El Maracumbe II

Tortillas were great. Ordered the chicken fajitas, they were a little onion potent. Beans and rice were okay.
Will return again.

Got the $ 7 Tres Enchiladas lunch special. Very solid. The table salsa was a little blah. Adding a new place to my list of lunch options near Fort Sam Houston.

1^st time visit. The barbecue brisket tacos were amazing. The meet was well seasoned and juicy not dried out like some places. The chips were nice and crunchy and the salsa had a reasonably noticeable kick. Even the rice and guacamole were on point. My curiosity has been peaked next time in the area I will definitely check out other menu items.

Good service. Wonderful wonderful food. I ordered the chimichanga to play it safe and it was great. My rice did not come hot (temperature) and the reg flour tortilla was not that great. That’s why I gave it four stars. I have to say the food is made different then what I’m used to. A chimichanga is wrapped and this one here was rolled. I also ordered a beef tamale on the side and it was the best tamale I ever had. If it helps I am Hispanic.
As for the décor… They really need to up grade. But all in all the food was amazing.

Love this place. The chips and salsa are awesome and the Anna Maria is a must try. Service is always good and the food comes out fast.

Went in tonight and had chicken enchiladas. Bland, meat tasted canned, sauce was meh. Margaritas are okay, but not worth the trip. Salsa is aggressively bad, a step above Whataburger’s spicy ketchup. We’ve been there a few times now, and I don’t guess we’ll return. Shame, it’s the closest sit-​down, dinner-​time Mexican food, but it’s strictly for grandmas and yankees.

Everyone in our office refers to El Maracumbe as «Tank Tops» because of the (now gone) «No Tank Tops» sign as you enter. It’s been an office staple forever.
Why would the office staple be a hole-​in-​the wall restaurant named Tank Tops?
Great food — I had the Mexican plate and my associates had various lunch specials. We all left full and happy. At a reasonable price.
Appropriately fast service — We were sat immediately. Quickly had drinks and our queso, then, right when we finished the queso, the main entrée came.
Personal Service — Our waiter has been there for 21 years. He’s friendly, professional, attentive, and knowledgeable of the menu.
Word of Warning: When they say the plates are hot, they aren’t kidding.

We’ve been coming to El Maracumbe for years. It’s one of our favorite places for traditional Tex-​Mex, and the food is always fast and hot, and the service is always friendly.

Great lunch time specials. Good price and lovely conversations with all staff. Love being a regular.

I have been coming here since before I can even remember. I do not understand how this place doesn’t have better reviews!
They make some of the best cheese enchiladas in town if all you want is some good old tex-​mex comfort food, nothing fancy. But its not just the enchiladas, everything is delicious. I have yet to order anything I didn’t like, have yet to ever have to send anything back, and have only had one off experience in all of the thirty years I’ve been patronizing this place. The service is second to none. Expect management to check in with you at least once in every meal to make sure you’re having a wonderful experience.
Personal favorites are the cheese enchiladas, of course! They’re gooey and cheesy and greasy which is what a good Tex-​Mex enchilada should be! Then there’s the grilled tilapia, and the carne guisada tacos, and the stuffed zucchini…
Again, I’ve never had anything I didn’t like.
Its a hole in the wall. Its not fancy or froufy or even modern. Up until recently it was painted neon-​mint and pepto-​bismol pink. The booths and walls are covered in a hideous floral print from the 80’s. So what? The kitchen is clean and anyway, I come there for the food, not because I want to be treated to a designer atmosphere. If you’re simple enough to be placated by that kind of uselessness, go elsewhere. If you’re smart enough to want nothing more out of your dining experience than hot, simple, delicious food, go to El Maracumbe.

We went there weekly for a few years. Good service. Good prices. Only complaint is chips. They used to have good fresh homemade chips, but suddenly switched to more like store bought. When we asked about it we were told they were same chips as before. They weren’t. We stopped going.

I’ve only been here once, but I thought they had some of best homemade tortillas around San Antonio, for real! I ordered the Calabaza or «squash» lunch. Basically it is a GIANT squash that was stuff with shredded chicken, cheese, and all kinda of yummy flavor and then flash fried — OMG. Lunch special are an awesome deal too, expect to walk out the door spending under $ 10 bucks!

I agree with others that this place used to be really good. Had the chicken mole for the first time and it was just OK. It was topped with cheese. That was unexpected and unnecessary. Have never had mole with cheese. It adds nothing; rather it takes away. The service was very good.

I see a lot of complaints about this restaurant… I have an amazing suggestion for you … go back try the chicken chimichangas and then delete your bad review because everyone always orders enchiladas or something similar that they then compare to some fancy riverwalk restaurant and go complain online … This place is well-​priced, fantastically friendly, and as I said I would seriously go here daily for how on point the chicken chimis are! It’s sad that people order one dish and go flame online. I have been here multiple times and I agree the enchiladas are so-​so but the fajitas, flautas, tacos, chimis etc.etc.etc make up for the one time you ordered something the one time you went to the restaurant. I believe everyone should try this place for themselves, better than any mexican or texmex restaurant within 5 miles and half the price of any riverwalk comparable.

