.
The service was good, but SLOW. Had to ask for more chips and salsa, refills on my soda, and finally the check. I can remember when El Fenix used to be good olé Mexican food, but honestly the last 2 I’ve been to in different cities have turned up disappointing.

I was pleasantly surprised after having lunch here today! I was very skeptical about dining at El Fenix after reading all the negative reviews, but I noticed many of the reviews were rather old and outdated and my fiancé insisted on trying it out.
Contrary to many of the negative reviews, I have nothing bad to say about this place. The food was comparable to La Hacienda in quality but overall the price seemed a little lower than traditional mexican restaurants in the area.
I had the steak fajitas which are usually a safe choice when trying a new place and they were delicious! We were offered ample refills on chips/​salsa and on our beverages without request and our server was extremely attentive.
Perhaps they are under new management and thus the improved quality and service. I will be back!

The poor reviews concerned me but this was a decent lunch stop.
I had chicken and chorizo tacos, which were flavorful. There is not much to describe other than that… chorizo is usually a guaranteed flavor bomb though!
The chips were very different here… finer ground corn and a blistered appearance.
Our server was very attentive.

I’ve been in Texas (and enjoying Tex-​mex and Mexican) for 30+ years. I just don’t understand El Fenix being anything other than near the bottom of the list — it seems like nothing has changed in the taste or style in… 30 years. There is nothing that bad specifically, but the food is generally bland, unimaginative 1970s tex-​mex, but usually reasonably presented just ok. My wife likes it, I do not — so you might imagine I have eaten here a fair bit. :)
The ambiance is usually pretty quiet and generally the restaurant is not very full compared to others in the area.
In many ways this reminds me of restaurants in Mexico 30 years ago (generally today I find dining in the big Mexico cities to be about 3 stars above El Fenix.) El Fenix’s food reminds me of the airport restaurants in MEX or GDL, and you might image what we have.
The wait staff/​money is managed in the standard «mexico style» — no wait staff touches the money, you go to the front desk to check out. The usual reasons for this process I guess (here and in Mexico).
Personally the fast food (Bueno, Bell) sadly are often better tasting. Almost any other TexMex in the area is superior (Uncle Julios, Papasitos, Cantina Laredo (vg) nearby, Glorias [tho El Salvadoran technically] down in Colleyville.
If you need tired and bland, El Fenix is for you.

This is some of the most rancid Mexican food I’ve ever consumed. I’ll break it down:
1) The service was atrocious!
2) My wife’s enchiladas were cold, and the tortillas were stale.
3) Our margaritas were straight sweet and sour, with possibly a squirt of tequila. Not positive about the tequila…
It’s old school Mexican, in which you pay for your tab at the counter when leaving. While paying, we overheard one of the Managers making disparaging comments about one of his servers. He wasn’t shy about the volume in his voice either. Professionalism at its best!
If you don’t believe me, just peruse through the other, less than stellar, reviews. Never again!

Bland food, nothing much to it. Ordered chicken fajita nachos, the chicken needed more seasoning, and the cheese was the type to cheese nachos should have. Service was ok, nothing special. Since it was my birthday, they did bring out a large strawberry sopapilla dessert. However I wouldn’t order again it because it also tasted pretty bland.

Well started coming here maybe 10 years now based on one of my friends in high school working here initially and then when I started dating the husband his parents really liked it here. His mom who one of her parents is from mexico, makes really good home made mexican food, but usually is to tired to make it at home and this is usually her favorite in the area. Which is when I started coming here regularly cause my husband has been conditioned to come here when he is willing to give in to my need of tex mex.
The first few years I started coming here regularly it was pretty good. The service used to be really fast, like fast enough that it was like they knew what we were going to order before we got there. Maybe not always the most friendly because they were zooming so much to make sure everything went where it was supposed to go in a timely manner, but still good service. It has slowed down a lot in recent memory, but we’ve gotten a few more talkative waiters.
The food has gotten a lot blander but more detail on that …
Honestly I really hate their queso, but that has been the case from the start. In my opinion it’s only slightly better than velveta in the fact I think it’s real cheese, but it still tastes like s**t every time it’s ordered … which is every time we go with David’s parents or sister. So there goes two things I like about at least the tex mex version of Mexican food. (Mixing my salsa w/​queso & or enchilada’s topped with queso.)
Cause I don’t get enchiladas here; in recent memory I’ve usually stick to tacos or fajitas with the occasional order of quesadillas cause most anything else I would order comes with at least one enchilada or cheese taco … the rest of my review will be based on probably an every month or two visit over the last year or so.
More times than not my tacos are soggy, seeming to have sat under a hot lamp waiting for the rest of the food to be ready. I like soft tacos the best but they always come out soggy, hard shell is about half and half. So if you order them, go ahead and ask for flour tortillas on the side.
The quesadillas I have not quite figured out yet; I only order the chicken so that’s what I can based things on. They offer two chicken options … One with chicken that tastes as if it came out of a can, so what I call cat food chicken. It was ok but I think they add some sort of spice to flavor up the «cat food» chicken so it can get to spicy if you eat more than two in one sitting and your not using something to balance it. The other has fajita meat. I think the fajita ones come with onions and peppers in them so when I started eating, I enjoyed them a lot better, but a lot of times I forget they have onions (and I think peppers) in them.
The fajitas are usually are good and usually were the safest bet on the menu other than maybe the fajita nachos, but I’ve noticed the amount of chicken you get has gotten smaller and the price has stayed the same. Plus the last two times I’ve gotten those fatty pieces that the ends are hard and scrape the tops of your mouth and the middle is rubbery. The last few times I’ve left behind my faithful favorite and gone to taking the risk of soggy hard shell tacos with flour tortillas on the side just in case I end up salving what I can and making spiffy rice & bean burritos.
I do think my in laws have taken notice of El Fenix’s down fall over the last year or two … I don’t think we’ve gone in a good 3 months which it used to be a once a month venture. Though with Murphy law we’ll be going next weekend.

