Conejo — Restaurant in Richmond

We have been excited to try this place. We were greeted with smiles and quickly sat to a very busy restaurant. The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable.

While the place looks great, we had a difficult time carrying a conversation due to the noise. We couldn't even hear the music. It appears this is an issue as we noticed acoustic panels throughout the restaurant. They need to hire someone that knows about acoustics to help resolve it.

We started with a draft beer and a house frozen margarita. The margarita tasted fresh but a bit bitter; it was okay. We started dinner with the Queso fundido with chorizo and the beef taquitos. They provided their salsa trio which were tasty. The server explained each salsa in detail.

The queso fundido tasted okay; the queso was a bit dense; we had to use a fork to scoop the queso as the accompanying tortillas couldn't scoop it. The tortillas were very dry; it was tough biting into them and they had no flavor; a sprinkle of Kosher salt on them would go far.

The taquitos were also very dry and bland. I would recommend topping them with some pico-de-gallo in addition to the lettuce.

We ordered the Pollo Poblano and the Costra (Quesadilla) Pollo Pastor Con Queso. The chicken on the pollo Poblano was very tender and flavorful and so we're the potatoes and mushrooms. Although, the mole marinade did not come through on the chicken and the yellow rice was unpalatable. The rice was hard and lumpy at the same time; it had no flavor. It looked like microwave rice. The Pollo Pastor con Queso Quesadilla was okay; it had very little chicken and hardly any cheese. We took off one of the tortilla layers and ate like a taco.

We finished by sharing the chocoflan. It was tasty but rather thin. A flan traditionally has much more height which could be made for the price.

We finished with two more cocktails, a White Russian and a LIT; they were as expected.

We would have ordered many more drinks but while our server was very friendly, he was inattentive. Our drinks ran dry and we kept stacking plates. We had to ask a passing server for small plates as we were sharing all the dishes.

We were disappointed with the place; the food, drinks nor service really stood out. Plus, the noise made it unpleasant to be in.

We might revisit; although, my guest isn't too inclined to do so. Perhaps we'll try their tacos but next time we'll be seating at the bar and we definitely won't be trying the same dishes.

I can't recommend this place at this time; there are currently better places to...

This review is a long time coming. My husband and I have been regulars for quite awhile. My husband is from Mexico City, so the food reminds him of home. One day we came to celebrate my husband passing his citizenship exam. We have our 20mo daughter with us and we were sitting on the patio. She is a happy screamer and kept screeching when the waitress would come to the table. As her parents we know giving her attention when she does it just makes it worse. So we were trying to not make a big deal about it. And right when we were about to try something different, the table next to us started being incredibly rude and vile. They started saying things like “seriously??” And that we were ruining their night/dinner, they “just wanted a quiet night out and this is ridiculous.” When I explained she wasn’t even 2yo and I was doing my best they proceeded to tell me I WASNT doing my best. Mind you I had my husband with me and they were directing everything to me, the mom. I asked them to leave us alone and they wouldn’t stop when my toddler proceeded to be a toddler. Long story short, they harassed and belittled us the entire time trying to make us feel like bad parents.(you know who you are if you’re reading this, hope you’re proud of yourself) I was too heated and upset about them ruining our night to involve the staff. But I did leave them a message on OpenTable letting them know about those people, since they’re likely issues wherever they go. I didn’t expect a response but the manager, Liz, responded to me with the kindest message. She said she was sorry no one caught the situation, that they are a family restaurant, they do not tolerate harassment, and that the way those people acted was unnecessary and unacceptable. She invited us back to try and celebrate again without interruptions and offered us a gift card. I was so grateful and accepted. When we went back all the staff was so kind. We even ended up having the same waitress as before, and she was as kind as the first time. They even gave us a very generous additional discount on top of the gift card. The experience really cemented what we love about Conejo. It’s a fabulous restaurant with excellent food, and clearly equally excellent people. We even met the owner Danny at one of their tequila/mezcal tastings and he was so kind and easy to talk to. Thank you so much Conejo for making this really disheartening experience...

Update - I’ve raised my review from 3 to 4 stars. The owner contacted me and gave me a gift card to come back. The drinks were delicious and it does seem the street corn was decent, so it must have just been bad last time. I will def come back for margs and las costras (everything else was just fine, nothing I’d go out of my way to get).

— Tldr: go for the margs and las costras! Bartenders aren’t super interested in making mocktails for people who can’t drink. Also, skip the weird queso and street corn 😬 — Decor was beautiful, service was pretty good, prices were great and margs were delicious (according to my husband). I am pregnant and there was only 1 mocktail on the menu (it was grapefruit and i haven’t been handling grapefruit too well). I pointed at the blood orange margarita and asked my server if the bartender could make me something like it but non alcoholic. He came back and told me no because the bar was busy and they could make me a limeaid. Sure, fine. I guess adding the blood orange flavor was too much. That annoyed me a bit - I didn’t ask for a complicated mocktail.

The queso arrived and we kinda stared at it (see photo). It looked like a frittata. Also, you couldn’t dip the chips into it, you had to cut it and attempt to spread (it didn’t spread well) and it was kind of bland. We love queso so we were pretty bummed.

I ordered some street corn and took a huge bite - all of a sudden this sensation of “Omg I might puke” came over me - I figured it was just my food aversion acting up. My husband took a bite, made a face and said It wasn’t me. There’s a bizarre smoky flavor “gone wrong” that had a slight vomit-like flavor. So so strange!! I didn’t touch it after that. I also didn’t complain because it was like $3. My tacos were just fine. My husband said the same about his taquitos. I got the gobernador “las costras” (grilled tortilla with caramelized cheese, shrimp and peppers) and that was DELICIOUS. I also thought the club music was strange and gave the place an unusual vibe - maybe it’s what they were going for? Anyway, I am by no means saying “don’t go here!” - there were some good things for sure! But I will prob wait until i can drink again to come back. If I can’t have a marg (or a yummy mocktail) and good queso, I’m prob going to...