As far as Mexican food goes, it’s decent, menu is huge, but there is better in San Antonio

This was my favorite stop for quality tex mex at a decent price! What happened? My last two visits were so bad that I have no choice but, to find a new spot! Any suggestions Unilocalers!?!

A colorful little place with a unique atmosphere and surprisingly good food! My wife and I ate here because we had a buy one get one coupon and we were expecting a cheap, fast, run of the mill mexican restaurant, but this was better! The interior design is unlike anything I’ve seen, the windows are painted over and the whole place is painted in bright colors (kinda like the spurs in the early 90s) everything is pink and turquoise and lots of plants and neon decorative lights everywhere. Lots of booths for those of you who prefer to sprawl out and get comfy. There are lots of menu options and their generous lunch specials run 7 days a week! I got the jalapeño chicken enchiladas and my wife ordered poblano chicken enchiladas, both were great! I also added a puffy taco to my order because I… Just had too. As soon as I read «puffy taco» on a menu I just have to order one, can’t help it. And it was fantastic! I hate to say that I expect certain restaurants to have lousy food but I was surprised by the good quality at el maracumbe. And the service was excellent too, very attentive, and courteous. I also tried one of their frozen margaritas which was a tad underwhelming but not bad, I just don’t like when my margarita has that neon green tint to it. Not sure why but it bugs me. Maybe it’s just me but I find it weird and over stimulating haha. Anyway, located at the intersection of austin highway and harry wurzbach sits the little hidden gem. Duck in sometime for a change of pace with a traditional taste. Great spot to meet a friend for a quick lunch or a group of peeps for neon green margaritas! At least you know if the power goes out you can still find your drink.

I love this place, the service is always great. The food is always good and the tea is amazing. I love their salsa. I like the place, I go about once a week. They have quick service but they don’t force you out.

Something has changed… my wife and I live in Los Angeles and we always stop through once or twice… when we return home to visit our families. We were huge fans of «El Maracumbe» but, our first clue that something had changed should have been when we entered at one of the busiest shifts (lunch = with great lunch special prices) and the place was virtually empty!
Now, as I read over some of the other recent reviews, I see that it wasn’t just a chef having an off day! This is now the new «El Maracumbe» desperately in need of an overhaul!!!
I ordered an enchilada dinner with one ground beef & one cheese enchilada that comes with retried beans & rice. I also ordered an ala carte puffy taco…
Let’s start with the taco… the taco was half the size that they normally are (same price) & when I picked it up, it immediately feel apart because it was a soggy mess! The beef was greasy & drenched in salt, the tomato that the cook displayed on the top of the taco still had the brown area where the stem birth the tomato & I had to pull a large portion of the yellow skin from a chopped onion out of my mouth after taking a bite of what used to be one of the best puffy tacos in town!!! (I’m adding a photo of the actual tomato & onion skin to the photo section) My enchiladas came to the table, hard as a rock & I tapped on the tortilla with my fork and it sounded off like I was tapping on a piece of wood. Also, it came to the table with two cheese enchiladas instead of the one ground beef I ordered. Our waitress Francis did a great job & promptly exchanged the enchilada… the beans were also dry & hard but, I must say the rice was the one ray of sunshine on the plate!!! Yeah… go rice!
We were a group of eight and we were all disappointed & walked away with quite a bit of food left on every plate. (no doggy bags needed)
Oops I almost forgot… my sister in law also found something in her ground beef puffy taco that appeared to be a skin from a sausage wrap (possibly chorizo???)
The service was great but, tips are based on the overall dining experience and I feel sorry for the waiters and waitresses because the folks in the kitchen are really letting them down. They had the nerve to add a 20% gratuity but, we paid that plus some because Francis earned every dollar! But, Francis… please go in the kitchen and turn the game off or whatever it is thats distracting them and tell them to focus before the whole staff is looking for new jobs because «El Maracumbe» is a building for lease!!!
I cannot recommend eating here in the state it’s in… check Unilocal and find a Tex Mex spot with at least 3 & ½ stars or more or wait until «El Maracumbe» gets it ratings up…
P. S. I went to an diner style American food cuisine restaurant…“Luby’s” (known for homestyle cooking such as fried & baked… fish & chicken, mashed potatoes & mac n cheese etc…) Their version of a Texas classic enchilada ‘head over’ heals put yours to shame

2* for the food and 4* for the service, so we’ll go with an average. We’ve been here a few times, always because the SA Entertainment book includes a BOGO free entrée offer.
+service was fantastic, couldn’t have been more friendly
+lunch prices are very reasonable, even without a BOGO coupon
+order came shortly after we ordered
–food was just okay, not bad, not great
Bottom line, we dined here because of the coupon and wouldn’t be our first choice otherwise.