El Jalapeno Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Niles

This is one of the worst Mexican restaurants I have ever been to! The restaurant my friend and I had originally planned to go to was unexpectedly closed, so we decided to give El Jalepenl a try instead, since neither of us had ever been there.

First of all, we were seated at an elevated booth even though we had a small (15 month old) child with us. The high chair they gave us was tall enough for the table, but because the table was lifted, we couldn't slide the high chair up next to the table, meaning my child was literally sitting a foot away from the table. There's no way he could have reached his food from there, and he ended up eating his meal sitting on my lap instead.

The food itself was horrible. My friend had a steak fajita, and she described the steak as tasting dry, and he refreied beans were essentially a liquid. I ordered a lunch special that consisted of a chicken enchilada and a chicken burrito covered in mole sauce. The mole was terrible. It had a strange, almost burnt taste too it, and even my child (who eats and likes literally everything I've ever given him except cantaloupe) refused to eat it. I asked the waitress for a new meal, and she didn't seem remotely surprised by my request. I ordered a shredded chicken quesadilla, without tomatoes. I was told this couldn't be done, since the vegetables were already packaged with the meat. (I think the fact that they aren't making the food fresh explains some of the issues with quality.) I said it would be fine with the tomatoes, and I received a mediocre quesadilla with very little cheese in it, but it was edible.

Service was also awful. The waitress took my friend's drink for a refill, forgot to bring it back, and then looked mildly annoyed when my friend asked if she could have her drink. She also disappeared partway through our meal, never to be seen again. After about 25 minutes of waiting for a bill that was never going to arrive, we finally had to just walk up to the register and ask to pay. (To be fair, the girl at the register was very nice, and about the only good element of this restaurant.)

Also, midway through our meal, a strange sewage-like odor appeared in the air at our table. There was no obvious source (we were surrounded by a bunch of empty tables and nothing else), but it was extremely gross.

I have no idea why there are so many rave reviews of this restaurant. Maybe we just hit an off day, but seriously about the best things I can say about this place is that it had a clean restroom and clean changing station.

Food was bad, service was terrible, and I have no plan of every returning. Taqueria Latina and even Plaza Azteca are both much better restaurants within just a few...

6/26/24- Update to the update: Wow! Unfortunately This Time Was Not A Good Experience. We arrived for Wednesday Lunch. Not busy Maybe 10 other persons total. Luckily I asked if the $1 Draft beers were available and sadly the answer was NO! The White Board with All of the "Specials" was altered. Now the "Special's" Aren't So Special. $2.50 a beer. Many other dishes also went up. Okay, we still ordered the 2 item Combination plate with 2 Chile Rellenos rice and beans. We asked for the hotter salsa and after waiting about 15 mins. We finally got it when our meal arrived. Management - Please Update your Google maps webpage to include the New Price Hike. That would help your customers a lot. Our waiter didn't tell me the plate was extremely HOT 🔥. He casually set it on the table and of course I burned my fingers moving it. The waiter had an attitude and ruined our dining experience. Owner - I suggest Wiping the specials white board clean and ReWrite everything Clearer. It's hard to read, even up close. I'll update again to see if you really do care, like you say you do, and see if you accept my recommendations and make the changes.

Recent Update: We had to go back with a friend to try the $1 Draft Beer and $1Tacos. Pleasantly surprised that the beer is one of my favorite beers Modelo. I went with the dark and my wife and friend went with the amber. We ordered 6 tacos - 3 soft shell chicken and 3 hard shell beef. They were huge and totally delicious 😋. Right before "Happy Hour" ended (2-7pm) we ordered another round of brewskis and a soft shell chicken taco 🌮 To Go (para llevar) We had a blast! TY Karla for your excellent service. It was a little busy but you handled your tables well - NO Complaints! 👏. $30 bucks for everything and $10 tip! "We'll be Back!" ( in Swartzenegger's voice)

Finally decided to start rating local Mexican restaurants. We've had pretty bad luck and were sorta jaded. Fortunately for us, El Jalepeño didn't disappoint. The Saturday "Special" was Pitcher of Margarita on the rocks. Couldn't pass that up! The waitress recommended the #43 Fajita platter. She's On Point 👍 Delicious! We topped it all off with Xango for dessert. Total $43 bucks. + $5 for dessert. $12 tip! Still, Worth...

Ok I have been to this place many times in the past and loved it. My wife and I went there yesterday and had a very disappointing experience. Is this place under new management or something? To begin with, the salsa was spicier than normal. Fine for me but my wife couldn't eat it. That's never happened before. The food was subpar and the service was terrible. We were seated, got our drinks, and ordered, which was all fine. The kitchen staff brought out the food, not our waiter, we never saw him again after ordering. My wife ordered a chicken burrito and I honestly don't know what my meal was called but it was L19 on the menu. I think it was a chicken burrito and chicken enchilada, covered in a dark, slightly bitter sauce similar to hoisen sauce. My food tasted ok, I had never tried it before I wasn't thrilled with it but I ate it. My wife said her burrito tasted funny so after realizing our waiter wasn't going to check on us, she got up, found someone and asked to replace it with a chicken taco salad, something she had enjoyed there many times before. When that came, she ate a few bites and said it didn't taste right to her. So when we were finished we waited forever to get the check. Honestly, I've never felt so neglected and this was the first time I can ever remember not leaving a tip, the service was so bad. Now the kicker-- later my wife and I both experienced explosive bathroom issues. Sorry about the tmi. Since we both had chicken dishes one can only assume the chicken was indeed bad. Any other time I've been in there they have had a busy dining room, but yesterday there were only three tables in use. I think other people must be disappointed with them too. Plaza Aztecs is right down the road, go there instead. I will be...