El Karajo Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Centennial

Such a shame. So, today was my wife’s birthday. Instead of going to a fancy restaurant, she decided she wanted to try a new, local spot that was opening their 2nd restaurant across from our neighborhood. Now, we know this was their opening night and we expected some deficiencies, learning curves, slow service, mistakes, etc. We were prepared for all of this. We didn’t mind the 30 or so minutes to wait for a table, we didn’t mind a little slow service getting our drink orders, drinks, appetizers, and finally, our food order. We didn’t even mind that one of our drinks didn’t come out correctly. What we did mind was how our 2nd round of drinks, nearly 30 minutes later, was not only that one of the drinks was completely wrong, but the fact that our table was never acknowledged again. We never got approached again to get the drink replaced, we didn’t get an explanation about how or why we didn’t have any food yet, not an apology, not a manager approached our table, not even a water refill, nothing. 2-1/2 hours after we arrived, we still didn’t have our meals. It’s my wife’s birthday, which is now ruined, we’re both extremely aggravated, my 2 daughters are bored and starving, we finally reached our breaking point, and we walked out. I laid what cash I had on the table to hopefully cover our drinks (only 2 of the 4 were made correctly), and for only the 2nd time in my life, we walked out. It’s a shame because we were really looking forward to having a local joint to maybe become regulars at. I hear their food is great, but it’s a shame we never had a chance to try it. We’ll never go back. I hope this can be a teaching moment for them, but honestly it doesn’t look like this place is run by a very competent staff and management. This is for the new location at University & Dry Creek....

Great Mexican food! Best on the south end of town.

Update 09/25 - this continues to be the best Mexican restaurant around. They have done a major update of the dining room with new tables and chairs and it's looking sharp. The food has not lost any of it's excellence, and we just wish we lived closer to enjoy it more. When we're up from Palmer Lake, we make sure we stop here when we can.

Update 07/23. We go here once a month at least and I have tried a number of dishes and they never fail to impress. My favorite is the chili relleno, which they do perfectly. The chili has to be cooked just right so it's not too crunchy or too soft. Then nothing but cheese in it.

Last time in I had the #5 combo was a shredded beef burrito (Meat was AMAZING!) a pork tamale (great flavor, but not enough pork) and the already mentioned relleno. My fiance and her son have the steak fajitas every time and they are excellent. The meat is alway perfectly (slow) cooked with a great depth of flavor. Tons of veggies, also well cooked and lots of sides. We always fight over the leftovers the next day. It's also one of the few places where you can order a side of EXTRA hot sauce, and it's the real deal. Their salsa has a nice kick to it, but their extra hot will make your head sweat and put some fire in your mouth. (Without a bunch of vinegar.)

Another amazing dish is the pork Karnitas. Braised in oil, they melt in your mouth tender and such good flavor! Not sure how they get all the flavor complexity on the meat they do - magic.

Service is always good as well, even when they are busy. Our biggest problem is we...

Hi, I took my wife and two kids to El Karajo to celebrate the end of the summer and the return to school. It was frankly difficult to decide because the menu offers plenty to choose from, which to me is a welcomed difficulty to overcome. I decided on the Karajo Special of course..and it was amazing..I remember asking the waitress if she was proud of me because to my surprise I was able to devour the entirety of the plate, which was a large round plate as compared to the normal familiar oval plates...anyway, I know my wife was also very pleased with her Mexican dish, but I don't recall what she had, but she did bring what she couldn't finish home. Also, my daughter is 10, and she had the chicken fingers from the kids menu, this was easily the largest chicken finger and fries serving ever, and we took a box of leftovers home as well. Without going on and on too much further, El Karajo was new to us, we found it by searching Google for restaurants in our area, and we really are looking forward to going back again..I think the restaurant has come up between us in conversation a couple times as we drive down Arapahoe Rd...I do certainly highly recommend El Karajo, and don't be shy to drive even an hour or more to come here for dinner if you are not close by. I truly don't recall eating at a Mexican restaurant I was more pleased with. take a look at the menu online and you will also find the prices are reasonable, especially when I consider how proud I was having cleaned my huge plate. Sincerely, with...