Rudy's Tenampa Taqueria — Restaurant in Lenexa

Rudy's is located in the old Panzon's building. Panzon's closed after numberous health violations, and Lenexa was really needing a replacement.

We went to Rudy's at approximately 6:15pm on Thursday. It was somewhat busy, which was a good sign. They quoted us a 45 minute wait, which was a tad shocking considering we could easily see 3 open tables when we walked in, but we didn't mind.

First off, they hand you a buzzer. But when your "time" to be seated comes... they don't set the buzzer off, the front house staff just aimlessly wonders around calling your name, and even when you ANSWER them they still look at you like a deer in the headlights.

This interaction should have been a sign of what was to come.

After about 30 minutes, we were seated and given menus. Our waitress was nice, and the rest of this review shouldn't impact her as far as table manners go.

When seated, she gave us menus and ran off. No drink order, no water. She came back with chips, and left again before we could even ask for beverages.

the third time, and 10ish minutes into us being seated she came back and got our drink order and appetizer (cheese/spinach dip). She then left.

the 4th time, we got our orders out. I ordered the 3 fried tacos with ground beef, and my wife ordered a steak taco with "papas fritas" fried potatoes...

What came was short of a disaster. My tacos looked baked, with barely a tablespoon full of ground beef per shell. They were dried, flavorless, and frankly disgusting when bitten into. The beans and rice I received looked like they were plopped out of a sysco foods can and overheated for hours on end. Eating the refried beans made my stomach turned, I didnt even attempt to finish my food.

My wifes food was just as bad. The steak was charred, and the "papas fritas" friend potatos were sysco bulk french fries with some seasoning on them.

With that, and 2 margaritas, it came to $40 bucks.

I would have been better off going to taco bell and ording two 5 dollar boxes of tacos, and going to McDonalds and ordering french fries there, because at least they would have had good consistency and the food wouldn't have made me want to vomit 20 minutes later.

Rudy's in Lenexa needs to severely take a hard look at what they serve, their processes, and their front and back house. They seemed disorganized and it really showed.

I won't be back, because I doubt there is any...

UPDATE 8/12/22: We decided to give Rudy's in Lenexa another chance 3 years after the review below. We were pleasantly surprised. They weren't too busy for a Friday early evening and the service was great this time. Gold Margarita's were great. Food was good and the atmosphere was nice. Glad we gave Rudy's another chance to be our neighborhood Mexican Restaurant hangout.........We'll be back again!!

There's an old saying " You can't go home again" and that's so true. This place is no Panzons. Other reviews have talked about 45 minutes, 60 minutes and sometime 90 minutes wait time. There is no excuse for this. I've been 3 times since opening. First time, okay, they had been opened about a week and were finding their way BUT the second and third times (most recent 6 days ago) were just a mess. The hostess ( who by the way was a waitress in training on first visit) was now handling the front recption AND she had 2 female sidekicks with her; not sure what their jobs were but one had a yellow highligter in her hand and the other one spent alot of time flipping her hair. And YES like other reviews, there indeed were open tables everywhere. Despite that, ours was a 50 minute wait only to get to the big back dining area again with open tables. If I was part of the wait staff, I'd quit. Can't make money if no one is seated at tables. Margueritas tasted watered down. Food pretty average. Too many other Mexican dining options in JoCo and KC area to waste time on...

Vegan review. Going in I already expect the worst, but I felt like a margarita and the online menu listed so interesting options.

They had a meatless taco on special, but the flyer the waiter provided about the product did not have allergen information, so I didn't know if it had eggs, which is an ingredient in a similar product (Quorn)..

So I ordered bean tacos. Bland. Asked to leave out cheese so it was literally unseasoned beans (at least they were lard-free, according to the waiter) and iceberg lettuce. Not a tiny bit of guacamole, or even some other vegetables like onion. No spices, no tomato even. Not sure cheese would improve the excitement that much. Not sure what meat eaters are getting when they order a taco from this place. Unseasoned meat at a Mexican restaurant? Sounds..fun. Apparently their other location has all the delicious things like portobello fajitas listed on the site as the "menu" for both places.

The staff was courteous and attentive, but I was frustrated. My waiter did mumble, so you might have to ask them to speak up.. I already felt like I was enough of a bother asking so many questions about my food. The environment is colorful, but not very cozy, though this is just my personal taste. Next time I'll ask for a booth or corner seat of some kind, if I try to give them...