Cafe Ole

Horrible experience!!! Waited for well over 45 minutes for our food. Chips were over salted-​BAD! While we were waiting we were never offered more chips and salsa. Asked for manager 5 minutes passed… finally food came and said I wanted check. Food taken away… manager was not sorry or apologetic. Was not offered a discount or anything even though food was brought out. Had to wait longer for check for the one beer my son had and then had to wait for my change. Most restaurants were closed by then had to leave. Son San Antonio resident taking his Mom to dinner on the RiverWalk. Do not even think about eating here. There is a reason why there was no wait time and empty tables! Would give less than one star if possible

I didn’t really like the food and the service was bad but I loved the view of the river walk

Service was great
Happy hour margaritas very good
Food not so
Place just way way too loud inside
Food was overpriced
Sorry
I just like to be honest

To start off the margaritas are $ 16 bucks for a tiny glass, which is insane. I ordered the beef fajita quesadilla which wasn’t bad, but it was definitely nothing special. The thing that got me was that they brought out my plate and didn’t bring out my friends plate at the same time. We also had to ask to shut off one of the fans outside because the fan mister was dripping on my friend. Definitely not worth returning to in the future.

Restaurant was not crowded and it took a long time for us to receive more chips and to receive our drinks from the bar

I have to agree with the other negative reviews of this restaurant. As with many other counters, we were walking along the Riverwalk looking for a bite to eat as well as refreshing drinks. The margaritas were very watered-​down, a very sugary mix, without hardly any tequila. They were also very expensive at $ 16 a drink. The nachos were decent. There are too many other places on the Riverwalk to go, skip this place.

Ehh, not the best food I’ve ever had. I think that they majority of places on the Riverwalk are more there for location versus actual food quality. Nothing on the menu appealed to me so I just got chips and a margarita. The other people in my party got food and no one was particularly impressed by their food. Our server was pretty good, though she did get a person’s order wrong. However, she was super nice about splitting up the checks, which is always appreciated. If I’m ever back in the area, I’ll likely pick another place before coming back here.

Good Mexican food, I’d definitely go back. Margaritas are delicious! I had a traditional one and my friend had the Bomb Pop Margarita. Service was good too but our poor waitress lost her voice. They should have sent the poor woman home! I didn’t really like that they had her working in that condition.

Service was incredibly slow. Waiter was rude. Food came no where near authentic and the drinks left something to be desired. Will never come back. For the money go order everything off the taco bell menu.

Where do I begin?! We waited over an hour for our food, and a manger or a guy (not sure because he wasn’t at all professional) told us we would have to wait a lot longer because they had a lot of people in front of us! We told him we were leaving and THEN! He insisted we pay for the drinks!!! fountain drinks and ice tea mind you!!! So after an hour or two waiting for food, we waited another hour for the check with only drinks!!! Save yourself the hours of hell and go anywhere but here! McDonalds was even sounding better at the time! We will never go back here EVER!!!

I really hate that I had to write this kind of review but the experience I had at this restaurant was by far the worst ever.
First issue. After being seated for dinner we were virtually ignored for about 15 minutes. No offer for water, chips, or to take our order. It wasn’t until I spoke up and said something that our waitress arrived. When she did, she apologized profusely for taking so long. She said she was in the restroom washing her face… okay no big deal right? I mean we’re all human. The only issue was that her face was still dripping wet. Water was literally dripping off of her face. Yuck!
Second issue. The margaritas we ordered literally tasted rancid! They were so gross, I felt like I would likely get some sort of poisoning if I drank one more sip. We spoke up about them and asked for new ones.
Third issue. When the new set of margaritas arrived one of them had a bug I it. They took that one back and brought me a new one. When I took a sip… yet again, NASTY!!! It was so terribly made, it tasted like It was 98% full of liquor and the other 2% of the drink still had the same rancid margarita mix taste. It was so gross.
By the end of this ordeal we asked for a credit for the drinks and we paid for our appetizer. We felt no choice but to go to another restaurant. The place directly across from this place on the other side of the river was fantastic.

