El Dorado

From the outside it looks great, but that’s the climax of this restaurant. My soup was lukewarm and exceedingly salty (as if a whole bouillon cube had been dropped in my bowl) my margarita tasted like dish soap and too sweet margarita mix, even though I ordered the «natural» margarita of tequila, lime and agave and to finish the evening my chicken enchiladas didn’t have enough sauce to cover them and tasted bland at best. I will not be returning here for any occasion.

Great place for food and drinks. They have very nice outside patio. Friendly service.

Keep it going’…somewhere else not worth wasting your time in here, but maybe you might want to just hang around to listen to the music they have blasting on the parking lot !

The food and service has gone down over the years. Nothing special on the menu and the food was barely passable. Also there was an unclean vibe in the bar and dining areas. Sticky chairs and menus made me wonder how clean the kitchen is. I do love the chips and salsa.

Bad service

This place sucks. After having driven by it many, many times curiosity finally got the better of me, so a friend and I decided to try it for dinner. The fact that there were maybe 25 people in there total should have tipped us off. No host or hostess to greet us. We had to go up to the bar, where the bartender told us to just seat ourselves anywhere. Uh, ok. Chips and salsa were actually not TOO bad, but that’s about the most praise I’m going to give this place.
Entrees were awful, just awful. My companion ordered the pulled pork tacos. She took a bite and instantly spit it out into a napkin. I tried it and in addition to just being dry like a bone, it had a funky aftertaste. Rice was obviously from a box and the beans were nearly crunchy. If you’re a Mexican place and can’t get rice and beans right, I don’t know what to tell you.
I ordered steak and shrimp fajitas. Veggies tasted old, steak was bland, shrimp was OK.
As for service, the waitress was pleasant, but she forgot our waters and I think she knew herself that the place is awful because she never asked how our meals were. Probably out of embarrassment, and I can’t blame her.
Never again. Let’s just put it this way: I think On The Border is a very mediocre Mexican chain restaurant and I would have KILLED to have On The Border instead of this sad excuse of a Mexican restaurant.

The place LOOKS like it will be better than it is … nice architecture, good décor, high ceilings and red and green Christmas tree lights!
Upon opening the menu, I became a little worried upon seeing choices like mozzarella sticks, hamburgers, and chicken Parm.
Undaunted, I chose a pulled beef burrito, with a side of rice and retried beans, and hoped for the best. The server promptly brought a fresh, passable salsa and a beer from the small list of selections.
The meal was mostly bland, freshly prepared but lacking in the advertised «Tex-​Mex» department. The rice was a real disappointment, seemingly from one of those microwave bags at the grocery store. Note, it wasn’t bad, just not very good, either.
The meld explained why the restaurant, while pretty large and in a well-​populated area, wasn’t very busy on a sunny Saturday afternoon. It’s sad, because there is potential here, to be more than an On the Border/Chili’s type clone. Hopefully, they’ll fine tune the concept and execution.
Start by taking the mozzarella sticks off the menu ;)

Went here once a few years ago and the ambience was cool but the service was very slow and the food was meh.

I wouldn’t even suggest this place for Bar Rescue b/​c I think Jon Taffer would walk out on this one… Only reason I gave 1 star is b/​c you can’t give zero, which is what I think most of the other 1 star reviews are as well.
This place sucks (period). I have no idea how they are still in business as they are on their 4^th or 5^th different restaurant in the past umpteen years. First it was Rumpleseats, then another bar, then a steakhouse, then a lounge, then a bar and finally, El Dorado… which in Mexican, must mean ‘The Ripoff.‘
If you progress from all of those to a Mexican place, it pretty much means you’re at the end of the rope in terms of concepts and they can’t even do halfway decent Mexican in an area where there isn’t much… Don’t go here; wait in line at Tortuga’s in Princeton or even at Burrito Royale (the small, awesome shack) on Route 1. We actually attempted to eat at On the Border first, but since they had an hour long wait, he settled for El Dorado b/​c we knew there woudln’t be wait… b/​c there never are more than 30 customers in the place.
Service is non-​existent. You will order and then you won’t see your waiter or waitress until you’re ready to leave and you will be lucky if you actually have silverware. We had to ask another waitress for more water and had to explain that we hadn’t seen our waiter since he brought our food out… she didn’t seem happy (shocking that staff would actually make an effort at this place).
Food wise, how you screw up Mexican, I have no idea (it’s like burning scrambled eggs in my book)… The guacamole, that we ordered for an app, came out very quickly and tasted like store bought and we should have left right after that. I ordered a chicken burrito that consisted of what was probably pre-​purchased diced up chicken, cheese and corn… I could have made that at home and paid far less. My wife ordered the fish tacos and upon taking her first bite, she threw it down on the plate… apparently they put a jalapeño or 2 in them but the menu said nothing about it.
When you walk into a restaurant on a Friday night at 7:00 and the place has 20 customers, do the right thing and don’t sit down… Walk out and never come back… That way, this place will at least be put out of it’s misery sooner vs. later.

