El Estufon Mexican Resturant — Restaurant in Fort Worth

Not worth the money.

Stopped by late Saturday afternoon (Sep 7th, 2024). This restaurant - El Estufon - had recently opened their doors and my wife and I were pretty excited. We love Mexican and we love exploring new restaurants.

Listen... I say the following with a broken heart.

• If you're looking to explore something "new"... go! • If you're looking for a good Mexican restaurant... DO NOT go!

Positive Highlights: • Very clean. Interior colors are typical of most Mexican restaurants.

(My apologizes in advance for not providing photos.)

Negative Highlights: • Expensive. In reading the menu, you will quickly realize that the prices for their menu items are about 15-20% higher than your regular mom-and-pop Mexican restaurant. If you think, "Well, maybe the portions are large?" You'll be QUICKLY disappointment. In fact, what we received was actually LESS than any Mexican restaurant we have ever been too.

• Fajita Plate (Mixed) (i.e., Parillada - mixto) - $23.99 - The price alone will make any one hesitate on committing to this plate. I was feeling adventurous and figured that a fajita plate was a safe bet. Wrong! Again, the portions will surprise you - extremely sparse. Only lettuce, shredded cheese, and dollop of sour cream. That's it! No pico de gallo. No tomatoes. No cilantro. No onions. No jalapeños. To make things worse, fajitas are typically served on a hot plate, but not this hot. The plate overcooked the meat to the point it charred everything.

(I just reviewed the itemized bill I received.) Oh! One more thing. The fajita plate came with three (3) corn/flour mixed tortillas - not a fan. I prefer flour tortillas. I asked the waitress if they have flour tortillas. She said yes and brought me three. I was charged an additional $2.50 for the additional tortillas. For a plate that costs $23.99, this is unbelievable.

• Chicken Enchiladas (Green Sauce) (Enchiladas Verdes de Pollo) - $13.99 - three piece. The chicken was awful. It tasted like OLD, boiled chicken with no seasoning. Again, the portions for $13.99... NOTHING close to what you would expect. Rosa's Cafe sells a two piece chicken enchilada for $9.89 and the portions on that plate are way more generous than El Estufon... and tastes significantly better.

• Water Charge. My wife and I always prefer to drink water - a healthier choice. Personally we are comfortable with drinking tap water - which is free of charge. On rare occasions, some restaurants only offer bottled-water, but this detail is mentioned beforehand. When the bill arrived, I noted that we were charged for water - $1.50 (each). When I asked the waitress, "$3.00 for water?! Was this bottled water (served in a cup)?" she said, "Yes." I couldn't believe it.

• Salsa Bowl. Not your typical Mexican restaurant salsa bowl. Way too small. (1) Very difficult to dip your chips into and (2) not enough salsa for the chips provided. SPECIAL NOTE: They season the chips with Tajín... I think. We've never seen that before.

CONCLUSION: We really had high hopes for this restaurant, but I feel they have missed the mark. If the restaurant owners do not address these concerns quickly, El Estufon will be closing their doors soon.

MESSAGE FOR THE OWNER: • Your waitress (Yocelin) needs training. She's a sweet young girl, but it's obvious she has no training. She spent a majority of the time at the counter attending to other restaurant duties. Her primary focus should be on the customer.

• New restaurant, right? If you have a manager, they should be making their rounds by stopping at each table and asking for customer feedback. How will you know how your business is doing if you don't ask? If someone from your restaurant had asked this of us about our dining experience, I probably wouldn't of written this review for the whole...

I REALLY wanted to like this place, but it's not quite ready for a recommendation.

Upon entering, we were greeted with the absolute silence of an almost empty restaurant. There was no music to set the ambience, so we had no choice but to overhear the conversation going on at the only other table there.

The ordering process was fairly quick and easy. Chips and salsa arrived shortly after. The seasoning on the chips was outstanding, but the salsa was weak. The two aguas frescas that we had were watered down and not great, though.

Then the wait began. Even though there just two tables in the restaurant, we waited about 20 minutes for our tacos plate to come out. Then we waited a little more as the server forgot to bring out tableware. Someone with a to-go order came in after us and waited for 20-25 minutes in the empty restaurant. She must have been really annoyed.

When the food arrived, the beans were cold and bland. I've had better rice at tex-mex restaurants; it lacked seasoning and care. The asada meat was delicious, the pastor was just ok. The most annoying thing, however, is that each taco had only a single corn tortilla holding it all together, which quickly fell apart and made enjoying the tacos more challenging than it should have been. It is a common practice for tacos to have two corn tortillas, but this restaurant chose to buck tradition to save a few pennies here and there while making the user experience more frustrating.

The fixes can be so easy here. Have music on the speakers to create an inviting atmosphere. Season your food. Don't skimp on standards and have pride in what you serve; the rice and beans were just sad. Finally, think about the user experience. One corn tortilla WILL fall apart. I hope this place gets things together soon, because I really want...

We were there in mid afternoon. One other table in use. The booth seats were a bit too soft, but manageable. The service was great. Water is bottled so you pay for it. Chips were nothing special, but OK. Looked like the ones in the big box from Costco. Salsa was moderate heat, good, but a little thin for my taste. I like a little more body. My wife ordered the Salada con Pollo. It came with the items separated, just the way she likes it, rather than all mixed together. Ranch dressing on the menu, didn't ask if there were other options. She liked it but would have preferred mixed greens rather than just lettuce. I ordered the Pollo Enchiladas Verde - four standard size flour tortillas filled with chicken. No complaints on serving size. The verde sauce was very tasty. It was moderately spicy, just about right for me. I'll be back to check out some...