El Patron Grill — Restaurant in Gaylord

Solid 4 out of 5 stars. The restaurant is beautiful, well well thought-out and well maintained.

If you order the right dish it is EXCELENT, if you order the wrong dish it is ORDINARY and BLAH (not bad not great).

Food: {Menu Description: "EL PATRON BURRITO" it's huge: a burrito filled with grilled onions, stake, chicken, camitas, rice, beans, lettuce, sour cream, and cheese topped with cheese sauce. $18} I thought this Burrito was delicious and I especially love Mexican dishes that are topped with the white cheese sauce. I think it was big enough to eat and have left over for dinner. I personally think for what it is, it should have been priced at $12.99 or $13.99 they are just slightly off the mark and are over charging as its a signature dish. This is in my opinion one of their BEST dishes.

{Menu Description: Enchiladas Super Rancheros} five different enchiladas: one beef, chicken, shredded beef, beans and cheese. topped with our special enchilada sauce, lettuce, tomato's, and sour cream. $14.99} I think it was BLAH, same as you would get at any other Mexican restaurant nothing special about it, the enchiladas were pretty small, and it wasn't the cheese white sauce. I would have thought this should have been $9.99 at most. Maybe someone else would like it wasn't my thing.

{Menu Description: Quesadilla Suprema: a flour tortilla grilled and stuffed with chicken, mushrooms, served with rice, lettuce, sour cream and tomatoes. $14}. I think it was average, nothing to write home about, just the same as you would get in any other Mexican restaurant. I would not have priced this item above $9.99.

Cons: The server had a little language barrier, and did not have any recommendations he could provide, also service was just a little slow, no big deal for me, as it was still polite (not knockings stars off for that and still tipped the customary 20%).

Parking is free in the front (downtown), GREAT JOB city of Gaylord, MI! (Thanks for making the city so inviting, we'll be back) Also there is also free parking in the back of the building with a back entrance.

Conclusion: Notice I gave this place a SOLID 4.0 STARS, we overall had a GREAT experience here and would DEFINATELY be back, just because I was critical on two of their dishes that I did not care for does not mean others won't like it, everyone's taste are different, give this place a shot I do not think you would be disappointed. (Sadly I did not get a chance to try out any of their margaritas, which...

We just ate here tonight. The service was great. Our server was awesome. And then he made a mistake…my husband ordered a “side of guacamole.” Our server asked “small or large?” to which my husband replied “small.” The server gave us a small bowl of guac, resting on top of a plate of chips. When the check came, we were charged with 3x the price of the side of guac! The guac with chips turned out to be one of the items on the “appetizer” part of the menu and not the “sides.” The server was apologetic, but took it to another person. The other person, a lady, came and insisted that it was our mistake for not telling the server that he got our order wrong…lady, how were we supposed to know that the server made a mistake when he brought us a side of guac on a plate of chips?! [we must have only ate 1 or 2 chips from the plate because we still had the complimentary tray of chips with salsa] I asked to talk to the manager, and it turns out she was one of the managers. She took it to the other manager and the manager said “If it’s the server’s mistake, then we have to charge it against his pay.” I’m not giving this restaurant a 3 because of the server. Again, the server was great! It’s for the managers being unapologetic and telling us “you already ate it, so we have to charge you for it” and guilting us with “we’re going to charge it to the server” instead of requesting for us to consider the deduction on his pay (which of course we did, and just paid the thing). Just a suggestion, maybe next time say, “We apologize for the mistake. Unfortunately, it’s going to have to come out of the server’s paycheck. Will you consider forgiving the mistake this time and paying the full charge? If not, we would understand…it was a mistake on our part. But we highly ask you to consider the deduction on our server’s pay.” With that said, please send your managers to get training on...

I can't believe so many people gave this place five stars. Does anyone know what good Mexican food is supposed to be? The owner(s) invested money on their restaurant to give it a nice feel and vibe. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the food products used. The cooks did the best they could with what they had to work with.

My wife had chicken fajitas. Could have used a few more shell wraps. The chicken looked like little kibbles and bits pieces or scraps, instead of chicken strips. My dogs' dog food has bigger pieces of chicken.

I had a taco/burrito combo platter. The refried beans were bland and had very few beans and seemed like the beans were run thru a Ninja blender to almost the point one could use a straw instead of a fork. The beef tacos and beef burrito were ground up very finely but tasted good. Some menus items stated "ground beef" while other items stated just "beef". Every beef menu item should clearly state, either "ground" or "shredded" to avoid any misunderstandings.

The people working were great! The wait staff provided timely service. This met/exceeded expectations. Our bill was under $50 but my wife noticed that the recommend tip percentages were based on the after tax total instead of pre tax total. You don't tip on taxes.

Bottom line. Spend your dining $$ elsewhere or stay home and cook yourself. I really wanted to like this place but we were very disappointed with restaurant's choice of low quality food products/vendors. The cons outweigh the pros. My wife and I won't be back nor would we recommend it to...