Los Barriles — Restaurant in Murfreesboro

You have to check this place out. I have driven by countless times. Fantastic and distinctive signage makes it hard to miss. The decor with cute little wooden barrels hanging were so unique - you have to give bonus points. Ample dining area and for a Sunday after church & G'ma visit late Linner (lunch-dinner), there was an unexpectedly robust patronage. Always a good sign - yes? And ample parking none the less.

Menus: you might be surprised just how many places I go where something as simple and fundamental as a menu is overlooked. At Los Barriles they didn't. It's not a contest to see how small you can print text and how much you can cram on to a page to save a sheet of paper which you put in a vinyl jacket anyway.

So what's the verdict? You can read the menu and get a sense of what to expect. Which is what they are for right? And, they, like everything else in sight were clean. That paragraph might sound trite and trivial but you would also be surprised how often - I can't say that. A dirty or hard-to-read menu is a hard fail in my book. AC - not too cold nor sweltering, no annoying or offensive music. All in all a very pleasant spot.

Now, the hyper critical review portion. First: the mainstay of this style cuisine -- chips and salsa. A little unusual, the chips were warm. I have been to places that make chips fresh with a big doughnut looking machine. I don't know that was the case here, but warm chips and cold salsa just tastes better. And another small thing, the salsa bowl seemed just slightly larger than the norm. (See pic for chip to salsa volume ratio. 😉 ).

Two rather small things, hardly worth mentioning at all but - they did prevent a "perfect score" in category. Now I did on this occasion order off the lunch menu for a terrific price so I fear sounding ungrateful because the price was right; but, the California style burrito was, well - was served not particularly hot and the beef a little salty. If you follow me you know that's no step for a stepper. It's just one item off an expansive menu so don't judge too harshly - do give the Barrels a try. A group of 4 or 8 ordering different things would be better to access.

Second, also super minor, but I almost always order plain water with the meal so the drink doesn't throw the taste buds off. And I specifically order without lemon (please note: I'm, not one of those "5 lemons, 3 pieces of ice, tall chilled glass, filtered water" nutjobs. Admit it, you know one right?

Now lemon on the rim isn't going to throw me in anaphylactic shock - but they missed it. Think about a diabetic or someone making carb trades - you would not want to bring a "sweet Coke" as we say in the South for a diet. Getting a drink order correct is important.

And, while I probably got the only one in the entire restaurant, the tableware was metal not plastic - but it was soft and unremarkable. Fork times were snagged-tooth and the stem bent easily when taking fork-sized bites off the burrito. Not a huge thing that will draw many comments. But no customer want the guilt that they are destroying a business' tableware. It just wasn't on par with the time and attention they spent on decor and atmosphere.

I do post detailed reviews and want to be fair and helpful to the restaurant - even when like this, it was pretty flawless on the sum.

Los Barriles keep up the good work and people -- try them out. You...

I went here last night to show my good friend how great this place was. This is my usual spot, but for some reason this time, the service was horrible. We ordered drinks, and our waitress kept looking at our ID’s and looking at us, as if we had someone else’s IDs to sit and eat at restaurant. The entire 45 minutes we were there, the same waitress (who wasnt even our waitress) KEPT walking past our table, as if to see how much longer we were going to be there. In the 45 minutes we were there, she walked past 5-10 times, obviously looking at our table. On top of that, when we were getting ready to leave because the “vibe” was off, we asked for 2 to go cups for the rest of our pitcher of margaritas, and the waitresses acted like they couldn’t give us cups for our remaining pitcher. In all of the times I have been here, I have never been denied a to go cup for my drinks. I’m not sure if they changed this in the last week or so, but it was very odd to me. We had over half the pitcher left and it seemed like they were rushing us to leave, and they only gave us ONE cup for two people. The reasoning was that they “didnt want us to take our drinks with us and get in trouble”, but once I paid, our waitress started to say that we could sit there and finish our drinks, but at that point we had already gathered all of our things to leave. It didn’t make sense that she would rather us leave unable to drive from trying to finish the pitcher, versus taking our drinks which were PAID for. I wont be coming back here. EXTREMELY...

UPDATED REVIEW. A few months ago I came back to have the Chile Colorado and the sauce was changed. It was disgusting tasted like some sort of Italian ravioli sauce, and was told someone might have changed it or maybe the produce was off.

Today October 18 I came back for the chile Colorado and again the sauce tasted like their enchilada sauce with Valentina hot sauce mixed in. I didn’t order the Chile Colorado. The taquitos I ordered were greasy with fatty flavorless meat. No salt on the ground beef and no seasoning. And we’re more like mini burritos.

This place has good drink specials and guacamole and chips. Other than that. It has officially gone downhill and has been reduced to a quick beer and margarita spot for me. I hope they’re in business long enough to get their food back on track. This place was very good not that long ago. Their fajitas are okay. But anyone can make those.

Red chile!!!! Chile Colorado is my all time favorite mexican dish and this entire metropolitan area is the worst place in the world to find this dish except here!!!

Except the last time. They served me some underwhelming sorry excuse for red chile that was no where near close to the flavor and then gave me a horrible excuse about it. Tasted like barely seasoned tomati sauce, Lost 1 star for that move. I should remove 2 stars but the food has been consistently good here otherwise.

Could have been a 5 star place, good margaritas and the best Mexican food...