El Nopalito Grill — Restaurant in Galveston

Was here on March 14th as friends from out of town wanted to visit against my better judgment. I haven’t been in since last summer as after the sale the place started to not do well.

Came in and was very happy to see our favorite waitress was still there- but that’s where the good part ended. (She’s the reason why the restaurant didn’t get 1 star)

This restaurant has been under new ownership for 9 months and they are still using the old menus but a lot of it isn’t available and it’s not prepared the way it used to be.

The food was ok, but not great- it also took a long time to prepare as there was only one person working in the kitchen. The waitress was great and kept checking on us. The other waitress on the floor was rude, and didn’t smile once to anyone while we were there- she was not helping the restaurant at all!

And the bathrooms- wow they have always been small and old but now they smell crazy bad. Something isn’t right…

This restaurant needs repairs, more staff and an updated menu. Hopefully the new owners will figure it out sooner than later. It’s a shame that the food isn’t as good as...

We are actually soooo sad to have to leave this review. When we ate here 3 years ago we saved this place on our maps as one of our favorite places to eat on vacation. Since, we've brought this place up so many more times and have missed it. However, tonight we ate here and to say it was an awful experience is actually an understatement. Our waiter was unable to understand us and made interactions awkward and extremely difficult. She didn't understand anything that we ordered which resulted in orders being completely wrong. When I asked for queso on my food for example, it was a huuuuge deal trying to get her to understand then when receiving my food there was a slice of American cheese melted on it.... not mexican... Two of our silverware were dirty from previous use when we received it...

There are several other things I could mention but will leave it at this. Bottom line, we are highly disappointed and will never return to this place...

If you want authentic Mexican cuisine, this is it! We encouraged the kids to try something new, so we got an order of tamales and an order of cheese quesadillas, in addition to their hamburgers. The tamales were very good, but a tiny bit spicy for the kids. The hubby and I loved them though. The cheese quesadillas (fried corn tortillas with white cheese) were a hit with everyone. I tried the gorditas, which were a fried cornmeal cake split open and stuffed with meat and cheese. Muy bien! It came with rice & refried beans, pico de gallo and fresh guacamole. My husband got the mole chicken and loved it too. Everything there is made from scratch. For dessert, we got the sopapillas. We were stuffed, but oh, those were so good -- topped with powdered sugar, cinnamon and honey. We were in heaven. You know it's a good, authentic Mexican restaurant when most of the people eating there...