El Chico Cafe — Restaurant in Pantego

I have to update this and lower the rating because as we ate lunch on Saturday, August 16th, we watched a cockroach walking up my wife's Booth and on to the wall by your table. We had just finished eating, but if we had seen it at the beginning we would have asked for our money back and not eaten the food. It's really sad because El Chico has a lot of fond memories for us, but whoever owns this one in pantego, you have to spend some money and update the inside. You need to gut it out and remodel, fumigate, and get that smell out of there as well while you're at.

I have no complaints with those who work there, just whoever owns this location. If you can't afford to update this to a nicer atmosphere, then you should close it down.

Best Queso ever as long as you ask for the "old style" which is used as a topping on enchiladas and chimichangas. Best manager ever as well. (Easton). He understands and implements high levels of service and has for several years. Apart from these superlatives above, El Chico is a mere shell of what it once was and that's every location. Corporations screwed it up. Mama Cuellar and her great recipes are but a distant memory. Again, let me reiterate, the "old style" queso is unmatched by any I've ever had and Easton is the best ever!

UPDATE: I'm bumping up from a 2 to 4. We are life long patrons of El Chico. For decades we went to the one on N Collins which is no longer there. Due to the pandemic, we order carry out frequently and live near Mansfield. Unfortunately, the restaurants down our way are average at best. Lately we've made several stops at this El Chico and we have been reminded how much we missed certain things on the menu. We still can't find a better chimichanga and the Taco Salad is also outstanding. But the clincher for us is and has always been what we call "the old style queso". If you order it, make sure you specify "old style". It's the queso they reserve for topping their other entrees. If you want queso for dipping chips, they'll give you your run of the mill velveeta rotel version which everyone makes at home. Nothing wrong with that, but the old style queso is the best and I'm sure there are old secret Mama Cuellar seasonings that make it so. I'll be honest, El Chico as a whole has declined and been unable to keep up with newer modern Tex-Mex options. The biggest thing is their inability to update their facilities. IMO, the only thing keeping them alive is some of these specific menu items that have survived for decades. We'll be sad if those items ever go away or EC finally closes its doors. But until then, we are making them a part of our...

WARNING TO FAMILIES: THIS RESTAURANT ALLOWS SMOKING INSIDE.

My family (including an almost two year old kid who is prone to contracting Croup), my in-laws, and our friend and her family all came together for dinner at El Chico in Pantego.

I’ll start with the positives: food and service were excellent. There were a couple mixups in our orders; but to be fair, we had a fairly large party.

Now (sadly) on to the negative: after we’d settled in, placed our orders, and had already received our drinks and appetizers we noticed that suddenly and strongly smelled of cigarette smoke in the restaurant. It didn’t take long for us to see that a couple seated down the hall from us were smoking inside! Assuming this couldn’t possibly be allowed, we spoke to the manager who informed us that they did indeed allow smoking inside the restaurant…

To be fair, the restaurant staff was quick to offer us a table farther way from them. Although they hesitated when we first asked (thinking the person would refuse the request), the manager did go ask the patron if he’d be willing to stop smoking while we were eating there. We had a lot of kids as well as at least a couple people with asthma or other lung issues in our party.

Needless to say, we were very disappointed to find out this restaurant allows smoking indoors. We would not have come in the first place if we had known ahead of time. There were no signs on the entry doors, warnings online, or anything that would’ve notified us ahead of time that smoking was permitted here. Given the fact that the restaurant’s website, Google listing, and even menus highlighted this restaurant as kid and family friendly, I’m shocked at this allowance. I’m not even sure if smoking is allowed inside a regular restaurant in Tarrant county…

In any case, this restaurant either needs to clearly list on their entry doors and website that they allow smoking or they need to stop allowing it if they are going to market this place as family friendly. You can’t have it both ways. I’m giving this restaurant two stars since they did provide great service and good food. Otherwise, it would’ve been one star because, again on principle, I must leave a negative review and make sure other families are aware before bringing their...

Order was not received like I ordered it. I got the 5 enchilada plate. Replaced bean one with a spicy meat one with chili con carne. It was supposed to have cheese and onions. There was a whisper of cheese, I asked for more, and no onions to be found. The cheese enchilada was also supposed to have onions but found none. Sent back when it came with the bean one not replaced with the spicy meat one. The flavors were nowhere near what I remember as a child, some 60 odd years ago! They even tasted like they had a hint of sugar in them. The chili con carne was horrid in my eyes. I asked for fresh avocado instead of guacamole on the avocado enchilada which was not. It came with the guacamole not as ordered. This was a very big disappointment to me for all the years I have come to El Chico. There was no real butter either. It used to come with tortillas and relish dishes in years gone by but alas, no more. You would think with today's prices that the restaurants would go the extra mile to please. Very sad experience also. Service was lacking. They only checked on me twice before asking for my check. Once to switch out bean enchilada for the spicy meat as ordered and once to ask how it was. I told them not good. They gave no notice to that. Did not get the chance to replace the guacamole one with fresh avocado. The whole restaurant was sad to look at. It had tiles in the middle of replacement with walls and floors showing rough spots where they had been removed and not replaced yet. In the middle of a remodel I guess? I probably will...