El Balcon Restaurant y Mariscos — Restaurant in Bolingbrook

I've been here a few times and thought it was always just okay. My husband likes the food. We came here on 8/9/25, dinner in, and had Carmen for our waitress. I wanted enchiladas which I didn't know they didn't have so I ordered a gordita guisado de res. We also had empanadas de cameron for an appetizer. The shrimp inside were cold. That was the first disappointment. I'm not sure if they were frozen or what because the empanadas are fried and the cheese inside was hot and melted. Then my gordita was so spicy that I couldn't take more than two bites. This wasn't even listed as spicy and I can normally tolerate some spice. My tongue was on fire and my stomach was hurting. The waitress asked if everything was okay because I ended up sitting there watching my husband eat and not eating and I told her the gordita was way too spicy for me. She said oh yes, that dish has a very spicy sauce and walked away. She didn't even offer me a different dish or ask if I wanted anything else.

I also didn't realize till after I paid that they charge an upcharge for non cash payments. I hate when businesses sneak that on you and don't tell you upfront.

To make things worse, we got food poisoning here. We were both so sick hours later from the food. I was so mad!!! We'll never...

My family and I have been ordering trays of carnitas from here for years at least a few Sundays a month. El Balcon will no longer have our business due to risk of health hazards from their food and poor customer service. We order five steak tacos via Doordash, and the tortillas came with a significant amount of mold on them. My oldest daughter noticed it on her tacos but my youngest daughter and I ate a taco not noticing the mold. We submitted a request to Doordash for a refund and they denied it. We then contacted El Balcon directly and they refused to do anything, their response was "all our tortillas are "fresh" from the tortilleria". If a Mexican restaurant can't get a basic and commen steak taco order done correctly and safely it begs to ask what else they are doing right/incorrect. As far as the customer service on this situation.. disappointed. Google reviews won't let me post pictures but we did take some of the mold on the tortillas and have a receipt for...

Let me start by saying had high hopes for this place it looked legit. The mixed drink I ordered was very good. But by the time my seafood came it looked different! The quality was not there at all the food had absolutely no flavor. I mean nothing and some of the pulpo pieces in my dish were chewy like plastic just gross. After explaining to the waitress she look very embarrassed as if she knew the food was not that great herself. Total red flag! After speaking to management or the chef she offered me another dish or replacement. I gladly declined my stomach was already feeling sick from the little bit that I did try. I was even offered a free other drink which was nice by the waitress. but once again I was not feeling welcome anylonger! the fact that they serve this stuff to people and then try to charge premium prices. Sorry to say but el balcon your...