El Compadre

Great authentic Mexican food ! Best I’ve had since I moved from Texas. Healthy portions for reasonable prices. Staff is friendly and good service. If you are used to Texmex chain restaurants this isn’t for you, unless you are willing to move outside your comfort zone.

My go to Mexican Restaurant in Shreveport!
Service: They treat you like family from the moment you walk in. Juan and his family are extremely attentive with your every need. ⁵⁄₅
Chips/​Salsa: yes they are free! Salsa is delish and if you are looking for a more spicy fix ask for the Diablo Sauce! You will not be disappointed
Food: I have yet to find something I have not enjoyed on the menu! Must trys: Anything Chorizo and the stuffed shrimp! woo woo and their enchiladas!
they also have a happy hour! Great Prices/​Food/​Service. Triple win.

El Compadre is like a watered Down tacomania. Tacomania graduated from this location around ten years ago. El compadre doesn’t seem to have the value or momentum to graduate. I wander why? First, their salsa bar is flawed with slimy pico and watered down bland salsas. The enchiladas and tacos (I’ve tried almost every menu item) are very similar all in taste despite what type of meat, sauce, cheeses are on there. Their dynamics of their seasoning/​grilling is mediocre at best as prof to their homogenous sense of taste throughout. The one bright spot of this restaurant is the seafood. Otherwise I would give this place a −1÷5. The seafood here is outstanding and offers the Ark-​la-​tex an alternative to land based Mexican food. The pacific cuisine of mexico can be found here. The ceviche is excellent. Easily the best in town. So if you come here I recommend you order this. Other than that it’s way below average and should be bulldozed.

I have been a loyal customer of El Compadres for years until tonight when my coworker and myself ordered some take out. We got it back and were missing the tortillas to our orders. No big deal really until I called intending to kindly remedy the situation but when the owner answered, I asked with whom I was speaking and in a crass manner, he refused to identify himself. «Who are you!», he demanded.
I insisted on asking who he was because it’s customary to know with who you’re speaking and two, I was intent on finding out who it was disrespecting me. He increasingly became more and more crass and snide, and continued in his evasiveness until finally he hung up on me. I called back but this time he passed the phone to someone else. This person whose name was Juan DID listen to what I had to say and understood immediately that they shorted me my order, an item that was essential to the dish.
I asked him who the unprofessional postule on a pig’s bottom was that treated me like a dog over the telephone and what do you know, it was Inus, the owner. By this time I was upset and obviously angry, and it wasn’t until I offered to go up there with every hard hitting, knee breaking, knuckle busting bastard that never got enough love as a child that I knew (and I know a few), to deal with this issue if they were incapable of dealing with this regretful situation in a professional manner over the phone, when Inus finally got back on the line and made an attempt to calm the situation that he created.
Despite that, i wasn’t trying to get anything for free, I was only trying to remedy a small mistake that anyone could have made until it was escalated by the owner into a very ugly and regretful circumstance.
I will never eat there again, I will tell every single person I know how badly I was treated after years of loyalty and after years of tipping into the 50 – 60 percentile, for one, because I use to be a server and two, because those servers up there work hard. It is just an unfortunate circumstance that they work for a degenerate sour suck of a lemon who I will make sure never gets one more red American penny out of me for the duration of my life, the lives of my children, grandchildren and their descendants.
If you plan to eat at El Compadres, be prepared for the owner to turn on you at any given moment like a rabid, ravenous wild animal and if you do decide to eat there after having read this review, please be sure to mention me. Thanks.

I will never go back to this place. I ordered a shrimp tostada and a shrimp cocktail. Tostada had way to much onion and the cocktail had no flavor and they gave me stale crackers — I paid $ 16 for this. I don’t know how this place gets a rating of 4 stars

Fantastic food, great people and service! By far one of the best Mexican places I’ve even eaten at!

When you first arrive at the resteraunt they give you chips and salsa. The salsa is very good! We also ordered a side of queso, which was pretty good but not the best ive ever had from a resteraunt. However, it did not last long.
We ordered a queso asado and beef tacos. The queso asado was very tasty. It was topped with a lot of cheese, and I love cheese so I enjoyed my meal. The tacos were reported to be good and the refried beans were made fresh and not out of a can. The food was tasty, and was also a great price. The service was good as well.
The atmosphere is pretty casual, some posters hanging on the walls. Even though the tables were pretty close together, it was still a good atmosphere. This is one of our favorite mexican places in Shreveport.

Delicious! Margaritas were awesome! Driving through on our way to New Orleans and was a welcome surprise!

I finally ate here last night at 7:15pm for the first time. I have several friends who really like it so I was looking forward to my meal. We only waited about 10min for a table but once we were seated we did not see our server for another 10−15min. The chip/​salsa guy came by after about 5 minutes but didn’t have water which would have been nice since the salsa was quite spicy (but good). Finally, our server arrived and took our drink and food order (which is annoying unless I request it), so I felt rushed. The food arrived in a timely manner, but unfortunately, was not good. I ordered chicken avocado nachos and could barely eat three of them. The chicken was dry and I believe it must’ve been sitting for awhile (or reheated?) because, while it wasn’t cold, the cheese had coagulated. Our server did offer to bring me a menu and order something else but I was ready to go at that point. I did, however, appreciate his offer but it would have been nice had he not charged me though (they were $ 11). My husband ordered the burrito dinner (shredded beef) and he said it was fine. A funny side note, we saw a friend of ours who had ordered his meal and then went to the restroom. When he came out 3min later his table had been cleared! There was no communication between the server and busboy, obviously. I don’t plan to eat here again… too many other similar Mexican restaurants in town to choose from, e.g., TacoMania, Trejo’s.

