Lucy’s Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Joplin

Pretty good. I tried the street tacos. Liked them okay. Got the pork. It was small cubes in a red sauce. I am Used to carnitas pork in green sauce. I’m from California and on a quest to find Mexican food like home. I will be back to try the carnitas plate!

Lovely proprietor. With some language difficulty he and I communicated in the long run. He told me the chili rellenos does have a small amount of flour in it. Too bad... I have celiac disease and can’t eat wheat.

Chips and salsa were served while was waiting to order. I mention this because I saw a review that erroneously states they do not serve chips and salsa.

UPDATE Sept 2020: Lucy’s has become my fave Mexican restaurant in Joplin/Neosho area. I always order chilaquiles with Chile verde, or street tacos al pastor, or gorditas with green sauce and chicharonne. Like the guacamole too... often has lots of onions but they will do light onions when I ask. Super casual place by the way and open 7 days.

Update 2023: Something has changed in the kitchen since moving to the new location. I’m less in love with the food sadly. For example, the chili Verde (slow, roasted tender pork chunks in green sauce) is now tiny tiny little cubes of pork almost to the point of being ground pork. It totally ruins the meal. I used to love getting the Chilaquiles smothered in green sauce and big chunks of tender pork. I hardly ever eat there anymore, because the Chilaquiles was my favorite thing! The Gorditas are still really good, especially with green sauce and Chicharrón! In my opinion and experience, no Mexican restaurant should ever use taco shells that are preformed! When I ordered a chicken taco in a crispy shell, I expected a corn tortilla that they had personally fried crispy like all the restaurants I’ve ever eaten at in California. I was shocked to see some horrible preformed shell that clearly came out of a box like one could buy off the grocery store shelf. I’m a home cook and don’t even do that when I make crispy tacos! I fry them in oil...

We went by the rating to decide to eat here. The food tasted ok. However, we waited a considerable time before the young teen (?) boy brought chips & salsa, small portions (we had to ASK 2 more times for more chips & salsa), still no drink order. Two other tables came a few minutes after us and server came and took their drink orders first. We eventually got drinks after the other two tables. This is definitely not ok for a server to do. I ordered the two enchilada dinner & chose the cheese & chicken with queso on top. 1) child's plate size and portion, although I ordered adult menu. 2) the queso was extremely thin and basically had no taste so it was watered down a LOT. 3) The sour cream (on the side salad, read: garnish) was very watered down. 4) when she took hubby's drink to refill, did not return it for over 12 minutes he was finished with his meal by then). 5) never offered me refill my drink till we were done, she did offer a to go but never brought it, had to go ask at payout. Then they didn't have lids 6) the restroom!!! Opened the door and it was like an OVEN!!! I could not use it. Told her it was very hot in there that maybe the heat was on, didn't act at all concerned. When we stepped out into 98° outside was cooler than the restroom!! Sooooooo try this place if you...

Prior to visiting this establishment my fiance and I were super excited that they served lunch buffet. Unfortunately, the food was absolutely horrible and we both felt unwell shortly after our meal. The buffet consisted of tacos that were served with shredded unseasoned chicken or weird tasting hamburger meat that had to be strained before putting on your plate. The only other options were fried burritos filled with nothing but dry unseasoned chicken, chicken enchiladas with no cheese on the inside, another unknown item filled with more of the unseasoned chicken, bean enchiladas with no cheese on the inside, mexican rice and some random dessert items like yogurt with oats. As we were struggling to make the most of it we couldn't help but worry that they were attempting to get rid of old chicken. The food placed on the buffet table was enough to serve 2 guest, almost everything was made with the same nasty chicken and every item was inedible. I don't recommend anything! If I could give this establishment any advice it would be to cook cheese enchiladas for vegetarians, do beef enchiladas with CHEESE (who the heck makes cheeseless bean enchiladas?!), don't leave your taco beef in the greasy sauce you cooked it in, and put salsa and cheese sauce on the buffet. Oh and lay off...