El Gato Cantina Essex — Restaurant in Essex Junction

Edit: Changing former review to 2-stars.

I dislike dog-piling on an establishment that I used to hold in rather high esteem, but El Gato, you really need to get your act together. The atmosphere is as fun as always, but I have to agree the the other reviews that the food standards have fallen.

We ordered the $6 elotes. Go Google a picture. Creamy, salty, zesty... all those things come to mind when ordering Mexican Street Corn. Instead, $6 buys you a cob with minimal seasoning (I tasted cumin, chilli powder and little else) and a wedge of lime. No cheese, sour cream, or any other dairy. Just grilled corn and a couple of spices. It wasn't even very flavorful. A really worrying sign if this is someone's idea of Elotes. Really sad.

Next came the Fiesta bowl. "Choice of protein. Served with beans, rice, peppers and onions, Pico de Gallo, avocado, queso fresco, and Baja drizzle". For $18 I though for sure this fresh, mouth-watering meal would be a sure hit. No such luck. The portion was tiny! No queso fresco, 3 or 4 slices of avocado, and a small amount of the other ingredients. I know food costs have increased, but compared to similarly priced burrito or chimichanga, I was left with wanting more. Literally. I was still hungry.

And here's the kicker. I know the bathroom might be more of an issue for the building owner, but literally missing stall door for the toilet, daring anyone to sit down and use it, was the final straw for me.

I'm sorry guys. Really have enjoyed meals there in the past, but this is going to my last visit unless...

I feel so bad for the staff at El Gato in Essex. We stopped in for lunch on a Sunday expecting it to be busy, but there weren't many tables seated so we figured we lucked out. Our hostess was polite and got us seated right away. She returned 15 minutes later to take our drink order and noted our server would be with us shortly. 10 minutes after that, our server finally arrived to take our order. Turns out she is also the bartender and was pulling double duty. How management allows this to happen on a weekend during lunch rush is absolutely mind boggling for me. The icing on the cake was when our server noted they were short a cook as well so the food would take a little longer than usual. When I finally got my food, the rice was cold, the tortillas were stale, and the chicken was flavorless. It was like they expected the mole to do literally all the heavy lifting to hide how subpar everything is. Fortunately the server (who was very clearly exhausted and overworked) noticed I wasn't pleased and took it off the bill without my asking. Management - if you don't have the staff don't seat the tables otherwise you burnout your staff and serve substandard food as a result. Take care of your employees. The server and hostess are the only reason you got 2 stars at all and probably deserve a raise for all the hard work...

Festive decor, good music, slow food service, good chips and salsa. That basically sums up my first visit.

I arrived with a party of seven on a cold Monday night. We were immediately seated and our server took our drink order after a minute or two. Surprisingly they don’t have piña coladas on the drink menu but they were able to make it, and it was delicious. The complimentary chips and salsa are tasty and plentiful.

For my entree I ordered the two taco platter with a shrimp and steak tacos. We waited for what felt like 25 minutes for our food to arrive. Twenty minutes would’ve been ok, but after that is when people in my party stopped conversing and took notice of the long food wait. The black beans and rice were okay; not flavorful, but not totally bland. The tacos were also okay, but the corn tortillas were chewy. To give the tacos more flavor I, and someone else in our party, chose to add salsa to our tacos. The guac that comes with the taco platter was tasty and I used the remaining guac to eat a few more tortilla chips.

I’d return for drinks and light food, but I’m also open to trying other Mexican restaurants in the area.

If not for the drinks, chips, salsa, and guac I’d give this place two stars. Also, it took three tries to get our bill right, so scrutinize your bill...