Well what can I say, a few adjective’s are in order.
Slow, inattentive, loud, inexperienced, neglected.
Those are but a few. Lived in South Brunswick twenty plus years and have seen every iteration at that location, this by far the worst! For a Sunday night dinner at an establishment that can easily hold 100 plus, there were 4 at the bar and 7 at the dinner tables that is including my wife and I.
Took forever to get our drinks, polished off almost all salsa an chips before they came out. Have to say chips and salsa good, but that’s where good come to an end. I had their onion fritters, not what I would call a fritter they were just string onions lightly battered deep fried kind of greasy I must say. They give you a huge plate with one little plastic dish with sauce in it not enough for even half of the onions.
The wifey got buffalo wings as for appetizer they looked plump at first but we’re sort of semi pink so a big turnoff there only ate partially. Ask for extra blue cheese for the wings and sauce for my onions the extra sauce came almost as my onions were as cold as it was outside. Now I know its a Tex Mex place but I went and ordered a burger well done anyway. Burger was actually tasty and a little spot of bacon in the middle which was fine but no lettuce no tomato and no onion just a little tub of jalapenos on the side and oh did I mention the enemic looking store bought hamburger bun pretty pretty sad little burger.
To add insult to injury after we got the check our waiter, the bartender and and another server disappeared outside for a cigarette. Good thing I had cash. So I slapped it into folder and made a mad dash for the door. Also as we passed hostess she was wearing yoga pants and a hoddie. One thing I have to say there was not an adult in sight. What I mean by that is no one over 25 that is.

We thoroughly enjoyed this place. After a long day of moving into the area, we wanted some cheap drinks and appetizers. The happy hour ½ off specials were the ticket!
Food: It is always weird to see a Mexican restaurant with american dishes, so we just ordered some apps. The food was pretty decent; chips came out hot, empanadas were flavorful, and nachos were more than we could handle (beef on the nachos was a little dried out).
Drinks: Mexican beers on tap, awesome, and frozen margaritas were delicious… and half price till 7pm!
Service: here’s where they do have some opportunities. The server had to be told to clean the table and bring us silverware.,.by us. Management should have them re-​trained.
It’s a good place to get drinks with friends and enjoy a cool authentic setup.

I came here for happy hour and since we were having so much fun we decided to stay for dinner. Overall, the food was just okay. There were typical Tex-​Mex items like tacos, fajitas and enchiladas along with wraps and burgers on the menu. I ordered two shrimp tacos and it came with a side of yellow rice and black beans. The tacos were okay but I felt like they were missing. well flavor? I added some salsa, from chips/​salsa given as we sat down, into the taco.
Why the 2 stars? Aside from the food not being memorable, the service was not that great. I came on a Thursday afternoon into the evening and the restaurant had no more than 30 people total between the tables and bar. The service was slow (bartender at the bar mostly) and the server kept asking us questions about our order.
Would I come here again? If it’s a nice day/​night I would just to have drinks and sit outside (there is a decent outdoor area with a bar) but this would not be my first choice for a meal.

Went here for dinner yesterday with friends and we were not impressed with the food at all.
Saturday night at 6 pm and the dining room was practically empty. That should have been our first hint. Then like others mentioned it took longer than usual for the food to be brought out. We didn’t order anything that takes too long to prepare. I had the enchiladas, one friend ordered a burrito and the other got the fajitas.
This had to have been the worst enchilada I ever ate. The ingredients were bone dry and tasteless. The chicken was bland, tasted like it came from a frozen package, the veggies were practically uncooked. My friends said the same things about their meals. The beans were bland and watery and the rice was also bland and some of it tasted hard.
Will not be returning.

