El Charro

It’s definitely just your typical Tex-​Mex restaurant. The staff and super friendly, and the food is good!

I’ve come here near closing time several times now, and food has been very average, no real stand outs. A few weeks ago my friend got the chili relleno which tasted thawed. The chips and salsa are great, and are provided upon seating. They’re open until 10, which works for last minute tex-​mex cravings. I have yet to see a mariachi band, now that’d really spice things up!

I’m not sure why this place gets so much love. I spent $ 21 for me and my two toddlers. The kids’ meals were frozen, not fresh. The nachos I ordered were sloppy and the chips were not restaurant quality. More like generic brand from Kroger. The hostess, an older lady, did not greet me or let me know who my sever would be. She did not say anything. Look elsewhere.

I enjoyed the shrimp coctel, tons and tons of shrimp. The taco I didn’t care for. I’d definitely be back for the shrimp coctel, I ask for extra lime on the side to squeeze into my shrimp coctel.

Went there tonight. Salsa and chips are okay. Good service and friendly staff. Good quesadillas and tacos al carbon.

We arrived at El Charro tired after a long day of driving with three children in the car. Our margaritas arrived promptly and they were tasty. The queso fundido was delicious. The cheese enchiladas were quite good and the chicken chimichanga was also very good, and not as huge as in many places. The nacho chips were not as flavorful as other places we’ve experienced. The tacos al carbon were also very tasty. We would definitely go there again.

I’ll start my review by saying I am from Texas, however I do understand the further you get away from Mexico the more diluted the mexican food gets.
I say the food was 4 of 5, my wife says 1 of 5. We started with the queso funditios. Tasted pretty good to both of us. Salsa and chips were good too.
Next came the antrees:
–Sourcream chicken enchillidas: Tasted good but did not look or taste like what I typically get.
–Quesidia: Wife said there was not enough cheese to hold everything together.
–Chicken Tortilla soup: Quite strange, really just chicken in a water/​broth with large fried tortilla. No flavor.
Overall 3 stars. If I were in this town again I’d probably go again. The staff was nice and accomidated a food request I had that was not on the menu.

Solid tex-​mex. Very good lunch deal ($ 4.99 for an entrée, 2 sides or 2 entrees and a side).
They do have one of the best fried ice creams out there — with cinnamon and coconut mixed into the batter.

My favorite Mexican place. Salsa tastes fresh. Beans are always perfect. Not too dry, not too soupy. Vegetarian options. Carnitas are the best! Plus bite sized instead of huge chunks. Fast service.

This place is your above average Mexican diner, good food at a good price with friendly service.

Let’s get the positives out of the way first:
They take Amex (business travelers know my pain). My server was nice, and didn’t blink when I said I wanted fajitas with only vegetables, no sour cream, cheese, tortillas, etc. I got the fajitas «paleo» style with guac. I went there around 5:30 on a Tuesday.
These have got to be the worst fajitas I’ve *ever* had. This is not a «I’m from Texas and any Tex Mex food made outside my beloved state is crap» sort of biased review. People from Indiana should be able to recognize the awfulness. I checked Unilocal before I drove up there from downtown Jackson, and saw a lot of glowing reviews. What I didn’t do was look at the pictures people had taken of their fajita plates which would have tipped me off sooner, because the meat is not right at all.
They clearly do not use skirt or flank steak for their fajita meat, like you’re supposed to. It chewed more like eye of round. If you go look at how the eye of round is packaged in the grocery, you’ll see «medallions» of meat maybe three to four inches in diameter. ¼ to ½″ thick. You’re supposed to cook whatever portion of skirt or flank steak (½lb, 2lbs, etc.) in one piece, pull it off the grill, let it rest, and then slice it against the grain. That gives you a nice medium pink center, with plenty of juices and good tenderness, not chewy at all.
El Charro does one of two things with their fajita beef, best I can figure: Option 1: They take thin pieces of something like eye of round and cook the hell out of them, until there is zero chance of juiciness or pinkness, then slice with the grain. Option 2: They pre-​sliced all the meat, again, with the grain, and threw it on the flattop (clearly not grilled). Again, no pink, no juice. What either of these cooking methods results in is meat that isn’t begging to fall off your fork. Instead, it turns the meat springy because it’s so overcooked. Imagine picking up a piece of steak with your fork. Next, imagine flicking it with your finger. Imagine it rebounding back at you when you flick it, after moving only so slightly. Much of the meat is chopped too small, so that it’s difficult to find it in the plate. Smaller than the bell peppers and onions, that’s for sure.
Chewy, chewy, chewy, chewy. It’s bad. If you went to Taco Bell, bought 6 steak soft tacos, pulled the meat out, chopped it up like you were making a cheesesteak, and then cooked it all for another five minutes (which is five minutes and thirty seconds overcooked), you have a rough approximation of what you’re dealing with. I’d like to apologize to Taco Bell for even associating them with meat this bad. Shoe leather. A chopped up basketball. A run over football. Got the point?
Onto the salsa and guac, which were merely C-​/​D+ levels of offense against Mexican/​Tex Mex. The salsa is made with tomato sauce. Not with canned diced tomatoes doctored up to be salsa, and maybe blended a bit long, but straight tomato sauce. Very little chunkiness to it, almost no heat. I’ve gotten better salsa in a breakfast bar at the Courtyard Hotel 45 minutes outside of Chicago.
Guac: I like it a bit chunky, this was too smooth, and seemed like a cross between guac and guac sauce. You make guac-​ish sauce by cutting the avocado with something like sour cream, tomatillos, green onions, etc. That’s not actual guac, it’s guac sauce. I think it was actually blended tomatillos with some avocado sprinkled in. If you want green sauce with your chips, I guess it would be ok, but if you’re looking for some good fats to stick to your fajita that actually taste like avocado, this is not it.

