El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Columbus

I can't even put into words that would adequately describe how good this place was. I will do my best though.

We arrived after having left another Mexican restaurant after a very poor experience. The waitress was kind enough to refer us to El Vaquero. I wanted to drive back over to the other restaurant and give her a tip just for referring us there.

I had the beef tip quesadilla and a shredded beef quesadilla. I ordered it with the fajita vegetables and OMG the shredded beef was BY FAR THE BEST I've ever had. The beef was charred perfectly and as you can see there was zero grease present in the quesadilla. How they achieved this I do not know. It has me wanting to sell my house and move to Columbus just so we can make this our new weekly restaurant to attend.

The cheese dip was great along with margaritas. We ordered a frozen pitcher to split between two of us and we were pleased with the fact that we were able to get what would be 2 medium cups each out of one pitcher. These margaritas pack a punch and taste great. (my picture had a napkin and a lime in it so I couldn't share that here)

Let's just say we returned later that night to have another round of drinks and enjoy more cheese dip. Any trip we take near Columbus will have us stopping by this restaurant.

They have additional parking across the street from the location and it was used while we were there quite a bit. We knew by this fact before we went in that we may very well be walking into the holy grail of Mexican restaurants. Looks weren't...

I recently came to Georgia, and was curious to try Mexican food while my car was getting an oil change down the road. Before I go on a rant about the food..let me first say the waiter was Amazing! He did a great job and loved the service. The cashier at the front was such a sweet lady, I would come back just to see them again. The margaritas were strong and made up for the fact that the food was the worst I’ve ever had!!! The first red flag should have been the musty smell from the inside. Moreover, the food is absolutely disgusting. The chile relleno and quesadilla was made with watery white cheese and the rice was flavorless.I had to ask the waiter if the owners were from Mexico, because the food was out of touch with the culture. I’ve lived in many states, and move around for work..I’ve never experienced Mexican food that was not anything close to Mexico….or Tex Mex for a matter of fact. Tex Mex at least tastes flavorful, has grilled onions, and the cheese is much higher quality. Where was the queso fresco for the chile relleno? Where was the sauce? I got a ball of ground beef (questionable taste) and scrambled egg. Quesadilla was hard and that cheese tastes like gas station queso.

IF YOU HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH MEXICAN FOOD DO NOT OPEN A MEXICAN RESTAURANT.

I’m going to come back for breakfast and see if we have better luck with simple eggs and toast. I’d only come back for the staff...

I remember now why I had given El Vaquero a break. It is not the same it once was! I had given up on it until tonight when my co-workers and I went and ate here after we found out Texas Roadhouse had an exorbitant wait. The waitress was kind but she didn't really pay attention or give any detail to what we had asked for. So my meal had to be remade. And my coworker was missing things she asked for as well. No big deal, we got what we needed. But literally 5 or ten minutes after we got our food we had been checked on 4 times. The fifth time is when I started to sense that we were definitely being rushed. I started to already become irritated, because if you don't want my business say so. Don't try to rush me out for whatever reason. But then...the host comes over and says "Hey are you guys ready for your checks, I'll go grab them" then she rushes off all good still. It's when she comes back about 3 minutes later (and Mind you I'm a very observant person I always have been , in addition to being a server many years ago) I noticed they had not checked on the other 4 tables around us at all so at this point I'm very aggravated and brought it to the hosts attention, she denied doing so but how come both of you literally kept bombarding our table like that! I can't ever return this is just bad business especially with my previous experience at the stadium drive location. The food was good...