El Loro Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Detroit Lakes

Well, THAT wasn’t good. El Loro missed the mark on everything they brought us. We were originally planning to go to Don Pablo’s, but they were closed due to staffing issues. I’ve never been there so I can’t judge them. Since we were in the mood for Mexican food, we thought we’d give El Loro a shot. I’ll start with cocktails. Margarita was a fail. We tried their upgraded margarita with Grand Marnier. It tasted like limeade. Neither my wife nor I could finish our drink. Big mistake was getting the medium. Their sizes were small, medium, large & monster. I’d think the person getting the monster would immediately get diabetes. Complimentary chips and salsa were brought out. The chips were okay, but the salsa was neither spicy or fresh tasting (I want at least one of those things.) They also brought a dip that looked like ranch but neither my wife nor I could identify what it was. It was kind of sweet. We tried the queso fundido and a small guac for appetizers. The server brought the queso and some tortillas but no plates so we were assembling them on paper napkins. The queso was runny and not flavorful. The guac didn’t taste like fresh avocados. Neither of the appetizers were finished. Molé sauce is a weakness of mine. If I see molé on the menu, I have to try it. I had the enchiladas poblanos for my main. For some reason, their enchiladas poblanos is listed as having molé sauce on it. The molé sauce looked like melted Hershey’s milk chocolate. And it tasted like milk chocolate without the sugar. Before you say “dark molé has chocolate in it,” I know that. But it is not the dominant flavor. My dish had 3 enchiladas. I was able to finish 1. I’m not sure who this restaurant is aiming for. If you’re looking for Americanized Mexican food, it still wasn’t good. On the positive side, we had a nice view of the lake. And it...

We came down to DL from Fargo to celebrate Father’s Day. We decided to come to this restaurant because of the good reviews and pleasant past experiences. Upon walking in I did notice it was quite dirty- I do understand it is the weekend, and it’s hard to keep up with cleaning when it’s busy so I tried to shrug it off. But the longer we stayed there I couldn’t help but noticing the floors were really dirty, the walls had many stains on them, the bathrooms were messy, dead bugs on the windowsills right next to our food- when I received my water I noticed my cup was dirty as well. The menus had stains and were sticky- as well as the tables. I was pretty worried about the food quality at this point, but unfortunately I cannot give a review about the food because we never ate it. We waited for about 35 minutes for our order, and we just decided to leave at this point because we were on a time crunch and hungry. There were other people with bigger parties who had gotten there after us who got their food before our table did- and we only had 4 people. When we tried to leave after waiting for so long- the manager said we had to pay for half of our ticket. We were confused because we had never gotten our food. The manager explained because the order was put in the system and the kitchen was working on the food- we have to pay because the cost of our food gets taken out of the employees checks. First of all, that doesn’t sound like a professional business. Second of all we offered to pay for our drinks, but I just don’t think it’s right to make a dissatisfied customer pay for food they never even received. She explained that if we didn’t pay the bill the authorities would be called. This whole experience was very unprofessional and I will not be a...

This was my favorite place to eat in Detroit lakes until I went in for a date night with my husband tonight. He order his and i got mine. Mine was supposed to have cheese, ham, chicken, bacon, peppers with rice and soft shells. It came out my husband was made right. Mine had a watery cheese sauce no thickness to it and no bacon and the ham was like rubber. I asked for it to be remade with a thicker cheese like my husband had on his. the waiter took it and he was gone about 5 min came back this time there was no cheese and the ham was still the same rubbery so i said i dont want this since it still was not made right and at this point my hisband had eaten his meal so my husband asked for bill and i wanted my meal removed since it was made wrong twice. The waiter refused to take my meal off because they had to make it twice when asked to speak with the manager he said he was the manager when we said there was no way we were paying for the food that wasn't cooked right he the waiter/Manger said if we didn't pay for both he would call the police because they had to make the food twice which wasnt my fault they didnt make it right. I was fine with him call the police but my husband just wanted it to be done so he paid. Since he paid for both meals and mine was still on the table I asked for a to go box and the manager says no go get your to go box. Figured since I had to pay for it at my dog could eat it. After, that I won't be going back and it's sad a restaurant I once enjoyed going too is now a place I'll never return too. Very poor...