El Patron Restaurant & Lounge Bay Street — Restaurant in New York

My husband loves a particular soup they make here (I forget what it's called, but it's a traditional Mexican tripe soup) - but I won't even give it a taste, because A) I refuse to eat tripe, and B) the soup has a dark orange oil slick on top, is very greasy looking overall, and smells like dirty dishwater... But every time he gets his soup, he'll pick up something else for me. I've also gone with him a few times for a drink while we wait for our take-out order. I love Mexican food, and I've tried at least a half-dozen or so dishes from their menu, and not one of them has been good - most were awful... The "steak" they use doesn't taste like beef and has a dry, rubbery texture, and everything just tastes a bit "off"... like it isn't fresh, or it's gone bad, or something's gone wrong in the preparation and/or cooking process - the only exception being the chips and guacamole, though the guacamole is hit or miss... when the avocado is nice and fresh, it's delicious - but it isn't consistently fresh. I also had some chicken tostadas once that were quite good - but when I ordered them again on a different day, they weren't good at all (the tostadas were rubbery instead of crisp, the avocado was brownish, the lettuce was wilted, and the chicken had the taste and texture like it had been cooked and then frozen and reheated. Some of the decor is cute, but the overall vibe is kind of cold and warehouse-like. The service is average, but the bartenders we've had don't speak much English, which makes ordering a bit difficult, and not being able to sit at the bar and chat up the bartender detracts from the experience. My husband still gets his soup every Sunday, but I won't eat anything from El Patrón anymore. I definitely do not recommend...

I have been to this restaurant several times and they have really good food but the service is always horrible and I always stop going there for awhile bc of it. Today I went back after not eating there in over a year and I said to myself maybe they hired someone new and the service got better boy was I wrong. I ordered a margarita and the Birria quesadillas. I waited over 45 minutes for my quesadilla even though I was literally the only person in the entire restaurant. Usually when I went there they automatically bring you chips and salsa the bartender never brought me the chips and salsa and I just waited and waited and waited for my food she offered no apology for the extremely long wait for a quesadilla and the quesadilla wasn’t even good once I got it and usually their food is really good. I was so disappointed in the entire experience that I decided that I wasn’t going to leave a tip and I never do that bc I’m a bartender myself and I’m always a big tipper and if the service is bad then I will still tip 15% but she didn’t even deserve two cents and it was hard for me to not tip anything at all but I will not be dining in this establishment ever again if I want something from there I would probably just choose delivery. They really need to train their waitstaff on customer service because it’s THE WORSE customer service that I have ever encountered in my life and it’s always bad I never went there and had a good...

My gf and I decided we wanted Mexican food today thats not overly expensive so we decided to give El Patron a shot on Bay St….. One of the worst experiences in a restaurant that we’ve ever had, took close to 30 minutes just to get served, and over an hour for our food to get to the table. The place wasn’t even that busy…. We each got a margarita each because you can’t go wrong with a margarita at a Mexican restaurant right? Wrong!… One of the worst Margaritas i’ve ever had was drinking straight up Margarita mix that was syrupy and disgusting. First time ever that I left the restaurant without finishing my drink….. The food looked unappetizing and just made us sick to our stomachs….. You would think you cant go wrong with a burrito and 2 tacos, but it was disgusting….. And then here is the best part….. This place has the sack to charge a service fee of 20 percent! So you’re forced to leave a tip after that garbage…… And they don’t accept credit or debit! You either have to have apple pay or pay with cash which i found to be ridiculous in this day and era that we live in….. Just want to give everyone a heads up just in case they want to go too...