El Lago Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Gore

Is it a cartel or a syndicate?

Yep, they operate in a failed American style food restaurant building, in the small town of Gore OK. Unlike many small town OkieMex restaurants though, El Largo is a clean, noticeably well-maintained building, with excellent air conditioning. It is roomy and nicely decorated. The food is very good and priced to provide a good value in today’s economy. The service is fast and friendly. They have a bar. So, here is their deal. The combo menu has just about any Mexican food item you can think of, in as many combinations, that you can come up with. The best part of the deal is, a single meal is priced at $9.79. If you order two combo meals the total price for the two is $15.99. You save enough to make a good down payment on a big bowl of queso. That is what we did. El Lago seems to be very generous with the queso. If you order it on your food instead of red sauce you will be happy! My wife had a beef enchilada, beef burrito and a relleno. I had a beef taco, a beef enchilada, and a relleno. It you check the picture you can see that the restaurant was not stingy with the queso. All items were packed with beef! The taco, enchilada, and burrito were average. The rellenos had a very thin, fried, light batter coating over a very fresh poblano. filled with cheese. I liked it because it wasn’t a big pile of fried greasy breading. The salsa served with the chips were very good. Nice flavors and nice heat in the picante salsa. Excellent mixed with the queso or applied liberally on the food. This was an enjoyable meal.

For 31 bucks plus a tip, we had two tasty meals, two soft drinks and queso.

Being curious, I talked with “El jefe” on duty. I am seeing a pattern that many, many of the small-town Oklahoma based Mexican restaurants are actually chains. Sure enough! The cartel or syndicate of owners, operate El Largo and restaurants in Warner, Ft. Gibson, and Checotah; all with different names.

This review was originally posted on Yelp, Oct 12 2022 by...

This was our first visit. I noticed immediately that the restaurant had been updated recently. And said to my husband “Oh this is so cute and fun”! The atmosphere looked lively and all the employees seemed friendly. I immediately appreciated that the menu had prices in various ranges so you can still go out with your friends even if you are needing budget conscious options. Our service was fast and top-notch! Every single person loved what they ordered and said it was delicious. We had a lot of special requests and they fulfilled all of them without missing a beat. Truly great service and their employees all seemed like they enjoyed working there. I always order Chili Rellenos whenever I go to a Mexican restaurant. El Lago’s are 100% the best, that I have ever had. If we lived nearby I am sure we would be frequent visitors. If I could give this restaurant 10...

I was disappointed in El Lago, my experience was not great. We were in Vian for work. Drove to Grove to eat. Stopped at El Lago because we love Mexican food. Our server took my order last (I was the only female) then I didn't get my food until my other 3 coworkers were almost done eating. One of the other coworkers got the same thing which was steak tacos but for some reason it took forever for my 3 steak tacos to come out. I was extremely hungry so naturally I was frustrated watching everyone else eat. The food was decent but if given the chance to go back, I would definitely pass. I'm a former server so I understand how the business works. It was not busy at all and I personally always make sure to get the females order first. I also always communicate with the guest when their food takes longer to get out. I felt ignored and unimportant. Big...