El Tapatio

I ordered the monthly special salad, horrible choice. 90% white iceberg lettuce, and chicken looked like leavings from some other dish. Server did not apologize when I complained, saying that I should have said something when I first got it. He did take 50% off my bill, but never offered to even refill my water. Salsa was pathetic as well, more like tomato sauce with a few cilantro leaves in it. Not sure what the other entrees are like, but don’t get a salad!

Food was vary flavorful and the staff was nice and made sure drinks and chips were kept full.

Nice place, but way downhill after the move. The margaritas are all cheap sour mix and our whole table had their orders made wrong or come out cold. I hope they can improve, but looking elsewhere until then.

I have been a loyal customer at the old location twice a year for many years when I travel to Sedalia. Visited today with my sisters and after many years of truly excellent Mexican food was sorely disappointed. The new location is the site of another Mexican restaurant which closed (deservedly because their food had became terrible!) The new restaurant has a lovely atmosphere and the service was good. The food though was NOT up to their old standards. The chile relleno was nuked and leathery and bland. The Dona salad which had been light delightful and refreshing was cardboardy salad mix with some avocado mush mixed in, instead of the fresh crisp shredded lettuce with avocado slices. The tamale and enchilada were average. Even the beans and rice were just ok. The food before had always been fresh and perfectly seasoned and well presented, now it’s not a bad Mexican place but it is not the refreshingly fresh and authentic place it used to be.
The salsa is still top notch! Mild but sooo flavorful and fresh tasting and the homemade tortillas still very good!

We ate lunch on a Thursday. We had the lunch special $ 5.99. We both got taco salad. We both enjoyed our lunch. They were attentive to drinks and chips also. We thought it was a good value and food.

Stopped by for quick lunch when in town for business. Glad I did. Was impressed by the atmosphere, server, and the food was very good. So many times Mexican food can be bland, but they are doing it right. Good food, good price. Good job amigos!

When El Tapatio first opened they were the best Mexican restaurant in the area. They were always busy and the food was exceptional. I don’t know what has happened to them but the food is not the same. The last couple of times we have eaten there, the food has been substandard. The food has gotten worse since they moved. The fried rice was not the typical rice. It was very light in color and had no traditional Hispanic seasonings. The retried beans were ok but lacked seasoning. The enchilada was nothing more than a loosely filled limp corn tortilla filled with nothing more than a tablespoon of ground beef and a very small amount of red sauce drizzled on top. The tamales were the worse. The masa was very thick and the filling consisted of a tiny amount of what I believe was diced, over cooked pork and something I have never had in a tamale before. Diced potatoes! I am assuming the potatoes were for a filler. Maybe they can’t afford the new building they are in and therefore having to stretch everything. We will not be going back. Three times was enough. Time to try somewhere else.

Chips were stale, and the food was nothing special. Could of made better food at home. Would suggest trying other places in town first. Wait staff was very good though.

I travel for a lot and have been to a lot of good restaurants. I seen some good reviews about this place and decided to give it a try. I would not agree that the salsa is great, I would say its ordinary, not special and plain. The beef taco is bland and the chile releno is average /​plain as well. Overall I was disappointed in the lack of taste in all the items I tried. I believe if you are looking for good Mexican food this place is going to disappoint you as well. If authentic Mexican food is tasteless this is the place to go.

My husband and I just moved here from Colorado. Does that make us experts on Mexican cuisine? Not necessarily. But, we were quite privileged to have access to some really great Mexican food there. Moving here, we knew it would be harder to find, but were still hopeful. The reviews for El Tapatio were better than some we’ve seen, so we gave it a shot. And were completely disappointed.
I will say that the chips were warm (and were the white corn, not yellow, which was great!) and the salsa was quite tasty. It wasn’t spicy at all, which was a little disappointing, but the flavors were fresh and crisp.
The rest? I so wanted to like it, but it really was not good at all. I tried a combo plate, thinking it would give me a little taste of a few things. The chile rellano, which is one of my favorite Mexican dishes, was terrible. Flavorless and dull. The chicken tamale and enchilada were no better. The chicken was dry and again, flavorless. The rice and beans weren’t even good. The food was served lukewarm. My husband ordered the carnitas burrito. The flavor of the meat was actually good, but it was super dry.
Unfortunately, the food wasn’t the only problem. The service was dismal. We were hopeful at first, since the young server seemed attentive. But the second he took our order, he disappeared. I mean like, he vanished. Someone else brought our food and we never saw him again. No one checked on us at all. We must have finally looked like we were getting ready to bolt because someone else finally asked if we were ready for the check.
Food — no thanks.
Service — you can’t even call it service.
And so continues the search for good Mexican food in Missouri…