I love this place. They have great daily specials! The food is always great. And the picture I saw shows food in a styrofoam container. Their food is served on plates! Picture must be a to-​go order.

I was surprised to get a whole lot of free chipsandsalsa after ordering such a cheap meal. I ordered a fajita and burrito combo and got exactly what I was expecting. The food was ready in merely minutes. Yummy food and very fast service for under $ 7. I’m coming back for sure.

Great Queso and tasty food. Rice and beans were very good as were the enchiladas. We will certainly return for dinner again.

Everything was really good and the server was great. We got fajita nachos supreme. Very authentic. I loved the outdoor patio too.

Came here on recommendation (looking at you Billy Joe J lol!)
The place is tiny and we almost missed it. Upon entering we were immediately seated. We ordered the quesadilla starter which was very tasty at only $ 5. The chips and salsa were both fresh and very good.
While we were eating I noticed they had left a big tub of silverware on one of the tables. Not the best eye candy while you’re eating and unfortunately it remained there throughout our entire visit.
She had the pork chops which she said were not seasoned enough but otherwise good. I had the 3 taco dinner which is a good test for a Mexican restaurant. Sadly, they failed.
Why is it that Mexican restaurants don’t strain the grease out of the meat before serving it? My first taco was nice and crisp. The second was already soggy by the time I got to it. The third taco had to be eaten with a fork because it just fell apart. When you tilt a taco orange grease shouldn’t pour out. Please start straining your meat!
The service was prompt and courteous. The prices for most of the starters was kinda high at over $ 15. The prices for the meals were average.
Total price for our three plates of food here plus two drinks (tea and root beer) was $ 30. No free refills on the root beer.
I might come again to try something different but I wouldn’t go out of my way to do so.

Wonderful Mexican food. Having spent the past eight years living in San Diego, I became rather accustomed to excellent Mexican food. After several attempts to find it after moving to Shreveport, I finally did! This is authentic Mexican food — no TexMex, thank goodness!
Staff is always friendly, menu selection is large, and prices are reasonable! Yum.

The authenticity of many local Mexican food places is easily in question. «Way too gringo» is the norm here in Shreveport. Not the case here.
Salsa bar contains the real stuff. It’s a great change of pace, and improvement upon the TexMex flavor that’s so commonly referred to as Mexican food round these parts.
I had some charbroiled Carne Asada tacos… They are as good as I’ve ever had here. My wife checked out the chile relleno, and loved it.
All things considered, this place is now a hands down favorite for me. They’re serving more choices of TRUE Mexican food flavor, and doing it well.
Keep up the good work, and I’ll do my part by coming back time and again. Well done!

I truly wanted to like this place and came here 2 weeks in a row. It has the making of a gem, given the family involvement and hole in the wall divey feel. Unfortunately they fall apart on many levels.
Apps: Guac nachos were pretty good, but the Mex pizza is an even better option.
Entrée: Molcajete looked great and presentation was great, but taste was a big let down. The chicken was decent, as was the tiny sliver of chorizo, but the steak (flank?) was not chewable and shrimp were tiny. For $ 19, you basically get a mixed fajita in a clay bowl. Problem is that even most chains (Applebee’s, Friday’s, Chili’s, etc) deliver higher quality ingredients than this place.
Service: They are either overwhelmed easily or easily distracted. Seem to disappear for hours, which is hard to do in this tiny place. Extra napkins? I ended up getting up and grabbing my own from the sill by the door. Refills? Flag someone down.
Finally, when I asked for the bill; ending up waiting another 15 min. Turns out they don’t bring you the bill, they drop it off by the register out front. I only found that out, when I walked up and was ready to ask for it again. The (owner?) then pulled it off the counter. I also reached into the candy bowl, to grab a mint and pulled one out that was sticky and out of a wrapper. I told him that someone must have spit it back in (I assume a kid). His wife and he both said absolutely not. Again, I can see a mint out of a wrapper being in a bowl, but not one that is wet and sticky. I washed my hands, paid the bill and said goodbye to this place forever!

My favorite Mexican restaurant in town! I’ve never had anything bad here! A friend recommended the avocado nachos once and I order them as an appetizer every time I come here.

This native Colorado boy, by way of Texas, loves living in Philadelphia, but do I miss great Mexican food! El Compadre filled my need, and then some. Muy bueno. Food authentic, carefully prepared and presented. Margarita a little too sweet for my taste, but fine. Service good. Clearly a local favorite. Get there.

honestly, the place looks like a bit of a dump. but the food is good and pretty authentic. the owner was very gracious and hospitable.
we had a big table here and he forgot my beer. he made up for his omission by giving me one on the house. he also did a great job making sure everybody was charged for the correct stuff, not an easy task with four families, adults at one table and kids at another.
try the molcajete for something not found at the other mexican (texmex) money pits in town.