El Jaripeo Menasha — Restaurant in Menasha

Premium pricing and mid-line quality at best. I checked out El Jaripeo at the Menasha location with two friends on a Monday evening. At the time of my visit there were 6-8 occupied tables, so the restaurant wasn't busy. Plenty of staff were evident on the floor. No one was at the host station when we arrived, but we were greeted and shown to our table after a very short wait. The interior decor is a tacky Mexican theme, but it isn't difficult to ignore. What isn't easy to ignore is the sound system. This place is loud. Don't expect to have quest conversation here. We placed a drink and appetizer order shortly after being seated. They were out of my beer selection, but selecting another wasn't a big deal. The mixed drinks were okay, but nothing special. After placing our order we waited longer than I would have expected under the circumstances. Our drinks and chips were empty, and no one had come to check on us.Then, our appetizer and entrees were delivered at the same time. We refilled our drinks when the food was delivered, and that was the last time we saw our server until I flagged him down for the check.This was the first time in at least a decade I didn't leave a tip. I felt totally ignored. The food was okay, but you will do better at the mid-line chains and much better at the smaller establishments in the area. Sides like beans and rice were obviously not made fresh and came out of a bag or can. The cost for three adults with two drinks each is a little more than $100. At that price point and level of quality and service, I expect this location will not get a lot of repeat business. I know I will not be back. There are plenty of better places to spend your money...

We've been here a few times before and things weren't too bad, including service. After 5 or so months, decided to come again and things weren't as good. First of all, I'm not sure if our waitress was new or not but she seemed to have a hard time understanding us from me asking what diet sodas they had to what we were ordering from the menu. She had to look at the menu and we pointed to what we wanted (I ordered the Steak and Cheese Quesadilla and my husband ordered the Steak and Shrimp).

After she wrote down our order, someone else came over and asked what we ordered (I'm guessing for clarification). My food says it comes with a side salad, rice, and a scoop of cheese dip. In the quesadilla is steak, cheese, and grilled onion. When the food came, I didn't have any rice or cheese dip. Just the quesadilla with just steak and cheese, and the side salad. My husband wanted his steak to be medium-rare but it wasn't and it was bland. The waitress/waitor didn't check on us often at all, even to check if we needed refills. I would have complained but was hard enough possibly not being understood with whatever we might say.

When the bill came they had my meal priced separately than the one full price that was in the menu. The side salad was a separate item on the receipt, the steak, and the quesadilla. Needless to say, it was cheaper than what it said in the menu, but still pretty disappointed it wasn't exactly what I wanted and was worse than our other times...

Meh place with unevenly appealing and bland dishes. We ordered two burritos off the menu: one named for the place and the other named after a chili. The Jalepeno burrito looked and tasted great: filled up the plate and enough to take home. However, the Jaripeo burrito was smaller than Taco Bell’s dollar menu burritos (for $15!) and arrived in a soupy mess of tomatoes, rice and more. Same with the quesadillas: we ordered two of those and one arrived impressively browned and garnished attractively while the other was barely melted and arrived in a pool of chicken broth. We also ordered tacos and those were surprisingly tasteless servings: neither street tacos nor American tacos. The decor is the same “bright Mexican scenes on the furniture” motif you see popping up everywhere, only this place is one big undivided suburban pole barn, so the intimate spaces are found opposite the bar. Service was also a bit off: we ordered dips for the free chips but never got a refill; ditto with the non-alcoholic drinks for the kids. For the price…there’s better...