The best Mexican food I’ve ever had in my life! (And I LOVE Mexican food!) I could DRINK the salsa, because it’s so good! I used to live in the area and now return frequently to visit family. Since moving away, I have dreams about this place!

I like the fresh tortillas. That little gal gets making them and you want to take a dozen home. Butter and honey are a good way to eat them. The cheese dip gets better the cooler it gets because it thickens. I had Mexicali Chicken and it came with grilled shrimp and a light cheese sauce served over rice. Tasted great. Like many people, we swing thru here coming back from the Lake or Wonderland Camp.

The food here is excellent! Service is pretty good. I would recommend this place to everyone. Much better than any other Mexican restaurant in the area. Very authentic.

We went here tonight in a group of 6. It wasn’t very busy and the service was excellent and friendly. The food was good and i would come back.

Salsa was DELICIOUS. Mac & cheese was not good. My chile relleno had something wrong with it… i think it was leftover and refried. It tasted like dog food along the edge, but the inside tasted okay. Overall, most of the food was edible. The servers were more interested in sitting at a table playing with their phones… won’t go back.

Really good food and service! Will eat here again when in Sedalia, Mo.
We had the burrito chile verde and the enchilada chile verde which were both very good choices.

El Tap is the regular Friday night place. Quick, reasonable and they never stop bringing baskets of chips. Great place.

I liked there hot sauce and chips. Guacamole wasn’t the best I ever had but surely not the worst. The staff was enjoyable and the service fast. The food wasn’t exciting but it was good. It was an enjoyable experience overall so I’d eat there again

Every time I go home to small town Missouri I have to have a few meals at this great Mexican restaurant. The food is Always exceptional, the staff is Always very attentive and very polite, and the atmosphere is well… campy, somewhat tacky, but very mexican, check out the carved and painted chairs…
I love a good margarita and after living in New Orleans for 11 years I had my share of Really Good Margaritas. I have to say El Tapatio’s has margarita’s equal to the best I have had in New Orleans… and that says a lot. I’ve lived in DC now for 6 months and have yet to find a good margarita.
I say check this place out, relax, enjoy the good salsa, chips, service and the great Mexican food, you won’t be dissapointed.
Greg

There are three primary areas in which I rate a restaurant.
1. The food 2. environment 3. service
The food here is excellent. Very flavorful and usually a very consistent product.
This does not salvage the restaurant from poor customer service. They gave me the wrong order recently and treated us very rude when we asked for an exchange. We made a carry out order. We got home. I discovered we had the wrong order after my wife had left to go get something else. I called on the my wife on the cell phone and told her to stop by El Tapatio and get our actual order and the difference in price since what we ordered was cheaper. They argued vehemently with my wife. Hey, it was a mistake we just want our food and the difference. The other dinners are at our house an she didn’t plan on going all the way back for them. They refused. At one point, my wife was told they get scammed a lot. My wife asked if they were insinuating we were scamming them. They of, course replied no, but continued to refuse to give us the correct meals. The owner finally decided to drive to our house to make sure we didn’t eat any of the original meals (the incorrect items) before exchanging meals for the correct order. Yes, she drove to our house. I guess they still didn’t trust us. What did they do with the incorrect orders we returned? I don’t know. This is after eating here loyally for years. I won’t be back for some time. Forever is a long time, but I will say for some time.
3. environment, nothing special, reasonably clean.
Treating customers with respect means a lot to me. So good luck and I hope they don’t mess up your order if you choose to eat here.