I wish I could give the place negative 1000 stars. My girlfriend twisted her ankle coming out from the bathroom and the management blamed it on «humidity.» There was no caution sign there and that’s what they rolled with even after the situation happened. When the manager came to speak to me, he asked, «What do you want to do? Do you want to speak you a manager? He’s going to tell you the same thing.» very unprofessionaly. The waiter took 104 749 years to take my order and 1 947 493 years to bring my stuff. Never go to this place. It’s pretty terrible and the food is horrible.
Edit: supposedly his name is «Pete» and he’s got shaved sides and a beard. The chick with blonde hair, named «Danielle» or whatever, walked away when I asked for a corporate number. I was then proceeded by security to leave after telling people how bad this place was.

The 3 stars is mainly for the food and margs. The service was 5 stars all the way! I ordered the combo 2 and my wife order the chicken Quesadilla. They were not bad at all but they were nothing to write home about either very average tasting. We also ordered a 60oz Effen Cucumber marg that was very bland as well and very weak in the alcohol department. Our server was excellent. Very quick and helped us with our questions. He was a 5 star waiter. I think his name was Joe? I know his Bday is on April 24 cause he saw my wife’s ID and commented on it. Over it has a great location and excellent service. But the food is average and the Margs are below average.

Stopped in for a late breakfast on Saturday morning at approximately 10:50. Should have turned away when I heard a person who I assume was the manager yelling instructions to the host that we were the last party of 2 for breakfast and that he should remove the breakfast menus from the sign. The host was very gracious and kept a smile on his face.
Unfortunately, things did not improve after we were seated. We both ordered coffee and mimosas. The coffee arrived by a different waiter but no mimosas. Our waitress (Janette) then took our order but was unable to answer any questions about the menu. When we asked about our mimosas, she argued with us, stating that we had not ordered them. Our food arrived but we had to ask for salsa. By the time we finished our meal, the mimosas finally arrived but all we really wanted was the check.
Could have gotten the same meal from our hotel with much better service. Would avoid. Even if you are really hungry, just keep walking as I am sure you will find a better option.

The portions are tiny compared to the other mexican restaurants on the river walk. The salsa was very tomato paste-​y and our fajitas were below average.
They must be under staffed. Plenty of empty tables, but never got our waters refilled and waited a good 30 minutes before flagging down another waitress asking where our waiter was, since we were more than ready for the check. I guess he wanted to wait for us to be hungry for the dessert we turned down.
Overall, overpriced and plenty of better choices.

Good Margaritas!
I wanted to eat somewhere touristy on our last night. This place looked very festive and fun with the bright colored umbrellas over the table along the river. It was unusually cold so we ate inside. They had TVs showing football so I got to watch some of the Alabama/​Auburn game.
I ordered the Chile Relleno. The menu description stated «Lightly breaded and fried poblano pepper stuffed with spicy beef and Spanish rice.» It wasn’t lightly breaded because it was covered in a lot of breading that didn’t get crisp. The breading was still a bit on the doughy side. The filling wasn’t very spicy. It wasn’t the greatest Chile Relleno I’ve ever had but it was edible.
What happened next surprised me. I was watching the game and trying to contain my excitement. I mean I only yelled out once and they shouldn’t have the game on if they don’t want you watching it. I don’t know if our server Mark was annoyed with me or what. He never asked if we wanted another drink or dessert. He simply brought our check so we paid it and went to the bar next door.
This restaurant looks really cool and I loved the Lone Star Café that is owned by the same company but if you want great Mexican food then you need to find a different restaurant.

