El Azteco — Restaurant in Lansing

El Azteco has been around for ages and people all over the Lansing area love it, but it has definitely lost it's appeal. I used to love this place, although I always went to the East Lansing location in the past. My last East Lansing experience was horrible and I'll never return, but I read that this location was better, so I took my teenaged daughter out to dinner tonight.

The staff is definitely nicer here. We were greeted with friendly smiles and great service. Our chips and salsa arrived promptly, as did our cheese dip. We had just enough time to finish off the appetizer when our food arrived. All in all they get five stars for their punctuality and service, but I can't say the same thing for the food.

I ordered the chicken flauta plate and my daughter ordered a la carte items: 2 beef tacos, a quesadilla, and a chicken gordita. While we waited we were given some chips and salsa--and the cheese dip appetizer we also ordered. Their salsa isn't very good. It's thick and tastes like it came from a can. It has a little spice to it but not much. Their cheese dip is not like other cheese dip, and that, thankfully, is still as good as always (they use various cheeses, including cottage cheese, green onions, and a special secret seasoning. It is chunky, not melted). Sadly, the chips are very hard and not very tasty.

What I find a little strange is that they have absolutely no hot sauce in the place. When I asked our waiter his answer was "we're just a simple place." They're a Mexican restaurant, and while my flautas were supposed to contain "spicy" chicken, the spice was not very spicy. I like hot food, and there was nothing I could add to liven up the food. I asked if they had tomatillo sauce - anything that I could add to moisten the dish up a bit because everything was dry. Nothing. The beans and rice were...well...beans and rice. Nothing spectacular at all. The rice was dry though and I had to use the salsa on my food to moisten it. I got a little guacamole with my flautas and that didn't taste very good. No garlic.

My daughter's quesadilla was gross. It was soggy, greasy, and horrible. She couldn't get past a few bites. Her tacos came with dry ground meat (seasoning was so-so) and lots and lots of lettuce. No cheese. No sauce, No onions, no cilantro, no lime. Nothing. I almost had to laugh because they call themselves "authentic." I ended up taking one of the tacos and giving her a flauta. After pulling out all the lettuce there was about 1/4 cup of filling inside the big soft shell. I put the guacamole and some salsa on the taco to make it a bit more palatable. The gordita was the favorite on her plate.

It's a bit sad that I find Qdoba, Chipotle, and Panchero's more authentic tasting than "El Az." The owners could really benefit by taking a trip down to Mexico, or at least out to the west coast to see how things are done. And for Pete's sake! Get some bottles of hot sauce!

I will definitely miss the cheese dip once we move out west next summer, but at least I can buy it at the local health food store until then. That's the closest I'll ever get to El...

UPDATE!! COCKROACH ALERT!! A good friend told me he and his wife were eating at this dump just last week, and a cockroach climbed up onto their table and ran across the tabletop.... Almost ran up his wife's arm......they checked out and he said they will never go back.... As filthy as the place is.....with help that looks as sketchy, I would have rolled the dice and went back because we do like the food if we are lucky enough to hit it on a good night.....but after his story? Forget it! The health Dept ought to shut it down....it is like eating in a NYC alley.

Filthy restaurant....dirt in every corner....

Have eaten there since the 1980's regardless because the food was generally good.

Since new ownership several years ago, the consistency of quality and service is a 50/50 proposition. Good one visit - horrible the next.

Last night's visit was horrible, which seems to be more frequently the case.

Visit went like this- I report; you decide-

Sat down with my wife and was promptly greeted by a friendly waitress...had to have our table re-wiped because food and drinking glass rings were still all over the table.......wsitress delivered a basket of severely busted up tortilla chips and a dish of salsa.

Waitress took our drink orders and disappeared. We ate all the chips and salsa...and our mouths were spicy hot....no drinks delivered....waitress was talking with other help and milling around doing nothing....I caught her eye and made a 'drink' tipping motion with my hand which she acknowledged....and promptly ignored.....and took another 10 minutes before she decided she was ready to deliver our drinks....while she basically stood around talking.

Ordered nachos and asked for them to be delivered as an appetizer....with our main meal to be delivered after as is standard practice.

She brought our main meal first.....

My spicy burrito had NONE of the spicy gravy that it normally comes with ( that is what makes it wet and slightly spicy) inside at all.....nothing but dry ground beef and a tablespoon of cheese.

After we were finished, she finally brought our nachos. I had asked for sour cream, and that didn't happen. Nachos were STONE COLD and the cheese on top was stiff and coagulated obviously had sat on the counter for quite some time.

Because our waitress was awol and walking around aimlessly or talking with the help, we had to flag down another waitress and ask for the nachos to be removed from the bill and requested our bill be delivered.

Our bill came but had a charge for the sour creme which was never delivered so had to have that removed which took another 10 minutes.

Complete incompetency and laziness.... and poorly constructed food items.....

This place has turned into a complete dump with poor management and employees plucked from the bottom of the resume heap.

Roll of the dice on this once...

If I could give this place an accurate review, I would have given it negative stars! The chips and salsa were not good! We sent the chips back twice because they tasted burned and over done. The blue tortilla chips were green they were so over done. We waited over 20 minutes and had to ask for the server to take our order. When we got the food, the taco had hard chunks of meat in it. It was either very old or had been re heated a few to many times. The enchiladas were tiny and had a hard layer on the bottom that was very chewy. For $11.50 the plate was seriously lacking. When the server asked my friend if she liked her food, my friend answered no she did not. She was not rude she just answered. The server went to get her manager and she came to the table. She completely ignored my friend turned to me. I explained to her about the chips, she said she had tasted them recently and didn't experience what I was saying. I said ok, well my enchiladas are hard on the bottom and very chewy, they are also spicy and I placed my order for non spicy, the server had forgotten part of my friends order and that I can clearly see that the food had been microwaved and reheated to much. I stated that I was not a picky eater and Im not trying to be a problem but the food just wasn't good. She said I had insulted her and that they had received no complaints about the food today. I know this is not true since I over heard the table next to mine making some similar complaints. Before we would say anything else the manager (dressed in spandex) took our plates away and said we dont have to try to eat there anymore. I was so shocked all I could say is wow! Horrible awful food, atmosphere, bugs flying all over and landing on your food and the...