Del Chuco Cantina Y Cocina — Restaurant in Huntsville

I selected Del Chuco for lunch earlier this month as my coworkers wanted to take me out somewhere, I wanted to go to a new-to-me restaurant, and DC was the closest that was open during the time we could go.

I'd call this restaurant kinda semi-upscale Tex-Mex. The restaurant interior has cool decorations and art though the space feels a little narrow and cramped. We opted to seat our party of 6 on the back patio. It has a raised and a lower level; the raised level is nicer and has a large fan above it, while the lower is basically street level and comes with, well, street noises. It's right next to a parking garage so there's a lot of coming and going, and it does have a slight...eh, street smell? Of trash, etc. That's not really DC's fault, but of course we were seated on the lower level; in the future, I'd probably prefer to wait to avoid that.

Our service was nice and effective enough. There were some lulls between refills and whatnot, but she explained it was busy inside (true) and apologized, which is plenty enough for me. She also provided honest recommendations when I asked her which of two items she liked better. She said the chicken in the other item I asked about tended to be dry. Personally, I appreciate the honesty and was glad to be steered away from a suboptimal offering.

I don't think they have a lunch menu or lunch specials here, so the prices feel a tiny bit steep, especially for a midday meal. There's also no free chips or dip ($3 for chips and salsa), which may be a turn-off for some. It also didn't seem possible to just order queso on its own unless you wanted to splurge for chili con queso or queso fundido with tortillas; instead, it comes in a dip trio with salsa and guac. Salsa and guac can be purchased as solo options, but I'm sure queso is most popular....idk, it just feels a little too intentional to try to get you to pay more money and I didn't like that.

Our table ordered a variety of things: one dip trio, one chips and salsa, a couple of steak bowls at the recommendation of a coworker who'd had it before, a salmon bowl, a quesadilla, and a picadillo burrito. I was one of the diners who opted for the steak bowl.

The food was resoundingly fine! I don't think anyone had any major complaints, but I also didn't really hear anybody raving, either. I think the picadillo burrito and the quesadilla were the best received, though the quesadilla was delivered as a chicken dilla when she ordered it as steak. We didn't want to wait for it to be remade so she just went with it. I did enjoy the queso in the dip trio, and felt indifferently toward the guac and salsa; again, I really wish you could just get plain queso because that was probably my favorite thing.

My steak bowl was fine. I did like the seasoning on the steak, and it was cooked well and served /mostly/ without gristle. I liked the corn salsa and chile con queso inside it too. But overall it just sort of felt like it was lacking...a little punchiness, I guess. Many of the component parts were fine or even good, but it didn't come together in a way that really wowed me, if that makes sense. One thing I really didn't like was the shredded lettuce. It added an extra crunchy and watery factor that really didn't feel like it belonged with the otherwise sort of creamy and chewy textures of steak, salsa, queso, and rice. I'm anti-lettuce in any burrito/taco bowl type of deal. I also could've done without the guac and probably should've ordered it without it, but oh well.

I didn't hate it but won't be in a huge rush to return, and would probably try my luck on something different if and when I do try again. I did pop my head into the underground speakeasy/bar area once a few months ago while prowling around with gal pals (not coworkers!! lol). It was too crowded for our preference to stay but it looked fun - they were playing trivia - and the vibes were nice. Perhaps I'll give them another go...

I’m highly disappointed in the experience I had today. I understand that it is a new place & they have to get the kinks out. Management isn’t trying hard enough in my opinion. List of issues:

Manager, Kayla, seated us without silverware. We had to wait for some after our food was served.

We were served cold rice & beans. The rice was severely undercooked & crunchy, but mushy at the same time. Liquid to rice ratio was severely off & the cook time as well. The whole batch should have been thrown out. It also wasn’t seasoned well.

Our fajitas came out burnt. Literally stuck to the bottom of our skillets and we had to scrape them up. The meat was hard & crunchy because of this & tasted burnt.

I loved the tortillas they served with the fajitas. They were thin & looked authentic. I ordered some to go & paid for them. They sent out heated up flour tortillas like what you would buy at the grocery store. I sent them back and they brought out heated up corn tortillas instead. Neither looked like the tortillas sitting in front of me that I had asked for. The manager Kayla had a condescending attitude & tried to convince me that they were the same, but they were clearly not the same & didn’t look anything alike. I became so annoyed that I just decided to leave without the tortillas I paid for since they kept bringing the wrong kind out. She DID comp our initial food order without us asking her too, but when she initially came over to talk with us about it she seemed annoyed to have to do so. We explained what the issues were & she asked if we wanted it remade. We declined & she said okay & walked off.

Our server was kind and helpful, although I do not remember his name. He was polite with blonde hair. He is the one who told us the manager comped our meal. I love The Standard Social Market & promote them every chance I get, but this establishment is one I cannot support until they do better. Specifically, management & the kitchen staff. Our experience from start to finish was just terrible aside from our server’s kind attitude.

I had high hopes. Management on duty today is unfortunately not up to par. Attitude matters & acting annoyed about my valid concerns when I came to spend money at this establishment should never happen. We were kind, patient, & polite. We expect to be treated that...

As fans of The Standard Social Market, we had high hopes for a Mexican food concept of the same caliber. Del Chuco fell a bit short, unfortunately.

The restaurant itself is upscale urban. Exposed brick and graffiti walls bring texture and personality. There is ample seating and a nice bar up front. These are all good things.

During my visit, both service and food were average. Upon being seated, a server introduced herself and said she’d be taking care of us but that was the last time we saw her because then a second server took over. No problem there, just a little different. When the second server took our order, she specifically asked if we’d like the two appetizers to come out before the entree and we confirmed that we would appreciate that. As requested, the two appetizers were delivered first. Unfortunately, the entree was not far behind. I think it came out three or four minutes later, well before we’d even tried both appetizers. So that was a miss for sure.

We ordered the queso fundido and papas tacos to start. Both dishes looked good, but lacked flavor (something some salty cotija might have improved significantly). For an entree, we tried the chicken verde enchiladas. This, it seems, is where the kitchen is heavy-handed with the salt shaker. These enchiladas were way over salted, to that point where your tongue starts to pucker and sting a little. None of this was helped by the temperature of the food served; both the potato tacos and enchiladas (including accompanying rice and beans) were served barely warm. It was a major bummer!

Another minor problem was that the server, upon delivering our entree well before we were ready for it, made no attempt to actually rearrange dishes in the table in order to creat a space for the entree. Rather, she stood there expectantly, interrupting any enjoyment we may have had with the first couple of bites of our appetizers.

Our experience wasn’t necessarily bad, but based on food and service, Del Chuco certainly won’t be a frequent choice for us. It’s a bummer because I wanted so badly to find another go-to spot for...