El Cowboy Tex Mex Grille — Restaurant in Ohio

Bottom line up front: This place used to be better and the owner is really generous with their offerings and staff. Don't go on band nights if you're just looking to just eat and enjoy some company. We went there for Cinco de Mayo weekend because the 5th was on a Monday this year. I'll start my review by stating that their remodel and restructuring are long complete and can't be blamed any longer for their overall performance as a restaurant. I've been here several times and have to review this descent into mediocrity. I'll focus on my most recent visit as a previous one was on karaoke night with the staff rotating out to the parking lot to hook up their local pusher with free food and beer to score drugs. We arrived at 4:30 PM. The seating availability is expansive. The chairs at the tables are rather hard and worn. They could stand being reupholstered or replaced. The place is kept clean. The overall esthetics and layout are pleasing and accommodating. If you are observant you will discover several female visages and nude figures adorning the walls. I'm just letting you know that it is there and once you see them, you'll see them everywhere. The volume of the music is too loud to effectively communicate with the staff. The food was adequate. I feel it was diminished by the inaccuracies of the orders and high expectations set by other restaurants and my friend's Mexican food. I ordered the Plato Botanero and the Molcajete Tropical. The first one is a $50 appetizer sampler for six people with lamb, shrimp, chicken wings, beef jerky, and a bacon queso dip. The next one is a $25 entree of beef, chicken, pork, and shrimp with vegetables in a sizzling volcanic rock bowl. My friends ordered fried plantains with a southwestern ranch as an appetizer, pork tamales, chicken tacos, burritos, and another Molcajete Tropical. The "beef jerky" is simply terrible and should be removed from the menu. It's strips of bland beef thrown into a deep fryer. No marinad, no flavor, poor mouth feel. The wings had the wrong sauce and too much breading in my view. They have a molasses bourbon sauce and a Sriracha bourbon sauce. I ordered the sriracha and they brought the molasses. Not terrible but, by comparison, not as good. The lamb and shrimp were excellent and made the plater. The fried plantains were far to oil soaked to be palatable. The molli sauce on the tamales leaves something to be desired. I'm guessing it was overdone or scorched. The presentation was pretty good. Those Molcajetes had hardly any flavor and weren't worth the price. All hype. I've had better. They do the simple things well. It's hard to mess up a taco. What really ruined the experience? Pacing and rudeness. By the time our messed up drink orders were fulfilled and our inaccurate and mostly bland food arrived, the band came on at 6:00 PM. That's when the "Security" came over. A bearded over-the-hill wannabe tough guy who can't read a room. Now we've spent over $400 and planned to spend more on drinks after our meal. Mid meal he comes by and tells us we have to pay a cover or leave. I looked around and noticed that only the eight people who came to see the band had wristbands and the "Security" didn't go to any other tables. I watched diners turn away at the door over the cover. The place was largely unoccupied so we weren't preventing anyone from dining. We hadn't even finished half our meal. My friends ordered some more drinks. Then we requested our checks. While we're waiting, the "Security" guy comes back and tells us we need to pay and leave or pay the $10 cover. That's when I let him know that he wasn't going to shake us down and had better back off. He did just like anyone else out of line trying to assert the authority of a shirt they shouldn't be in. What they would have made in drinks and additional tips was lost because of some old jerk trying to bilk a group of diners for a cover band playing mashups we didn't come to see. We definitely took care of our waitress at 20% even though we only seen her five times. I might go back but, not on...

If I could give zero stars I would. This place has gone down hill. Last time we were there it was hard to order because of the loud music and the language barrier between the waitress and my group(not her fault at all it was just hard). She kept added drinks on our order which were supposed to be on one of our friends order, she didn’t bring us the food we asked for, it was hard to get her attention for things we needed, we had to ask another waitress for shots because our waitress couldn’t understand what my husband was ordering, and the hostesses near our table kept fighting with each other to the point one cried because the other one did not care about embarrassing her. Also the owner started yelling at them over the placement of the “please wait to be seated” when it kept getting in the way of them seating customers. The owner also doesn’t take responsibility of letting his people go he will make other people do it and then go into the parking lot to belittle said people thinking it’s funny people are hurting during Covid for work. Also two managers walked out as well during my sisters visit because the owner believes that his workers make enough in tips to survive and refused to pay them what they deserve for work..one didn’t even get paid at all. Beware if you ever want to work here. In regards to the food it could be a hit or miss on how good it is. Also the price increase without physically telling customers as they’re seated is unprofessional as well. Prices go up but the waitresses should make customers aware as well. I feel bad for anyone who works here because even though the food could be good, management is HORRIBLE to their employees and the employees are horrible to each...

Let me preface this with saying we were asked to leave a review as we left.

It’s Saturday 6pm, there’s not many cars, and to our surprise it is probably because it is almost as cold as it is outside… inside. We could have possibly sat on the patio and been more comfortable.

We decided to try and stick it out anyway because we are hungry and I was told the food is really good.

A woman comes to take our drink order at the bar, followed by the actual bartender who half retakes our drink order. Gives us menus. Sadly, one of our drinks was conveyed incorrectly, the margarita tastes a bit off but is still manageable.

Alas, the bartender has disappeared for another stint, so we can’t correct the drink mistake. I can only imagine he’s warming himself in the kitchen. We now envy him.

As we are served chips and salsa by another gentleman, which were thin, delicious, so wonderfully warm, especially paired with the crisp indoor air. (It’s 19° outside. Probably 45° inside).

We decide we can take the cold no longer, and decide to take the margarita to go for later. When the bartender decides to show himself again we explain this, he then starts to put away the warm glassware from the dishwasher. I explain we want to leave to also be warm. We pay for the $13 with a $20 and he asks if we want change. Of course, although I sympathize with his situation of no business because the owners chose to operate while having no heat in the dining room I cannot justify more than 20% in this case.

As we are finally leaving one of two women in a booth ask us to leave a review.. (it seemed ludacris, but I hope I did not...