El Potrero

This our «go to» for Mexican! We eat here several times a month and the food is always great and the staff very courteous and in busy times help each other out to make sure customers are getting what they need fast! Prices are reasonable and portions are big, I often have enough for another full meal and so does my husband. If you want good Mexican food with a nice family atmosphere, give it a try. They do have a bar, but I’ve never seen anything inappropriate for children, I usually see families, young adults, business professionals and seniors eat here. They have something for everyone.

The food is great, however, there is one employee that is perhaps the Manager that needs to go back to service 101. Perhaps a smile upon greeting you & as seating you, don’t think that would be too much! They got very busy but the waitress had taken our drink order. He came & asked what beverages we needed, & I told him she had taken our order. He then demanded to know so I told him a coke, 2 waters & a margarita. He then brought back the coke & waters. Well, silly me, I asked about my margarita! His response was «I assume they are working on it! We just got 7 tables & it is not all about you! What??? Like I said, service 101!

My wife and I eat here a couple times a month. The food, prices, atmosphere and staff have always been great.
I don’t like that they have taken the different hot sauces off the table though. I like to experiment a bit with my chips

Pretty average on all counts. It’s nowhere near as nice as El Potrero, it’s sister restaurant, in downtown Flint. Very inconsistent in terms of food quality, ambiance and the service. It was fine, very average, but a bit disappointing, to be quite honest. The service was kind of sketchy, a little slow and our server, though outgoing and polite, was a little scattered and distracted. I had to keep requesting fresh tortilla chips and salsa, which never happens in a Mexican restaurant. The décor could use a little updating, which seems odd since this El Potrero location hasn’t actually been open all that long. Weird. The food itself was a bit underwhelming. The refried beans weren’t particularly flavorful and sort of tasted like they were from a can. Quesadillas were ok, but overly smothered in cheese. Tortilla chips were good, not greasy and the salsa was pretty tasty.

This was the worst Mexican food I’ve ever had. Paste for salsa. Bland, colorless food. Slow, unresponsive, forgetful waiter. Remarkably bad. Case Real is on the same road, not far away at least!

If you have little time constraints and no expectations when it comes to customer service, then this is the place for you. Everyone else should avoid El Potrero (Swartz Creek) like the plague.
My experience with true Mexican cuisine has always included a fun and festive atmosphere… a place where you’re called «amigo» when you walk through the door and the staff takes great delight in allowing you to stumble through the few Spanish words and phrases you know while conversing with them. These festivities are sorely lacking at El Potrero in Swartz Creek. The man in charge — we’ll call him «El Jefe» — is a large, gruff and rather imposing-​looking hombre who used to work at Casa Real down the road. My first experience with El Jefe was at Casa Real, where my simple request for «mas salsa» was met with a rather rude, «Why are you trying to speak Spanish, man?» Trying Casa Real a year later, I was pleased to see that El Jefe was gone, and the place seemed decidedly more vibrant.
Upon walking into El Potrero, the grim visage of El Jefe was the only thing to greet me. I froze in my tracks, wondering if he recognized me. Our eyes met as imaginary and dramatic guitar strumming and maracas rattling played in my head, signifying the standoff. From there, I was led to my seat by a rather timid waiter who looked like he would be more at home at a comic book convention or playing World of Warcraft in his mother’s basement. This assessment transcended to his job performance: no matter how many times my friend repeated his order, the dubious waiter still managed to get it wrong. (Bringing beef fajitas when chicken was ordered is just one example of his myriad mistakes.) Perhaps if he would’ve taken the time to write the order down, he might’ve have gotten it correct. To make matters worse, El Jefe delivered the food to our table, quite literally dropping the plates before us and causing a loud cracking sound as they hit the tabletop. Not exactly service with a smile.
As to the food, it’s pretty much standard Mexican restaurant fair that, at best, is fair to middlin’. One of my favorite things about Mexican restaurants is the nachos and salsa and El Potrero’s nachos had the fresh-​from-​the-​oven warmth, which was a pleasant surprise. The salsa, however, wasn’t bad… but it wasn’t good or even noticeable, either. I wondered if someone just dumped some unseasoned gazpacho into the tiny bowl and tried passing it off. As for my tacos, they tasted good… right up until the point a tidal wave of amber-​colored taco grease oozed through the cracks in the shell and dribbled down my hand. Also, the restaurant seems to have too many rules, i.e., if you get the lunch special, it doesn’t come with free drink refills, etc. Seems like they’re nickel and pesoing their customers.
Long story short, there are plenty of other good Mexican restaurants in and around Flint that are worth trying.

The pico de Gallo is really good. The chips and salsa were delicious, fresh, and endless. A little noisy for my taste, but that’s due to the huge bar, they got going on. The Servers were very good at their jobs and that we nice. to many times you can’t even find a semi remotely Happy server. They also knew the menu very well. The prices were cheaper when they first opened. Kinda waited awhile for the food but it was busy so that’s understandable, and it really wasn’t that long.

My wife and I decided to have dinner here and were very pleased. The staff was very attentive chips and salsa were kept full drink glasses were always full and they were fairly busy. The food was good with no real complaints other than the steak meat in the fajitas Mexicanos was a little tough and it only came with three tortilla shells which I’m sure they would have refilled without an issue but we were already full. We will definitely eat there again and hope this restaurant sticks around. This location has had a lot of failures in the past.