El Charro Mexican Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Atlantic City

OUT OF STATE RESIDENTS BEWARE:

I used to love this bar. I had been going for years with my friends. The food and drinks are great for the price. The music and DJ are great, and I loved the atmosphere and collective enjoyment of everyone upstairs and downstairs dancing. However, recently the experience of many of my friends and I has changed…

Recently on multiple occasions I have witnessed security becoming rude and confrontational with guests over their own lack of license identification training. This location’s only form of validating licenses seems to be with a UV light and the “bend test”. They have no real license checking machines. On multiple occasions I have witnessed the security questioning any out of state drivers licenses and looking for other forms of identification. I have personally witnessed them attempt to destroy many drivers licenses by completely bending them in half. They will not accept any other identification than a passport photo. Any student or work ID is not sufficient. When confronted with the fact that recent ID’s are more bendable and out of state license don’t look the same as NJ license, the bouncer becomes rude and accuses guests of yelling and becoming confrontational (when they are not). After they bent and destroyed my friends ID, making him wait 10 minutes in the cold outside to find his passport photo, the security guard did not offer an apology and instead smugly said “I knew you guys would get it” and laughed with other bouncers about it. When my other friend brought it to his attention that her new NJ license (which he already approved) was also similarly bendy, he became agitated, bent her ID and said “You know what, I want to see your passport too”. Recently, I witnessed the same thing happen to another group. The SAME bouncer would not let in a girl with a PA license, despite having two other forms of valid identification and clearly being of age. When her friend pointed out that they had been in the bar before and she was over 21, the security once again accused began accusing the guest of being confrontational and yelling, and had police escort them out. The girls were not at all being confrontational. As they were with a large group, charros definitely lost $200 in just entry fees alone from everyone leaving. When one of my friends lightly recommended they purchase a real identification checking system to help them, the bouncer coldly replied “I remember you” and told her to “Stop putting her two cents in”. He was aggressive with her belongings, and when leaving, despite her saying nothing to him, he once again said that she should “stop putting her two cents in” every time he INCORRECTLY misidentified an out of state license.

If you do decide to go to el charros, be prepared and use discretion. If you have an out of state license and no other ID, you will likely either not get in, or spend 15 minutes dealing with the unpleasantness of the bouncer arguing with you. Inside, another 20 minutes will be spent in disbelief at how terrible the security service treated other customers, your friends, and you. Many of my friends no longer feel comfortable returning to charros after how they have been treated by security. A simple fix to their solution could make them thousands of extra dollars and help keep customers, however the attitude of the bouncer and lack of proper identification checking training ruins the experience for many. Take your $20 cash somewhere where security won’t berate you, destroy your ID, and ruin the first 40 mins...

This place has amazing food and a good atmosphere, but the bouncer that works the front door needs to be re-trained or have an attitude adjustment. On several occasions friends of mine and people just in front of me in line have had to get into arguments with the bouncer about their IDs being real. It seems the bouncer does not trust any ID that is not from NJ, and will resort to completely and permanently bending IDs. This is a huge problem, as these can be very expensive and a bent ID could make someone think it is actually fake. On top of this, the bouncer will be very disrespectful if you try to say otherwise or give suggestions on how to improve the ID checking process. There was multiple occasions where he would pick fights with people just trying to reason with him; in fact he continued to make condescending comments to my friend even after the situation occurred after she just tried to suggest getting an ID scanner (seriously, this should be considered, as the place would probably make a lot of money as dozens of people would probably no longer be turned away every night).

So after all of that, it is worth saying that while the food and atmosphere of this establishment are amazing (the nachos are so good, omg), recent visits have been tainted by the same bouncer and ID checking process, which does not seem to improve over the months this has been occurring. Something really needs to change, especially since it seems out of state people are consistently picked on and turned away. When we visited last, a group of 6-7 people were turned away because the bouncer refused to let in one person from PA. In fact, I recently moved out of state, and so have friends, and we are reluctant to ever return for fear of being turned away or worse, our IDs being bent or broken in the process. We want to love you El Charro! But please, address and fix...

I am not a fan of this Mexican establishment. There appears to be authenticity behind it, but it's a cheap substitute to it really. The margaritas (strawberry on ice) were decent, but I didn't feel like I was getting enough actual liquor in it for the price paid, same with the small portion (and mind you it's not served in a margarita glass) . The waitress (both times I've been in) has been consistently rude and unknowledgeable about the menu. There is "Queso Mexicano" on their menu, which I assumed would be awesome queso (IE: dippy cheese for chips) she barely even knew it existed when I requested it - and for $4.50 I was charged for a bowl of what looked like granulated parmesan cheese..... For real!? So not only was it NOT queso, it was a granulated dry cheese you would put on your salad or something, literally charged for a topping that I had NOTHING to use it on. The nachos only had one good thing going for them and that was that the chips are homemade, the rest was lazy execution with very minimulistic toppings (no lettuce or tomatoes and the jalapenos were served like pickle Spears, NOT in the fashion they should be served for eating nachos (IE: jalapeno chips so you can have one on each chips without having to cut up a spear ) . The flavoring was bland for the shredded chicken to top it as well : / .

I was just really really disappointed with the experience.... Not only was the food lazy, but there is almost NO decor or ambiance in this place. They really need to pick it up a notch, and why is Jose Cuervo the same cost as a shot of Patron? How the hell does that work? The waitress said "Every shot of tequila is $9" that is very bizarre. I won't be returning as I'm still trying to find an authentic non byob Mexican establishment with queso in Southern New Jersey , I'm starting to think it's...