Tequila Chulos — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

Came in to check out Tequila Chulos on a Tuesday night. Having just opened last week, they were of course very busy. We expected this coming in and knew it would be a longer dinner. All in all we got in and out in less than hour, which I think is very acceptable for a nice sit down that had every table full. The atmosphere is great, feels very authentic but also modern and sleek. Our service was pretty good, granted our server was slammed. We only saw her 3 times during the hour we were there. I can’t blame her, I’m sure she would have more help if it were up to her. Food came out at a decent pace, everything was very hot and didn’t seem like it had been sitting very long once prepared.

Now on to the food itself. Complimentary chips and salsa are almost always a good indicator of how good of Mexican food you’ll end up having. In this case, they were mediocre. The chips didn’t seem very fresh and lacked salt. The salsa was oddly sweet, and deterred from the freshness of the ingredients (perhaps intentionally?). I would rate the chips and salsa a 2/5. We then ordered the queso funditio as a starter. The queso funditio was topped with grilled poblanos and chorizo. The Oaxaca cheese itself was very bland and melted in a way that almost seemed half baked. The poblanos didn’t bring much flavor either. Luckily the small amount of chorizo added a little flavor. It’s not even a comparison to the queso funditio you get in Houston at Ninfa’s or El Tiempo. I would give the queso fundito a 2/5. For entrees I had the steak fajitas and my wife had the chicken enchiladas with sour cream sauce. The steak was well marinated and tender, the veggies were a little over cooked and soggy but flavor was good. The cilantro lime rice had an odd bitterness to it that I would assume was old lime peel zested into the rice. Some bites of the rice were much better than others. The black beans were great. Perfectly salted and almost pureed. The tortillas were ok, however I do not believe they’re homemade. I would give the steak fajitas a 3.5/5. My wife’s chicken enchiladas didn’t have very much chicken and also had quite a bit of spinach in them that seemed bitter as well. The sauce was a little bland. I would rate them a 3/5.

Overall we were less than impressed with the food. The prices I thought were reasonable for what is being offered, but it just fell short. I’m hoping this is just “new restaurant kinks” that are still being worked out, because I do want to like this place. I will try it again in 2 months and perhaps my opinion...

**SEE UPDATE BELOW (Changed from a 3 star to a 5 star review!!)

We had a reservation which is a must (ours was Sunday night @6). We witnessed 3 different groups get turned away. 1 guy was wanting to sit at the bar and have a margarita but was not permitted in without a reservation, even for the bar??? We were sat in the bigger room that appears to be an addition. It was like 105 out and it was warm in there for sure so not ideal. Food was decent but took 5 asks to get tortillas for our fajitas. My wife and son’s girlfriend were half way through their meal when the tortillas (not homemade mind you so not sure what the delay was) showed up. Wow! I ordered the Carnitas Estilo Michiaocan (pork shoulder and pork belly) which looked amazing. Regular carnitas fajitas showed up but it took a while to get the food and if I would have reordered, my party would have been done. Very disappointing on the attention to detail side. We ordered 4 specialty drinks before our meal and they showed up after the food….I know right!! We would have had a few more but no way that was happening given the delivery time. The food and drinks were good but pricey for sure. Keep in mind, they have only been open about 2 weeks so I don’t want to be too harsh. The key with this review is to let them know how our experience was and they can learn from it and improve. We will wait a few months and try again and hopefully it will be better. Thank you

*UPDATE!!!!! We decided to give this place another shot and returned for my birthday. Wow, what a difference some practice and patience can make. We had 5 in our party and everyone loved the food!!! Service was much better and they were busy so that says a lot. Great job to the Tequila Chulos team and we will be back. If you had a bad experience early on when they opened, I recommend you revisit them and I think you will be surprised....

For a restaurant that claims that they are a "Mexican restaurant," it certainly didn't seem like one. We were greeted by a young gentleman. He was about to take us back when the woman hostess passed the phone to him and took us back. She guided us to their indoor dining area. There was nothing but white people. Then the waiter took our drink order. We requested their queso blanco to go with the tortillas chips. We sat there ate tortilla chips with "salsa." That salsa had fresh ingredients but no spice and very watery. Our waiter came back to take our lunch order. I ordered the fajita bowl and my counterpart ordered their TK's tamales. While our waiter took our order to the kitchen, we tried the dip we had just ordered. I could swear on my mother's grave that that cheese was fake. After a few minutes the top became harden. The food arrived and the neighboring table were complaining. To be fair, they did arrive before we did and hadn't received their order. They just ruined our enjoyment of the food. The fajita bowl was unsatisfactory. The corn was bland, there was a ton of grilled onion (mostly slimy), the sour cream was hardening on the top as well, there was another weird sauce that was surprisingly sweet even though it looked like salsa, and the chicken was also bland. I'm starting to see why most people order alcohol drinks. (To drive the taste of this food away.) My counterpart's tamales had cheap cheese topping the tamale while the inside tasted like a sloppy Joe and the black beans looked purple. We had waited about 7-10 after we finished our meal before the waiter came by with the check. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. This place should be advertised as a bar not a...