El Encanto Dos — Restaurant in Arizona

I've always liked this place. The location with the surrounding scenery is very cool. I've only been a handful of times (it's not right around the corner for me), but I remember the food being solid to above-average. It looks like they're stepping up their game a little, or it could just be my imagination. I went there with a large group, which isn't always easy to manage. But our server, McKenna, was awesome! She was on top of everything from drink orders to refilling chips and salsa, to making solid recommendations on the menu. The margaritas were much better than I remember. Again, they may be the same as always, I just don't remember enjoying them as much. With our family we inevitably try each other's dishes when we go out. So I was able to try a couple of different items. The chile verde (green chili) stood out as being particularly tasty. And the fish tacos were really good, too. The sauce on the tacos was delicious. I'd love to know what's in it. My go-to dish, and typically how I rate a place, is carnitas. McKenna gave the thumbs-up that they were good, so I gave them a try. I have to admit I was a little confused, and possibly a little concerned, when I received my plate. I'm used to carnitas being large chunks of savory pork with beautiful caramelization searing the outside. This looked more like a stew with many smaller chunks sitting in a broth. My concerns went away quickly when I tasted it. Although it's not exactly how I typically like it, I'm glad to know there's other variations out there. The flavors were incredible and the broth was worthy of using every last tortilla to mop it up. My one complaint about the dish was that it didn't come with both rice and beans, it just came with beans. They were good, but carnitas requires both to make it complete dish. I'm also used to having an option of sour cream, guac, or both. Fortunately, McKenna gave us a few options on salsa, which were all good, so I made do without them. Overall everything was very good and we had a great experience. I will not hesitate to go back. I may even make a...

Never again. I wanted to eat here for quite some time, drove the 30 minutes and visited over a month ago, but the restaurant was closed unannounced for covid. That was frustrating, since they were listed as open. Waited a few more weeks and then made a take out order for the first time. Ordered a chicken burrito with rice and beans for the hubby and the chicken tacos with rice and beans for myself. Hubby was informed all that comes in the burrito is chicken, nothing else and every ingredient he added was charged extra. Charged extra for beans, extra for rice, extra for cheese, etc. Since when is a burrito just plain meat wrapped in a flour tortilla???

So, we picked up our $35+ order and it was served up in tinfoil takeout containers. Yuck. No utensils, no napkins, no packets of salsa or sauce, nothing.

The beans were indeed not beans but some kind of bland refried paste fit for a prison plate, and tainted by the taste of the foil they were sitting in. The rice was bright orange for some reason, but lacking flavor, it also tasted like the aluminum tray it was served in. The chicken in my tacos was just white meat chicken, no sauce, no seasoning, no spice, just bland chicken. The chicken in the burrito was the same, no sauce, no seasoning, no spice, just bright white, unseasoned chicken.

I am not sure how a restaurant can claim to be serving up "Authentic Mexican fare" that pales in comparison with a fast food chain like Filiberto's! I would take the Filiberto's food 10/10 times over this overrated, overpriced swill. It all tasted like tinfoil. Nothing about it was authentic. We actually thought maybe they forgot to season the food? What a fantastic waste of almost $40 plus my fuel and time to go there - twice - only to discover what a huge disappointment it was.

Do you know how much food I could buy for $35 at the grocery store? Do you understand that people dine out to experience foods they can't make at home, or to enjoy a dinner they didn't have to prepare? Most of this food went into the trash, so I basically just threw out my...

El Encanto is one of our go to favorite Mexican restaurants in Phoenix. We made a reservation at the Dos location for a special occasion on a Monday night. Our party of 6 adults was shown to a booth where we would have been hard pressed to seat 4 adults. We asked for a different table where we barely saw our server. Their delicious Marguaritas, chips and salsa came but we were given the crumbs of the chips, so crushed up we had to ask for a fresh basket. The table was never set up for cutlery and napkins for us, we eventually got our own from a nearby empty table. When our food arrived it was very dry. It had obviously sat for some time. The “rare” Carne Asada was flavorless, dry and like leather. When the waiter finally showed up to see how the meals were it was too far into the meal to ask for it to be redone. We ordered a second round of drinks to have with the meal but they never came until the meal was done. We tried to wave down the server to order a dessert for the birthday we were celebrating but he could not be found. The checks came but were not correct. I was undercharged by $100. Feeling badly for the server I pointed it out to him but he insisted it was correct so I shook my head and paid. After we paid he came rushing back to agree with me the bill was wrong. We waited while the corrections were made but our dirty dishes were never cleared from our table even though we lingered a long time after the meal. We tried to move to the lounge which had a few smaller tables free, but no one offered to try to organize them to accommodate our group of 6. I flagged our bus boy to ask if the dishes could be cleared at our dinner table but he said it was not his job? Frustrated we decided to go somewhere else. I asked to see the manager to tell them how disappointed we were. We waited for some time but he never came. We left. I hate to say we will never go back but it used to be our favorite restaurant. So...