I have been a loyal patron of El Fenix for 40 years. Been going there since my sister was born. My last two visits in June have been horrible. Servers dropping utensils and straws on the floor and then giving them to customers anyway. Food has lost any flavor it used to have. Everything tastes like the refried beans. Took 20 minutes between my drink order and actually getting the drinks. Chips and salsa didn’t get served until drinks came out. Tried their pomegranate margarita. If I wanted straight pomegranate juice I would have stayed at home. A splash of tequila for color is not worth 8 dollars. I won’t go back. It has become a glorified Taco Bell. Actually Taco Bell tastes better.
Not to over use a cliché’ but 0 stars isn’t an option.

Terrible, barely edible. I ordered a beef taco and a cheese taco, my husband ordered a chalupa and a cheese enchilda. I was served a cheese enchilada that he called a cheese taco WTF!!! and I said this is a enchilada he said know its a cheese taco, really? wow.
Dont eat here

If this is the best tex-​mex Texas can provide, I’ll skip it. Average chips & salsa, mediocre guacamole, marginal fajitas, so-​so fish tacos, watered out margaritas, lukewarm service. No bueno!

Im not going to say its anything fancy but I seem to enjoy myself every time I go. The customer service is great. The servers Ive had are all very friendly, food is decent and restaurant has nice atmosphere.

My brother from AR files through DFW and sometimes, he has a little spare time between flights. I usually met him and we go to El Fenix — that is one place he really misses.
We are usually here mid-​afternoon although we’ve been here during evening meal time a few times. The service is always consistently nice. And the food is good. And my SIL always knows when he’s been here! Yes, this is just plain Tex-​Mex but it’s what I want and like. Only 1 time has my brother said the food at this location was not up to par — it was the 1 time I didn’t eat anything since it was an unexpected plane delay that gave him the free time so I had already eaten lunch.
I see that other people have varying opinions of El Fenix and I agree that not all locations are the same. It’s a shame because it must be hurting their business. This locaiton at Grapevine and the one in Casa Linda Plaza are the best. Hot good food. Decent portions. Courteous staff. Maybe because I usually only order the same 2 items (Conchita Salad or Special #4) and my brother always gets the same tacos. But that is what I want when I go to El Fenix. It’s one of the few times I allow myself to get a coke.

I have been eating at El Fenix for 35 years. Their chips and salsa served unlimited are a staple. Enchilda Wed. is a deal for two Enchiladas rice and beans for $ 4.99.
However I must unfortunately say since El Fenix family sold the chain the quality at the Grapevine location has gone down in quality, freshness, service and all around.
I have gone from weekly, to monthly to every few months all in less than two years.
I had the same server «Alfredo» for years — knew my order by heart, never had to ask for anything. Now they ask, how is everything — need anything? I guess the empty chips basket, empty drink glass and empty salsa container and the forgotten torts aren’t answer enough.
Only reason it is not 2 stars is my 35 year history with them. It would have been 4.5 3 years ago. Next time I imagine it will be a two.
Drop the enchilada special and probably won’t be a next time.

For the price, you’d think you were getting gourmet Tex-​Mex. Instead you end up with 2 soft tacos for $ 7.50 (or whatever) that are barely flavorful.
Especially at this location, there are probably 5 Mexican restaurants in a 10 mile radius that are better (especially at this place’s insane price point). The service is mediocre… come to think of it, everything is mediocre about this place. Just safe, non-​spicy Mexican food.