El Paraiso | Mexican Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Cedar Rapids

FOOD - Good on multiple occasions, both dine in & take out. SERVICE - Usually good. ATMOSPHERE - Clean & welcoming.

ISSUES

1. The online menu is outdated as I've tried to order more than one thing on there that wasn't available any longer.
2. Seafood chimi ($15) has imitation crab & shrimp filling but seafood enchiladas ($17) has only imitation crab filling. If you want shrimp in your enchiladas, be prepared to pay $23!
3. ONE BAD TAKE-OUT EXPERIENCE: I was given beans when I asked for none. Big deal right? Well, yes, it is. Beans means no extra rice so I lost food. Beans were in what rice I had & under my other food so more food lost. Beans literally make me ill if I eat them. There was also no cheese sauce where there should have been. When I called, I was told that I was a liar and that they would not comp my order unless I drove across town, again, to prove in person that I was telling the truth. I took pictures and offered to send them but he said no. He said the kitchen said they didn't mess up so that was that. I argued with the guy to no avail. I went in the next day to complain. I offered to show pictures as I explained the issue. No pictures needed. I was given a remake of my meal without any problems. I appreciate the free meal but that experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I used to eat here frequently....

The food was good, but it wasn't anything different that you couldn't get at every other Mexican restaurant in town.

The chips were served warm and had an excellent snap to them, and the salsa was crisp and tasty but nothing special. The queso was thin and tasty. (I like slightly thicker cheese sauce... and a little spice, which there was none. )

Our server, Karlita, seemed to be bothered that we sat in her section. She stopped at our table and would ask us if there was something we wanted as she was walking away, so we couldn't really get the things we asked for previously in a decent fashion. The drinks were fairly prompt, aside from the only one that mattered, which was a simple cup of water for a toddler.

I couldn't taste the chorizo in my beef & chorizo burrito, but again, it was still tasty. Their refried beans and rice were good.

The fajita burrito was huge! It's smothered in queso sauce and pretty good, but again, it's the same as everywhere else.

The whole reason we went to El Paraiso instead of El Super Burrito (which has the best burritos by far!) was to be able to have margaritas.

The large margaritas came in a big beer stein rather than a margarita glass and tasted like any margarita mix that you can get at the store.

This place is good if you don't like to try anything different than what...

Though they weren’t taking reservations, we called a couple hours ahead to see if they could accommodate our U13 baseball team + families for 50 people rather late on a Saturday night. They welcomed us all and managed to seat most of us together - even with an extra 15 people from a younger team. They were prepared for our arrival and super efficient. Generous portions of chips and salsa were served as we were seated, followed quickly by drink orders, which arrived soon thereafter. The Margs were delicioso and the beers were ice cold. I don’t know how they managed to serve us all our food together, but they did, and everything was piping hot and tasty as could be. The bar tender even came around as our food was served to add a tequila refresher to all those with margaritas. Outstanding friendly service, very clean and sanitary, and really good food at a reasonable price. We could not have been happier with our choice to dine at El...