El Guapo — Restaurant in Catonsville

Off the bat, please try El Guapo - it deserves your visit.

That said, here's what I experienced there, along with some constructive criticism, all sincere, and in hopes of engaging with the emerging restaurant scene in Catonsville - it's real, it's here, and hopefully it will only grow.

There were some hits, and some misses. First, the hits. The Queso Fundido is wonderful - rich, flavorful, and an important staple. The Ceviche was an unexpected fine-dining treat with a very nice citrus accent - grapefruit - it worked well. The drinks were strong; tried the jalapeno margarita and the house margarita - the house margarita had just a touch of orange, and stands out from the typical adult lime slushy at most places; it was excellent! The salsa was an interesting take, more on the southwestern side of preparation; some folks may be accustomed to pico de gallo being served as "salsa" so I'm not sure if that might be driving some of the negative reviews of the salsa being watery, but it's good, more of a chipotle / pepper taste. I liked it.

The atmosphere was bustling, friendly, and sweetened by the three-piece Mariachi. Wonderful. The decor / architecture - cool, engaging large-scale Mexican inspired art livens the space, lit by cheerful cafe lighting. Delightful.

The misses in the food center around Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat (the components of cooking, also a great book...) - when one of those is missing, the food is going to suffer. Here, we had dry, bland, cold fish tacos (missing all 4 - fat, salt, acid, heat). Rice and beans so bland they were inedible. (missing fat and salt), Birria tacos that were one-note (missing acid, such as a pickled cabbage).

The other miss was service -- not for lack of trying, as individuals were rushing around doing their best with little direction -- but because they didn't come together as a team under a strong manager. We spent so much time on our own waiting to be noticed that we had the chance to observe, and some fundamental details were off.

Those very good appetizers sat on the table for several minutes getting cold with no chips to eat them with. Perhaps have bussers check on that continuously from a separate chips/salsa station.

I've heard over and over from family members in the restaurant business that there should be a greeting at the table within 30 seconds, water within a minute or two, and a whole ton of glancing and checking throughout the meal. If one goes to the back, look back to see if someone is trying to make eye contact. Every time, to a one, the restaurants we really enjoy have the kind of service where you never feel you have to flag someone down - and that comes 100% down to management. I saw some wandering around by the manager, and even a little chit-chat at tables with patrons -- but it was akin to a mildly disinterested circus ringmaster...there were some tigers loose he didn't notice.

In comparison to local competition for this level of food and service, La Palapa in Ellicott City gets both right. The food is hot, fatty and delicious, and they're spying on you, all the time, to make sure you're happy. That combination has kept us going back for twenty years. The single biggest thing they get right though? The owner is often there, and he's engaged. Very engaged. El Guapo should learn from that best practice. I'll offer that the margaritas at El Guapo win that match up, though. Whoever is behind the bar deserves a gold star! (But I'll tolerate a salty lime slushy for great service and hot food, any day.)

Maybe we were there on an off-night, but just based on our single experience, I would recommend that El Guapo take a hard look at management and get that part right - food will go out hot, patrons will return.

We'll be back -- after all, it's hard to get a solid impression of a place in one visit, and we're all about second and third chances. We need, want, and love our local businesses in Catonsville. Perhaps with some time and attention to detail, things will tighten up for El Guapo, both in the kitchen and front of the house....

We visited a few days ago for lunch and were sadly disappointed about the whole experience. It was super slow. It took a while for our order to be taken by the server. I verbally said my kids were sharing their meal at the time of order and an extra plate wasn’t brought with the meal, so I asked for one upon arrival. It took asking a 2nd time and probably 10 minutes for an additional plate, as well as having to ask for utensils/napkins (all meals needed them). The steak tacos came out with chewy steak that could hardly be bite into, and an overwhelming amount of sauce that overpowered the taco. The rice and pinto beans were also lacking flavor. I ordered the El guapo burrito and the flavors of the pickled onion and sauce drizzled on top overpowered any other flavor the burrito had to offer, which was disappointing. We ordered the empanadas and for $12, was super disappointing with hardly any meat inside. Not making the cost worth it. Our waiter never checked on us, when calling the waiter as he walked by he ignored us until a table nearby stopped him to tell him we called him over to ask for the plates (again) and utensils. Even with finally getting his attention, it took a while to get these items. Our waters were never refilled. Couldn’t ask anyways since he didn’t stop by. It took forever to leave once we were finished, due to him never stopping by so we couldn’t ask for the check in a timely manner. The only positive thing I have to say was the salsa was decent, I guess. I love to support local but the service alone deters me from wanting to try the food...

We went today for drag brunch. The show amazing!!!! You can’t beat a KC show! However the restaurant staff sub par. We had a large group. They wouldn’t spilt the check. We ended up having to put almost $500 on someone card to then just Venmo them. Then they over charged us hoping we wouldn’t know it only to blame us. Had to speak to a few people to get this taken care of. Over charge I mean by $62. So wasn’t a small mistake. Several other people were displeased as well. This only is applying to the drag brunch why would you only sever buffet and not your regular menu. You lost out on some money there. We are not buffet people so 8 of us did not eat at all. Lost money there. The girl serving us was not attentive at all. They added auto tip in ( I have no problem with this at all) BUT at & $94 for our group, our service was awful.we also ordered a high end shot and what we received was not correct either but assured it was. I swear on my life it was not correct, almost like the bottle was filled with Casamigos again hoping we wouldn’t know, but I chalked it up. I had a bad experience I hope others don’t. I was very unhappy with this place and sadly I won’t be back. I am a huge supporter of small business. I understand things are still not the same still right now. I am only writing a review as well because I spoke with management and things didn’t...