El Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Baton Rouge

Hole-in-the-wall joint known for their tamales. Long time family owned business. Should be awesome. Absolutely wasn't.

Complimentary salsa and chips were first clue I was setting myself up for a disappointment. Salsa was seemingly only tomato puree. Cook that stuff up with some tomatillios, onion, jalapeno, and garnish with some cilantro for goodness sake!

Ordered tamales with rice and beans. Nothing worth writing home about. I don't know why "we sell out (of tamales) every day." Maybe their regulars have not had awesome Mexican food before.

Service was average but abrupt. House was busy, so exception granted. However since a scoop is available in the ice maker, give that a try instead of using the customer's cup...ugh...

Just before we finished eating, a fan (the type normally used to dry water damage) was turned on, pointed directly into the center of the dining room, from a corner. Unfortunately, it was just adjacent to my table. Damned near blew the contents of our plates on our laps. What the heck?

So, if you're hungry go ahead. If you're looking for better than average Mexican...

My husband and I went to eat here. We are from out of town and thought because this place had wonderful ratings and reviews that it would be good... we got seated immediately. Waited 15 mins to get drink ordered. Waited 10 mins for drinks. Had to ask another waitress for refills. Didn't get any other refills during meal... "our waitress" comes over amd asked if we needed to go boxes. We said no. So she grabs our plates amd takes them. We were not even done with our food.. meanwhile every table around us got refills like crazy. We asked to speak with a manager and one guy comes up amd sticks up for the waitress. Then a second one comes up and says he is the manager/owner and still sticks up for her wrong doings... then tells us to never come back. Now, yes they were busy for a small restaurant, but that doesn't excuse the fact that we got crappy service and others by us got excellent service. My husband and I have worked this type of work. We tip very well... tonight I didn't even leave a penny... maybe the owner will see this and see what really happened since he didn't even wanna...

Service was pretty good last night 1st and last time I will ever eat there Started off with chips and sauce so that the chips were cold and the saucer tasted like pizza sauce Order the beef bean and cheese dip Could not determine the type of canned chili that was the basis for that AbominationMy stepson ordered the crunchy tacos and he compared it unfavorably with Taco BellI had the chili riano dinner that came with refried beans and Spanish riceThe restaurant needs to apologize to the Spanish for that rice that they servedThe beans were coldThe chilliano seemed to been rolled in some kind of a crunchy topping and then deep fried served very hot and highly season so hot that season was that I could not eat it and I could stay in pretty hot food I just don't know how the El Rio Grande has been in business as long as they have with the food that they...