El Chino Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Live Oak

Worse service and worse Mexican food in Santa Cruz. This place is low class. dirty tables with sticky surfaces . Waitress did order wrong refused to fix it. She knew exactly 💯 what she did. Food was not edible at all. Every order wrong at table and served cold . They refused to take any of the wrong orders off bill and were extremely rude at check out to laughing at us making rude insults we understood in Spanish. obviously they know it's garbage food overpriced 🗑️ and do not care. Cook does not know how to cook Mexican food in least. Served cold with moldy greasy chunks of unrecognizable brown and green food on top of a pile of cold congealed unrecognizable slop stuck together in one disgusting mess. All cold. When we showed the waitress the congealed cold slop she pretended not to understand. The refried beans smelled rotten. Rice was cooked with salty chicken broth to salty to eat. Save your gastro system and your wallet and eat somewhere else. How convenient that they pretend they can speak enough English to take an order then refuse to fix a order done wrong and inedible. Those at the table that ate the food were...

I made sure to eat here on three separate occasions before leaving this review to ensure my experience wasn’t an outlier or luck of the draw. I love El Chino. Each of my visits have been excellent. I have ordered a variety of items, including different types of enchiladas and tacos. The food has been consistently delicious and fresh. I cleaned my entire plate every time. Keep in mind that I visited El Chino for lunch, so I cannot speak to the service later in the evening, but I was happy to be seated and served very quickly on all three visits. The prices are fair and reasonable. I enjoyed the quiet atmosphere. There are booths and tables to sit at. This isn’t the most fancy restaurant you will ever visit, but you can expect a tasty meal and friendly service. The food arrived to my table hot and well cooked. Pretty good chips and salsa. Full Bar available, beer served in pint glasses. I will be returning to El Chino regularly. The front parking lot is small but you can access more parking...

While I didn't dine in (just waiting to pick up order to go) the neatness and booth layout was pleasant experience with covid-distancing cordoning off alternate booths. The floor and booths (all fully occupied then leaving us no choice except to choose to go); I needed to use the restroom - simple but well-scrubbed and sanitation well provided with disposable tissues and towels neatly set. Very impressed with overall hygiene.

As for the food items (mine were all veg dishes) - they felt authentic and tasted well and fresh: I use hot sauce/ salsa as reference yardstick for (overall) quality; and the freshness of tomato used in it vouched for the quality. Other dishes (quesadilla) didn't disappoint either: be they for veg. freshness or the characteristic mexican tang. Overall pleasing maiden experience at what comes off as a hole in the wall...