El Tequila Cocina Mexicana — Restaurant in Owasso

UPDATE: 4/2025 Been there twice now in recent weeks for lunch and both times have been great. Food was above average, service was great, without feeling rushed. Whatever they did, the change worked.

El Tequila has been a part of the Owasso food scene for years. We've eaten there in the past, but it had been quite some time since we'd been back. Oldest daughter dropped by and I was bushed from work, so we just went out for a bite. We arrived to a half full restaurant, although I suspect there may have been several tables full on the patio. We were seated pretty quickly and handed menus. While we pored over the menu, drinks arrived, along with chips and a bottle of salsa. One bottle of salsa. For 4 people. Right then I knew the tone had been set for my revisit experience. Call me picky, but a lot of little things can add up to make an overwhelmingly negative experience. While we continued to review the menu (and continued), we worked our way through a basket of largely stale chips and a miserly amount of salsa per person. By the time I had waited long enough and started looking around angrily for our server, we were out of chips, salsa and drinks, and not even an order placed. And I have to mention, here's where the wheels started coming off, at least for me. There was a non-stop stream of servers rushing back and forth between the kitchen and the patio, which happened to go right past our table. So I feel justified in getting a little peeved. Eventually, our server showed up to take our order. Here's where a wheel came off. He blew through taking our order like he just had far better things to do, and really couldn't be bothered. Half the orders came back wrong, go figure. The Kid got a taco salad, meat, lettuce and cheese only, hold the sour cream. The Daughter got steak nachos, The Wife got Enchiladas Verde (more on that one later), and I went with 2 enchiladas and a tamale, with double beans, hold the rice. I try to lay off the carbs when I can, and this is a standard thing for me in a mexican restaurant. I also asked for some more chips and salsa. So 3.2 seconds later as our server rushed away, The Wife commented that she didn't think he got The Kid's order right. So, it wasn't just me. While the refill on the chips salsa arrived quickly, it was still just ONE little container of salsa. For 4 people. Oh look.... there went another wheel. After a fairly long wait (keep in mind, the place wasn't full), our orders arrived. The four top table we were seated at started to get overloaded at this point. My order was pretty pathetic looking, not to mention they shorted me a side of beans. Instead of plating my entire order on one plate, the tamale was on a separate plate, which just added to the clutter on the table. The Wife even commented that it 'was too much'. So on to the food. The food was largely okay. Not great. The Kid's taco salad came with sour cream, which was wrong. We scooped it out and she was left with a pretty small portion past that. Luckily she tanked up on chips. The Daughter's steak nachos looked pretty good, and she pretty much demolished them. The Wife's enchilada verdes weren't. They were chicken stuffed enchiladas with a thin covering of an bland and runny green sauce. She ate one and left the rest. After a taste, I didn't want to bat cleanup, which is unusual for me. As for mine, it was mostly good. Once I got everything on one plate and got past being shortchanged on my side, I pretty much just plowed through and got done. Honestly, based on my experience, I don't see how this place stays in business. Almost all the mexican joints in and around Owasso dish out far better food. And food aside, I have never eaten at a place that I felt less welcome than El Tequila. Now I remember why I stopped going there in the first place. Pretty sure I won't be back again. There's just too many other good places in town that serve better food and make you...

I normally love this place. Tonight though, my meal was almost bad enough to swear off this place for good. Ordered the ceviche, as that is my favorite dish served at el tequila. When I got home and opened the take out box I was greeted with, to put it nicely, and abomination posing as ceviche.

Onions were chopped into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch chunks instead of slivers as the dishes delicate diced shrimp and white fish dictate. After I spent 8 minutes digging through my food to remove, what I can only assume was 2 white onions cut up by throwing them in the air and karate chopping at them with knives, I got another surprise.

I then had the pleasure of finding my food resting on top of chopped iceberg lettuce. instead of whole loose leaf lettuce as it had been in the past. I got to spend another 10 minutes digging lettuce pieces out of the bottom of my dish, when the lettuce sole purpose is to act as a moisture barrier to the liquid at the bottom.

I was annoyed at this point. But i thought, hey hard work will pay off once I take the first bite of this heavenly dish. My first bite, however, kindly reminded me why I am a pessimist at heart. The citrus used was past ripe, the mangos were under ripe, the avocado was under ripe. The red onions that were cut correctly, and survived my onion purge, were overpoweringly strong. The result was a bland dish with an aftertaste one could expect from biting into a red onion like an apple. I'm still eating it as I write this because:

A.) i'm hungry and B.) to cheap to throw out food that wont kill me.

On the plus side my wife said her...

Been coming here sparingly for years. We do prefer it to Los Cobos across town. I’ve always enjoyed their mix fajitas BUT this time was different and disappointing. My fajita was supposed to be steak and chicken with onions and bell peppers. As you can see from my photos it is mainly chicken and onions and stewed tomatoes. Fajitas are supposed to be served sizzling and hot! Sadly mine came out with no sound and the cast iron plate was warm to touch. The TWO flour tortillas that I had gotten were wrap in foil and appeared to be from a bag not freshly made. They apparently quit serving shredded cheddar as a topping to fajitas as well. I found no green bell peppers and very very little steak on my platter. The onions were soaked in oil/grease. The whole plate had a deep liquid on it. You can see if you zoom in on my photos. My husband had gotten their five enchiladas plate and he was able to stomach it but it’s not the best he’s had. The queso was extremely liquidy and ran everywhere. Our ticket was just over $36 for two teas and what was mentioned above. Our waitress was very pleasant and didn’t come too much or too little. We were sat in a booth on the west side and there was a horrible cold draft coming from the windows, I had to wear my coat for most of the dinner to stay warm but it kept getting dipped in my plate. Probably won’t come back for...