el Barrio tacos & tequila — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

Awesome Food & Great Setting!

Overall: excellent setting in the heart of Five Points with good food and amazing margaritas. Perfect spot on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to drink superb margaritas and have some excellent mexican fare. Big space, especially for Five Points. Food is really strong. Service was a little slow at first, but picked up better when more help arrived.

Food: really good. A few of the items were just ok, but overall good stuff. Chips and salsa were excellent. We go the queso and added chorizo, but it came out a little more like bacon. Not bad, but was hoping for more true chorizo to add tot the dip. We got the pork belly gorditas, which came out looking like mushroom sandwiches, but we're really tasty. Packed with cheese and pork belly, it was very good. Also sprung for a fried garlic shrimp taco and it too was awesome.

Drinks: got a pitcher of frozen house margarita to share and it was amazing!!! It was the perfect consistency and flavor. Some frozen margs are all ice, but these were perfect, especially for a warm spring day.

Service: they definitely were understaffed at first, as there was only two employees for front of the of house, which included taking orders, making, drinks and taking food. Another worker eventually showed and it started to smooth out after that. Very friendly, just super busy and understaffed at first.

Vibe/Interior: really cool setup inside and out. The bar area is where you stand in line for order, so when it's crowded it's really tight. There is a covered dining area inside and tons of space outside. There is cornhole and a putting green for fun as well. Only issue is lack of tables outside, only about 4. Bunch of chairs for lounging and drinking, but not conducive for eating in.

Summary: cool place in five points for eating...

I’ve eaten here twice and it’s always a disappointment. Let’s start with the positives:

1. it’s an extremely cute restaurant and great atmosphere! Totally a different experience than your average restaurant!
2. their cheese dip is pretty good especially mixed with their rice!
3. vegan/vegetarian options which is great! We love inclusivity!

Now for the Negatives:

1. the tacos: they had a carnitas taco that was actually appetizing but they took it off the menu....why idk because every other taco is so not appetizing. I had a Barbacoa taco that was horrible. And then the chicken pastor that just didn’t taste good. The two times I went I was hoping they would have a steak taco but THEY DIDNT! What taco place DOESNT have steak tacos???? Like i get it, it’s not an authentic restaurant but geez...no steak?!
2. the salsa is just pitiful. Like fr. Y’all please please fix it. It is not good at all. It should be a crime to make salsa like that. Like add some garlic powder and onions and lemon/lime juice. It has no flavor and tastes like you’re eating a liquified tomato with nothing else added.
3. don’t even get me started on the guac...hire me and I will make some FIRE guac cause yalls ain’t it. 4)the churros man...y’all churros is up there with Taco Bell’s cinna twists. They taste and feel like it.

If the head honcho is reading this, please make some changes! Y’all restaurant is one of the coolest in Athens but the food is a hard miss. I would love to see some Mexican street corn and possibly a steak taco. Maybe even throw a tamale or two in there! With that said, I’ll probably give it a couple months before I...

My boyfriend and I decided to go to this place a little while ago. He's not Mexican but I am so I'm pretty picky but I wasn't expecting authentic food, just regular Americanized Mexican which is all that is offered here in the US. However, this honestly was such a disappointment. We spent almost $50 between just 2 people: 2 tacos for me, 3 for him (5 tacos total 1 or 2 were "birria" and the others chicken or shrimp) some chips and salsa, and two sodas plus tip. It took a long time for them to bring us our food and once it was brought out it was so, so bad. The tortillas were soggy, the tacos cold, the salsa had no flavor so I had to go get some limes, salt and some hot sauce from the shelf and try to fix it myself. The meat was bland and cold as well, I could only eat one of the 2 tacos because it was mush. My bf only ate 1 of his 3 as well. Calling these tacos just seems disrespectful, plus they hyped the "birria" up and it was one of the worst things we've ever tasted. You know it's bad when limes, salt, and hot sauce can't save the food. Plus the fact we spent $50 here on food we couldn't finish. We don't ever go out to any "Mexican" restaurant and expect authentic cuisine, that would be foolish, we are well aware that what is offered is Americanized here in the states, however we've been to plenty of great Americanized Mexican restaurants that are super good, unfortunately this was not one of...