Oh my… Where do I start? I have never been so compelled to write a review so soon after I have visited an establishment, but I felt the need to share.
The outside of the restaurant didn’t look so bad, except for that super crusty little pond that was sitting outside of the entrance. That desperately needs to be cleaned. The inside of the restaurant was not in any way pleasing to the eye. The tables had writing all over them, which might have been a cool, hipster way to spice them up, but it made the tables look messy. The chairs didn’t match, and the walls were painted in such an unappealing way. The wood border near my table was missing, and by the looks of it, the walls needed a DEEP cleaning. The overall atmosphere felt dark and depressing.
In terms of the food, each thing took forever to come out. I’m usually very understanding about the wait on food, but the restaurant wasn’t at all busy. My sister and I ordered the Tiki Burgers, but we weren’t told that they ran out until after we were close to finishing our late-​arriving appetizers. I ordered the Taco Salad, which ended up being a waste of money. Don’t try it. The presentation was pretty cool, I must say. I liked that it was presented in a fried tortilla bowl, but looks were quite deceiving in this case! The grilled chicken that came on top was undercooked, but I didn’t send the food back because I wanted to get the hell out of there. So basically, I paid $ 8 for iceberg lettuce. Lovely!
Now the only thing that was actually okay with the restaurant was the service. The girl we had was nice, and the food runners were polite. They deserve to work in a better place. Although it’s not their fault, I can only imagine the bad tips they get because the restaurant sucks. :/​
Ultimately, El Dorado was terrible. I will not be back.

Ate lunch here and the place was dead. There was no one at the front to greet us and staff was just standing around. The only person who seemed to be doing anything was the bartender who was mixing drinks.
After waiting at an empty greeting station for 5 minutes someone finally greeted and sat us.
Our waitress was fine. But I don’t understand this place’s menu. It’s billed as TexMex but there’s American and Indian food all over it. It all screamed some sort of identity crisis.
Chips and salsa were just okay. Iced tea was sugary Brisk and not fresh brewed. My girlfriend’s fajitas were barely warm and not giving off any heat. Flour tortillas were cold and hard. My burrito was nothing but bad Indian style chicken wrapped in a tortilla. With rice and beans served on the side not in the burrito. I barely ate any of it.
If this is the type of food and service I get when there’s no one in the place I can only imagine what it’s like if there were a rush or on a busy night.
No need to ever go there again.

The fact that this place says its tex-​mex and has chicken parm on the menu should tell you how aweful it is. Tortillas from a bag, not fresh guac (made in the morning,
brown when served). As someone who grew up eating tex-​mex in San Antonio, I can say the food was a HUGE let down (service wasn’t great either).
And why no Shiner Bock?!

Lunch on a Saturday. The free chips were pretty good but the salsa tasted like canned tomatoes with not much else, like onions or seasoning, kind of like Pace. The shrimp burrito was okay; the shrimp seemed fresh and weren’t overcooked, but the rest of the fillings were soggy, it was not served with queso fresco but was doused with salsa and cheese like an enchilada (not even with enchilada sauce, but that same GROSS salsa), and was inexplicably served with french fries. The steak fajitas were pretty bad. The meat was not seasoned, the lettuce was old and slimy, and the refried beans tasted like they came from a can… whole bans, kind of watery, and not seasoned. The ‘mud pie’ wasn’t a pie, it was cake… and despite the menu description, was not served with ice cream. On the plus side, the waitstaff was friendly and the décor was… cute.
The only thing that sets this restaurant apart from the other bland, quasi-​Mex places in the general area is that they offer some TexMex-​Indian fusion choices. While this is interesting, the fusion menu choices are sort of off-​putting and makes the rest of the menu seem cobbled together.
In a nutshell — if you want tasty food, go somewhere else. If you want authentic food, go somewhere else. If you want TexMex-​Indian fusion food, you might want to try the fusion menu offerings. Otherwise, go somewhere else.

Review has been edited as a result of me providing incorrect information. (I thought it was correct when I wrote it based on what I had been told by other patrons) What is written below is indeed fact/​my opinion. I will probable give it one more chance seeing as how the establishment cared enough to contact me about my original review. I’ll update further after that visit:
Maybe the worst Poblano I’ve ever had. If you can’t get a large pepper stuffed with cheese right then there is little hope for the rest of the menu. The sangria was supposedly good but they got rid of most varieties as it attracted fruit flies! The outdoor area is nice. is And I like that they have Negro Modelo in bottle… they used to have it on tap too… what happened???
UPDATE: Went back a few weeks ago and Chef D is apparently no longer there… needless to say I didn’t take him up on his offers. My original review stated there was no happy hour which the location would benefit from… there is (now) apparently a happy hour… which I arrived too late for…

Cool

Chicken tacos here sucks
I am surprised I didn’t get food poisoning after eating it.
The chicken tasted really funky, not fresh at all.
The chicken fajita was decent, but not great
The tortilla chips with salsa was pretty good
Won’t mind coming back here again… just don’t get the chicken tacos!