Don Carlos Mexican Restaurant

The food at Don Carlos is fine, but the service is not. We waited a bit for our drinks to arrive, and placed our order then. Our food was brought in a timely manner by a young lady, but we never saw our waiter after he brought our drinks – didn’t check on us, ask if we needed anything, nada.
We ate and enjoyed our meals, and then sat, and sat, and sat. Finally I caught our waiter’s eye and signed that we’d like our bill. We sat some more until my husband got up and put on his jacket. The waiter appeared with our bill, and we sat some more, waiting for him to pick up the credit card and ring us out. When I got up and put on my jacket, the waiter came and finished the transaction.
We are patient, and were in no hurry, but felt we were being ignored and/​or forgotten.
If you go to Don Carlos, and your waiter is a tall slender man with a shaved head, ask to be seated in another section.

Waiter spilled water all over my daughter, didn’t apologize. Smoking on patio even though it is against the law in Waco, Tx & informed waiter & waitress & was not resolved. Soda was flat for kiddos, informed waiter & he said the C02 had been messed up & they were waiting on the tech. Have been here for 45 min & still no food. Terrible service, atmosphere (smells like smoke), and food. You are better off going to Ninfa’s or Chuy’s for higher quality service, food & atmosphere.
Good finally came & refried beans were ice cold. My daughters cheeseburger was rotten, she took one bite and spit it out. Hair was in the salsa.
Manager gave us a $ 20 gift certificate to come back, no chance of that happening. The waiter ended up being a good guy, he was just given bad circumstances to work in.

We stopped in while passing through town hoping for the best and that’s not what we got. Service was slow. Ordered two soda’s both were flat. Mixed drink came out before the soda. Salsa is chunky and flavorless. Ordered combo fajitas for two, not bad but nothing to brag about. Overall, not a good experience.

Traffic flow and seating wait seemed pretty reasonable. Waitstaff seemed to move pretty fast to get us in and out. Food was ok. Tough to say too much about the food since it seemed bland. Menu was pretty extensive with options. Lots of people must like bland since this place does pretty good business. The chips were blah but the salsa was tasty. Overall ok. Atmosphere is a plus which makes it a good place to visit with others. For the local market it is a bit over priced for what you get. Doubt I’ll be a regular but I might go there again one day.

Where do I start? Came here with a large crowd of fans who were in town to attend a high school football game. The restaurant was expecting us because they had the entire enclosed patio area reserved our large group. Unfortunately, they did not plan for having enough staff on hand to handle our large party. The times that I went into the restaurant to use the facilities, they were also packed inside and were spread thin on servers. I ordered the flauta plate. No lie, it literally took 2 hours for our food to arrive and once it did, we immediately had to ask for our checks and inhale our food in 5 minutes in order to get to the field in time. What a cluster. Seriously, I will avoid this place the next time I’m in Waco and in the mood for Mexican food.

Good plain food… filling and tasteless. The food at this road-​stop mall-​ee location vaguely resembles Mexican cuisine with one fine difference… it is tasteless. Looks good but taste like bland wax imitations of the real thing. Beer was warm, crowd was loud, service was slow and management was inexperienced. Can’t quite understand why weary travelers and starving shoppers crowd into this joint along with neglected locals to fill up on visually appealing and bland dishes. If you’re starving stop in, wait to be seated and gorge yourself, including the help-​yourself soft-​serve ice cream on the way out.
PS: forgot to mention the 15 memorable flat-​screens tuned to blaring football games.

This place exceeded our expectations! We were headed back home to Austin and needed to stop for dinner. We wanted Mexican and decided to use Unilocal.We were getting mixed reviews from all of the Mexican restaurants so we decided to just go with Don’s because it is right off the highway.
The food was very yummy! We got fajitas with mushrooms and peppers topped with melted cheese. The flour tortillas were homemade and very tasty. The red salsa was fresh and the green salsa was creamy.
There was soft serve ice cream too! Which was a plus :)
We will for sure stop again when we’re passing through Waco!

Awful.
Bad tasting draft bud light.
Bland food.
Waitresses cussing at each other and running around crying about whatever drama they cooked up.
Manager having a private discussion about drama with girl in front of diners.
Worst place I’ve been in awhile and I dine out ALOT.
Very unprofessional.
This was around 2:30 November 17^th 2015.
Will NEVER return.

Great place to eat, one of the better Mexican food restaurants in Waco. Sometimes you can get a not so good waitress or waiter, but hasn’t happened to often. Love eating here

The service is good… That about all the positives I can offer. Salsa… Bland. Chips stale. My first and very last time here.

We had a awesome server, he was completely swamped with customers and was on point! The food was yummy and the margarita was delicious.

