El Aguila Real Mexican Restaurant & grill — Restaurant in Madison

This is a hole-in-the-wall place with only a small sign out front. The simple door in front opens to a narrow hallway that leads to the larger, colorful restaurant further in. Extensive menu of many traditional Mexican-influenced dishes. Wide variety of fancy cocktails are served. We had the frozen mango margaritas which were excellent. The food was a little bland however. Unlike most Mexican restaurants, chips + salsa for the table is not complimentary but is available, as is queso + guacamole for dipping. I had the the Taco Salad which comes in a fried, fluted tortilla bowl. It was smaller than average, very bland as the ground beef was not even seasoned, and was lacking standard toppings such as guacamole or avocado slices, beans, corn + onions. It was a sad taco salad. Not recommended. My friend had The Deluxe Burrito plate + it wasn't much better--bland, unseasoned meat inside cold, unheated tortilla wrappers that looked dry. This sort of sad Mexican food could be expected in the 80's but these days, there's just no excuse. I've certainly had better. My suspicion is that the cooks/food staff are not actually Mexican but are instead Salvadorean as they don't typically use meat seasoning or much seasoning in general. Why masquerade as Mexican if u can't properly make the food? Service was very prompt + attentive. Street parking can be a challenge around here + much of it is short-term meters. Park instead at a city lot + walk...

We visited recently with a small group, including a baby, and unfortunately the service fell short of expectations. When we arrived, there were open tables, but we were told to wait at the bar until the rest of our family arrived, which felt a little odd. Even after requesting a high chair it was forgotten until we had to ask again.

Drinks came quickly at first, but after that there were no refills offered and it became very difficult to get the server’s attention for simple things like napkins, chips, or something for the baby. When we finally did get napkins, only a few were brought out for the whole table. Meals that required silverware arrived without any, and no one ever checked in after dropping the food off. We waited several minutes, ended up having to get our own utensils, and the server never returned to ask how things were or if we needed anything else.

When we were ready to leave, it took a long time just to flag him down for the bill. Once we did get it, the total seemed high. We were charged for queso with meat even though we had only ordered plain queso, and the tortillas were listed on the menu for $2.99 but rang up at almost $7.

The food itself was good, but the lack of attention, forgotten items, and inaccurate charges made the experience frustrating and...

The first time I came here with my sister, we were blown away! The guac was top-notch, the lime margaritas had that perfect salty kick, and her steak tacos weren’t fatty or chewy at all. Even though it was packed at 11 PM, the service was great.

I came back recently with my boyfriend after hyping the place up, but it didn’t quite hit the same. It wasn’t that busy, but our water came out barely cold with almost no ice basically warm tap water. We switched to Jarritos, which definitely hit the spot. I ordered guac, rice, and steak while my boyfriend got a burrito. My food came out at different times because I had multiple side dishes but by the time my guac arrived, it was sadly warm. The flavor was still good and there was no browning, but the chips were stale and the rice was underwhelming.

On the bright side, the steak was still delicious! We came around the same time (around 11 PM), so I’m not sure what was different this time. I’d still be willing to give it another shot though hopefully it’ll be back to how great it was...