Los Cucos Signature Mexican Cafe

Everything I said– I take it back.
The past two times here have been so sub-​par that I can’t convince myself to go back and spend more money. Food quality has not been the same in a while. Service has been fine, but I can’t eat service.
What was once perfectly good and done just right is now lukewarm and mediocre. Disappointing.
Chips were stale. Tortillas for the enchiladas were dry and hard. Sauce on enchiladas were a thin, dried layer. Chile con queso came out cold, so I asked for them to microwave it… and it came back cold again. Tortillas for fajitas are hard and lukewarm. Shrimp in enchiladas were overcooked.
Even wrote to management to say, «Dudes, what’s going on? We were once so cool together, yo…» and never heard back.
Los Cucos and I are breaking up. Deleting number and unfriending on Facebook. Next in line, please? Over it.

Excellent food & best 4ever margaritas!!! Amazing and pretty friendly service! THX Mr.Armando. Love it this place! :-D

I was here for a large group gathering. For such a large group, the service was outstanding. I never waited long before I had my next drink. Their cocktails were good and not watered down either. The establishment looks relatively new (ish). I’m not sure how long they’ve been open but this clean freak found the restaurant to be proficient in that area, especially the restroom… God, I hate dirty bathrooms.
My biggest complain comes from the food. I haven’t read the other reviews, but my guess would be that they have the same complaint. I ordered a very simple dish that can be made using the right cheese and sauces… my friend and I ordered a cheese enchilada plate. They literally brought us a enchilada stuffed with Velveeta cheese, topped with more Velveeta cheese. Come on! If you can’t think outside the box for such a simple dish, you don’t deserve to be in business. I could easily go around the corner to a mom and pops Mexican restaurant and order the same dish and walk away satisfied. Total fail :-(

Used to be much better. Had a giant potato in my soup that was not cut up and a carrot that was almost the same size as the potato… I’ve never had to eat chicken soup with a knife, until now.

The $ 1.99 margaritas was what drew us in. They were good, service was good, the food, well, the pork ribs were dry and tough, probably why they smother them with bbq sauce and the 6oz ribeye was a wafer thin fajita steak which was comparable to shoe leather. The manager argued that it was a ribeye, apparently he’s never had one nor does he have the skills needed to deal with the public.
I’ll go back for the margaritas, but won’t eat there.

Wow! Today I watched an overstretched wait staff try to make up for Mis-​hits by the kitchen and a manager (wearing white shirt) that didn’t seem to know how to manage.
A longtime customer at the bar complained that an entrée that she orders time and time again was not prepared correctly tonight. Instead of apologizing and offering her a chance to get it right, the manager challenged her opinion. #FAIL
Therefore I got to sit at the bar and here her complain for another 20 minutes.
I had to flag down a waiter to get me another margarita and water several times.
Come on Los Cucos. It’s simple, good reasonable food, attention to customer.
This is a nice spot and nice décor, but I don’t expect it to last long. Bummer!!!

I love everything about this Los Cucos! The food is great and, most importantly, consistent! The staff is very attentive, especially Jorge and Jose.

Poor service, even during a slow lunch/​brunch hour.
I ordered coffee 3x, and each time it was lukewarm. You would think they would have made a fresh pot after the first.
The food is mediocre. The dining room is nice and spacious, and we did encounter a friendly bartender, but our server wasn’t great. I will most likely not return. I prefer El Tiempo on navigation for authentic tex mex.

One of my favorite Tex-​Mex restaurants in Houston, and the one I frequent the most. Consistently great food, consistently great service.
Starting from the top: the salsas (both red and green) are to die for, and if you want to upgrade to some beef fajita queso, you won’t be disappointed — although you might be decently full. The margaritas are reasonably priced, and their wide selection is pretty great also.
As far as their main courses go, they have traditional Tex-​Mex, some upscale choices, and some healthier choices. Lots of selection to go around. Personally I really appreciate the multiple fajita options (normal, and with multiple other preparations) as well as the fajita-​style plates that come on the elevated metal grilling platters (for one or for two).
The service at this location appears to be better, more consistently, than other Los Cucos locations.
The only negative I would mention is parking, but street parking is available if their lot is full. I don’t think this minor point is worth taking away a star for. Five stars!

