El Molcajete — Restaurant in Ankeny

One of the best restaurants in Ankeny! Certainly the best margaritas!

Food is consistently fresh and well prepared. No stale rice that tastes like it's been sitting uncovered in the fridge for a week like some other restaurants closer to the highway. Saw some reviews that said this place was higher priced than other places; isn't expensive at all in my opinion. Even if they are more expensive, it's not by much and they're doing things much fresher and with better ingredients than others. The flavors, the textures, the experience are all top notch.

Staff are always friendly and generally have a perfect level of attentiveness. You may have one server, but the whole staff is working to make your visit a great experience! Fridays around dinner they can get pretty busy, but the staff never make it feel like I'm waiting very long for anything. I've never had them forget my tortillas, but I know if they did I could just ask them, like a normal person, to get some for me and it would be no problem.

If I had one complaint, it would be some of the noise level and echoing certain parts of the restaurant get due to just the shape of the ceiling. They could probably help fix this with decorations on the wall or sound paneling. However, this is such a small issue it's not something that would ever stop me...

Clean restaurant, kind and attentive staff, food bursting with favor - a pleasant surprise! Two adults, two kids and everyone left full. We arrived at 5:00 pm on a weekday and were seated immediately with chips and salsa at the ready. The chips were a bit thicker and the salsa was a nice, mild, addictive.

What we ordered to drink: chocolate milk (full adult glass for a thirsty kid), water, the house margarita, and a beer on special. The house margarita was tequila forward but not overpowering.

What we ordered to eat: Queso/cheese dip for our chips, kids cheese quesadilla, Pollo Asado, Colorado burrito, and Molcajete de Camarones. Each dish was packed with multi-layered flavor! Our tween even commented on how the Pollo delivered flavor, perfect chew (not overcooked), with more flavor on the backend. The Colorado had the perfect smoky, hearty flavor and the camarones were divine! Perfectly cooked, swimming in a rich mushroom sauce.

Service: Excellent! We were checked on regularly by our server and the area wait staff in a timely manner. Glasses were refilled, plates cleared regularly.

Pricing: All items ordered were priced in line, if not under local competition.

Overall: We'll definitely return! El Molcajete delivers on all components - the flavors alone are...

I ordered online from this place I order quite a bit and they outsource their deliveries I had placed an order for a scheduled time and it was delivered almost an hour early I called the delivery service and they sent out another order when I finally revived my fresh order I realized there were no tortillas for my order in either delivery I called the restaurant and the manager was very apologetic I was frustrated and hung up after talking to him but he called me back and explained what happened and saw that I ordered frequently and what i took from this is the man I spoke to cares very much about this place and I told him I wouldn't stop ordering from them he explained he will sit down with the delivery service to fix the problem regardless of the issue this is one of the best exotics I've had with a restaurant taking responsibility for its actions and fixing them at first I was a bit mad but have worked in a restaurant myself I was astounded with the service and the effort to call me back really shows how much they care...