Gringo's Mexican Kitchen {College Station} — Restaurant in College Station

Managed to get in at lunch today when there wasnt the usual lengthy wait time. My first time here and these are first impressions. Bad or good, its all subjective. The inside wasnt what I was expecting which is... good? Kinda reminded me of a 1980s Las Vegas Denny's. Service was prompt and friendly, everything correct and nothing forgotten or out of place. I ordered the Three Amigos + Pepe with rice and refried. The chips and salsa were very good. Much better than others in town. Warm, light, fresh and crispy. I usually prefer the spicier salsa but the green salsa was just so damn good. I ordered sweet tea. I've lived in Texas for 30 years and never thought I would ever taste sweet tea that was too sweet. I'll throw in 4-5 packets of sweetener into unsweet tea elsewhere, but this had my eyes bugging. The food that arrived was hot to the point of actually having to wait a good 5 mins for it to cool off enough to put it in my mouth. Everything - rice, beans, enchiladas. The cheese enchilada was decent. Gooey and thick. The ground beef enchilada reminded me of what I love about TexMex. The spices and sauce were amazing. Unfortunately the chicken and steak weren't even close. The chicken enchilada was over powered by the most sour lime and cilantro sauce I've ever had. Far too much. I puckered and powered through to finish, but it felt like a chore. The steak itself was cubed, soft, and almost like it had been stewed. This would have been fine, but I was left unguarded from the... spaghetti sauce?... that covered it. This particular enchilada was what one would expect if you told someone from Canada to make a dinner with the cheapest beef and red sauce from the Dollar General. The rice and beans were fine. Honestly at this point, I was full and just needing to get the taste of Marinara and SweetNLow from my tongue. Overall though, I ate well. The chips and ground beef enchilada were good enough to not worry so much about the chicken and steak and the service from staff was excellent. I'll be back to give it another go and if nothing else, I know what to steer clear of. Maybe I'll bring the kids so they can take advantage of the...

I have previously dined at another Gringos location and had a terrific experience that justified the price. However, my recent visit to the Gringos in College Station, tx was disappointing. I was surprised to be charged for Topo Chico water, only to receive a subpar, barely sparkling alternative. The tortilla soup was SWEET! Tasting as though it had been sweetened with lots of sugar. Upon inquiry, they prepared a fresh batch that lacked sweetness but had uncooked vegetables cut into unusually large pieces (example,whole zucchini just cut in half, baseball size potato, large carrots cut into about 3 pieces, all was still al dente.) They also put chopped up fajitas meat in one bowl and shredded chicken in the other.

The service was also disappointing, particularly from a waiter whose name began with 'G'. He repeatedly disclaimed responsibility for any issues, asserting he was not the cook. Their second attempt took an unexpectedly long time to arrive, resulting in our stay being about 3 hours consisting of tortilla soup, a guacamole starter, and mineral waters, totaling over $50.

Neither the manager nor the waiter initially offered to comp the unsatisfactory soup until I mentioned that this gesture would have gone a loong way for me. I declined any discount, as the suggested gesture was my idea and didnt even occur to them.

This told me they were not interested in my repeat business. Again, the waiter shrugged his shoulders stating "he does not set the prices." Duh!

It would have been preferable if they acknowledged their shortcomings and offered a goodwill gesture promptly. Such actions could have significantly improved the...

let me start off by saying, we LOVE gringo’s, but we have always dined in, we’ve never gotten curbside or delivery before. for reference I don’t live far away, maybe 10-15 minutes at max, and i’m not expecting food to still be piping hot, but the warmer side of warm at least? the food was ice cold when we got home, the queso solidified, okay no big deal we have a microwave. the steak fajitas were great, chicken was dry but not bad. shrimp empanadas 1000/10 always, the shrimp were good, the chimichanga was excellent. what was not great is ALL of the mexican rice was uncooked and crunchy, there was COFFEE AND CINNAMON SUGAR in the mexican rice AND refried beans. we didn’t even order desserts, why on earth is there coffee and cinnamon sugar in the rice? and it’s visibly undercooked why would you let this go out the BOH? where is the quality control? this order was placed for 8:30pm by the way, plenty of time before closing. another thing is the four main curbside spots on the side were full, so they told us to go to the back, ALL but ONE of the curbside spots in the back had cars parked, lights off no people waiting, they were inside and parked their cars, so a better system for that would be great. anyway, usually, i love gringo’s but this soured me. if you’re that careless to give us coffee cake mexican rice for a curbside order, what are y’all letting go that we don’t know about when we dine in? i won’t be returning for a while, but thank you for amazing...