Lupe Tortilla Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Missouri City

I was excited to finally try this new place that’s close to home thinking this is going to be a definite favorite dinner spot for us as it looked really nice and we were watching it being built throughout the recent months. So I took my daughter first to try it before trying it with the family to make sure it would be up to our expectations. Let me start by the good. The place looks nice and inviting with a nice decor. It also looks and feels clean. Now for the bad. As the tradition in most Tex-Mex places, we were presented with chips and dips. The chips were so bony and not fresh. The dips that came with it were a dark chili (spicy) one, and pinto beans one. Before tasting the pinto beans one I asked the waiter if that had lard as it is usually the case with pinto beans in Mexican restaurants, so he answered yea it has pork. I smilingly said oh we can’t eat pork. He looked at me a look that felt like (so what are you doing in a Mexican restaurant if you can’t eat pork!) and after couple seconds of starring at me he smiled and said ok :) and he took them aside!! So we were left with just the extremely spicy dip that none of us could tolerate. Would have been nice if you would offer something different maybe? Like a regular tomato salsa or a cheese dip or something??! But nope. He wouldn’t care. I understand that this might be a chain thing and therefore this branch won’t be able to change the fact of forcing pork right off the bat, but then this would be my review for the whole chain! Next we made our orders and explained and confirmed that the menu items we got, either don’t have any pork products or suitable substitutions would be made for the stuff that originally has them. We waited for like 10 minutes and the orders didn’t came and we were in a rush to go somewhere at a certain time so we had to ask them to make it a To-go order. Paid and left. Only to discover later when we were ready to eat at home, that even though they sent black beans instead of the refried beans, they still put the refried beans next to the rice in the same plate which made the rice a waste for us! We also ordered chicken nachos only to discover that it was laying on a bed of a heavily sauced with refried beans and pork pits nachos!!! So that too went to waste!! And here we go, had to through away almost the whole thing that was unjustifiably over priced and with small portions!! I’m so happy I didn’t take the whole family at my first (and last) visit or I would have ended being even...

Lupe Tortilla definitely has the potential to be 5 stars but I don't know if they will ever invest in what it takes to do that.

My wife and I walked in and were seated near instantly. It wasn't a huge crowd though there were several gathered at the bar watching Football.

Once seated, it took a solid 13 minutes or so before we were greeted by our server. She checked in to let us know she would be right back. That took another 18 minutes. When she returned, we'd already figured out an appetizer, main entree, and drinks (we had plenty of time since it took so long). She brought chips and 2 kinds of salsa, bean salsa and your typical red salsa. Salsa and chips were both good. Chips were thin, just the right amount of salt, crispy and flavorful. Salsa was also pretty good. A little spicy but not too much. We ordered the following:

Shrimp and Avocado Campechano (App) Trio Fajitas Lobster Tacos Margarita Flight (3 different flavors) Blanca Sangria

Before tip, that entire meal was $117. A bit expensive for a restaurant that casual if you ask me. Here's what we liked:

Margarita flight was good per my wife. Good flavor choices and mixed well

The Trio Fajitas were good. I also ordered it with the jalapeno sausage which was exceptional. I also really enjoyed their tortillas. They taste like they are made from scratch. I had corn and flour. Shrimp, chicken and steak were seasoned well. Tender and flavorful.

What we didn't like:

Shrimp and Avocado Campechano just didn't do it for us. Almost tasted like a bloody mary and Campbell's tomato soup mixed together with overly gamey tasting shrimp

Lobster tacos were just OK. They didn't really mesh with my wife. She ate them but because she was starved.

Blanca Sangria was too sweet and almost tasted like they weren't finished making it. Wasn't a fan.

The manager did come by towards the end of our meal to ask us if we were doing OK and if we needed anything. I like that and I think all restaurants should do that. But most times, I won't give negative feedback about something unless it's unbearably bad since I know they are busy.

All in all, Lupe Tortillas should tune up their wait staff with training and customer expectations, hire more efficient cooks and make sure the bartenders are getting the drinks right. I am sure this place will get more business and repeat customers as a result. We may go back in a pinch but would rather try other restaurants in...

Overall this was great but there were some things I had to knock a star down for otherwise I'd give it a 4/5

::: Food/Quality: I personally really liked it. I *Drinks - I ordered the Strawberry Marg frozen which was pretty tasty. I also ordered a mojito which was okay as it tasted more like a limeade/lemonade versus an actual mojito. It had the mint leaves in it but just was too sweet so couldn't taste the mint. *Food - I ordered the classic tex mex beef enchiladas (3) with refried beans and Mexican rice. I really loved the enchiladas! I'm not one to usually take leftovers home but if I do it's very rarely and this was one of those cases. I was pretty full from the chips/salsa/queso so only ate 1 enchilada and took the other 2 to go. The chips were pretty good but the salsa was great. One of our friends didn't really like the salsa so to each their own; it's a bit spicy too and it's salsa verde! The queso was pretty good too and worth a try.

::: Service: Waitress was great but overall service was bad. *We had a group of 17 people and got there at noon. They told me I could get seated right away if it we did outside or have to wait 45 minutes to get seated inside. I chose outside.... they had us wait like an hour still for some reason. Everytime I asked, they said they were waiting on a couple to leave to get our tables set up outside.

On top of that, once we finally get out their, we realize they set our tables all separately so we had like 4 separate tables in the patio with 4 seats each and they wouldn't let us put them together for whatever reason. No one else was outside either so I don't understand the Covid part of it. They wouldn't even let us combine 2 sets of tables...

I just wish they would have been clear on the communication as if we were all going to be sitting separately and have to wait an hour... I'd have just said we'll wait for the inside. Oh also, they made us wait an hour outside for that one couple to leave but there were like 6+ other tables out there that were unoccupied so I just don't understand their thought process and protocols.

Overall, food was good but communication and service were terrible. We spent like 3 hours there from getting there to eating and leaving. Waitress was nice though and prompt. I'll go ahead in if I'm ever in Houston and test out service again to update my review if...