Taqueria El Rey 2.0 — Restaurant in Port Orchard

This restaurant occupies the former site of both Godfather Pizza and Westside Pizza. It's huge inside, in fact, too huge for such a new place. Maybe it will catch on and more customers will come to fill it up.

And this brings me to the main reason why I'm only giving it three stars. The prices. The prices are too high for an unproven restaurant in this town. And for at least one item on the menu is way overpriced for what you get. More on this later.

My son and I came to test out their carne asada plate, which is our favorite dish and one we order at every Mexican restaurant. We were greeted at the door and quickly shown to our table. On the table there was a drinks menu and ONE large laminated one-page food menu. This means only one person can look at the menu at a time. The host who seated us should have brought us a second menu, even though my son and I already knew what we wanted to order. After the host left, it was a bit of a wait before anyone came to take our order, but not more than five minutes, which can seem like a long time. When our waiter came, he didn't write down our order, just verbally repeated it. He also neglected to ask how my son and I wanted our skirt steaks cooked, but they turned out great anyway.

There wasn't much of a wait for our order. Overall, the carne asada plate was delicious. The serving of steak was fine, not too much or too little. The refried beans were great, and the scoop of guacamole on the plate was perhaps the finest guac I've ever had in a Mexican restaurant; flavorful with nice acidity. The weakest element was the Mexican fried rice. Not much taste and too loose in texture. Great Mexican rice is made with chicken stock and sometimes cheese is mixed in for a thicker, flavorful consistency. This was just loose rice on a plate. My son and I didn't care for it, and my wife who I took a takeout order home to, also didn't care for it. The carne asada was $18.99, which is about the going rate in local restaurants. My wife's takeout order was a Traditional Torta with carnitas. She wanted chicken but for some reason they don't offer it in a torta. Way overpriced at $12.99 because it was served in a smallish round bun with a thin spreading of the carnitas. To me the sandwich was worth no more than maybe $3.99. It was at the most just tasty, with none of the orange juice/zest and other flavors of great carnitas. They did throw in a bag of chips and a small container of salsa for her.

In contrast, the Cadillac Margarita I ordered was a great value at $10.50. Large, delicious and very potent. Thank goodness my son was our designated driver.

Now here comes the reason why I'm not confident this restaurant, as good as the food is overall, will make it in the long term. The tab for the three orders--including the margarita and the tip--came to $77. Even without the drink, $66 for three people (and considering how stingy with meat that torta was) is just way too much, in my opinion. For about that same price--or cheaper--we can drive to our favorite Mexican place in Gig Harbor where they serve a bit more meat, both the rice and beans are delicious, and they offer chicken in tortas. Service also has to be improved in this restaurant too. Besides our waiter, I saw two other female servers who made occasional visits to tables where our waiter had also taken orders. There just seemed to be a lack of coordination with the service staff, since there were long periods of time when no servers were on the floor.

We may go back to drive Ay! Tequila again when we're in the mood to go out for Mexican food and want to stay in town. Even with the reservations I have about certain aspects of it, I think it has the potential to be the best sit-down Mexican...

Where do I start... you know the saying when in Mexico dont drink the water? Well i think that's what they mean by authentic the chicken was so dry the beans were so dry like they avoided hydration. The plates are huge but at about $20 each it's not much to brag about just a simple 2 people with an appetizer cost me $72.01. As far as my actual meal I ordered the fajita burrito which isnt what you expect... the steak onions peppers... and tomatos... came on top of a rice and refried bean burrito the steak was so chewy it took about 5 minutes a piece needless to say I had two bites and was done trying it injest the meat and tried the burrito that came with only to again eat the driest thing I've ever had. When it came to the complimentary chicken and salsa every place gives you this one had a salsa that was oddly sweet like someone dumped sugar into it and the chips idk were over cooked? They just tasted bland and off. But aside from the food we were the only people in the restaurant and our waitress seemed to spend more time hanging out with the cook than anything else because the host who seated us did most the work taking our order I think she mainly brought us chips and drinks I also got the feel the host was also the manager by the way he gave orders to everyone else. Lastly I wouldnt recomend taking a date here because mine was very offput (I grew up in new Mexico and learned spanish) because everyone only spoke Spanish the entire time so it kinda felt to her like they were talking about us when they werent but I feel it's a courtesy to try and make your guests feel comfortable which they did not esp when it came to the seating like someone ordered thier tables and booths from different places there is no way to fit more than 2 at a table with a wraparound booth the table was so large for such small seats all in all worst birthday dinner I...

If I could give less than one star I would. Where to begin: inattentive wait staff. My friends and I were lead to a booth, were the only customers inside, the woman walked away, walked by several times ignoring us, even though we were ready to order. Figured maybe she was a hostess (although I did see her sit another party and appear to take their order immediately.)

Saw two employees at the bar, not doing anything. Finally, after 20 minutes, our order was taken off an overpriced menu. Took another 25 minutes to get our food, during which time, I requested our food to be taken to go.

After we get our food, I went to pay, and saw I was overcharged for my food (I ordered a quesadilla, which was 9.99 and 2 extra dollars for meat. I was being charged 17.99 for fajitas, which I didn't order). When I brought it up to our server, he kept saying it's what I ordered, whenever I'd point to the menu where it says 2 dollars for meat; not 8.

I finally told him to forget it, that I neither wanted the food, nor was going to pay for it. He tried to offer it, free of charge, which I refused. Overpriced menu, and terrible customer service. ...