Ay Cocula — Restaurant in El Paso

My Wife and I went here for dinner on a Saturday evening. To begin I ordered an horchata and my Wife ordered a lemonade. The lemonade was fine but the horchata had an odd bitter flavor to it, almost like vodka was in it so I left most of it as it was unpleasant to drink.

Next they brought us 3 kinds of salsas with some stale tostadas. All 3 had no spice which sometimes happens with the batch of chillies used but the salsas also had no flavor. This is a bad sign at a Mexican restaurant.

We ordered a queso fundito with green chilli as an appetizer, my Wife ordered chicken fajitas and I ordered al pastor tacos. The server brought the queso fundito and tacos at the same time. The queso fundito was hard and overcooked. The cheese would lift out of the bowl in one big clump, so we had to cut it with a knife to eat it. The meat in the tacos was tough and overcooked served with avocado, onions and a stingy amount of radishes and cilantro.

Next they brought my Wife's chicken fajitas. It was literally just chicken and a small amount of onion, NO BELL PEPPERS! Never have I seen "chicken fajitas" that doesn't have any bell peppers in it. I'm not sure if they are just cheap and don't want to include the bell peppers but for this dish of chicken and a little bit of onion which was called "chicken fajitas" we were charged $15.99 so I would expect there to be bell peppers. It was supposed to be served with a baked potato, avocado and radishes none of which were brought with it. When we asked where they were the server told us it would be a 15 minute wait for the potato and to order a different side. So my Wife ordered beans which when brought was mostly water, a few pieces of chicharron and very little beans. The server brought some avocado but no radishes.

In conclusion in a city like El Paso where there is multitudes of Mexican restaurants to choose from I would definitely recommend avoiding Ay Cocula. This is probably one of the worst Mexican restaurants I've been to in El Paso. Bad,...

My first time to this place since they rebuilt and I remember why. It's a shame because their food is so good. We walked in without greeting or much direction. We finally saw a sign that said we could seat ourselves but it was facing the wrong way. Upon sitting 3 people asked us for our drinks and after literally 10 minutes one brought them. It took another 6 minutes for menus and a nice older gent asked if we'd been helped promptly served ys chips and salsas. The chips were super hard and stale and all fried together in a careless clump.

I was still, as always, hopeful this could get better but it got worse. A girl finally came back to take our order. Ok great! No... We waited more than 20 minutes and started asking why so long? She finally brought ONE meal of the birria tacos and the cocula burger took another 20 minutes! Well that was rude because as a fam we eat together so it got cold as we waited for the burger! I finally got up and asked. It was passed around!! I saw them from kitchen pass it to maybe a confused cook to the older gent to the server like a hot potato!

When he finally got it we were not surprised to see it was wrong, nothing at all like the menu stated with toreados peppers or bacon just a sloppy smashed bun with a meat, cheese and like a quarter piece if burnt bacon! We asked and the girl was like I dunno that's how I got it! So we asked the older gent and he said maybe they were out if chlil then finally the girl came and said that's how they are so guess what we ordered on side... Chilis toreados which came quickly but on ticket they charged us for the chilis which were suppose to be in that burger!

Likely never going back.It mads me very sad that I finally found birria tacos in a pretty decorative, close location for all this hassle? No. Fail. Don't blame short staff either they were all laughing and...

I had the most horrible experience at ay cocula ever. We took my mother in law to see the mariachis for her birthday on friday the 21st. The waiter was very nice but did not give us everything we needed/wanted in a timely manner. It took forever to bring drinks and place orders. The food was good except some of the items were either old, under cooked or over cooked. My baked potato was hard as a rock and the rice was hard also which means the rice was raw and the potato was left in the microwave too long. Inacceptable. We ordered to go and the order was never placed. The worse part of the night was the noise, the music was extremely loud. So loud, that the speakers were constantly giving feedback. I love music and live mariachis and have gone to several restaurants with them performing and never have I experienced this. It was LOUD!! Mine and families ears were ringing so much when we left. My 3 month old is used to loud noise, with the music, he was crying the whole time. I could not talk to anyone in my table, not even the person next to me. My family and I gobbled the food and left almost immediately after receiving food because it was too much. It was as if we had come out of a concert. Seems like the managers want some sort of a night club vibe and I is supposed to be a family restaurant where people can get together and talk and none of that was possible. I had invited people i hadnt seen stop in a while and was unable to catch up with them. Overall horrific. Actually, the worst part was that i paid for this bad experience. I advice if you want a night club vibe, go! But if you want to talk and have dinner DO NOT GO! Especially with babies that can easily go deaf since they are not...