El Chico Cafe

UPDATED REVIEW June 21, 2019 - we had a horrible waitress this time!! We had to repeat out orders 3 - 4 times each and she still got them wrong!! She did the same thing to the table sitting behind us. They tried order the pickled relish dish and she finally told them that she would bring them onions. One person in our party tried to order tostadas with guacamole and she brought puffy tacos instead. She only came to the table twice with water and we asked twice to get the ticket. Not excited to be coming back after this visit. This is a restaurant that has been in Lubbock for many, many years. Ownership has changed recently due to the passing of the long time owner Mr. Carter. The menu has changed some as has the quality of the food. The tamale was very small and dry, the enchilada sauce was spicier than normal, but overall, it was pretty good. You can ask for corn or flour tortillas on the side and they used to have a relish dish of pickled vegetables in jalapeno juice. Too hot for me, so I dont know if they still have it. Service was OK. I am a big water drinker during meals and my glass was empty twice and had to ask both times to get it refilled. The most common problem I have in restaurants is that they put too much ice in the glass, then put more ice when they refill from a pitcher. I often ask for very little ice because I know there will be more ice than water by the end of the meal. Good place to go for Mexican food.

Honestly Mexican food is usually never a fail in my book, it’s hard to screw up Mexican food and the experience. But after walking into a completely quiet establishment, (you could literally hear a pin drop from anywhere in this place), waiting 20 minutes to get a water, and another 20 minutes for anyone to even approach us to get our order, I was already out 40 minutes and just wanted to leave at that point. Then my food came out wrong, 30 minutes after we ordered. When I asked my waitress about the order she rolled her eyes and didn’t offer to fix it. Only thing that tasted good was the onions.

We have ate here for years and have always enjoyed the food. Last night was different. Ordered cheese enchiladas but got chicken. The only warm about the food was the plates. Service was completely off. So disappointing when it is cold outside and you are expecting some good hot Mexican food. Other customers was complaining