El Vaquero Short North Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Columbus

My partner and I went for our anniversary as our usual place was closed and we were in the mood for Mexican. The service was good but the food was quite disappointing to me overall. The chips and salsa brought things off to a strong start. We got queso dip and guacamole. I expected the queso to have more of a kick to it, and the guac was a little bland too. For the main meal, I got chicken chimichangas. I suppose the meat choice is where I went wrong, because even though the outer components were good, the chicken inside was so dry and bland, not a speck of seasoning. The chimichangas came with rice and beans. The rice was okay, and the beans were on the bland side as well. We got fried ice cream as a dessert, which my partner had never had before. We were so excited! Unfortunately, I was disappointed once again as the fried ice cream wasn't actually fried like it is at most other Mexican restaurants I'd been to. Instead, it was coated in corn flakes, which quickly became soggy and chewy, which was not an ideal experience. I was looking forward to the warm, crispy, outer shell melting the ice cream on the inside, but instead the ice cream was rock solid and took a few minutes to soften. It's no wonder the corn flakes became soggy. Overall, I was very disappointed in the quality of food, especially...

I would recommend giving it some time for them to iron out the kinks before returning to this location.

For starters it took a while for anyone to take OU drink then food orders. When we did finally order, multiple orders were wrong and all brought out at different times. My order was brought out wrong and only partially given for a kitchen error. When the remaining part came out it was also wrong and missing the sauce. I did not bother asking for it to be fixed at that point as we were ready to go home and it did some seem like the workers knew the menu very well so I did not trust it would be fixed. The guy who brought my sisters food also got visibly upset when the order wasn’t correct and she asked for the remaining items.

All the drinks were not refilled and the server was MIA. Had to ask another worker to refill them. Multiple workers standing around doing nothing except staring at us which was just an uncomfortable experience.

I really like the Olentangy Road location and have never had issues with their food or service. I imagine this location just needs more time but it was a...

I really wanted to love this place as I live very close and it was convenient. I was ordering several times a month and sometimes twice a week. It's touch and go. When it is good, the food is fresh and nicely prepared. But I have received cold food twice. One with some burritos and I mean ice cold. The second time it was a Steak Dinner. Both times the manager happily replaced them. I ordered a Steak Dinner the last and finale time and it was not Ribeye, maybe Skirt Steak, it was so gristley I had to spit most of it out. I called to let them know, not even expecting anything in return at this point, but really did it was they kept saying the manager wasn't in for several days. So basically he was avoiding me. It is your lose, I can spend my money somewhere else.

Also the host doesn't know the menu, so you have to give her the number and pray its the right order. I have also had things missing from my order. I took a picture just incase and low and behold, I was ignored. So I will include it, of the chewed up, spit out...