El Mercado — Restaurant in Austin

I doubt anyone will believe this review but it happened last night with multiple witnesses including the manager. This was not the first time our family had been to this place. Our server got orders completely wrong. We were a group of about 26 and while I understand that can be overwhelming, several in our party never got any food or drinks we were later charged for. It took 30mins after I sat down to get a soda. Closing out our tabs, the server was told by a guy in our party that his order was wrong, the server clearly upset at our whole group threw the paper printout and card back at him in front on everyone in the main dinning room. The manager came over and told the server he was done for the night. That server went to the back part of the restaurant near the stage where the short-haired blonde bartender gave him what looked like alcoholic drinks while the manger closed our tabs which took another 20mins. Some in our party were still given tabs for food and drinks that never arrived. Some staff gave us dirty looks and sarcastic remarks while we waited to close out, not sure why. As we were finally leaving, almost one hour after we had finished eating, the server confronted the guy in our party he had thrown the debit card at in the dinning room. The employee threw an alcoholic drink (based on the smell) at the guy he was clearly waiting to confront. He spit on someone else with our group. The scuffle resulted in punches thrown. The server chased down the guy in our party and tried to punch through his car window and door. Another scuffle ensued. After the parties separated and as the last car in our group was leaving, the manager was also seen leaving the premises and the server returned back inside. I, like several from our party involved, had not had any alcohol. The facts speak for themselves. I would testify in court...

Stopped in here for dinner this evening. When I entered, the host noted I was walking with a cane and told me to sit wherever I'd be comfortable. I appreciate this as many times I get walked all over the restaurant to be sat at a table. In this case I did choose to sit in the main dining room. For 7:30 on a Friday evening, this place wasn't super busy, but active none the less.

When the waitress came to my table I ordered the El Grandote margarita. I typically don't drink flavored margaritas, but I opted for the strawberry one. The drink was quite tasty.

While deciding what to order for dinner, the waitress brought chips and salsa. I found the salsa to have an excellent, peppery taste to it. While some reviewers said it was too watery, I found it to be a decent consistency with an appropriate amount of liquid in it. If all I had was the margarita and the salsa it'd have been a good dinner.

When it came time to order I was torn between the brisket enchiladas or the shrimp enchiladas. I asked the waitress for her recommendation, she quickly responded that i should go with the brisket enchiladas.

Once my food arrived and I got a taste of the enchiladas I knew why she recommended them. The brisket was incredibly moist with a nice smokey flavor to it. I found the rice on the plate to be seasoned well and was light and fluffy. The refried beans were also seasoned well. I did mix some salsa into both to give them a bit of a bite.

Overall my meal was excellent and hit the spot. The drink was tasty as well. Customer service was excellent from the host to the waitstaff. I will definitely be back to try more menu items!

Hats off to the kitchen staff for some amazing brisket which I was told is made in house. The host did tell me they do carnitas as well so I'll be sure to try...

The El Mercado is a Tex/Mex restaurant on South 1st Street a short bike ride from where we stayed while visiting Austin. There's another version of the El Mercado on Lavaca up by the University. Austin has lots of good Tex/Mex restaurants and the El Mercado is no exception but we were there for the music on "Mystery Mondays".

Mystery Mondays is a regular Monday event at the El Mercado hosted by Christine Albert. While we were there it was co-hosted with Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Every week they would have a "mystery guest" to accompany them and they'd play a couple of sets. Mostly an unrehearsed grab-bag of music shared by friends. And often they'd bring a friend out of the audience on stage to sing a few songs.

We stumbled onto this regular event when I saw a brief mention in the local newspaper. It's not advertised in the Chronicle, the local bible to what's happening. Apparently Christine Albert and Sarah Elizabeth Campbell had hosted a long running event of exactly this sort at Artz Ribs on Lamar (we happened to see Sarah at Artz many years ago). The regular Monday event moved to El Mercado when Artz closed a few years ago. Jimmie took over Sarah's role as cohost when she passed away in December of 2013 after a battle with cancer.

It's a fine music tradition on Monday nights. There's good food, if you're hungry. And the entrance is free -- they pass a tip jar. We enjoyed it so much we made it our regular Monday night event.

If you're in Austin, check out Monday Mystery nights at the El Mercado on South 1st. You will be...