We were here on a Sunday afternoon traveling thru town on the highway. Read the reviews and thought we HAD to stop. We are happy we did. Very fast courteous service, food was very good and reasonably priced. The business was clean and slightly dated in décor, but when the food is good who cares right? LOL Had chicken enchiladas with queso sauce, sooooo good. Their lunch combos can’t be beat.

This is my family’s go to Tex/​Mex spot. I’m a big fan of the Tacos Adobada. My kids like the quesadillas. The margaritas are sometimes a bit watered down, but the food is consistently decent, and inevitably we run into people we know.

I travel often to Jackson for work and this is my favorite restaurant for great Mexican food to go.
This isn’t the place for you if you’re looking for an upscale experience. But what it lacks in ambience, it makes up for in reasonably priced food.
The staff is friendly and quick with your order. The salsa is perfect. You cannot go wrong with the fajitas or the build your own combo which let’s you pick your favorites from a massive list of options. The queso is a true highlight.

How does a place like this get 4.5 stars? I’m from out of town, and maybe this is one of the best here, but it is absolutely mediocre, at best. Margarita, sickly sweet and very little booze. Carnitas looked like brown globs of rat meat, tasted a little better. At least I had the thought of asking for fresh jalapeño, which I got and which resurrected an otherwise completely forgettable meal. Meh, is right!

Searching through Unilocal for a reasonably priced, local restaurant in Jackson, we found this place. It was a stellar find! My boyfriend and I split one of the build-​you-​own combo platters with a stuffed poblano pepper, potato enchilada, the best mushroom quesadilla I have ever had, a ground beef taco and rice and beans with two margaritas for $ 14! The atmosphere is great, but the home runs were the amazingly affordable price, super fast service and the best mushroom quesadilla in the history and future of mankind. Stop here if on a road trip! It totally worked perfect for us. We will come back everytime we driving thru Jackson.

Very tasty Mexican food in the Jackson area — highly recommend it if you’re looking for authentic Mexican. We had three different dishes — tamales, pork carnitas and tostados and all were delish! The 32oz beer completed a great dinner (see my photo in the pics).

Personally, this is my favorite mexican restaurant in the Jackson area. The servers are always exceptionally nice — but yes it can sometimes be slow because they are so busy — but that’s not the server’s fault. I have eaten here numerous times in the 7 years that I have worked close to El Charro — and I have never once had a complaint about my food. Everything is good. Some favs are the fajitas and the nachos in the back of the menu that have chicken, beef and beans — can’t remember the name. Salsa and chips are great and fresh!

El Charro is a solid tex-​mex restaurant, that does offer some authentic style grub, such as cantina/​taquera style tacos
I had the Molcajete dish, I took a picture of it. Its a lava rock bowl, stuffed with shrimp, chicken, steak, bellpepper, onion, light cheese, with Taquera style salsa! OMG — simply orgasmically delicious! Topped off w/​32 fluid oz. Of bud light draft! Wow!
The only reason why I gave four stars, was because our last visit they were super slow with the grub. But they do have a nice wait staff and pretty good service 95% of the time.
Good prices, good food, good portions.

Really good Mexican — reasonable prices — attractive interior — not gaudy or overly ‘mexican’ Great selections — good service and a musican who could sing ’ Granada’ and was very good! Mexican beer — very hot plates
child friendly and in general a pleasure. Manager Ramon Munoz said they don’t have a web site –but people know they are there, 8 locations in Mississippi –open 7 days a week — 601 362 4447
A real find when you are traveling and dont kinow where to dine