Los Guachos — Restaurant in Columbus

I used to frequent the Sawmill Road locationaune 4 or 5 years ago. Absolutely loved the food, great service, all around 5 start dining experience! I hadn't eaten dinner tonight and was caught running around doing errands after work, absolutely starving. I was sitting at the light of Bethel Rd and Godown Rd and saw the sign so I decided to check it out.

The food was just as amazing as I remembered it being! They specialize in "Al Pastor" meat which is pork that is spit cooked like the lamb meat greek places cook for gyros. This pork they have is absolutely delicious and very unique to Los Guachos Taqueria. I cannot remember why I stopped eating here a few years back because my meal tonight has renued my desire for their burritos. I will definitely be coming back soon and not waiting 4 or 5 more years to rediscover it like I have.

Beyond the excellent food, the service was spectacular too. The young lady who was taking the orders was very bright, cheerful, and helpful. I wasn't completely sure what I wanted and was still staring at the wall menu like a fool when my turn in line came up. She took the time to briefly walk me through the items she thought I would like when I told her I wanted a burritos AL pastor and this, that, and the other. She helped me combine all this and select a meal menu option that saved me some money over ordering all my sides separately. Not only was she so helpful, she was absolutely SWAMPED with customers and orders! She had a long line in store placing orders and it looked like 2 or 3 phone lines of people placing pick up orders. She kept everything moving quickly and was taking phone orders while entering in my walk in order and helping me with the menu simultaneously. She was also doing all this with a cheerful positive attitude that must have been hard to maintain being so swamped and busy. If this young lady any was an exsample of the caliber of staff Los Guachos employs, they must have excellent customer service as a result.

In conclusion, Los Guachos Taqueria has an A+ rating from me. The food is awesome, especially their unique and always fresh AL Pastor pork meat. The portions sizes are a little small for the price which makes me almost want to drop my overall grade for them. However, the fantastic customer service makes up for this portion value issue. I give them 5 out of 5 stars, an A+, darn near perfect score! I would recommend everyone check out any of their 4 locations here in Columbus ... you will not be...

Noticing a whole lot of one star reviews for this place lately. Several people have left reviews alleging that the restaurant pads their credit card charges by adding money in the tips when closing out the credit card charges for the evening. This is absolutely a crime and should be reported. Notify your credit card company and they will investigate them for fraud. The owner would do well to pay attention to how the staff is running this location. My awful experience occurred on 6/23/22. My burrito had a chewed up lime in it. When I notified the manager, she responded as if it was an inconvenience to bother her with it, debated me momentarily, but had the kitchen replace it. The proper response for a manager is to simply apologize, refund my money and then make me another. Like, not apologizing is seemingly a point of pride for this particular location. The manager claimed that the chewed up lime must have happened during prep. As if that's a reasonable excuse. The only place for a lime that has been partially eaten is the trash. The lime getting anywhere near a prep table is out of the question. After I picked up the replacement burrito, the manager then ridiculed the situation in Spanish to the staff as I walked away - not knowing I'm fluent in Spanish. At that point, I simply left the burrito on the table and left. $12 or whatever I spent is a small price to pay for not getting food poisoning. Especially right after a pandemic has barely passed. This restaurant has achieved a level of success where they know a bad review won't affect their business. The arrogance on display is legendary....

From the reviews to the banners to the people recommending it to me, I had very high hopes for this spot.

I got two tacos al pastor, two fried fish tacos, and chips with salsa. I also got horchata to drink.

Overall, the food was just not the bold authentic flavors I would continue to come back for. Living in California for some time, I ate at some authentic Mexican spots and quickly learned just how Americanized many Mexican restaurants are around here. While this place was decent, everything was very clean, and the food was all pretty good quality. Nothing gross or terrible. But it was just lacking flavor for my taste. I am wondering if I may have gotten the Americanized version of their food because they are used to serving food that everyone will like. That’s where my only complaint comes, but flavor is the main reason I came here.

The tacos al pastor were pretty dry and lacked the bold flavor to make up for that. The fish tacos were large portions of fish which was nice, the sauce was pretty good, but again, it was definitely more Americanized in my opinion with fried fish in a flour tortilla, lettuce and tomato, and a southwest sauce. The chips were good, the salsa however was the most bold authentic flavor there. The salsa they gave me with my chips was delicious! The horchata was really sugary, but some people like that.

I hate to give 3 stars because the people were very nice and the place was very clean. They even had an excessively fancy bathroom which was cool. But the flavors were just not there for a place I’d be going back...