Hi,
I have been to your restaurant many times. I have always enjoyed the food and service. I usually meet friends during your happy hour and sit on the patio listing to the music you have set up that day. I graduated last night and my friends and family wanted to take me to dinner. I tried to call ahead but unfortunately your establishment does not take reservations. That’s was fine, I made sure to arrive early to get a table for my party for the time I had asked them to meet. I wanted to sit on the patio because our party was around 18 people and we wanted to visit and be loud and enjoy some drinks. A happy hour event was ending on the patio when I arrived around 6:45pm. I let the hostess know about our expecting party size and she said it would be a wait for the patio because of the limited table space. I did not mind waiting. My party wasn’t going to arrive till 7:30. When my party was sat at 7:30 the patio was almost empty. There was chips and salsa waiting for us. The staff was cleaning up after the crowd that had left. The management was also on the patio cleaning. We had a waiter approach us and take our drink order and introduce himself. We let him know what we were celebrating and he said he would let the staff know. We sat for 30 minutes after our drink order with no drinks. I finally had to get up and I approached a manager that was cleaning with the staff. I asked him what was going on that I understood that they were cleaning but we were customers waiting to be served and had been waiting for 30mins and we haven’t even been given water. His explanation was we were a big party… That was his only explanation to our wait. They had almost an hour to prepare for my party but still we waited while people cleaned around us and not once bothering to notice us our wait on us. Shortly after speaking with the manager we were brought drinks and our order was taken. We waited another hour for our food… I spoke to the waiter and asked what was going on and he just said he was busy and was falling behind. He was apologetic but not once did the manager. Approach us or apologized. My mother asked the manager after our meal what the problem was and that we were unhappy with our service and the way we’re ignored the manager told my mother «thank you for coming in» and that was it! I am so shocked at the level of indifference and lack of customer service. We were a large party spending money probably a lot more had we been waited on properly. He could care less and I can’t believe how he as a manager could do that. I enjoy your establishment and your food. I was coming to celebrate and have a good time and your restaurant and the management was horrible at providing us customer service or even try to amend our fix the situation. Left with a bad experience. Are you aware of the management problem? Do you think that is satisfactory?

Expensive. Food was bland. Piña Colada in a pineapple was yummy but way over priced. The décor is great but when you look around a minute its kind of worn out. Very loud and super busy. Service was not great. We will not be returning.

If you are looking to fill up on good Tex-​Mex, have a lil’ fun, then this is the place to go!
Conveniently located on Loop 340/​Hwy 6 and I-​35, Don Carlos offers a fun spot for families or sneak out back to the deck for margarita craziness!
Food? Good Tex-​Mex. These guys are out of Houston, so they know what’s up. You get BIG portions, so if you like to put away food, this is a good start. Opt for the dinner combinations if you like quantity. Enchilladas are flavorful, tacos are decent, and the margaritas and beer prices are fabulous! Some of the best in Waco!
Mondays and Tuesdays, the restaurant has hard to beat drink specials – $ 2.95 big O beers and $ 3 margaritas. Wanna watch a game? Come HERE!
Are you a big bastard that likes a lot of savory Tex-​Mex for a great price? Or are you needing a girls’ night after work? Look no further! Don Carlos is the place to be in Waco, Texas!
Ask for Kimmie for preferential treatment ;)

I was a party of one and the hostess had to ask someone permission to sit a party of one at a table. I guess management frowns on party of ones eating anywhere but the bar. I had to ask for my drink to be filled. The chip kid told me to ask my waiter when I asked for a refill.
The food was ok. The rice had a funny texture like Cous Cous. The Charro beans were bland. The steak was the best part but they served me steak asado when I ordered steak adobado.
You can find better.

Always great Tex-​Mex food. Green salsa is the best and fajitas are the best. A menu secret is the Texas Style Burritos. Two large burritos and a side of rice. More food than you can dream about. This is one of my favorites.

Love this place! Fajita plates are excellent, generous portions, fresh veggies. Excellent tres leches, and flavorful chicken tortilla soup. Friendly and efficient wait staff. Tilapia dishes are also a favorite.

High prices. Mediocre food. There are a lot of Mexican food restaurants in Texas and there is not time for food of this quality. The only bright spot was the queso which was excellent.

I will never go back. This place spilled tea, lemonade and sprite all over me and my family and did not even bother an apology or pay for the cleaning service cost
. If you want your personal belongings destroyed by wasted beverages. This is your spot.

A nice day in Waco with the parents included a stop at this Mexican restaurant with my mom. We were seated quickly, and chips +salsa and green sauce came straight to the table. The ambiance was charming-​cute light fixtures over all of the booths, and plenty of TVs for watching March Madness, potentially a great place for football weekends!
My mom ordered tortilla soup-​it was a sizable portion, and she was thrilled with the flavor. I ordered a lunch special-​enchiladas with a soft beef taco. The beef taco was okay-​the tortilla was warm, but there was not much flavor in the beef. It was a great excuse to drown the taco in green sauce-​the green sauce was a treat. A tasty little treat. The enchiladas were not particularly out of this world-​they were cheesy and smothered in queso or sour cream sauce. Spoiler-​the sour cream sauce is just that… sour cream. Not many other flavors dancing about in this concoction.
All in all, the prices were reasonable, the food was filling but maybe lacking in flavor, and the service was good and quick. Super awesome surprise: YOU GET FROZEN YOGURT AS YOU LEAVE! A little twisty cone of fro-​yo!!!