El Rey — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Read through my old reviews. You will see me repeat a personal philosophy numerous times. It is thus: if I know I am going to be socializing at a location but not spending a ton of money, but staying for a while, I plan to tip the waitress fairly well to make up for any additional tips she may have made if the table had turned over after I left.

I think this is just common courtesy. I know that the waitress (or waiter, but for the purpose of this review we'll use the feminine) doesn't KNOW I'm going to do that. I know that she, internally, probably just wants me to go so she can make more money. At the end of the day though she should be treating me like she wants me around.

Today I went to El Rey with two friends for a mini-celebration. We sat at a booth in the back area. We each had a drink and we ordered around $20 worth of food.

Now I arrived about 10 minutes after my friends. No sooner had I sat down and begun talking to them than our waitress arrived, which is great. However I had not even begun to consider what I wanted, so I told her "Hey, I literally just sat down, if you could give me a minute I'll let you know." Her response to that was "Okay, well how about if I start you off with a margarita?"

I guess that's probably standard, but it was just the WAY she said it. The inflection, the glare. What I heard her say was "Ugh. They're not going to spend ANY money, and they're just going to waste my time!" So I said "No thank you." She teetered off, and in the course of the next four minutes came back TWICE to see if I was ready. Now mind you, the place was PACKED.

What then unfolded was the most irritating situation I've ever encountered with a waitress. She wasn't even TRYING to hide the fact that she just wanted us to leave. Everything we did seemed to irritate her. When we finally ordered food she kept coming back asking, with this really deep INTENT in her voice, if we wanted anything else to eat. Like...who does that? Maybe AFTER we're done with what we already ordered, right?

Then after we were done, like magic she was there to take the plates away. Seriously, the SECOND the last morsel had entered a mouth. This was followed by several more 'Can I get you anything else"s in the next five or six minutes. Finally we were so miffed that we told her to go ahead and bring the check.

She did, and my friend closest to the wall took it and put her credit card on it. The waitress ran it through in like sixty seconds and them came back with it for as ignature. My friend took it, signed it, and then put it under her arm so we could just have a damn conversation for a little while. The waitress cruised past several times over the next five minutes, sort of peering at the table looking for the check. It would be one thing if she was just politely checking in case we were ready to pay, but no; she was OBVIOUSLY impatiently waiting.

She finally came by and, WHILE SAYING THE PHRASE "Can I go ahead and get that for you?" REACHED ACROSS THE TABLE AND UNDER MY FRIEND'S ARM TO TAKE THE TRAY WITH THE SIGNED RECEIPT ON IT!!!!!!!

I'd like to tell you the food was amazing, especially the chicken tacos. I could tell you that, because it was. Unfortunately all I can remember is my waitress making me feel, from the second I got there, that I was not welcome and that she wanted me to leave.

For the record, our actual bill came to approximately $21.00. Based on my usual standard I would have tipped about 50% and left a $10. Based on her behavior, we left under 10%; $2.00. So she sort of proved her own...

For what it's worth this place is pretty good - quality TexMex just left of Center City.

This is a Steven Starr restaurant and draws menu inspiration from sister restaurant El Vez. There's still plenty of foot traffic towards this end of Center City, so likely will need to circle for parking and what not. I recommend parking closer to the I-76 ramp and walking down especially when the weather is nicer out. Otherwise, closer street parking is available though depending on when you're venturing in, the likelihood of finding it easy is variable at best.

Walking in, it's lively with lots of color and noise, but also a bit dark. It has seating for large groups as well as small tables, so accommodations from a numbers perspective is manageable. It does get a little noisy inside, so during our time there it was difficult to hear one another. I think it was more of the music from the speakers than the chatter from the guests. I don't think I would've mind this too much if it wasn't so dark inside. I pair dark lighting with a more quiet affair so I think my senses were thrown off.

The dinner menu is fairly expansive and covers your typical TexMex fare - from nachos, guac, quesadillas, empanadas, fajitas, etc. They have some good twists to staples such as their different guac flavors (tahini based, Chihuahua cheese, etc.), and the pumpkin seed sauce with with their empanadas.

On our last visit, we settled on their nachos to start since that was the most veggie friendly option we like. While peering the menu, we were trying to see which items we can make veggie friendly since most of options seemed to require modifications. We discussed this with our waitress and she was happy to offer options that were veggie friendly, and suggested items we hadn't even considered! The waitress herself also eats vegetarian, so she was able to give some personal accounts of what has worked for her with the menu items. I love that touch of familiarity! We ended up ordering empanadas as well after that conversation.

For the nachos I liked that they took the time to cover most of the chips with the toppings instead of piling everything in the center so you're left with some uncovered chips and others soggy and with the weight of all the toppings. We were in the mood for some lite bites that will fill us up and the nachos definitely did the trick! Since we had the empanadas on order as well, we split a plate to try the veggie friendly creation and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! I'm not a fan of empanadas usually, but I think El Rey is an exception. The filling was flavorful and not dry. The red sauce layered on top help to add some spice to the dish, which is always a plus for me!

Overall - I liked our time here. The menu items available definitely were opened up after chatting with the waitress, and I appreciated the flavors. I want to come back and try a few of the...

The food is pretty good! I loved their rib eye enchilada, it's soft and not too spicy at all in my opinion, it's just right for me. The chicken enchilada was also soft on the inside and easy to chew on though the rib eye meat was softer. It was plated pretty well too! the portions for both the chicken and rib eye enchilada are perfect for me. Not too big and not too small in portions either. The price to the portion size is affordable as well! Overall those two dishes were a solid 7/10.

The chipotle brownie on the other hand, was a bit too sweet for me. I usually order brownies at places but here was just a bit too sweet for me along with the salted caramel ice cream. I could barley manage to finish the brownie and ice cream due to the sweetness and weird taste of the salted caramel ice cream. This was my first time tasting the salted caramel ice cream as well, which at first was not too bad but as it progressed I tasted more of the salt than the caramel. I also barley managed to eat the salted caramel ice cream too. The berries though, provided a bit of comfort to get the super sweet taste off my mouth. Overall the brownie was a 3/10, I would not get it again.

When I had entered the building, I was greeted kindly at the door by a lady which kindly sat me down where I chose to sit. She then proceeded to hand me over to another waitress with glasses which was very kind to me when taking my orders. Initially I had ordered only the rib eye enchilada but they gave me a chicken enchilada which I had through halfway but noticed it was not rib eye but it was chicken instead, so the lady apologized and gave us the rib eye enchilada after. The wait time for the food was a bit longer than I had expected it to be as well but it was worth the experience. Overall customer...