El Indio Restaurant Inc — Restaurant in Melbourne

El Indio Mexican Restaurant- Melbourne- 1.5 stars

"Man has only a thin layer of soil between himself and starvation."--Bard of Cincinnati.

And starve you will. This may be the worst Mexican food in the Sunshine State, if not the whole of the US of A. As I looked at the runny, brown glop, not unlike diarrhea that seemed to pass for refried beans in this place, I felt like driving an ice pick through my eye for not demanding recompense for time wasted with this meal. Literally and I mean this most sincerely, Taco Bell has better ingredients and much better flavor. This meal was obviously thrown together with little thought or caring on the part of the cook. Not a single ounce of pride was put into preparing this meal. The meat is the absolute lowest grade possible. The chicken was rubbery and the beef could not be chewed as it mostly consisted of gristle. The rice was hard and undercooked. It looked like it had been sitting out for hours. The guacamole is the pre-made Sysco green sludge that comes in the two quart container. I took my daughter with me because school was out. She ordered a soft taco with ground beef and she refused to eat it! What kid refuses to eat their favorite food in the entire world?? Getting back to my order; the Supreme Fajitas were covered in a red sauce similar in taste and consistency to canned Italian spaghetti sauce. To top it all off there was zero Mexican spice or flavoring in any of the dishes. This place was so bad the complimentary corn chips they serve you were stale. This was an abysmal failure all the way around. At this point you may be wondering where the half a star came from? Well, I decided to exercise option 10 on the guidelines list and award 1/2 a star for service. Our server was prompt, attentive and kind. She was a real gem and kept this whole thing from devolving into a donnybrook. Big Boy says , " Stay away. ...

We were hungry. We ordered combination dinners and additional street tacos, since we were there during happy hour (2-5pm) and the tacos were $0.99 each. LOTS of food. The pastor was well-flavored meat. While the creations weren't anything special, they were consistent with what one gets for Mexican combinations around here. By that, I mean that the "burritos" in the combo are 6 inch soft tortillas with some protein wrapped in it and sauce or cheese over the top. Nothing else inside. Not very imaginative, if you ask me. What is the difference between a burrito and and enchilada on a combination plate? The enchilada sauce seems to be about it. Anyway, that is what we ordered and that is what we got. No complaints. The only slightly remarkable thing was that we were steered away from the chile relleno we both wanted as part of our combos. We were told that the relleno was not what one might expect. It was actually a slice of poblano pepper with some egg and cheese. It was not a stuffed poblano. I thought relleno translated to "refilled". Tough to refill just a slice of a pepper. At least we were warned beforehand. So we chose alternatives. The ambience won't stay in your mind. The quality of the food won't stand out, but it won't offend either. We both cleaned our plates. We wanted what the local Mexican restaurants serve, and that is what we got. Nothing special. But it filled the bill. 2 combos, 4 happy hour street tacos, a soda, and a water. $40 out the door,...

I love this place! I've never had a sit-down meal here, but I have picked up plenty of times. Very small location but looks clean enough. The ladies expediting and taking orders are so sweet and funny!

On to the food, the salsa is hands-down the BEST salsa I have personally had. Equal amounts chunky and saucy, not too spicy but they do have spicier salsa (I believe anyway, don't quote me!). The restaurant seems to do well at accommodating special requests, which isn't 100% of the time but I didn't complain because I still enjoyed what I got lol.

My biggest complaint is that they do not give you enough birria salsa to dunk your tacos in. Their birria tacos are amazing as are the azada queso street tacos. I've had almost everything from here and these are my new go-to items! Also, with ordering pick up, can I please have chips and salsa? Yeah I am not sitting down but normally they are served while awaiting the meal and I feel rude asking. Maybe I am and if the staff is reading this -- I am sorry! You guys rock! :)

I do recommend if you are ordering lunch to-go, give them ample time unless you want to wait. I do not mind but I know how time restrictive some lunch breaks can be so definitely factor that in. I ordered 8 tacos around 11am and was driving from the Suntree area, even took the "scenic route" and still waited for a solid 20 minutes when I was told to be there in 15 minutes. 100% worth the wait and honestly, it just shows that they care about...