This location really needs to kick it up a notch. I don’t get this whole «Signature» idea. Maybe they think they are catering to the Heights neighborhood but it’s just silly honestly. Just give us a regular Los Cucos and hire experienced servers and we’d all be happy.
I’ve been here about 5 times now. Once at a table of 10 with some families, more often it’s for dinner with my husband and a friend to watch a game. The bar has a great potential for being a game watching destination without going to a sports bar. There is ample seating, as it’s a big horse shoe bar. The staff is more attentive when you are at the bar, well, maybe it’s because you can flag them down easier. The micheladas here are wonderful. They have a delicious tamarind tartness to them that makes them very easy to drink. There are 4 huge TVs that they turn into one screen for the game. Sadly when we were there it was not functioning properly (see pic). They said there was a new manager and that they did not know how to fix it.
The food is hit or miss. I find their Tex Mex plates very greasy and one note. I prefer a cheese enchilada with a chile gravy, not just more cheese on top. We learned that the mixed fajita platters are the way to go. For $ 24 it easily feeds 3 people and it’s a nice variety of chicken, beef, shrimp, ribs, etc. There are quite a few different combinations to choose from.
The service is just ok. I prefer to sit at the bar to get better service. It’s never that crowded so I’m not sure why the service kind of trails off once you get your food. If you are missing something from your order when it arrives you will need to flag someone down.
I want this place to make it. I love Tex Mex and Los Cucos was a staple for me at Texas State in San Marcos. I live less than a mile from here and really enjoy having a michelada here and watching the game. They just need to tighten it up a bit!

Only came to grab a quick drink at the bar. Not too many people there on a Sunday mid afternoon so service was acceptable. The michelada was ice cold and perfectly spiced. Liked how the rim was lined with a tajin like seasoning instead of plain salt. It comes in a crazy heavy cup but nothing a straw can’t fix.
The chips and salsa were pretty addicting. Can’t decide which sauce I liked more: green or red? The queso with beef was also good. The fried tortilla chips were a bit over fried and thick yet the regular chips were too thin to scoop the cheese. Either way the plate was scraped clean. Can’t go wrong with melted cheese, right?
New clean location to eat, drink and hang out.

My fiancé and I went in on a Friday night and the place was surprisingly empty. We just wanted a quick and easy meal for a low key night. They sat us right away and we enjoyed the live music going on in the background.
We kept it simple and went with fajitas for 2. The meat was surprisingly flavorful and we were both impressed by the corn tortillas. They didn’t disintegrate like most do– they were strong but still fluffy. Very good!
There’s tons of great Mexican joints around the area, so this place has lots of competition. To us, it didn’t really stand out as being one extreme. It was good, we might go back to grab a quick fix when we’re craving Tex Mex.

This isn’t your standard Los Cucos… This is their SIGNATURE location, meaning they have a much nicer menu, much nicer building, and a great location in the heights. I came here with a few coworkers after a volunteer event one Friday, and at 2pm there weren’t many folks here (surprise surprise). We snagged an awesome patio seat and enjoyed a great selection of margaritas, chips, and queso before heading home, and I have to say that the quality of the food and drinks was beyond what I expected from a Los Cucos.
The only caveat is that, while we were only one of three tables on the patio, our service was kind of spotty. The waiter that was working the patio would disappear for long stretches of time, and then would randomly come back and half-​heartedly ask if we needed anything. Being a party of 6 at 2pm, when there isn’t much other business, I expected a little more attention from the wait staff. We were ordering drinks, apps, and food, so there really wasn’t any reason to only come around every 25 minutes.
Other than the less-​than-​steller attention from the waiter, I have no complaints. The food was great, the margaritas were delicious, and the atmosphere was perfect. I’ll definitely be back!

I ordered the El Texano– cheese enchilada, beef fajita taco, and a chicken tamale with rice and beans of course. Cheese enchilada and rice and beans were good. The beef fajita taco was not what I was expecting. The meat seemed like it was just leftover little pieces of meat with lots of fat and gristle. I was actually hoping for slices of skirt steak cooked medium. The flour tortilla looks like it would be good but I don’t think mine was cooked. It had a bite in the middle (al dente), I ate it but it was a disappointment.
Now moving on the the tamale= I describe it as a banana leaf filled with grits and stuffed with boiled chicken. I am not the person to send food back but after the fajita taco mess I had to say something about the tamale. The waiter was super nice and went to check with the chef to see if that was even cooked. Just like I predicted, the chef said «that is how they do it in Mexico and this is not tex-​mex.» well hello this is America!!! Lol.
They offered to replace with another item so I thought I would try a green chile enchilada. The cheese and green chile sauce was great, the chicken was diced, over cooked and a little rubbery. I just expected better quality meat for a $ 13 plate of Mexican food.
I want to make it clear I was never rude and just gave my honest opinion to the waiter in a playful way. He was great about the whole thing, even returned the playfulness while being attentive to our needs.

