Tio Joe’s Cocina Mexicana

Service — 3 Stars
Food — 2 Stars
Worst Fajitas I’ve Ever Tasted — 1 Star
BAD FOOD ALERT! BAD FOOD ALERT!
My daughter was going to England for a week and requested a last batch of Tex-​Mex to hold her over, so we looked for a new place in Grapevine to try. Big mistake.
There were five of us and we decided to go with two double mixed fajita plates $ 18.99 each. The server was very nice and brought enough plates to divie up everthing. Salsa and chips were adequate, but the queso was less so. The consistency seemed off, like a thick cheese soup instead of melted cheese.
The set ups for the fajitas looked pretty on the plates but the refried bean seemed stangely thin and the guac had way too many onions and not enough avocados. (I agree with Dee’s review on this one).
But the worst part was the fajitas. Ter-​ri-​blay! The flavors of the marinade on the chicken did not agree with my palate. I was not alone in this opinion. It was unanimous. The beef fajitas were on the opposite side, not much flavor and according to my son, were from an inferior cut of meat. Needless to say it was not up to the standards of On the Border, upon which all others are judged. (At least by me!)
The tortillas tasted packaged, not freshly made, both the corn and the flour ones.
On the plus side, the portions were enormous and the cost was considerably less than Papasitos and On the Border. But what’s the point of getting a lot of bad food?
Tio Joe’s has at least two other locations according to the internet, and seemed to get some decent reviews, but this one’s kitchen needs fix’n before we’d go back.

Perhaps the building is cursed. Don Pablos suffered the same problem as Tio Joe’s — poor service. Though I wouldn’t say it was awful — it was almost adequate.
The food was actually pretty good. We started with the chips and salsa, and while the salsa was a little on the thin side, it was good, and a little spicy, but not too much so. Next was the queso. Very thin and absolutely tasteless. It was like eating slightly thick water. Would not get the queso again.
I ordered the nachos with fajita beef. The portion was good size, and the flavor was good. In fact, the fajita beef was some the best I have ever had — very tender and flavorful. Plenty of cheese. A few too many diced tomatoes, but at least they were small. The guacamole that came with the nachos was excellent — very good fresh flavor. The only down side of the dish was that half the plate was lettuce. I find lettuce to be tasteless and a filler to make the plate pretty — but the guacamole sticks to the lettuce, so I end up getting less guac. Next time I’ll order it with no lettuce.
My husband got the shredded chicken chimichanga. He said the meat was excellent — but it was covered in that same tasteless queso.