Tacos Chinampa — Restaurant in El Paso

If I could give this place zero stars, I would. Service is the worst, slow and disorganized. The food was cold, soggy, overcooked, and flavorless. I was excited to try them out since they were recommended to us but were met with so much disappointment. We made our order online, we arrived there a bit early because we're not from the area so we wanted to make sure we didn't have the food just sitting there waiting for us. When we got there, I called and asked about the order and a lady answered saying it wasn't ready and where was I located so they could take it out to me as soon as it was ready, so I tell her exactly where and what my car looks like. And thirty minutes drop by, their drive thru line grows and disappears multiple times and still no sign of our food, only a lady keeps glancing over at us but still nothing. Keep in mind our food was supposed to be ready about 20 minutes ago. So, I see them setting up more food to take out but still noone brings any of it to us so I decide to call again... once on the phone, I believe I get the same lady which from the restaurant glass just seems to be dragging herself around to get these orders ready, it doesn't even seem like she has an apron or hairnet on with her hair loose caught in a scarf but she's handling orders🙄 anyway, she answers and asks all the same info which I get but then she says - yes your order is ready, are you in the drive thru line? And so I say no, I'm parked in the front. And she just continues to say that they won't take the food out to me that I have to get in line. Now, if you would've said this to me when I first called it would've been ok but almost 40 minutes later???? I tried explaining how I had called and had been told that they were going to bring out the food to me and she refused to accept that and said I had to drive around. I was so annoyed by this and I just hung up and drove around. Once there, I had to wait again. I grab my order and this is the lightest order ever and I want to remain positive about this and decide you know what.. that's ok we just need to taste it. Keep in mind there was no awesome mexican food smell or anything resembling it, probably cause our food was sitting there for more than 30. Anyway, we get to our hotel only to discover the coldest tacos, not only because of how long it took us to get them but the tortilla looked like they barely warmed it and it looked soggy - every taco tore. There was about six fries and they were all soggy as well. The potato was not a mexican baked potato this was a potato you make at home on a budget - smallest potato on earth. My husband literally prides himself with trying out different mexican baked potatoes and this was so disappointing, no cream, barely any cheese and no butter... how do you even make a bp without butter or cheese or cream??? Anyway, I bite in to my taco only to find the driest asada ever. This meat was so overcooked that the texture was almost like eating beef jerky. I will never eat at this place again, I love supporting local businesses but nope not this one🤢 recommendation - if your food is going to suck, at least offer excellent customer service! Also, here's a pic of the tacos - if you know anything about authentic tacos, then you...

07/29/2023 Edit: Happy to announce that they got rid of the goo, and now serve mashed potato mix. The old servers are still terrible. Is it their goal to avoid eye contact no matter what?

06/2023 Edit:

Sad to see another restaurant with great potential fall to our current economy and declining workforce. I normally promote this restaurant to anyone looking for authentic Mexican food (I do warn about ordering online still). I visited just a few weeks ago, so I was shocked to see the obvious changes. First, I did not see any servers near the tables as most were in the kitchen area with their backs to the patrons. Second, I ordered the Parrillada San Valentin (the for 2 meal), as I like to keep some in the fridge for later in the week. Normally, they serve you abaked potatoes with an unhealthy scoop of butter, then they bring you the plate with your taco dressings. After that, a skillet with a mountain of meat, grilled onions, and some more cilantro, etc. This time, instead of the potato, on the plate with the dressings, there was a small bowl with what I thought was apple pudding. It was shiny, gooey, almost like a brown Elmer's glue or old-fashioned cement glue. I tried some, and it gave me a potato aftertaste, but the goo itself has little to no flavor. Btw, the server had only been to the table to drop off food and disappear while I processed what I was looking at. Might come back and get take out, I'll probably start asking for them to keep the goo.

Original: The food is good, good portions, the service on the other hand can be compared to a McDonalds full of new staff. It is impossible to order over the phone as the phone will Never be picked up, and the voicemail has not been set up yet. Some of the items shown on their website are not actually offered, and they are not "allowed" to mix any of them. They got better at coming back to the tables after bringing your food to you, but some will still hide in the kitchen and avoid eye contact with their guests. I come to this restaurant because the food tastes the closest to food served in Mx, but I would rather cross the bridge to Juarez and spend 3hrs crossing back to El Paso. Also, avocado will NOT be offered to you, nor mentioned, but...

Zero stars. I would give zero stars if I could. Sad this place is still open, I was hoping it would have closed down by now. Two years ago in June 2016, my wife and I ate at this restaurant before I deployed to the Middle East. I got the worst food poisoning of my life within 6-8 hours of eating here. Had the worst time recovering from it and wasn't far away from needing to see the doctor. My wife also ate here with me that night. She was less fortunate. I had returned to the military base and my four day pass had ended. She stayed at the hotel next door to this restaurant and she became so ill and was so debilitated by the food poisoning that the hotel manager had to arrange for her to get to the hospital. The hospital visit ended up costing us $1700 because of a lousy $15-$20 meal. The only positive side to this story is La Quinta Inn next door was military friendly, the hotel manager was awesome for arranging my wife the medical attention she needed. They cleaned her room before she returned from the hospital and they gave her an extra night stay for free while we arranged for her flight to be rescheduled. Tacos Chinampa did nothing except be rude to my wife when she confronted them with her situation. They told her nobody else got food poisoning, shrugged her off, and avoided listening to her concerns. The staff was highly arrogant to my understanding and the only thing they offered was to refund the cost of the meal. After this visit and run-in with the restaurant management the El Paso health department was made aware of what happened. If anything came of it, I don't know but customers should be concerned about cleanliness, food safety, and proper food storage when eating here. I wouldn't eat here again not knowing where their ingredients come from or the concerns aforementioned. Our medical bills have been taken care of from this incident but poisoning customers should never happen, and overall $1700 was quite a bit of money for us at that time. Completely...