I guess I should start my review with a disclaimer that I did decide to visit on Cinco De Mayo of all days. so my review shouldn’t really count that much.
Came with a group to get margaritas since it had good reviews. BUSY. The parking lots were full, the streets were full and valet was swamped. I think there was only one guy running the valet stand. The wait was supposed to be around an hour. No problem, we’ll just go to the bar and get our drinks. Friend says their seating system was disorganized. The hostess just wrote your party name and number randomly on a slip of paper. Doesn’t seem like a real system since there was no sort of seating order… Drinks were okay… The margarita machine went down. Yikes! Took our drinks outside to the patio to wait and wait. Finally got a booth.
Waiter was just okay. I get that it’s loud but I really cannot make it more simple than holding up 2 fingers for the number of tacos i wanted, and screaming CARNITAS to him. The wait for food was roughly 35 – 40 minutes. It was just okay to me. The carnitas was a little drier than I anticipated. Plus side, the tacos were stuff full of meat. Negative? The flimsy taco could not support it and broke in half.

Lovin this new addition to the neighborhood! While I am a die hard El Tiempo dan (filet fajitas, barry topping YUM), Los Cucos is right up there.
We came on a Tuesday night (All day happy hour!!!) and had the ceviche & margs to start. Ceviche was just ok, probably wont order it again. Margs were delish.
Then we split the paradillada El Deliscioso for one. It was awesome! First off the two of us struggled to finish it. Second there was such a variety of meat for only $ 28 bucks. The carnitas was my favorite and my boyfriend loved the shrimp and steak.
Definitely will be back!

I have been to this restaurant about 6 times. Twice for dinner/​drinks with friends, once on a date, a few times for happy hour with coworkers, and a few times by myself. Each and every time I have been very pleased. First of all, the service is always top notch. It is clear that keeping the customers happy is a high priority for the management. I have always had great service – either at the bar, on the patio, or in the dining room.
The first time I went, my friend had a question about one of the unique ingredients on her dessert. Our server, Sabrie, invited the chef out to meet us and to answer our questions. Chef Ruiz was very informative, and I could tell his passion is to being people joy through his cooking.
On another occasion, I sat at the bar myself for a few margaritas ($ 4 during happy hour) and some appetizers. The bartender, Sammy, provided great service. He could tell when it was a good time to chat and when to leave me alone. An important skill for a bartender, in my opinion.
I brought a date here once for a quick bite and drinks before a show at Fitz. Emmanuel was our server, and he provided great suggestions for us. I ordered the chicken mole poblano dish. It was fantastic. Super moist and tender chicken with a great mole sauce. I’m not a mole expert, but I liked it.
And one more occasion I wish to write about is when a group of 8 of my coworkers and I came here for happy hour drinks and appetizers on a Friday. Gabriel was our server, and he was very attentive and knowledgeable. We each ordered many drinks and shared several appetizers. We stayed in the dining area chatting/​complaining about work for quite some time. Gabriel never made us feel rushed or that we needed to leave since the dining room was filling up. When we finally had our fill of margaritas and chips and salsa, we finally asked for checks… Separately. Gabriel handled splitting up 8 checks like a pro.
Overall, I am very happy with this spot. Oh yeah, I had the stuffed avocado and parrillada before as well. Both of those were great.
Just check it out!

I came here one night after trying to go somewhere down the road and they had an hour wait… so happy we decided to come here! They have valet parking out front… there is street parking and a private lot that was full though.
We were immediately seated around 8pm on a Saturday night. The dining room is huge. Our server was great, attentive but not hovering.
Margaritas on the rocks were very good, not too strong, not weak, just right!
We tried the queso, which comes with the flour tortilla chips. Their regular chips and salsa were very good also.
They have a nice sized menu of standard tex-​mex fare. My friend got the Tacos Plazeros which are crispy tacos. I tried the Mexican Taquitos (flautas) and we were happy with our meals. I want to go back and try a stuffed avocado and the shrimp tacos… they both sound delicious!

Shoutout to Sergio for reserving my work crew a table for Happy Hour and honoring the HH food menu at the table (it’s usually only at the bar)!
From my very informative morning phone call with Sergio, to the wait and bar staff the service was stellar.
My only complaint would be that there is no separate bar area. I swear kids were multiplying by 2’s at the table behind us because every time I turned around a new one popped up. It would be nice to enjoy an adult beverage after a long day of work without having Ms Johnson behind me telling Connor and Madison to behave.

This was our second lunchtime visit, and it was great! We’ve had the stuffed jalapeños, the chicken and spinach quesadillas, chicken and beef stuffed avocados, and the carne guisada. Every bite is fantastic.
Plus, this place gave this gastric bypass patient dessert back! All of their deserts are gluten and sugar free, but are somehow better for it. The tres leches cake is life changing. O, and the margaritas are pretty great too!