El Guaca Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Maldon

I had been looking at various restaurants in Maldon when this caught my eye. With good online reviews already, I had high hopes. So off I strolled down the beautiful main high street and saw the welcome glow of a busy restaurant. The servers were friendly, informative, and importantly attentive with all of the patrons that evening, something I always notice and welcome seeing. The menu has a good stock of popular mexican dishes, and I was impressed by the offer of vegan and gluten-free food, with a good variety of options in both cases (however I am not vegan or gluten intolerant, so if you are, please check these options thoroughly before booking/deciding to go here as you might feel differently). The drinks menu also has a good variety, even having a gluten-free beer option and nice mocktails. I started with Nachos and Margarita. The drink was freshly made with a good amount of salt of the rim. The homemade guacamole was the star of this dish, truly delicious, and the nachos themselves nicely spiced. Normally, I'm used to nachos being drowed in melted cheese or smothered in sour cream. Thankfully, that was not the case here, with a perfectly balanced mixture of toppings!!! For the main I had a beef chimichanga and again everything was delicious, the meat was nicely spiced and tender. If you want more spice, two differently spiced and flavoured condiments are stocked at every table! Again, there was a perfect amount of rice to chimichanga filling, simply perfect. As I had enjoyed all of the food so far, I wanted to try a homemade desert, too. But being already quite full, I was initially hesitant. However, I was delighted to see smaller sized desserts with hot drinks as an available option, a very good idea, which I truly wish more restaurants did. I opted for the churros, and again, I wasn't disappointed. These came out hot and perfectly spiced with a little side of Dulce de leche. My filter coffee with a side of hot milk was well made and again a good compliment to the sweetness of the churros. All in all, I wholeheartedly recommend this place for anyone who wants delicious, well-made Mexican food, with a friendly atmosphere and lovely staff. Definitely visit if you're...

Decent Mexican place with some room for improvement. We booked randomly into this restaurant on a Thursday evening, on the day bookings have to be made by calling the restaurant which went smoothly. We arrived and the place was PACKED which is so great to see! The cocktail list is really really extensive, special shoutout to the selection of tequilas you can choose from. The only thing that would make me even more happier would be some more mezcals on that list. I tried 3 different cocktails and all of them were delicious, my partner tried some sort of lemonade which he said was delicious. we ordered some chips and guac and it is absolutely true what they say, the guac is magnificent and a showstopper and good enough to just go for that! we also had the jalapeno poppers which were fine, although store bought. for mains I went with fajitas, half steak and half chicken. they arrived in a sizzling pan and looked delicious, but they were unfortunately the worst dish of the evening. my steak side was incredibly chewy, I don't know if it was because I got unlucky with the cut or it was cooked incorrectly. the chicken was cooked well but unfortunately pretty flavourless. I know it is also not the typical mexican way but I did not get any salad to put into my fajitas, "just" sauces which were all yummy. my partner had a lot more luck with his mains. he ordered the pork and steak tacos. I tried his steak tacos and they were absolutely delicious, no chewy steak in sight here! I absolutely would get those again. the pulled pork was juicy and basically overfilling the taco which was just perfect! they could've done with a bit more flavour too but were adequate. we also ordered some empanadas which were again store bought but good. we had no more room for desserts but they read nicely on the menu. our waitress did a stellar job and was very friendly, the restaurant was very busy but even though that was the case our food came quickly. we sat very close to the kitchen (and the toilets) which allowed us to spy at some other dishes which all looked interesting. I would definitely go again and order the steak tacos as well as try out some other things, but my fajitas were...

Tasty food but it’s more Tex Mex than authentic Mexican and dining experience is stressful.

My partner and I had dinner here last night. Normally we go to Mexican Kitchen in Wickford for authentic Mexican food (I’m not a fan of tex Mex) but thought we would try El Guaca as the reciews looked great and it said authentic Mexican.

First impressions - incredibly busy. We got there at 7 and pretty much every table was full. Servers were welcoming and friendly but it was over 20 mins before someone came to take our food order and no one had asked if we wanted drinks before that. Not the fault of staff, they were at full capacity.

I had the queso to start and a beef carnita enchilada. The queso was ok but they use the wrong cheese so it’s incredibly thick and rubbery and difficult to eat.

The enchilada was very tasty - the beef in particular was melt in your mouth - but it wasn’t authentic Mexican - Enchiladas don’t have a cheese sauce. Although it was tasty I couldn’t finish it as it was a deceptively heavy meal.

I wouldn’t go back here which is a shame as the food was tasty. My reason for not returning was how ridiculously busy it was, and what a stressful dining experience it was. Tables are so close together you can hear everything your fellow diners are saying, if they drop anything you have to move so they can retrieve it etc. If they ran the restaurant at 80% capacity instead of 100% it would make for a much nicer dining environment and the staff would probably appreciate it too, they are run...