El Azteca — Restaurant in Apple Valley

I hate to leave negative reviews, but I really do think people need to be informed about our experience here. The atmosphere is nice, but it didn't make up for our negative time. After being seated, it took 20 minutes before our server visited us to take our drink order (there were maybe 4 tables of patrons in the whole big place - it wasn't busy by any standard). After the drinks came it was another 20 minutes before we saw our server again to place a food order. That's where it all went wrong: the food all came out at drastically different times. A "sizzling" fajita was delivered appallingly cold (CERTAINLY not sizzling - the red peppers felt like they came straight from the fridge, not just room temperature) and arrived without tortillas. By the time tortillas came, it was definitely cold through and through. Next came an order of 1 quesadilla and 2 tacos, and every piece of the set (ordered clearly with just meat and cheese) was wrong. (Note that the server even returned to the table before this one was delivered to CONFIRM that she had written it down correctly.) The quesadilla had no meat, the tacos were on the wrong shells and had lots of toppings. One of our parties orders didn't arrive at all, and 3 different people asked my friend 5 times what he ordered...even though the original server wrote it down twice. Though it was apparently forgotten (and took another 10 minutes to be delivered), it still arrived VERY cold with a soggy taco salad shell. Another order (for a child) never arrived, but the child was able to share with the rest of us, and as long as it took for the rest of the food to trickle to our table, we didn't bother asking for it.

In general, the ground beef was grossly sweet - almost inedibly so. The shredded chicken was so salty you'd swear it was smothered in Valveeta cheese, but at least I could stomach it. The quesadillas were soggy and every dish included in our order had serious cold spots - I don't understand how the plates could be hot but the food be so cold! Was it previously cooked and only partially reheated when we ordered it?

On the plus side: the manager understood our situation and comped our meals. The water was fine and my husband said his margarita tasted normal, so that's something.

The bottom line: We had such a bad experience with our lunch here, that even if I had a voucher for a free meal, I...

Average food and terrible service. We were a party of six, 5:30 on a Saturday night. Fairly busy, but nothing abnormal for a Saturday night - no large parties, etc., that we could see. Seated fairly quickly, and the chips/salsa/drinks came in an appropriate time frame. After we ordered our food things went south quick. Will highlight three specific issues:

1. We ordered two kids meals - pointed at the menu and confirmed the order with the waitress, who at the point had an attitude already and seemed irritated that we were asking questions about the kids options. When these arrived, they were NOT the kids meals (which included rice, beans etc.,) but just the specific item we ordered - in this case a single taco and a single quesadilla. We had to divvy our meals up so the kids had enough food. When we told our waitress, she didn't apologize, or bring the extra kids meals items, but said that we had specifically ordered those individual items, and not the kids meals. Blatant lie.

2. We ordered the fajitas for two meal. They brought the meat out first, which was sitting there for more than 15 minutes before the tortillas, guac, salsa, rice, etc. was brought to us. Absolutely ridiculous, and never experienced this at any other reputable Mexican restaurant. By the time we were able to eat our fajitas, the meat was cold. When we complained to the server, she had the same irritated attitude and said it was coming. We asked to speak to the manager, who said no other Mexican restaurant has all the other fajita items ready to eat right away, and this was normal. Again no apology offered. WHAT??

3. We had to ask four times for water. The fourth time, our server stuck her hand up in our faces, cut us off and said I'll go get it. We did not get our waters until our meal was almost done.

By far the worst service we have experienced in any restaurant. Absolutely baffling. We spoke to the manager, who offered no apologies, and after much conversation finally agreed to drop the kids meals from the ticket.

We won't be coming back here. Service was terrible, management seemed like they had no idea how to run the place, and the food wasn't nearly good enough to make up for it. Good luck to you if you try, though with how bad our service no place...

El Azteca has been a family favorite for over a decade. With generous portion sizes, fantastic flavors, fair prices, it’s an excellent value all around.

It’s a very popular spot in Apple Valley, and though it can be quite busy, we have never needed reservations, and very rarely have had to wait for a table. The decor is delightful, with roof tiles and well designed booths that feel cozy and private. Many of the servers have been there for a decade or more, so they are well experienced and provide great service. The food service is also exceptionally, remarkably fast. It is rare that we ever have to wait longer than 10 minutes after we place our order for it to be fully delivered to the table. We frequently have the reaction, “Wow! Already?”

The complimentary chips are always fresh, crisp, and tasty. They have a unique white salsa (served with tasty traditional salsa) that is usually the tipping point to bring us back over other Tex-Mex places.

A couple of menu favorites are the Burrito San Jose, which combines chicken, chorizo, and queso blanco, and the fajitas for two platter, which easily feeds our family of four (with leftovers).

El Azteca it’s easily one of our favorite Tex-Mex restaurants...