El Centro Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Boston

On February 26, 2022, after my relaxer hair touch up and style, I went to El Centro Mexican Restaurant Lynn, MA at 1 pm because that's the time it opens. Unfortunately, they didn't open until 2 pm. I now went inside and placed four orders of creole seafoods combination plates with yellow rice and beans, but disastrously I was given four tasteless, disgusting and full of tomatoes paste sauces instead of the creole sauces, they gave me white rice instead of yellow rice and beans that I requested for and also they gave me bean sauces. I also ordered four Trés Leches desserts and four Chocoflans desserts. After, 1 hour and 30 minutes of my waiting, I was told they don't have four Trés Leches Desserts, and they also don't have four Chocoflans Desserts. I was extremely upset and disappointed. I had to place four orders of chocolate cakes desserts. Those four chocolate cakes desserts were tasteless, extremely dry and they weren't moist at all. What kind of Mexican Restaurant wouldn't have Trés Leches Desserts, and Chocoflans Desserts? Come on now, in Cancún, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and León, Mexico, Trés Leches Desserts and Chocoflans Desserts are their two main Desserts. My advice to everyone who are not fluent in speaking Spanish, don't ever go to El Centro Mexican Restaurant because they will definitely screw up your orders. They screwed up all my orders. I definitely won't recommend all my family members and all my very close friends to El Centro Mexican Restaurant Lynn, MA because it's a fake Mexican Restaurant, they don't speak English at all. They only speak Spanish. What a shame to the owner for not hiring people who speak English fluently. El Centro Mexican Restaurant has extremely poor verbal and written communication skills in English, they have poor organizational skills in English, they have extremely poor customer services, and their seafood combination foods plates with white rice, bean sauces, and desserts are extremely disgusting, tasteless and awful. I gave a zero star for my worst experience at El Centro fake Mexican Restaurant...

We just had dinner in their new Belmont location (El Centro Tres) and it was outstanding. The atmosphere was cool and fun, the prices reasonable, and the service was good.

The food, however, was exceptional. It's a running joke amongst by Boston friends (the ones who have been to, say, California) that it's really impossible to get really great Mexican food here. The several places we have been to and loved, over the years were not able to stay in business. It looks like El Centro may have found the right combination of authenticity and atmosphere to make it.

We live in Newton, having moved from Boston (Allston) when we had kids. There are really very few good restaurants in Newton, and the ones that have good food are far more expensive that the authentic and excellent "hole in the wall" places in the city, where you can get really amazing and unique food without walking away broke.

The Chipotle Chicken with asparagus sounds like something you would get in some chain restaurant. But (oh my god) this dish was unlike anything I have ever had -- spicy, creamy sauce with perfectly crispy asparagus and beautifully cooked chicken.

My wife had a fish taco with a brilliantly light sauce infused with cilantro and you could actually taste the fish. My daughter had the lorenzo taco which was also wonderful.

Even the salsa with chips was great -- served warm.

It was clear that the whole staff was happy to be doing what they do, and clear that they people out front and in back knew how to do it well.

And now we'll have to try their other locations, but even so, it's no longer my opinion that there's no exceptional Mexican...

The atmosphere at El Centro seemed quite nice, which is why my girlfriend and I decided to dine there. They had seating outside with two person tables as well as two person tables pushed together to make a four person seating arrangement. I asked if we could move one of them so we could enjoy the dinner outside. I was told no. I asked if we could just sit at the only table available outside. Told no, I have to have 3 or more people. Ok, no problem. So, we waited for 15 minutes to be seated inside. The bar stools we sat at were uncomfortable and mine was broken with a missing footrest. It was uncomfortable to have my right leg dangling, but not that big of a deal. Waitress comes up immediately, to which we were not ready, but I assume they would bring chips and salsa. Nope. You have to order them. Ok, can we get some while we look at the menu? Sure, she says. 10 minutes later they are brought (along with initial waters). I'm a person that loves salsa and the hotter the better. Salsa was bland and had zero taste. I asked another waiter if they had anything more spicy. No. What they could do was bring me some hot sauce and I could douse it with that. Uhhh, weird. We sent the chips and salsa back. I've never in my life sent salsa back. The waitress comes back after what seemed forever and we order. The food comes within 10 minutes, but it's not what we ordered. We wait more. Finally the correct food arrives. I never see my waitress again until we are sitting and wondering how long it'll take to pay the bill. Bill comes and the chips and salsa are on the bill. We wait longer for the correction. We pay the bill and decide we won't...