Abuelo's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Abilene

I was visiting the area and googled the best Mexican Restaurants. Abuelo's was listed as #1st. I read the reviews and decided to give it a try. The restaurant is in a strip mall so they share a parking lot. Other stores were open and the lot was rather busy but I got lucky as someone was leaving. I thought wow this restaurant is very popular. When I went in, it was about 5:30 p.m, on a Wednesday and there weren't that many customers but a lot of employees...some standing around talking (busboys and such). I thought hmm, the parking lot was deceiving as to how busy the restaurant is. I thought the ambiance of the place was very delightful. Bright, cheery, open, yet when I was seated it felt cozy. The hostess was very pleasant when seating us. Our waitress was our only hiccup. She was as kind and professional as she could be though I felt she must have had something on her mind not allowing her to stay concentrated on her work. They have a nice selection of margaritas (that tasted like fresh muddled margaritas I have had in Mexico) the one I chose was a hand shaken (yes you get the shaker to keep refilling your glass) that was delicious. My husband chose a Coke zero. Everything was good until he received his refill, he received a Doctor Pepper instead. We let her know, she says oh no, another table then received his drink. No worries really, she takes the glass returns with a fresh drink...the same problem! My husband says he'll just drink it not to mention anything to her. Now I would assume at this point the other table that wants the Doctor Pepper would say something and she'd be back...but that didn't happen! I ordered the mixed chicken and steak fajitas. Everything came, looked delicious, tasted delicious. The fresh flour tortilla shells, soft and warm (I did have a choice of flour or corn). My only complaint of the fajitas would be, I like green peppers and onions, the onion quantity didn't disappoint but I quite literally had four thin sliced pieces of green pepper! My husband ordered the Grande Burrito. It came on an extra large plate and filled it. He said it was very good and again with the housemade tortilla shell, he said it was definitely noticeable. We did also try the Bacon-wrapped stuffed shrimp. Scrumptious, is the only word that comes to mind. Don't let the word jalapeno in the description turn you off, it's not hot in that way. It's smokey from the bacon and being fire-grilled but is truly scrumptious! When we were getting ready to bag up our leftovers we asked our waitress if we could get any of the salsas to go. Now I should mention here they bring you a trio of salsas when seated. A spicy slightly smokey one, a sweeter from fresh tomatillo one and a regular what you would expect tomato one...all are very good. So anyway the waitress says yes you can get salsa to go. So my husband says we'd like to add to our check a pint of each of the two red ones. She says she'll go get them and our check. She comes back with a little cup of each that is holding about an eighth of a cup. Definitely not the pint of each we requested. We looked at each other decided against correcting her paid our check, left her a generous tip. As we both figured she didn't have her mind completely in the game and maybe wasn't having the best day. By the time we were leaving the place was packed. The parking lot was still very full but by the time we left the other businesses looked mostly closed and like the parking lot was busy because of the restaurant. Overall our experience was very nice I would have given 5 star's but with the little bit of a hiccup with our waitress, I had...

Update: After talking with someone about our previous experience and that they were going to address the issue. My mother and I decided to give Abuelo’s another chance. One of the things that was fixed was the menu. Apparently they removed the term ‘Chili con queso’ and replaced it with ‘cheese sauce’ because my mother’s quesadilla was topped with it and not only us but many people were confusing that with meat sauce (according to our previous waitress). I was glad to see that changed. Customer Service: We had Cely for our waitress and she was very friendly, polite and attentive. I never had to look for her. She stayed on top of things. - 5 stars Food: My mom got the Laredo and I got the Steak and Enchiladas. The steak was was flavorful and very tender. I got the cheese enchiladas with carne sauce. So delicious. On mom’s entree, the taco had a half taco shell under it to keep the taco crispy and so it wouldn’t get soggy. Tres Leches cake. They changed the cake. 3 years ago, right before I moved away, I ate here for my birthday and the Tres Leches cake was a finer cake while this cake is more dense. I prefer the other tres leches cake over this one though this one is still good. - 5 stars Price: Higher than average- 3 stars ————— Customer Service: We were sat at a dirty table. Someone finally cleaned it. Glad we’re not freaks about the covid. Our waitress was rude & inattentive. We had to constantly look for her. Though, we ended up needing the manager which was polite but failed to meet our need. - 1 star Food: when I read chili con queso. I believe it's chili meat sauce like at other Mexican restaurants. It was one of two choices to top our meal with. Turns out it was just cheese sauce. My mother was disappointed in her meal so she was going to order something else but the manager took too long to come back to the table because I got finished with my meal. So we left. - 3 Star Price - Higher than average for average...

If you are looking for authentic Mexican food or Tex-Mex this is not the place. I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t enjoy leaving bad reviews but customers should know what they will get. The first photo is what was advertised and what I expected. The following photos is what I received. To begin with, the crispy taco was not crispy and the meat inside was cold, dry, tasted old and as if it had been mass produced and set under a broken heat lamp. Sadly, Taco Bell would have been better. The chile relleno was strangely, breaded instead of being covered in egg batter as it is traditionally. The cheese it was stuffed with was terrible…and it was not a poblano pepper. The beef and cheese enchilada were smothered with a red sauce that tasted close to canned chili. The chicken enchilada was only half stuffed with what tasted like shredded chicken that had been ground and smothered with a tomato based sauce…the refried beans were obviously canned. The rice was dry and lacked flavor. Lastly, the tamale was dry. It was also smothered with the same chili sauce as the beef and cheese enchilada…the sauce did little to moisten the actual tamale. The waitress was kind and personable. The restaurant itself was well decorated. I wish they had spent the same amount off effort into developing authentic recipes as they did decorating. If the Abuelo is no longer with us, the poor man must be turning in his grave. The Grande Platter was a Grande Disappointment and not worth $24.23. The one star is for the...