Checo's Mexican Restaurant-Ironton — Restaurant in Ironton

I will not recommend this place.  It was, simply stated, one of the worst dining experiences my wife and I have had anywhere.  I awarded two stars because it was better than staying hungry, and considered only 1 star.  I don't think COVID had anything to do with tonight's service, meal, and management interaction.

When we arrived, we had a short wait, had a friendly greeting from the manager, and then were led to our table.  The manager took our drink order (two waters, one house margarita) before our waitress arrived, and those drinks arrived fairly soon.  After a few minutes, our waitress returned, was friendly and pleasant, took our food order, and left, but returned soon with our chips & salsa, and a few minutes later, brought our "Checo's Dip" appetizer.  My wife & I recognized the waitress was moving pretty quickly, and was one of several wait staff there on what seemed like a busy night. Unfortunately, that was the end of the good service and the good experience.

The house marg was ok, if not great.  The dip was ok -- too thin (almost watery), but had a good amount of ground beef and some diced tomatos and chopped onions, so it had a decent flavor.  The salsa was more "tomato paste" than most salsa, but like the dip, had a decent flavor.

However, 30 minutes later, we were still waiting for our food.  Granted, the place was still busy, but when the waitress is three feet away at a nearby table ... multiple times ... she never acknowledged us as still waiting on our food. Neither our waitress or the manager bothered to check on us or our order, even though both waitress and manager were around nearby tables several times.  My wife finally called out to our waitress and asked about our food, for which we'd now been waiting nearly 45 minutes.  Waitress said she'd check and returned a few minutes later to say our order had been delayed, but would be out soon.  She finally brought out our food 10-15 minutes later.  All told, it was nearly an hour after our order was taken before our food came out.

By this time, my wife and I were no longer hungry, and the margarita was long gone.  We'd very nearly cancelled our order before my wife asked the waitress about our food, but we both agreed we needed to eat and we didn't know what else might be open at this time on a Monday night in this area.  We stayed.  We should've cancelled our order, paid for our one drink and one appetizer, and left.

When our food finally arrived, I asked our waitress what had delayed our order, and her first response was, "I turned it in, it wasn't my fault."  At no point while we were eating did the waitress ever return to ask us about our food's quality or taste, if we needed anything else, or even if we wanted another margarita.  She seemed to stay away from us completely, and in fact, didn't return to our table until my wife waved her over to ask for our ticket.

As for our meal: My wife's pork tacos were stringy, greasy, and full of gristle, to the point that out of four tacos, she managed to find enough edible meat to make two tacos she could eat.  My combination plate featured a tostado that had a smear of beans on a sigh tortilla with a big handful of lettuce and a glob of quacamole; a chili rejeno that was tasted okay but was far over-cooked (mushy!); and a taco & enchilada & tamale that were all too salty yet tasted almost the same (bland).  Overall, my items were comparable to what I've had in a homecooked prefab tv dinner.  My items seemed liked they'd all been cooked too long and then waited too long to be served.

My wife and I both believe our order was lost in the shuffle somewhere.  We were both very disappointed in the service and the meal, and we planned to talk with the manager when we paid for the meal.  Truthfully, we expected the manager to comp one of our meals, or at least the drink, to balance the slow, poor service and overcooked quality of the food. Unfortunately, the manager never asked about our meal, the service, or our dining experience.  We sadly paid and left. We...

1/10 My friends and I were eating there and I happened to find a hair in my food, I didn’t make a big deal out if it, it’s a common mistake. I politely went to ask for a new plate of food. Our waitress was very nice about it she said sorry that she’d talk to her manager. Her manager came out then started to raise her voice, called me and my friends liars (taking advantage of teenagers) when all we did is ask for a new plate of food. She was very rude and did not even give us a chance to speak before she started yelling and accusing us of lying. We also had separated the chip with the hair in the cheese, which she then shoved back in with the rest of the food. Then charged us for a full plate of food when we had just gotten it and taken two...

This was my first visit to Checo's and everything was on point. First off their salsa is amazing. I ordered fajitas bravas with a side of sliced avocado and a pineapple margarita. The fajitas were cooked perfectly, even the shrimp wasn't overcooked which I find happens most often, everything was caramelized well but not overcooked. The sliced avocado was perfectly ripe and the pineapple margarita was choice. Thank you for a great meal, I will definitely be back. Oh yeah, people may think I'm weird, but I was so satisfied I was dancing in my seat a bit. 10/10...