El Naranjo - South Lamar — Restaurant in Austin

Four of us went for dinner and shared the queso fundido with chorizo. It's unlike any other queso I've had. Instead of being a cheese dip, it's actually real cheese, heated up, and requires a fork and/or knife. It's absolutely delicious, like a Mexican cheese plate more than "queso". It's served with fresh, homemade corn tortillas, because chips aren't traditional.

I had the pescado en hoja santa con salsa de chile gualjillo, which is salmon wrapped in a leaf, and served with a side of rice. The salmon was cooked perfectly, and combined with the leaf and sauce made a tasty meal. However, it was just well-cooked salmon with a sauce. I liked it, it was satisfying, but nothing special. My friend however got the cochinita pibil and shared a bite. It was AMAZING! That's something to return back to El Naranjo time and again. The one hang up was that the prices were noticeably high, especially in Austin. My salmon was $20, and everyone else's were $17-$21 per plate.

One person got a michelada and said it was tasty, and my wife got a blueberry mojito (special price $8 instead of $11) and thought it was good too. Our beers were fine, but I forgot to look how much they cost.

The service was a little spotty, but very friendly. My wife ordered the mole' amarillo with duck. When the food came out, they had made it with pork, so they took it back to re-make, but said it would take a little while. Usually this would be a problem, since everyone else had their food. However, as a refreshing surprise, the waitress came out, apologized, and took full responsibility for the problem. She didn't blame the kitchen; she didn't blame my wife; she owned up to it and apologized. I feel like 99% of waitstaff would push it onto the kitchen. She realized that regardless of who messed up, she is the "face" of our experience and no matter what, she was responsible for our meal. Everyone really appreciated her honesty and will remember that far more than the food.

Overall the food was very good, the service was a little off but self-redeeming, and the prices were definitely on the high end. I'd go back, especially for the cochinita pibil, but not too often to...

Definitely over priced for the quality of the food and drinks. The restaurant is a bit small which makes it loud. You can hear everything the table next to you is discussing. It is not AWFUL, I was just expecting the best (given previous reviews). I will take you through what we ordered off the menu and let you know what was worth it and what was not. We went with a group of 8 people. To start we had the queso fundido, guacamole, ceviche, and queso fundido con chorizo! The appetizers did not disappoint! They were so very delicious! Best guac I have ever had and the ceviche was small, but delicious! The main courses are where we were disappointed. We ordered the cochinita pibil, two types of mole, chile relleno, lobster and chayote salad, rajas con crema, ensalada fresca, and the trio sampler. They were all just ok. The cochinita was not authentic and didn’t taste like it was made from scratch. The mole was not authentic either. Mole was very light and was more of a salsa verde! The chile relleno was alright , but there was nothing memorable about it (cantina Laredo has a better chile relleno). The chayote in the salad was not cooked and was definitely not what we were expecting. Everywhere I have ever been in South America has served the chayote cooked. The rajas con crema were decent, but the cheese was not fully melted and it caused a great disturbance to the texture of the meal. The salad was good. I mean how can you go wrong with just salad. The trio sampler looked like it had potential, but it came out cold. When a hot plate comes out cold it is difficult to formulate a proper opinion. I am more than willing to pay for an expensive meal, if it is worth it. But if you are a foodie and are going to be critical of the actual food, I would not recommend this place. I would not recommend this place for a date either since it is so loud and you can’t really hear the person in front of you. If you want to go somewhere to impress a client..this is the...

It's OK if you know what to expect but nothing really special.

I stopped by for a lunch item not available on the dinner menu - pasta with huitlacoche. I'm a huge fan of huitlacoche and this dish, advertised as $14 online was $16 when I got there and was tiny! It's just pasta with a sauce after all. And the huitlacoche seemed diluted. It was an ugly grey, indicating that they might have cut it with cheaper mushrooms or something like that. It should be black as midnight if it's the real stuff.

Following that disappointment, I went back with a friend for dinner. Very expensive for even little things like tortillas - I think it was $4 for three tortillas. They were OK but not so special to be over $1 each.

We had the ceviche - $16 - which was again OK but not so special to warrant the high price. We also had the cochinita pibil. OK again but not so special - I think that was around $20.

As the evening picked up, the place was full and so very loud that the noise deteriorated into a mash of indistinguishable din. We couldn't hear each other or the waitress who had to kneel down and shout at us.

On the other hand, it's nicely decorated and the service outstanding, although you have to ask for ice for your water as the place a little un-iced decanter on the table.

I'd say the service is well-executed but this just isn't my type of place. The expense and noise really disappointed. The dishes were just OK.

We won't be back but maybe you'd like this type of place? It's upscale and Oaxaca is "in" these days.

On a side note, this used to be a tapas place (also expensive) but they closed due the rent. I would imagine a lot of what you're paying for is their cost to rent the location - and it's not a fabulous location at that - just in a new condo building on an unappealing strip of South Lamar. However, that's Austin these days - rents...