El Jalisco Mexican Restaurant # 3 (Spring Branch) — Restaurant in Bulverde

OVERALL - You will most likely be able to find something you would like on the menu, as the food is okay to decent. The worst taste you will have is the cost of everything on the menu and the amount of separate up charges for everything. The service is not consistent enough for it to be considered quality. I would not consider anyone here rude, I would just not consider them to have experience working with people. Because of all of this, I believe people will treat this place as a trying it once and nothing was memorable enough for them to come back, or for people in this area they just deal with these shortfalls because of lack of options, until something else pops up in the area. This is unfortunate because the location is nice and they have a nice play area for kids.

SERVICE - If you get the male server we have had many times, he is not very welcoming or accommodating. Acts like he doesn't care or want to be there. The female servers I've had were really nice though. It's not that he is mean or anything, just rushed and not very attentive to the service. The vibes are cold and not welcoming. Again not mean or anything just weird vibes.

DRIVE THRU - We get tacos here almost 3-4 times a week. Simple bean and cheese order. Today we waited about 10-15 minutes until finally someone came to the window with our order. The food was extremely cold and had almost no filling. We get breakfast tacos here all the time, so today was just a bad day for them... dont know why but again, this was a not great experience. Everyone has bad days... but typically you will get someone to apologize or say something to take some responsibility and have customer service skills. This did not happen. The tacos were as cold as the vibes coming off this place this morning.

THE FOOD EXPERIENCE - The food is decent to okay. They have certain dishes that are pretty tasty (the 46 plate) comes with large chunks of steak and enchiladas. It's a little more expensive and because the good portion of steak its understandable. But for other dishes like enchiladas or some of the other taco plates...the food is taste pretty standard with no major pop (which is okay). I wish the rice was more flavorful as well.

THE PRICE - I get that people have had to charge more money for products these days, but you have to compare yourself to other places in your market, not just in price...but food quality, service and atmosphere. At this location I challenge you to not look at the menu and chuckle. Every page you will fine areas on the menu where they upcharge you for so many things. More chips.... we will charge you per basket after the first, more soda....we will charge you for each soda ($3.50 already by the way). Any changes, extra charge. Again, I get they are making a stance on those items, but in comparison to other places, I believe people will take their money somewhere else.. this is a VERY off putting feeling especially when the prices of most all items on the menu are...

21 Mar 2018 update Taco Salad, 4**, my wife had this as a meal and enjoyed it. A little short on the lettuce, but she had mine from my enchilada plate. Beef enchilada plate, 3*. The filling was tasty, ground beef with jalapenos, carrots, & taters. The tortillas were soft and tender as they should be. The sauce was pretty good, but not a lot of depth of flavor, and there should have been more of it. I barely had any left to sop up with the flour tortillas. The american cheese topping isn't my preference. Beans are the standard expected no frill stuff. The rice was good, better than most places. This was our first dine-in here. Service was quick and friendly. I would have liked if they'd give the check at the table, instead of finding it at the register. 4** All in all, we had a good time but I'm going to try one of the other enchilada dishes next time.

16 Mar 2018 I noticed Friday they had opened for business. The parking lot was full so I decided to wait till Saturday morning. Breakfast tacos is what I'm mostly interested in anyway. So, Saturday morning arrives and so do I, ~6:45, I'm the only customer. Three ladies behind the bar so that's where I go. It's a to-go order anyway.

The extensive menu is in small print but I found the breakfast taco section and look down the list. Not seeing what I want there, I just start asking, machacado, check, carne guisada, check, chicken fajitas, check, we're all good. Our staples along with bean & cheese, hopefully this will work out.

The machacado was the best I've had in quite a while. A bit of spice to it and actual machacado, not just eggs, eggs, eggs like most places. 5*

The carne guisada is a disappointment though. Strip of round steak in a thin gravy lacking in flavor. Maybe a couple more hours of simmering would help. Still, it's passable, but I won't order it again. 2**

The chicken fajita taco is for the wife but I had a taste. Good flavor and properly combined with sauteed onions and jalapenos. 4**

Bean and cheese is hard to mess up, and hard to excel, these were standard. 3*

Flour and corn tortillas; the flour aren't the super soft and fluffy TexMex like I prefer to make, but they're good and fresh. 3*. The corn was just okay. 2

This place is a bargain. Five tacos, under $10. While not all I had hoped for, with very good machacado and chicken fajitas, we'll be...

We were faithful customers at the old Faithville location; we'd go for the great Jalisco burrito and the excellent el pastor plate. The drive is a lot farther for us than before, but we like the food. To start, the food quality hasn't declined. The el pastor plate is actually better, no competiton from any local restaurants. The burrito needs to be served on a larger plate; the chili gravy was flowing over the sides, making a mess on the table. Our last visit, the noise was so loud, we couldn't talk to each other. There is no sound abatement in the building, and the ceilings and tile floor makes the acoustics worse. The hard-wheeled service carts sound like armored tanks rolling on the tile floor. Our waiter took our drink and food order since we knew what we wanted. My husband asked for extra chili gravy for his burrito. We waited and waited, then someone shows up with a bowl of chili gravy. We hadn't even gotten our drinks or chips & salsa. We flagged down our waiter, who apparently was serving tables on the lower level. You know there's a problem when the first thing he says is "I'm so sorry" everytime he appears. We finally got our drinks and chips, then two minutes later our food shows up. It was good as usual, but the early chili gravy arrival was cold and congealed by that time. We hurried to eat and leave because the noise level was unbearable. Every table around us had to scream at each other to have a conversation. We finally had to flag down another waiter to find our waiter because he had disappeared. We really like the food, even with considerable price hikes, but the atmosphere is unpleasant and service--that was not the greatest before--has declined. Next time we go we'll try to find a seating area that's not like sitting in an active heavy...