El Rey Taqueria — Restaurant in Houston

I was excited to try El Rey as it has good reviews. I went on a Sunday morning to get breakfast tacos with my girlfriend. I decided to use the drive-thru, which was a bad move since it extended into a long line onto Shepherd Drive. It took 40 minutes, and we were only a few cars back. A lot of people even left the line. I said to myself, "Wow, this food and coffee must be great if there's such a demand!" When I got to the front of the line, we ordered a flour potato and egg breakfast taco with added avocado slice and beans. We also ordered the El Ray Ceviche. The taco had no taste, even with both salsas. I was very disappointed. The tortilla was almost empty, as if they forgot to put anything in it, and it was very messy at the same time. No effort to make a good product at all, as if they whipped it up in a few seconds without care. We ordered the Café Cubano single and an iced mocha, as well. The Café Cubano tasted horrible, not worth it, and the iced mocha was completely watery. I'm not sure why this place is known for their coffee when it tastes like this. Did we come on an off-day? I was already disappointed at this point, so the ceviche was also meh.

Overall: -I am absolutely shocked at the rating and the demand here, as this place is a complete fail. Maybe I am spoiled and have had amazing breakfast tacos elsewhere, including Whole Foods with their fresh salsa and Tacos Tierra Caliente, but this place is simply not good. Avoid it, and eat elsewhere. It's overhyped, and the coffee sucks. I am not a hater, look at the number of generous 5-star reviews I give. It's not the worst, but it's not great either. I would need to try other items on the menu to give a more well-rounded review, but I don't feel I'll come back. They do not have their menu posted online which is also a fail (06/07/2015).

What to order: -Nothing, sad to say

Pros: -Drive-Thru opens until 3 a.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday -Opens until midnight every night

Cons: -Food taste (breakfast tacos), it was very bland even with salsa -Too busy w/ long wait times, including drive-thru during breakfast hours -Coffee is overhyped,...

I've been spoiled from living across the street from Whole Foods on Kirby for 2 years, getting breakfast tacos every weekend morning. So when I moved to the Washington area, my boyfriend and I are on a hunt for breakfast tacos within walking distance. El Rey popped up on our list and after reading all the reviews, we were very anxious to try.

First the service was pretty bad, I mean this is a fast food place with drive thru, so what do you expect? The drive thru stretched so far onto Shepherd like it was not even a road anymore. After sitting in the drive thru for approximately 40 mins, we finally get to order. We could barely understand the lady and of course it took several more mins to get our food. With this long of a wait, I thought it had to have been amazing.

The food itself is so extremely meh, that I am pretty sure 90% of these reviews people wrote when they were drunk. I ordered an El Rey breakfast taco with no beans, bacon, or cheese, and added avocado. Let me just say, this was the most depressing taco I've ever seen made (see picture - presentation was very poor, but again what do you expect from a fast food place?). It tastes just as depressing as it looked. We also ordered the Ceviche "El Rey" which was better, I liked the extremely limey fish, though I thought the fish to side ratio was too much. I also ordered an iced mocha because apparently their coffee is the best in Houston, but I think people meant the worst in Houston. It tasted like water.

Overall, I think this place is for people that are already drunk or hungover. I really don't want to go back, but I'm willing to give it a chance because I want to try the regular tacos. However, that may never happen.

Pros: Open late (12 am mon-wed and 3am thurs-sat) Drive thru??

Cons: Extremely long wait in comfy car in the drive...

*Rating is not based on the exceptional food but on the high level of inconsistency and frequent wrong orders

I order from El Rey 3-4 times per week. The food is great but this location is highly inconsistent and often gets my orders wrong even when I order online.

I usually go for breakfast tacos and order bacon, ham, egg, and cheese. Sometimes they’ll forget the bacon. When they do get the order right sometimes I’ll get a full strip of bacon other times half a strip...sometimes I get an adequate amount of added cheese and ham, and other times they’re barely there.

Last night I decided to go for dinner and it was my worst experience yet.

I ordered one beef fajita on flour with onions, cilantro, tomatoes, and lettuce; and one ropa vieja on flour with cabbage, pico de gallo, avocado, and cilantro sauce.

When I got home I noticed I had two beef fajita tacos on corn (not requested flour) with only onion and cilantro.

Gave the restaurant a call and the manager said he’d make my ropa vieja with everything on it and even throw in a second for me having to come back. Get back home and the two ropa viejas didn’t have any cilantro sauce (what I was looking forward to the most). It was already late and I didn’t feel like returning for a third time.

If you come here check your order because there’s a high chance...