El Fogoncito Mexican Cuisine — Restaurant in Jupiter

El Fogoncito is the kind of place that is so very good that I'm not sure if I want everyone to know about it or not.

Seriously, It's really that good.

They manage to craft classic Northern Mexican dishes in such a way that they seem trendy and unique in the best of ways! All of their offerings taste fresh and handcrafted. Each sauce seems singular in its flavors and components.

As someone who has lived in Southern California and traveled the American Southwest, I can say that this equals the food found there - perhaps less spicy, but certainly as unique and flavorful.

There is an ignorant, old joke about Mexican food simply being different combinations of the same handful of ingredients. El Fogoncito is the perfect example that disproves such ridiculous, reductionist and simplistic interpretations of this unique culinary heritage!

For example, they serve one of my favorite comfort foods - pork tamales with a red chili sauce. Without getting too much into it, they are simply out of this world!

Another of my favorites are served only on the weekends - birria des res tacos! It's a take on the trend of placing stewed meat (classically goat, but in this case: beef) onto fresh corn tortillas with lots of cheese and grilling them on the griddle while steeping them in the stews juices, thus caramelizing the whole into a crispy, chewy, gooey and satisfying mess of a dish. It is so good that it must simply be tasted to be believed!

Another thing I get here but virtually nowhere else are the nachos - a dish that I normally consider too gringotastic and pedestrian that I never care to eat it. El Fogoncito, however, makes a version with their toothesome homemade chips in which they carefully layer each of the components so that this dish takes on a certain complexity that I have had nowhere else. It is also so filling as to be a meal!

Other than that, they serve quite a broad selection of dishes that all hover about the $10 mark with some dishes being priced in the low teens. Their tortas are also not to be missed, especially the one made with local mahi mahi. The only thing I don't recommend are the fajitas. They are adequate but I've had better elsewhere. This version has too much melted cheese and too little peppers and onions. Literally, get anything else here and be impressed!

This place is truly an undiscovered gem. I rarely recommend a place as highly as I do this one. It is not...

I really really wanted this place to be good. My daughter and son-in-law live about 2 minutes away and I thought it would be a great spot to meet them for dinners throughout the week. I did read the reviews and was wary about dining but I also like to give the benefit of doubt and try it out. Sadly, the reviews were pretty spot on this time. The service was slow and difficult to get drinks or chips and salsa for the table while we waited to place our order. It was a Tuesday so it was a little busy but it’s a small restaurant and they had 3 servers working for what is about 10 tables. Easily manageable. We ordered a variety of menu items, burrito, tacos, enchiladas and appetizers. The refried bean dip was decent but lacked flavor or spice as did the rest of the food. I don’t think I’ve ever had carne asada tacos that didn’t have some type of flavor or spice. When you bite into the corn tortillas and carne asada it’s as though you’re biting into nothing, there was zero flavor … nothing. I didn’t eat the tacos and just ate the rice that came on the side. It’s also not your typical rice and beans with the taco dinner but some white rice and a few pinto beans sprinkled on top of the rice. Not horrible but not really what we were expecting. My husband has never not finished a burrito, but this one he left on the plate about half way finished. Being from the west coast of the US and having spent a lot of time in various part of California and Mexico, we know Mexican food and flavors. This was NOT anything close. For dessert we order the tres leche cake and it was DRY, covered on the outside with butter cream icing and the inside had a layer of strawberry jam. Again, a twist on a classic dessert but the cake being dry made the dish unenjoyable and again we left the cake almost untouched. Our server didn’t inquire as to why the food on the plates weren’t finished. She just scooped them up and walked away. When the time came to pay the bill we had to get up and go looking for someone to bring us the check, a woman who wasn’t our server was playing on her phone and when my husband walked up she said “what do you need?” … it was rude and what we needed was to pay the bill so we could leave. Despite the poor service, the flavor lacking food and mediocre atmosphere we still tipped 15% because we all have to make a living. But we will not return nor recommend to...

The worst Mexican restaurant I have EVER eaten at. The service was terrible. The waitress apparently was also the bartender. After getting our drinks, she took 10 minutes to come back and take our order. The whole time we are trying to get her attention while she was focused on wiping down the bar. We finally ordered and got the complimentary chips and salsa. While the salsa tasted good, the chips were so hard that I almost broke a tooth trying to eat them. My daughters ordered the Steak fajita that cost $17.99 and when it came out it looked like a soup with almost 3oz. of liquid on the skillet. It looked absolutely disgusting.

There dropped off the food, and after 5 minutes never even bothered to do a table touch. I had to get up and find her to see if they could remake the fajita. The rice they use is cheap instant rice and NOT authentic rice. The pinto beans are not refried and look like the just warm them up whole out of a can with no seasonings.

After finishing our meal we sat with dirty dishes and trash on our table for 10 minutes. Again, terrible service and table maintenance. There are other much better Mexican restaurants off of US1. This place is overpriced and a ripoff. If you have kids dont bring them here either. They have demonic looking masks and figurines that will give them nightmares. Please parents dont expose your kids to that environment. Whoever the owner is of this place, really needs to reevaluate their business model. I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO...