Chavolos Taqueria — Restaurant in Colorado

When my friend and I arrived at dinner time on a Saturday, the place was packed. We waited to be seated, as the sign instructed. A worker told me there would be a 15 minute wait for a table. I asked if we could wait outside. Thankfully he said yes. The dining room was hot and crowded with nowhere to sit while waiting. It was a lot cooler and more pleasant outside.

There were two tables (each with two chairs) outside on either side of the door. My elderly friend sat on one of the chairs. An older couple who came in after us sat at the other table. After waiting a while, one of the waiters came outside and asked the other couple if they wanted to dine outside. They said yes, and I jumped on the chance to ask if we could eat outside too. It was so much more pleasant outside than in the dining room.

I ordered the enchilada plate, which came with a large portion of refried beans covered in cheese, a portion of rice that was slightly smaller than the portion of beans, and a small enchilada obscured by the iceberg lettuce piled on top. I had to poke around the plate to find the enchilada. I'm not kidding. There was so much lettuce hiding the enchilada, I couldn't even see it.

This enchilada was small too. It was maybe 6 inches long. Before I came to Colorado, a standard enchiladas plate in a restaurant came with 3 enchiladas. In Colorado, a standard enchilada plate comes with ONE enchilada, only one! At other Colorado restaurants, at least the one enchilada has been big. Not at Chavolo's. The one enchilada was just a little guy. At least there was plenty of beans and rice on the plate, and they, along with the free chips and salsa, filled me up.

The rice was better than most rice I've had at Mexican restaurants. The beans were just a little over salted, but still edible. Other than salt, I didn't taste any seasonings in the beans. I didn't ask if the beans and rice were vegetarian. The free salsa was only ok, better than eating dry chips, but not great. The enchilada was ok. It didn't seem to have much sauce on it (it was quite dry), and the cheese inside was quite dense and not really melty. There was so much lettuce on top, that I mostly tasted lettuce with each bite.

The food was only worth 3 stars, I think, as far as taste, but it was filling. I'm adding a fourth star due to service. The two gentlemen who helped us were very nice and friendly. Our food came out FAST too, and mine was piping hot. However, I don't think I would...

The last 2 times we have gone to Chavolos, our experience was far from good. We went on New Year's day and decided to order dessert, because it was my birthday. The flan that was brought to us, was black and curdled. Only after the manager saw us push it to the side, did he deliver us some cheesecake chimichangas...which was nice, but he should have seen that the flan was bad in the first place. (And the chef, should have known was bad...it should have never been plated.) We me friends for dinner there 2 nights ago, and I ordered Pollo a la crema, one of my favorite Mexican dishes. I was served a plate of chicken with hot sour cream...Literally, it was just sour cream out of container....no spices, no liquid to thin it down...no crema sauce. (And I'm sorry...If you know Pollo a la Crema, you know the dish...It's not hot sour cream over chicken. ) Their menu even describes it as chicken and onions with a creamy sauce....When I asked the server why it looked so different and told her that it tasted like plain sour cream over chicken, and that I'd ordered it from them before and it didn't look or taste like this, she argued and told me that "This was how they always cooked it." When I told her that the description on the menu even described it with onions and a cream sauce, she said, "the chefs NEVER make it like described on the menu," I told her I was confused. She grabbed the plate from me and said, "Fine, I'll have them put onions in it." When she returned, she explained that SHE "orders this meal after EVERY shift," and therefore could "assure me that this is how this dish is always served." She proceeded to toss the rest of our dishes down in front of us and behave like a disgruntled server for the remainder of our time there. We won't be giving them our business again...

Chavolo's Mexican Restaurant, Pagosa Springs, CO. Good food, terrible service. I walked in to pick up an order placed by a person I was with. I approached the counter and encountered a woman who was counting money. She looked at me and asked how she could help. I said I was there to pick up order #55. She looked away and went straight back to counting money. Then...I saw my order sitting 8 feet away and told her I thought it was my order. She said, "Could be", then walked away, grabbed two hot plates for seated guests, ignored me and my order, then went to the back kitchen to do other things. HOW RUDE!!! Then, another employee approached. She didn't ask it I needed anything and, in fact, ignored me. I then told her I had just been ignored by her coworker and needed to pick up order #55. She DID actually go and retrieve it...and it was wrong (meaning: not the correct items, as ordered). She refused to even consider that the mistake had been theirs and insisted the mistake could only have been mine/ours. Eventually, once I told her I wasn't paying for one of the items because it was incorrect, she did remove it...begrudgingly. I then paid, left no tip and walked out...never to return again! Now...I know this place is very popular and busy (was overly PACKED when I was there and I couldn't wait to leave) BUT being popular does NOT give employees the right to be rude to customers, for no reason, and/or ignore them. Hey Chavolo's...try to remember how important proper customer service is and don't think that, just because you have good food, you can act...