La Cocina de Consuelo — Restaurant in Austin

The abysmal parking equally matches the dreadful seating options, on top of the lack of direction from the staff. For a simple breakdown:

Parking - Terrible. Ride with friend, take the bus or take an uber because meeting up with more than 1 other person will leave one of you circling the area for parking, or getting double-parked trapped in the back.

Staff - One motherly/grandmotherly waitress taking orders and she's got more tables to help so kindly hurry with your order. When you walk in you'll be told to grab a menu and take a seat. Wait time for drink orders: 10 minutes.

Food - If a quality, certified Mexican restaurant experience is what you seek, look elsewhere.

More in depth review:

Service: If you enter through the back you better make sure the staff at the front is aware of it. No less, you'll have to go up to the register to grab a menu for yourself anyways. That's not to say you'll automatically be next on their list of guests to serve. The staff was not rude, but because of how few of them there are, they do seem to be in a rush to move on. This will also take play when you need something in the middle of your meal. Give it a good while before anyone (read, the lone waitress) comes by asking if everything is okay.

Food options: Perhaps I am spoiled from the vast amount of Mexcian restaurants I grew up with in San Antonio to expect that this restaurant would serve breakfast burritos all day (side note: I am thinking the term burrito is being used where a San Antonian would say taco; ingredients simply held inside a single fold of tortilla, but I wouldn't know since we showed up just past 11 when they stopped serving them). No less, there were a few familiar options as seen in other quality Mexican restaurants. No shortcomings here particularly.

Food quality: This is where there would be disagreements depending on the standard of Mexican food one might be accommodated to. Potatoes were stringy like spaghetti, whereas traditional Mexican restaurants have them cut into smaller cube-like pieces and cooked to be able to drive a fork through, not requiring scooping up as found here. Tortillas were inconsistent and to the tortilla connoisseur looked aesthetically horrendous. Some came out burnt, others in odd shapes. I will say the barbacoa was not half bad, which is quite the compliment considering Austin's track record with quality barbacoa. The huevos rancheros I had would have been a little more enjoyable if I had ordered the sauce on the side; it had one mean kick to it, so maybe it's on me for not being able to handle the spiciness. The refried beans were probably the most enjoyable of the plate. I will say this however, no one received anything cold. That's a big positive when it comes to ordering food for a table of 6 in a small restaurant.

Drinks: If you're drinking coffee, get up and get it yourself. It's over there on the counter where the containers of sugar don't get closed so little bugs are randomly spotted on the counter. The coffee stirrers are also on the same counter, constantly being touched by multiple hands throughout the day. It is probably for the best that they serve sodas by the bottle. When I asked for a glass of water at the counter, the waitress grabbed a cup, scooped ice into it and poured water straight from a faucet in a nearby sink that I am not sure what gets used for. First world problem or not, I would rather have paid extra for a bottle of water.

A strong 1 star is exactly what I feel this restaurant deserves, but for the so-so effort put forth, a sympathetic 2 stars is what I will rate it. Based off other reviews it would seem this restaurant has the following it...

So I gotta say...I just don't understand the hype and rave reviews a out this place...I must be missing a piece of the puzzle because not only did I find this tiny lil Mexican kitchen overpriced, but the food was absolutely nothing to rave about in my opinion.

I had the spinach and mushroom quesadilla as the flour tortillas have been touted as the best in town. My friend, who had come one time before, had the same cheese quesadilla as she had ordered previously and an order of the guac for two. We also had a Mexican Arnold Palmer, which my friend suggested as well, which was the mexi-limeade mixed with iced tea.

For $4.25, each quesadilla was surprisingly small and though the tortillas were good, they were not anything to write home about (and coming from a Mexican family that could definitely lay claim to AWESOME handmade flour and corn tortillas, I know a good tortilla when I have one). Even my friend, who had recommended we come here and had a quesadilla before, said that it just was not as good as her first time. The guac was honestly a joke...for $4.99 the tiny bowl of guac accompanied by some salsa and average tortilla chips was just not worth the price.

It is a cute lil place, but very very small and cramped and the seating is extremely limited. We ended up sitting at this tiny lil table by the back entrance (which comes off the parking in the back) which was unfortunate as I had to stop several times between bites to scoot my chair in so as not to continue to get hit by the flinging opening door from incoming customers.

Needless to say, I really wanted to like this place, but aside from the nice lady who seemed to be the owner, there was just nothing to bring me back. I might try the breakfast tacos at some point, but we'll see. It's just hard to return to a place where you spent $20 for two quesadillas, some guac and two non-alcoholic drinks and then had to head over to TacoDeli because you're...

Small place. Cute decor. Super sweet service on 4th of July when my son wanted tacos and this was the only place open near us.

Ordered a lunch special- Flautas with Mexican rice and Fideo, Tostada Plate with Mexican rice and refried beans and a Chicken Tortilla Soup and 1 Taco Combo for the kid. Total price with tax and tips was $34 which translates to a little over $11 per person.

Food is made fresh so there's a wait and it looked really good. Once we actually dug in, we were surprised by how bland and underwhelming the flavors were. It was really disappointing considering everything else, including the quality of ingredients were top notch. To briefly go through the items:

Flautas super bland and the chicken was kinda stinky Mexican rice - good and flavorful Fideo - first time trying and i really liked this dish Refried beans - basic, not my favorite Chicken Tortilla Soup kid didn't like it so had it. It was pretty good Taco - super basic and boring. Can't believe soup and one taco is like 12 dollars. Lowlight of the meal. Tostada - the round fried tortilla was really good. But it needed something to make it stand out as the dish as whole was super bland.

So I'm sad to say, despite the friendly and warm service, the food just didn't...