We’ve been here twice, the second time was simply because we forgot that it was the same restaurant.
Pros:
–The queso is actually kind of tasty, even though there’s not really anything special about it. I guess I just love cheese.
–The guacamole was very good, well seasoned and chunky, the way I like it.
–During the heat of summer in Texas, they have large mysters attached to fans making the patio seating actually decent.
–They have a mariachi band which is kinda neat.
Cons:
–The salsa was not good. It’s a warm salsa that’s almost too spicy to eat. Side note– I love spicy food and have tasted some amazing salsas served hot, this just isn’t one of them.
–They literally brought out pre-​cooked fajita meat on a plate and dumped it onto the griddle at the table. It definitely tasted like packaged meat from a grocery store.
–The chips were very greasy and almost stale tasting.
–The service was lacking this last visit for sure. We were already eating before one of the kiddos got their drink. I’ll cut this guy a break though, because I’m pretty sure he was new.
–The Margaritas almost taste like that cheap pre-​mixed margarita stuff you buy from the liquor store.
Even with the mariachi and the mysters, none of it makes up for the lack of freshly made/​cooked food. There are just so many other places around that I’d skip this one for sure.

For a touristy place, Café Olé is just ok.
Special lady friend and I were taking a weekend in San Antonio, as one does when you’re trying to lose yourselves in each other and we ended up at Café Olé as a compromise between our eating & snacking schedules.
It was nice to be able to find a respite on the riverwalk and people watch while enjoying some passable Tex Mex and sip on Margaritas.
I’m not going to sugar coat it, Café Olé is not going to be on anyone’s top 10 list but the food is not bad.
Bring the kids, get tipsy on margaritas and watch your day slip away — it’s not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

This place is pretty what you would expect from the River Walk. Mediocre food at high prices. This is supposed to be Mexican food, but it’s tourist Mexican food. Meaning that it is pretty bland — don’t want to burn the mouths or upset the tummies of those tourists with anything genuinely spicy more flavorful!
A big group of us «dined» here last week. I say «dined» in quotation marks, because I’m not sure that’s the best word for it. The waiter was friendly enough, hoping for that really big tip, in fact maybe a little too friendly. He told us about his family and where he was moving soon. Really tried to warm us up!
Alas, the food came and it all became apparent. This was the consummate tourist food trap, with virtually no connection between the kitchen and the guests. We ate the food and drank the drinks, and shuffled our way down the River Walk past more tourist traps. I wonder if these restaurants are all owned by the same corporation.
Of course, I would never have dined here under other circumstances. The Unilocal reviews are very telling. So the next time I come to San Antonio, I’ll be sure to try to preempt dining at Café Olé again.

We were in town for the weekend and went on the boat tour on the riverwalk. Our tour guide showed us the place along the riverwalk that is home of the 60oz margarita that has 11 ½ shots in it. We immediately knew this was our next stop after the boat to sit on the patio and enjoy this 60 oz of YUM.
We were seated on the patio right away, about 4pm on a Saturday, so that was great! Our server Tim brought over chips and salsa right away and recommended the margaritas and told us why he liked specific ones. We decided on the traditional one and he brought it out in just a few minutes. We didn’t order any food and really enjoyed people watching.
It only took about an hour to finish our marg and realized that neither one of us felt even a little buzz. For something that has 11 ½ shots (5 ¾ each) we should probably feel something? Shoot maybe my body is just used to being drunk, or perhaps our tour guide was a lightweight. Anyway it was fun and it was a good way to kill an hour.
Thanks again to our awesome waiter Tim, you rock!

San Antonio ist wirklich eine Show und ich habe ähnliches bisher nur in Disneyworld erlebt. Ganz unamerikanisch drängt sich das Volk am kleinen Fluss durch die Hochhauslandschaften der texanischen Grossstadt. An einem lauen Abend, und das sind hier die meisten, eine tolle Erfahrung. Die durchaus langen Riverwalks sind gesäumt von vielen Restaurants und davon sind eben nicht alle authentisch, so auch das Café Olé nicht. Man kann das eher mit Touristenfalle bezeichnen, denn das Essen ist so lala, der Service so schnell, dass man ihn schon immer meint sagen zu hören Bitte zügig essen, wir brauchen den Platz wieder ! nur die Umgebung ist zauberhaft. Die Fajita meiner gut gelaunten Begleitung war nicht mehr, als mittelmäßig, wie auch mein Tacosalat. Mit einem Bud Light und einem Wasser kamen wir aber doch dank Umgebung und Ambiente auf 40 US$, was zuviel war. Jetzt suchen wir erst einmal nach Alternativen.