El Banquete — Restaurant in Midland

If you're someone who grew up with mom saying "Tenemos frijoles en la casa!", this is NOT the place for you. I am not from the Midland area but my fiancé and I came here for a wedding from the DFW area.

When you walk in, the restaurant looks like your typical mom and pop Mexican restaurant. There's sombreros on the wall, giant plants in the middle of the seating area, and plastic veggies everywhere. They even play authentic music!

I ordered the chilaquiles verdes and my fiancé ordered the burrito asado and the potato and egg burrito. When I got the chilaquiles verdes, the very oily tortilla chips were smothered in a green sauce that tasted like fake enchilada sauce with a bunch of cheddar and mozzarella cheese but no egg! Traditionally, chilaquiles come with an egg. It's what makes it breakfast food. I personally like a meat with my chilaquiles as well since my mom would serve us chilaquiles with shredded chicken when I was growing up. So I requested chorizo but was told they were all out of chorizo and I had to settle with ham. It was honestly so disappointing for me. I felt like they made the sauce spicy to hide the fact that it tasted like OTB's enchilada sauce and we all know that's not authentic Mexican food.

The potato and egg burrito was delicious despite the fact that it came with jalapeños although we were not told it would have jalapeños (my fiancé hates spicy food). As far as the burrito asado... Well... Let's just say I don't think this restaurant knows what asado means. My fiancé opened the burrito worried that it would have jalapeños just like his potato and egg burrito but instead we found some type of pulled meat smothered in what looked like red enchilada sauce and jalapeño seeds. As a Latina, I was offended at the fact that they would call this an asado burrito. For those that don't know, asado in Spanish means grilled. This was definitely not a meat that was grilled but instead was destroyed by what tasted like the red version of the fake enchilada sauce I had with my chilaquiles.

I only give this restaurant 2 stars because they were nice enough to accommodate a replacement burrito for my fiancé so that he wouldn't have to eat whatever his asado...

We visit Midland every so often and decided to try a different restaurant. The waitress wasn't the friendliest (neither were the other staff members) but the service was fairly fast. I ordered a water since I don't really drink much with my meals, I was brought a bottled water. And we were charged for it, if I wanted bottled water I would have asked for it. I ordered cheese enchiladas, but I can't and don't eat spicy food so I asked the waitress which sauce was the least spicy. She said she didn't know but they could do half and half sauces on the enchiladas. My husband a plate which said it came with a scoop of guacamole. He almost wasn't surprised when the plate barely had any guacamole. So he ordered a side of guacamole, we got that and it had more lettuce than avocado. My enchiladas were so spicy I could barely eat or enjoy them. I feel like I'm Mexican restaurants children tend to order enchiladas but these are not for kids. These are for people who only like to taste chile and not their food. In no way did we enjoy our meal. We definitely won't be going back there. Oh also the outside of the restaurant is just disgusting they should really do some cleaning. And when we first walked in I could not even tell if it was an Italian or Mexican restaurant. I was definitely confused lol because I could have sworn we were walking into a...

I've been meaning to review this place for quite a while so here it goes.

This is the best place to eat in Midland or Odessa. Been hitting this place for lunch since 2013 and have never had a bad meal no matter how busy the place is. I get whatever the special is and enjoy it every time. The red/green combo enchiladas are my favorite but the tacos and rellanos are just as great.

Pros: Food is served hot, portions are generous, free dessert with meal, and finally the service is excellent especially considering it's a Midland restaurant.

Cons: Only open for breakfast and lunch.

Disclaimer: The food has some heat. The salsa especially has that sneaky heat where it's not that spicy on your tongue but eventually when you eat a whole cup of it, you might start to feel like you've been maced. The menu food isn't overwhelmingly spicy, but if you have a delicate palate you may want to order...