Alex's Tacos & Wings — Restaurant in Columbia

There are only a few authentic Mexican restaurants in Columbia and they are on the scale from our typical restaurant that serves more Tex-Mex than Mexican and your carnicerias that you have to be fluent in Spanish to order. Alex's is a nice mid-line, the staff is bi-lingual and the food is tasty. They serve all of the typical fare but the wings are a twist that I wouldn't expect in a Mexican joint. It is one of the few places that makes chicken wings the way I like them. The are fried hard with just a little sauce and unlike my typical choices, I love their lemon pepper wings (I'm normally a ride or die buffalo sauce guy). I first discovered Alex's during the pandemic shutdown when you could only get take out. The taco joint I normally went to was either constantly out of food or their tacos were greasy and old tasting (like the meat had been sitting around all day) so I started searching out a new place. Alex's is that new place. There tacos are pretty good even though I don't necessarily agree with the price. Typically I've always paid about $1.25 to $1.50 per taco, Alex's tacos are $2.50 a piece and even though they are tasty I don't think it's worth that much. I know the price of meat and everything else has gone through the roof and restaurants have no choice but to pass those increases on to customers but I still think $2.50 is rather steep for a street taco. Other than the price of the food I have no complaints about Alex's. Their food has been on point and as I stated before, their wings have me hooked (at least the lemon pepper ones). My next goal is to try...

My wife and I went in to eat a quick bite. We have never tried this spot before and we were really looking forward to it, on top of being extremely hungry. Didn’t take but 5 minutes for us to walk out. Asked the server what she recommended, her reply was “I don’t know I don’t eat here much” “what’s the difference between extra mild and the medium sauce” ..Again another unclear answer.. “I’m not too sure” We got our chips and salsa, ate a few chips and low and behold, a huge COCKROACH. Fried straight to our chip. We got up, told our server and asked for a to go tea... extremely disappointed, disgusted and mortified by that, I told my wife I wouldn’t even drink their drinks, so curiously lifting the lid, finds a fruit fly. Not one bug here but two! In one sitting. Imagine how many of these people are eating bugs. Where there is one roach there are many. This completely blew our minds and our appetites. You would think during the height of a pandemic, this company would take cleanliness seriously. WRONG. Absolutely disgusted. Hands down most horrific experience ever from a restaurant. I would highly recommend not going here, and if you dare, take your Lysol wipes and a can of Raid. Also a majority of the tables were extremely dirty and covered with sitting dirty dishes. FOUL PLACE TO EAT!!! In hindsight, we now know why our server never eats there. She’s seen the bugs in the kitchen. How could you serve to people knowing how nasty the kitchen is. I’ll be contacting the BBB and CDC first thing in...

Well, I went against my own advice and ordered from Alex’s again. Last year I ordered about $90.00 worth of food for several people in my family and when we got to my daughter’s house 5 miles out of town, realized that our $90 order contained 1 pitifully small bag of nachos and 1/2 of a small styrofoam cup of salsa…. I said then that I would never spend any money there again… I should have stuck to that but tonight I called and ordered a 6-piece tenders, extra mild, combo with French fries… their menu online showed that as $8.29 before tax. When I ordered I asked if that combo still came with nachos and salsa and she said if I wanted them…I asked if it still came with celery and carrots and she said yes it did. I asked to add a small individual order of cheese dip and she asked if I wanted a medium or a large and I said if you don’t have a small individual order then leave the cheese dip off, I don’t want it. Picked up the order for $18.60 which had not one piece of celery or carrot, she had added on an additional order of nachos which I did not ask for, and the chicken was so hot, it would burn your mouth and was tough. It certainly was not extra mild and it certainly was not worth $18.60 …. Never again will they have the opportunity...