EL GUAJILLO #3 MEXICAN RESTAURANT — Restaurant in Gloucester Township

We ordered for pick up last night. Here’s the good:

First, the food was delicious! Here’s a breakdown.

Birria Tacos - the Beef Adobo stew was so flavorful and moist. The dipping consommé was seasoned so well and every dip made the taco better. I would have loved sliced radish, chopped onion or cilantro to add a bit of freshness to my tacos. That would have made it perfect.

Quesa-Birria - this looked almost better than the Birria tacos. It’s a substantial dish and my daughter could not eat the whole thing but loved it especially with the consommé.

Pollo ala Plancha - my hubby enjoyed the flavor of this quesadilla but he felt it should have come with salsa and sour cream.

Queso Frito - Basically a fried cheese. It was good but it could have used a dipping sauce to compliment the cheese. I tried the sauces that came with our meal, salsa verde, red hot sauce and another creamy, mustard-like sauce with a kick but just wasn’t quite right with it.

Yucca Frita - Love love love. Yucca has to be cooked just right or otherwise you can get an undercooked product and is just not edible. These were crispy on the outside, soft in the inside and seasoned just right. The dipping sauce that came with it complimented it well. Awesome job.

Ok here’s the not so good:

As I wrote this I realized we never got our Empanadas. So, aside from paying for something we did not receive, I cannot comment on this.

Unfortunately, I came from working a 12 hour shift to pick up our food, my hubby called it in at 6:22 pm and was told it would be ready in a half hour, I arrived at 6:55 and it was not ready. There were 2 people ahead of me waiting to get their food which I overheard one of them saying they have been waiting an hour.

I did patiently wait considering they just opened up and knowing they were looking to hire more help but by 7:30, I was starting to get pretty unnerved and I was starving. I finally received my food and left there at 7:40. When I got home we were all so hungry that I totally forgot about not receiving the Empanadas. Sad.

Final note. I will patron Orale Tacos again just because the food was very good and I would like to see them succeed in that location. Given that they just opened up, I understand they may need to tweak things to improve their food prep times and that should get better when they hire more people. While the restaurant had a good amount of people eating in, I did notice that diners there were waiting for their food for quite some time. as well. I did warn the woman in the pickup area that they may encounter a busy weekend since 42 Freeway posted an article about them. She seemed daunted knowing this.

I noted they serve Mexican sodas and that 42 Freeway said in their article they will be doing a BYOT for margaritas. It would be cool to see Horchata on their menu as well for beverages in the future.

I did upload pictures of my Birria Tacos, Pollo ala Plancha, Queso Fritos, and Yucca Fritas.

I am giving 3 stars for now since I was missing the Empanadas and because I had to wait an additional 40 minutes to receive my food.

I am looking forward to trying the other items on the menu. Rooting for...

Sadly, our last experience here. We have been here multiple times even before the new owners and have always loved the food, but the service we have received the last 2 times has ultimately left us to seek out a new place. On our last visit, we also experienced what another reviewer mentioned about being charged an 18% service fee and when questioning the waitress what the charge was for since we were only a group of 3, we were told it’s their included tip. I couldn’t understand because the fee was a line item on the receipt, with an additional spot on the bottom to add a tip. Tonight, we experienced poor service again with our waitress disappearing after the food was brought out and never receiving refills on our drinks. Once we received the bill, this time there was not an additional 18% service fee, but I noticed both our entrees were charged higher than the price on the menu that we ordered from. For example, the tacos ordered were listed as $12 and we were charged $14.56. This time when I asked the waitress, the excuse I was given was ‘we only charge the menu prices if you are paying cash, the bill price is for credit card payment’. There is no indication anywhere on the menu or the bill that this is the case. Also, why would the price be inflated on the bill before you knew whether we were paying card or cash? We had never indicated we would be paying with a card. It just seemed like yet another excuse about sneaking in additional charges. I completely understand that many businesses needed to increase their prices recently due to rising costs, but not being honest about what you are charging up front is leaving us feeling taken advantage of and ultimately why we will not...

You can smell the true authentic Mexican cooking as soon as you walk in the door! They have real candles lit in the corners and bathrooms of the restaurant which I thought was a nice little touch! Lively, upbeat music playing the entire time as well as Spanish news on the large TV in the dining area. The gentleman who seated us and served us kindly allowed us to sit in what looks like a private area for larger families even though there were only four of us (my 5yo really wanted to sit there) and was super kind. The woman who brought some of our things out was kind and lovely. Very family friendly atmosphere. Not to mention.. this is the cleanest restaurant I've been to in my entire life! Not a crumb on the floor to be swept and not a single table needed clearing when we came in. Bathrooms were spotless as well! Our food arrived quicker than expected. Oh the food 🥹😍🌽🌮🌯 it was so fresh, authentic and delicious! My fiancé ordered a steak burrito which looked like perfection.. my two children each got a cheese quesadilla with fries and I have never seen my 3year old eat so much or so fast! The fries were made from freshly cut potatoes in light oil... The flavor of them reminded me of my grandmother's homemade potato chips.. it was nice to almost taste her cooking again. I ordered the pork pastor tacos.. the meat was super tender and juicy and all the ingredients tasted incredibly fresh! I wouldn't be surprised if they clipped the cilantro right off a plant growing there in the kitchen, it was so fresh! We also got Elote asado (Mexican street corn) as an appetizer. Very fresh and juicy 😋 Overall wonderful experience! Can't wait to go back and try more...