El Charro Mexican Food & Cantina — Restaurant in Livermore

I’ve tried this place so many times. But between the confusion and the bland food I have to rate and comment hoping they improve. Beans and rice are flavorless. Just completely void of any spices. The dishes are inconsistent. Sometimes the meat is quite over cooked and dry. Some employees know the menu and some don’t. They’ve changed the menu to the benefit of the restaurant rather than the paying customer. They are pricey. $17 burrito and it was not great. That’s for the regular burrito. Not even the supreme. The Chile Colorado which normally is quite good was dry and also kinda flavorless because they are too stingy to put the part that makes it chile colorado in the first place, the sauce. I’ve had it twice and both times very very little sauce. When I asked if I could make it a wet burrito in preparation for the lack of sauce, they offered other flavored sauces , but not the Chile Colorado sauce and it would cost me another $3. When I asked for the actual Colorado sauce they said they couldn’t do that. ( Scratching me head) Just madness. Didn’t make sense. Every time I’ve called an order in I wait the time they tell me it may take and then wait five more mins. When I show up I’m still waiting an additional fifteen minutes. There have been times when I have to call back three times because nobody has answered the phone. Now I did give them a three so I’ll explain the positive. If you get the dinner plate of the Chile colorado it comes with the meat sitting I’m the sauce sauce. This is when it is quite flavorful. This particular version is hard to find as there are many different versions of these sauces. Also they have a really good Tortilla soup. Very tasty as well. If you order take out though make sure to tell them not to add the tortillas and instead have them on the side. Otherwise they foolishly put them in and then you have a...

My review from years ago, when El Charro was still on First St.: "This place. This place, my friends. Smoked Pork Chops in Chipotle Sauce. Need I say more?"

Sadly, things have changed in the intervening years -- and not for the better.

The last time we were there, it was late afternoon. The sun was shining in the window, directly into my fianceé's eyes. There was nowhere else to sit. We asked our server if they could lower the shade.

The answer was, "No, that's against the rules."

So, score 1 for the rules.

Score 0 for customer comfort.

My fiancée ordered carne asada, but what arrived at the table was not carne asada. It was more like cooked ground beef with some Mexican spices. Now, some of you might argue that carne asada is essentially beef with spices. But that is also a description of just about every beef dish on the planet. It's the preparation, it's the how of the cooking and presentation. This was not carne asada.

We asked our server about it and he brought the manager over. She went and talked to the cook, and the cook said that this was definitely carne asada.

The manager was unwilling to do anything about this. I asked if, at the very least, they could close the blinds so that my fiancée could eat without being blinded by the sun.

The answer: no.

We haven't been back, we won't go back, and we tell this story to everyone when the subject of dining in Livermore comes up.

We suspect that a change in ownership or management has led to this unfortunate turn of events. Friends who held out have stopped going, the quality has dropped markedly.

My suspicion is that El Charro has become what I call a Gueriteria.

One star for terrible customer service and unfortunate food.

Spend your money and time at the actual Mexican restaurants and taquerias instead: Tequila's Taqueria Los Caporales Taqueria Consuelito And so...

I had gone to this place after seeing the pictures people had posted about this place. The food was good besides the chimichanga carne asada had no flavor to it with that being said here is the real issue. It took 10 mins to have someone come to the front to seat us. In the whole restaurant there was only 10 guests in the whole place and 3 servers and the manager that was only contracting one table. Once we got seated we waited another 20 mins to get a bowl of chips and water. And it wasn't even our server that gave us out chips and water it was another server that came by and gave us our chips and water. Now keep in mind not once did the manager ever come by us to check on us she only checked on one table the whole time we were there and we were a party of 4. I will say the service sucked big time and the food was good besides the carne asada in the chimichanga the meat just tasted like it was boiled and seared with no seasonings on it. But the only major issue I see wrong with this place or just be the service was just horrible. If it wasn't for the food and the burrito I had I would have gave this place no one star but the only thing that made up for the service was the...