Los Compadres — Restaurant in Maryland

Delicious authentic Mexican food, Full bar, Casual

Compadres restaurant and bar has really good authentic Mexican food! All the dishes you know, freshly made from family recipes, and specials that you dont want to miss! Moderately-priced menu and drinks, with some fancier dishes and tequilas, too.

This little place has been revamped with a clean new look, around 40 seats, a 12-seat bar, and two huge 60-inch tvs plus a couple more around the room, filled for Ravens games! And they open it all up with room for 100 for events.

(Sep 2025) I started with their freshly-made crispy thin corn chips and thick rich zingy salsa. I was really here for the amazingly delicious tacos that just exceed any that i’ve had at any other place around here. These were generously full of super-tender flavorful slightly-crispy Carnitas and slow-roasted Al Pastor pork that must have been marinated for hours in rich broths of chilis, garlic, cumin, maybe some cinnamon, and other herbs and spices. I got them “Compadres-style” which includes soft corn double-tortillas, shredded queso blanco, bright pico sauce, spicier red sauce, and/or milder green sauce, plus jalapeños if you want. The flavors were so sublimely delicious, and the tacos were filled to bursting! You could also get other styles, like cilantro and onion, or good old shredded lettuce and chopped tomato. The red pozole soup is so full of tender flavorful pork in a rich peppery broth, almost a stew. It could have been a whole meal in itself. The empanadas are packages of tender juicy meaty goodness, and if Priscilla says she just made some, say yes! For an extra treat, I had some of the home-made perfectly dense melt-in-your-mouth lightly-caramel flan.

Compadres has a full-bar with a nice selection of tequilas, so i sipped a warming reasonably-priced Teramana Reposado neat, slightly-sweet, full of that tangy smokey flavor of roasted blue agave, softened with a light background of oak-barrel aging, a savory pleasure. They have $3-6 beers, $7-9 margaritas and cocktails, spirits of all kinds.

This hidden treasure is tucked-away in the Waverly Woods strip mall off Marriottsville Rd just north of I-70, south of MD-99 Old Frederick, east on Warwick for half a mile.

Compadres provides the best home-cooking of all the Mexican foods you know and love. Casual atmosphere, nice new decor, big tvs for the games, nice staff,...

Good, but not all that. Los Compadres has consistently good ratings on Google, Yelp, Travelocity and Facebook. So I had high expectations. I was looking forward to my first visit, but it didn't get a five star rating from me. And I tend to be a generous rater. Some things were well done. The salsa was excellent. The queso, which scared me with its cheese whiz appearance, was actually quite good. It had an appealing shaper taste than most queso, although would have been improved with some chilis. Less noteworthy was the chicken fajita that I ordered. They didn't come out sizzling, for one. I could overlook that if they were tasty. Not that they were bad. The ingredients were good. It was just prepared a bit blandly. I forget to tell them to hold the bell peppers (not a fan) but really didn't have anything to worry about. They only had 2 skinny green peppers. But if you were expecting peppers, you'll be disappointed. This place is worth a try, but I'd knock down my expectations a bit. If you're looking for good Mexican in Howard County, consider Ernestos in Ellicott City, or Taqueria Los...

On Friday nights, they have live music. We were there to hear the duo. Otherwise, we would not have stayed. The small place was packed when we arrived at 6:15. All the tables were full and there were people waiting. We were happy to wait at the bar but there were no seats there either. While we waited, we would have enjoyed a cold drink but neither the waitress nor the bartender had time to notice us. When my partner suggested that they seemed overwhelmed, the waitress took offense but later said the same thing to patrons who arrived after us. The food was okay but not great. Our fajita steaks were not seasoned at all. We had to get our own napkins and silverware. Later in the evening, the waitress was friendlier and gave us a discount which was nice. We won't be back. Particularly disappointing after reading so many 5 star reviews. Maybe Friday is just the wrong day...