Chacho's — Restaurant in San Antonio

This visit occurred at 5:30 pm on a weekday.

Parking is cramped, and the approach to parking is precarious, cutting across drive through lane traffic. Exiting the lot is equally as seat of the pants, coming up on traffic exiting the drive through from a blind spot. A drive through customer coming out too fast nearly caused a crash.

Inside, the layout is strange, with customers entering from the side and towards the back of the store, then traveling to the front, and across the dining area to the other end of the building to get to the ordering counter.

At the front of the building is a covered patio that extends across the entire front. It is completely fenced; so, there is no outside access to use as a shortcut to the ordering station. Where there is typically a menu board were large signs with large print advertising what items are available, but there is no actual hanging menu; instead, the standard menu is pasted to the counter. A sign with instructions on how to queue up and place an order cuts down on all of this confusion.

The order taker was friendly and attentive. Service was fast with the bagged order being placed on the counter as the credit card finished running.

Interior decor is contemporary Small Business Loan: no frills or lavish appointments, and with a dingy feel to it. The exterior is decked out in smart dark-chocolate brown.

One of two condiment stations at the frontwhichisactuallytheback held a series of small pans containing various sauces and salsas. Most were tired and unappetizing looking.

On the other side of the building (Back? Front? Hard to say...) are the toilets, which are also painted in an attractive dark color. They were clean, clean smelling, and in working order, and well stocked with supplies.

If you like Bush chicken, Chacho's taste is similar. The crust was wonderfully crunchy and well seasoned, and didn't go soggy, even after a 15-minute car ride. The thick crust had a downside in that there were underdone sections on the underside, including one chunk of dough with the consistency of a dumpling. The meat inside was cooked thoroughly, and tasted good. The pieces overall were steaming hot, and fresh looking. Sides were not ordered, but a tray of ready-made mashed potato bowls looked tasty. The box of chicken included a dinner roll. It was cool, firm but not crusty on the outside, and soft on the inside, with a lightly sweet taste hinting of honey.

Liquor and beer are available, definitely setting this joint apart from your average...

Red Neon signs EVERYWHERE. We ordered a queso and asked how much a large is, the waitress told us that it was a Pint, questioning, like she wasn’t sure. We didn’t need two whole cups of queso so we got the next size down, thinking it would be like half or somewhere in the middle.

No, they gave us this tiny little dip cup of queso. We must have been here for at least 20min and she hasn’t come back to take our order. When she finally came back after voicing out that we were waiting to take our order, I asked about the sizing for the cups because she said that it was the medium size and I asked her to clarify the sizing and what she told us was totally different. So I told her we ordered the medium, which she explained was half a pint, and the small dip cup she gave us was 4oz which was the small… which was NOT what we ordered.

One of the tables next to us also complained that there was hair in their food while their original waiter was being sent home and someone else took over their table. Are their cooks not wearing hair nets?

I ordered a basic item; Shredded Chicken Burrito There was barely any chicken, or rice or beans. Like 90% was cheese and lettuce, wrapped in one of those small thick tortillas, and was nowhere near the size the waitress made it out to be. The Chachos in Houston were much better with their food quality and amount. I don’t think I’ll be coming back to this location.

All in all my rating is as follow:

Food: 5/10 (not portioned as described and lacking flavor Service: 6/10 (Waiter took 20min to check on is, and only after I said something audibly, then only came to check on us once during our meal) Atmosphere: 3/10 (too many red Neon signs, enough to be one in every window. Most Chachos locations are much bigger than this. Waiters seem scarce and not very attentive to their customers.)

And no military discount, for those wondering. A restaurant right next to Lackland and no military...

We’ve eaten here three times now in the last two months, we kind of can’t stay away! Three of the four times we dined in. The service wasn’t super fast but they are extremely under staffed which is not the staffs fault at all. The drive through definitely takes a lot longer than dining in, but we learned that there are not enough people working the drive through because they simply cannot find enough people to work.

While dining in, we were pretty surprised for how busy they were that we never felt rushed or neglected. We always had everything we needed and were checked on regularly.

The margaritas are strong, there are some reviews that complain about that, but at this price point I think it’s to be expected. If you want a high quality margarita, you’re not going to find anything exceptional under $15 elsewhere. This isn’t that kind of place.

We have tried the gorditas, enchiladas, picadillo tacos, quesadillas, and of course their famous nachos. Everything has been pretty fresh every time we have gone. From the avocados, to the masa, to the lettuce and tomatoes. The meat has been well cooked and well seasoned. Their chips are perfectly crisp and we love their queso and get it every time.

I think for how busy and understaffed they are, they are doing a heck of a great job. They are all friendly and willing to help one another, seems like they have a pretty good culture which also makes us want to keep coming back. For the price of each item/meal, we think this place is a great value and the items we’ve had so far have been tasty.

If we want very high quality Mexican food, this isn’t where we are going to go, but again, this isn’t that type of place, and...