Taqueria Doña Raquel — Restaurant in Pompano Beach

I was really hoping for a better experience my first time here, but to be honest it was really bad. I ordered the Flauta’s and asked to have the Al Pastor substituted for the chicken. The meat inside was more burned than beef jerkey. It wasn’t just well done it was burned so badly it was no longer rally meat, but just something that should have been tossed in the garbage. Picture cooking a piece of pork until it is very well done, then turning the heat up as high as it will go and cooking it another 25 minutes until it no longer resembles meat, but just charred bits of something unrecognizable. I forced myself to eat some because i was starving and the rice and beans were very good, but honestly this was the worst dining experience I’ve had in years. Perhaps if i had ordered the chicken flauta’s it would have been good. My wife ordered the fried fish and it was acceptable, nothing great to be honest. Other Mexican restaurants serve the entire fish deep fried. This was just two thin fillets fried. It was accompanied by a salad, which was tasty, and some rice and beens which were very good. The waitress brought some tortilla chips to start with and two different sauces. The two sauces were good, but the tortilla chips were not good. I should have sent my food back and got something else, but i was so annoyed that my food was so completely and totally unacceptable i figured why bother. Not sure I’ll be giving this place a second chance anytime soon - very disappointed. 12/2023 UPDATE. Well, over the last month I have been to Taqueria Dona Raquel about five times. It’s my new favorite local Mexican restaurant. The service has been decent and the food has been very good. Authentic and sits well in my stomach. I am glad I gave them another chance. Any place can have an off day I guess. I actually think the food is...

It's time for a more recent review than I found online tonight.

First off, this is real Mexican food - they've got [really good] horchata and other "aguas", and much of the clientele is conspicuously Mexican.

The restaurant is flanked by a Mexican grocery and a Mexican business for sending money to Mexico, with a significant display of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the parking lot area.

But what about the food?

Your meal starts out with extra hard tortilla chips (a surprise for us gringos) with a good red and green sauce.

The first time we visited my wife had the Mojarra Frita (fried whole tiapia), which was BIG and GOOD. I had chicken enchiladas salsa verde, with good tomatillo sauce and quite a bit of white Mexican cheese on top.

All fine and good, "real" Mexican food. But my best friend ordered broiled tilapia, not exactly stereotypical Mexican fare, and it came out extra salty.

Today I had pollo mole verde (chicken in green sauce), which was again quite all right, if not quite as good as the enchiladas verdes, and my wife had a bowl of menudo (stomach soup), also well made and in obvious demand on the week-ends.

I haven't yet figured out while all the taquerias in Houston seemed to offer chopped cabbage with their soups (menudo and pozole), while the handful of "real" Mexican restaurants in Southeast Florida don't seem to expect to do so (though one was able to provide it when asked). So far it seems that this restaurant is also in the "cabbage not available" category, though next time I might well push the subject a bit.

So, overall my recommendation is that if you want real Mexican dishes, you should come to Taqueria Doña Raquel and order those dishes.

If you want Nouvelle Mexican, or other kinds of "gringo-ized" Mexican food, then I would still recommend this restaurant. Just set your expectations...

YAY! A real Mexican tamale!! We've been all over the area trying to find legitimate Mexican food and there was none to be had. We found that virtually all the restaurants that weren't fast food chains said "Mexican/Spanish." I've got a bulletin for them - they aren't the same thing. The two cuisines have practically nothing in common other than a similar language. Every time I ordered a tamale, I cringed when they asked me what kind of meat I wanted "on" it. A Mexican tamale has the meat IN it! When we stumbled across this taqueria by pure coincidence at lunch time, we started by reading the Yelp reviews. We found that, across the board, it was labeled as real Mexican food. While I won't say it's the best Mexican food I've had, it's certainly the best I've had in So. FL. The tacos Al Pastor were very good, and I loved the fresh pineapple spear. The carne asada taco was a bit dry. Next time, we'll try the enchiladas. I wish they'd had some combo plates that came with sides, but no such luck. Also, the tacos were bare, they needed something for moisture. The salsa that came with the chips (which needed to be warm, saltier and considerably thinner) wasn't the right fit for the tacos. Also, if you don't like cilantro - be sure to say something. The only thing on the taco was a mountain of cilantro and I'm talking Pikes Peak. None of us like cilantro and spent the first 10 min. laboriously picking it off the tacos and mounding it up on the plate. But overall, I like this little place and we'll be back to sample some of...