El Mirador Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Noble

My mother-in-law had went for lunch here and told us not to go but against better judgment we thought we’d give it a try. We should have listened to her! I would NOT recommend going here. My fiancé, son and I went for lunch and the entire experience was terrible.

When the chips and salsa were brought out, we asked for queso too. The waitress asked if we wanted regular or large and we said large, not knowing the ridiculously large amount that was coming our way. You would think the waitress would have explained to us that the incredibly large size may not be ideal for the amount of people we had at our table, two adults and a 7 year old couldn’t begin to put a dent in the insanely large bowl brought out. I was flabbergasted by the size! It was like a 10” plate size bowl. It may not have been as big as a deal if it was actually good. It was literally like a milky, watery texture with no flavor. The salsa also had no flavor or freshness whatsoever. A generic salsa from the grocery store is way better than this stuff.

When we ordered, I tried to order off the lunch menu and the waitress said oh no, no. It was noon on a Saturday, it was lunch time. Nothing on the menu said there was a specific time frame that you weren’t allowed to order from. I said it’s lunch time why can’t I order from the “lunch” menu, which is cheaper, and I couldn’t really understand what she was trying to say, she barely spoke English so I was confused, but that’s beside the point.

Then our food came out. I got some kind of steak burrito and I swear to you the meat tasted worse than a microwave dinner. My son got the beef nachos with that weird watery cheese substance and honestly don’t remember what my fiancé got but he couldn’t eat his either. We left in a rush after barely touching our food. A $50 lunch completely wasted.

I’m not trying to sound rude I’m just being honest with...

TL:DR; I do not recommend it. It didn't taste authentic to me, nor appealing. The only thing that saved itself was the tamales and the friendly service.

Having heard stellar reviews and compliments from word of mouth, I decided to give it a try as a To-Go order. My total bill was around $40 as I wanted to give different options a try.

Chips felt stale, along with tasting bitter. I had better success dipping store bought chips in the queso. That being said, the queso is alright. It's not perfect by any means, but you do get a huge portion if ordered as large.

Tortillas that came with it tasted very doughy, along with tasting like "Store-Bought Misson Lane Tortillas," which definitely did not taste very well, or "authentic.

I feel like I haven't even started yet, and that makes me sad as I absolutely love Mexican food, eating down in Texas, or from growing up in SW OKC. (Fully recommend Cocina De Mino if in SW OKC.)

Anywho, the enchiladas did not taste like enchiladas. I ordered the "Enchiladas Rojas" plate, with beef and red sauce. Very disappointing. The beef itself had no flavor, while it tasted like I was eating a wrapped tortilla version of spaghetti?? It's very odd tasting, to be honest.

However, the reason I will give two stars is because the pork tamales topped with cheese and beef were delicious. (I'm glad I didn't top it with the red sauce) along with as I was leaving, I was stopped and told they accidently put a medium queso in the bag knowing I ordered a large. (Thumbs up for that as I honestly would not have known the difference since it's already huge...

El Mirador in Noble OK opened on April 1st 2023, but El Mirador is no joke! This place was PACKED on it's opening day, and it deserved to be. The atmosphere is simple and clean, a perfect combination for a small town hot-spot.

The food was fantastic, almost the perfect combination of authentic Mexican cuisine, mixed with that Americanized Tex-mex flavor. As a fan of both delicious flavors, I was very impressed. The "Queso Dip" is a delicious queso blanco, not to be compared with the nasty/free "cheese sauce" that other mexican restaurants in Norman serve for free. You definitely get what you pay for, and the queso is WORTH the price!

The PRICES were extremely affordable. My family of 4 ate for just $34, not including tip of course. Your combination plates, which usually run your $13-$15 dollars at other restaurants, were only $9.50!!! This is a major factor when you're feeding multiple people.

Lastly, the friendly staff, which is my favorite part. This place was PACKED, but every staff member we interacted with greeted us with a friendly smile, and made sure we were taken care of. They were not intimidated by the large crowd. If the success they had tonight is any indication of their future, they are going to be around for a long time, rightfully so. We cannot wait...