El Chico

Restaurant was filthy! Tons of tables were empty yet had food all over them. Floors were sticky. The food was cold & our enchiladas were hard. Will not be returning.

They were NOT busy. The table next to us asked twice for a server. We waited for one as well. No one took our drink order or acknowledged our presence beyond the greeter/​seater. We asked her and waited. Still nothing. I can see why the other restaurants around the circle had packed parking lots on Sunday at 1:00pm and this place did not. We left and the table next to us finally received service as we walked out. There were plenty of wait staff available but none interested in working that day. Too bad!

I ordered the tacos off the lunch special and they tasted horrible and fake. The meat tasted nasty in both chicken and meat tacos. Also, as I was leaving I saw a dead grass hopper on a table. It was my first and last time going there.

I can only give this place 2 stars for the following reasons, one star because the food was delicious. The second star because the server was very friendly and attentive.
The reasons I am dropping my score is because the restaurant is absolutely the filthiest restaurant I have been in. As I walked up, I immediately noticed the peeling paint and the windows that haven’t been cleaned in years. There was one pane of a double pane window that was broken and there were several dead wasps and flies in it.
I went ahead and decided to go in because I was hungry and was in the middle of a 6 hour drive.
The manager seated my right away and brought me chips. The salsa was delicious.
The server greeted me pretty quick and brought me my drink and took my order. I ordered the Poblano Carnitas. She refilled my chips and salsa twice while I waited for my food.
While waiting, I looked around and the windows by my table were just as disgusting as the front one. Also there were food crumbs all over the window seal and even on the wood border on the wall. It looked like when they clean the tables they just brush the crumbs off the table into the window seal. These crumbs were not recent either, they have been there for a very long time.
My dinner was delicious, but I began tasting a sour taste to the meat. I thought it might have been the marinade, but 2 hours down the road I found out otherwise. I won’t go into details, but I had to make 2 other stops. I have my suspicions that the meat had been made earlier in the day and not kept at the proper temperature. I managed a restaurant for 3 years, so I know about the danger zone for food, 40 degrees to 140. If it’s in that range, bacteria can grow.
I won’t go back despite the food tasting great and the service being excellent. I’m not tempting another bought of frequent restroom visits.

El Chico doesn’t have a large selection of gluten-​free items but they made a supreme effort to make a tasty safe meal for me. The waitress was interested in learning about Celiac disease and quickly translated the information into identifying potential problem foods and preparation methods. My meal was satisfying and the service excellent.

Reserved for 25 people and they had one waitress ready to serve. It took 45 minutes to get waters, 1 hour to order food, and now I’m sittin here ready to eat. Hopefully the food is at least good

I had a group here for lunch… one waitress took care of all 15 of us. I wish I could remember her name but service was great. Food was tasty and hot, and my daughter loved the guac.

Came in for a quick dinner. Ordered the Burrito by You. Asked the waitress if the guacamole had onion, she said it didn’t. When it turned out that it had small onions in it, she made me some without. CARRIE gave great service, food was great!

Met family in waco this weekend & stopped at the El Chico for some good grub got the amount of food they gave us the prices were very reasonable everyone we came in contact was friendly & the restooms were clean

This was the worst dining experience of my life. It was Cinco de Mayo and I wanted a margarita. First of all the service was terrible. We went for margaritas and the frozen machine was broken, and they still charged us 6 dollars for our water margaritas. Then the food was late and cold. As we were leaving we stopped to talk to friends about where we were going next, and as walking out the general manager grabbed one of our friends by the arm and yelled at her for being a solicitor for another restaurant. Completely unprofessional and not okay. She is a young girl and he grabbed her, that is not alright. He also never apologized after we went in and talked to him. I would never go there again and I am planning on writing to their headquarters and explaining this situation that’s how bad it was. seriously never go there.

Not the worst, but not very good. Moving from the Houston area I have yet to find a good Mexican restaurant in Waco. Only one kind of sauce– red– not that good. Fajita meat (both chicken and beef) was bland and had little flavor. I’d look elsewhere when choosing a restaurant.

I’m not really into Mexican food myself, since I don’t prefer beans or peppers and I avoid tomatoes (and food with tomato product in them) like the plaque. Of course, living in Waco, I end up at Mexican/​Tex-​Mex type places all the time. I wonder why people decide the prefer one place over another … El Chico seems like about the same as every other place. I had the fajitas… they were fine. The service was good. The booths were comfortable.
It was a good dining experience, but certainly not the type of evening that would convince me to always choose El Chico when I think «mexican!»
If I go back, I’d like to try the spinach enchiladas… with the cream sauce. That looked promising. :)
p. s. the margaritas here were spendy!

When my Sis was living in Waco for college I met her here often for lunch. Nowhere near the best that Austin has to offer but always a good experience when in Waco.
The Chicken Fajitas are always good!