El Desperado Mexican Grill & Cantina — Restaurant in London

TERRIBLE FOOD! Overpriced for what you get and extremely bland and tasteless food especially for a Mexican restaurant!! I Had the beef burrito Which was served with soggy salad, stale tortilla chips and hard rice which tasted like it was left out for a few hours! Definitely not fresh! The burrito it’s self had hard bits of beef which hurt to bite into as well as a rock hard wrap at the bottom which you could snap like a crisp as for the cheesy nachos for a starter you get a dollop of guacamole and sour cream and 2 slices of a jalapeño and about 10 nachos with hardly any cheese which you could tell was melted in the microwave, extremely stingy for the price also our meal was served with flat pepsi. As for my partner who had the Texas burger he had a teaspoon of bbq sauce in the burger no where enough sauce and undercooked bacon!! The burger it’s self was dry and tasteless as well as the bun being hard and crisply in places as seems it was to be left on the side to get stale. Again served with soggy salad and the chips where not even edible they were that discuting! When we mentioned this to the staff they did not seem to care and was not even apologetic was not even welcomed when entering the restaurant all was said to us was ‘you can choose where to sit here’s the menu’ was not asked if the food was okay or when we wanted to order we had to approach them every time we wanted something as they were to busy standing around with their backs towards us! Never had such bad service in my life! Will definitely not be returning to this...

We ordered a takeaway from this restaurant some time ago and it was truly awful. Preparing us tortilla chips without any salsa let alone fresh salsa, as a side, really is falling at the first hurdle for any self-respecting Mexican restaurant. They didn’t even come with queso cheese sauce instead. Just the chips! Our burritos were dry and tasteless. The worst I’ve ever had. Even in this country. It is worth mentioning at this point that both of us have lived in the US (but are from Worcester Park) for many years where in the South West and most major cities nationwide, authentic Mexican food is almost the national cuisine. Like curry pretty much is here. One of us has also been to Mexico so we certainly know what decent Mexican food should taste like. This place has no business calling itself a Mexican restaurant and vegetables more appropriate for an English roast dinner like green beans have no place being in an authentic burrito. There were no refried beans though (even for the veggie option) which is pretty much a must have inside a non-meat based burrito. To make matters worse, the food was also over-priced. Mexican food in Britain is usually poor at the best of time (visit a Chipotle restaurant in London to taste what a real, delicious burrito should taste like- they’re as good as the US-based chipotles) but all the reviewers saying how great this restaurant is unfortunately have clearly no idea what real Mexican food tastes like at all. They don’t know what they’re missing. El Desperado is the perfect name for this place...

I visited the restaurant on a quiet Tuesday evening to enjoy some Mexican food and cocktails. I ordered the chili con carne, which was good, but the tacos seemed to be from the cheapest possible pack and tasted like paper. I then ordered the steak, but it was a big mistake. It was chewy and undercooked. When I asked the waitress if the chefs could cook it longer on the grill, she rolled her eyes and took the plate. When she brought it back, the chips were cold and the steak tasted even worse. When asked if everything was okay, I mentioned that both steaks were not the best and we didn't enjoy them, as there was literally all steak left on the plate. The waitress didn't even apologize, offer anything else, or inform the chefs. It felt like we weren't being looked after at all. It was surprising to see a service charge added to the bill considering the poor experience we had. We are not the type to complain, but this was really disappointing. Sort this...