El Patron Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Denver

We are fairly new to Colorado, and had my oldest son visiting. He wanted to try birria tacos, so he searched and read reviews on numerous places. We decided to drive over an hour to El Patron based on their menu and reviews. We were promptly greeted and sat. We ordered guacamole and queso as starters. Then ordered a variety of dishes.... birria quesadillas, chimichanga, and Carne asada street tacos. When the guacamole arrived, we noticed it was brown. Our server said it was all like that. First strike.... then the queso arrived. Y'all, it was a huge bowl of barely warm, stringy, inedible cheese. No chip stood a chance against this brick of cheese. A brick of cheese with absolutely no flavor, despite the huge peppers accenting it. We asked the server if it was how it was supposed to be and showed him the stringy mess. He shrugged it off, walked away, and assured us that it was supposed to be that way. Second strike.... we legitimately almost walked out then. We certainly wish we would have. Our entrees started arriving. Both of my boys had the birria quesadilla. While the meat and consumme had good flavor, the quesadilla was made with the same chihuahua cheese as the dip. Each bite was literally like bubblegum. The texture made it inedible. The chimichanga arrived. While we did ask for no green chili sauce, this was the driest chimichanga we've ever encountered. The filling was carnita. It tasted as if it was old and was extremely dry. Then to my street tacos. The flavor was good, however you could tell it was old and had been reheated numerous times. There were very old, dried up and extremely burnt pieces of meat mixed in with the fresher meat. We are a table of foodies. We do not go into places looking for issues, but we will address any that we find if they are significant. We tried to talk to the manager/owner and she was not having it. She swears that the queso was supposed to be exactly as it was served. That it was supposed to be more of a fondue style than the "typical American cheese dip". We explained that we've had, and make our own, fondue and that there was nothing close to it in that dip. Fondue, while thicker than most Mexican cheese dips, is also a dip that spreads and coats. As you can see by the pictures, there was NO spreading or coating anything with that stringy mess. We pointed out the brown guacamole and wilted and brown "fresh" cilantro that was also served to us. Simply trying to explain that it was obviously not fresh. She did not take our criticism well. I do understand that, but it bothered us because you could tell that she was simply chalking it up to us being "gringos" that aren't use to traditional Mexican cuisine. We may be gringos, but these gringos have traveled the US and had any kind of authentic Mexican food possible. Enough to know that chihuahua cheese is not typically served that way. It's usually not heated and eaten with food but sliced, chopped, shredded, or fried. And sometimes in small amounts spread on top of sizzling fajitas. Usually oaxaca cheese is used. Cheese aside, serving brown, store bought guacamole is just embarrassing. Cilantro is cheap, and this place should be using enough that you never see wilted and brown pieces being served. The service was almost as bad as the food. I DID take my street tacos to go, after no one else in our party had an entree. I snacked on them after we got home. That's the only thing that I had different from the rest of our family. Needless to say, I was up all night with an upset tummy. I don't know how this place has 3 locations, but someone from the other 2 may want to do a quality check on this location. While she did comp the chimichanga, one quesadilla, and the queso, our bill was still outrageous. There's no way they should be charging those prices for such low quality food. I've eaten better "authentic Mexican food" at a...

My girlfriend and I are visiting from NJ for the first time and we had heard the legends regarding Denver’s Mexican food. Please take my word for it; PLEASE IF YOU DO ANYTHING, TODAY LET IT BE VISITING THIS RESTAURANT. I have traveled to Mexico plenty of times and ventured to find authentic food, and I can honestly say El Patron serves the best Mexican food I have ever tasted. I genuinely would go as far as to say that this was some of it not THE BEST food I have ever eaten in my entire life, and I do not say that lightly. Andrea was incredibly pleasant and kind; a world class server. Your life may as well be in shambles if you pass up the opportunity to visit El Patron, and frankly I feel sorry for you if you do. If you think for even a single second that you can find this quality of authentic Mexican food anywhere on earth, I promise you that you are sadly mistaken. I will likely name my first born son El Patron in honor of this sacred place; the least I could do for an establishment of this caliber. I was a boy when I entered El Patron, and needless to say I will be leaving...

The food tastes fine. They can not communicate in English, watch out for this. I ordered a dinner for delivery, since I was staying in a hotel by the airport with no vehicle. They charged me $5 for a drink that I never received. I called to question what they would do about it, was confirmed they would send it. Nothing. Never offered to fix. Muttered, for me to call Uber eats. Just watch out with these people.

Update: I did originally give 2 stars because the food was fine, just very bad service. Then after sitting on the phone for 20 minutes on hold and then told “We can give you a credit for a drink the next time you’re in Denver”, mind you I’m from Michigan. I ultimately thought 2 stars was a little to generous and updated my review for theirs and everyone else’s sake. The sad part is, they probably blame Covid for lackluster sales and never truly...