El Rodeo de Jalisco — Restaurant in Castroville

We haven't dined at El Rodeo de Jalisco since before the pandemic. We both had a taste for fajitas.

Visited El Rodeo around 1:00pm. They were busy. Maybe 80% occupied dining room. Simple tables and chairs. Several wall mounted tvs. Comfortable relaxed dining.

We sat ourselves. A server came by quickly. We ordered chicken fajitas. We received small bowls of chips'n salsa.

Chips are scratch. Freshly made and very tasty. No salt added. Light and crispy. Red salsa. Very good. A little 'heat'. Enough to clear my head lol. But also very tasty. The heat did not overpower. FREE refills on the appetizer! We ordered seconds.

I had a Pepsi, served in a glass. My wife, a water. They also serve "Mexican Coke" (as the waitress refered to it), which seems to be Coke in a bottle. A first for me. I opted for the Pepsi because I didn't know if I'd need a free refill.

Fajitas came quickly. Maybe 5 minutes or so. Served on plates, not a sizzling skillet.

The fajitas were delicious. We both agreed on this. Plenty of chicken, smothered in grilled onions and green and red peppers. Very tasty. A nice serving of Spanish rice. Guac and a little lettuce, tomato and a good portion of refried beans. All very good. Better than chain restaurant fajitas. Larger portions too.

We choose corn tortillas. Served warm. Also made scratch. Delicious! Best tortillas I've had in a while. Much better than the frozen reheated tortillas served in many chain establishments. Definitely a plus.

I visited the mens room. Very surprised. Extremely clean. Freshly mopped floor. The entire bathroom smelled clean and sanitized. Sink, toilet and urinal all in good repair. Plenty of foam hand soap. Automatic towel dispenser worked 100%. Very impressed. Many eateries neglect the public rest rooms, sadly. However, El Rodeo's rest room was well above par. This says something about the level of management and staff. 👍

All in all, a very enjoyable lunch. We will definitely go...

Tried for lunch, no idea why busy at night…maybe fancy alcohol drinks and insanely loud music?? Zero idea why folks wait for this place, I’m not even going back.

Went for lunch.

Pros: Authentic Mexican music. No one at another table will overhead your secrets. Able to get a chicken enchilada in a kids meal. They have a lunch special Portions decent size Salsas were legit. Both greens and their red.

Cons: So loud!! Even after asking them to turn down the music when we sat down, we literally were yelling at each other across the table. Refried beans literally weren’t good. Mexican rice was barely average. Little flavor and barely any veggies like carrots and peas and onions. They have one dish for a lunch special. ONE Hostess sat us and took order and never came back. Never had a waitress, drinks never refilled. Zero check-ins and we were there for a bit. No one came to collect money so waited at register for awhile. Waitresses in and out doors and no one stopped to check us out. Had to flag someone down to avoid a dine and dash after waiting a long time. Not really that clean if you look at details or under the table. Scares me about the kitchen… There are a lot of businesses that share a tiny lot. Barely any parking during the day and the lot has folks going in circles at night trying to find a place.

Dude…don’t wait in the heat for this subpar food and way too loud music with uncomfy chairs and bad...

Beware using a coupon First and last time going to this restaurant. Main reason I went to this place was because of a coupon I got at my local grocery store. Which reads “Free Entree w/ the purchase of equal value entree and 2 beverages” with the only restriction being one coupon per table. So, I ordered two breakfast plates with 2 coffees. First of all the food is not great to begin with. (canned refried beans?) So, I go to the counter to pay and hand over my coupon. I am told the coupon is not for breakfast and they have a really small handwritten sign explaining their reasoning. Keep in mind you don’t go to the register till you have to pay and it’s far from the table you are seated at. The manager by the name of Denise tells me that the rules are clearly stated on Google. That I should have gone there first before using the coupon. Then she goes off to explain that the owner Osvaldo clearly writes Entree on the coupon to specify that it’s only for lunch or dinner plates. She ask for my number so Osvaldo can call me to explain the definition of an Entree. Lol, just encase here is the definition “the main course of a meal“ I guess breakfast is not a meal. She then goes on and says that the plate needs to have beans and rice to qualify for the coupon. Our server was great, food was disgusting, and their manager needs to visit Google more often. (Just like I...