El Arriero — Restaurant in South Bend

UPDATE: We went back tonight after 3 months and I was really impressed. The manager recognized us, apologized, and brought us queso. I was really impressed that he wanted to have a conversation about what happened and let us know that they are working hard to improve their service. Food was absolutely delicious as always and the service was much better tonight! My food did come out wrong at first but they recognized it before I could even say anything and had it fixed very quickly. I'm happy to say that we will definitely be going back!

3 months ago: I'm so frustrated with what has happened to El Arriero the last 6 months. This is one of my favorite restaurants. I used to go almost weekly. But then there were a string of bad visits where they messed up our food or made mistakes when charging us. Even all of that wasn't bad enough for me to write a review. I just stopped going for a month or so. Tonight I decided to go back again. The specials board said chicken fajitas for 5.99. I ordered them after talking with the waitress and seeing what came with the special and all that. The bill came and I was charged 12.69. I asked the waitress who apologized and went to the back. Then the manager came out. He told me the board said lunch special. He even walked up to look at the board and said, "yeah it says lunch". I figured it was just my mistake and walked up to the front to pay. I walked right past the board where it absolutely nowhere said lunch. As I was getting ready to turn around and say something another employee walked around me, took the board and erased the chicken fajitas right in front of my face. I feel cheated and will never be returning to this...

I used to dismiss this place as another Americanized Mexican food place, like Hacienda but not as bland. My favorite dish before today was their El Arriero Tilapia (which I also rate quite highly), but that dish is a lighter meal unless you devour all the fillers of rice, chips, etc that come with it.

Today I decided to revisit El Arriero after reading about their "Extreme Fajita" which is a combination of steak, chicken, shrimp, chorizo and chunky pork cooked with fajita veggies. It was only a couple bucks more than the Tilapia and I was feeling extra hungry so I thought "what the heck". WOW. I was beyond blown away by the quantity of food and the FLAVOR. I am a big meat eater...the guy that orders a full rack of ribs at a BBQ place and is concerned if it will be enough. This thing was huge! and not bland at all. Perfectly gilled/pan seared to perfection with just the right amount of fajita flavoring. I will be able to make another huge meal out of this and I'm really looking forward to it.

I will be back!!

Edit 2/16/21 : Not sure what is going on over there but today I tried to call in a pretty decent sized order and got a busy/disconnected signal over ten times. Phone number correct? Check. Still open for business? Google says YES. I even went on Facebook and there was just a post about specials YESTERDAY...so are you open or not!?! I'm down to 4 stars until I hear something. Great food is great, but only if you can...

I've been coming here since it open about 3 years ago, and for a while there we considered this the better option of what South Bend has to offer in Mexican restaurants. With a very ample selection of dishes that tasted good and very good service, whenever we wanted Mexican this was the place we would come to in our home. Then things got a little wobbley service wise and the quality of the food was missing the mark and after many, less than great experiences, we stopped coming. But I can report that in my most recent visit, after not coming for like 6 months, thing we're much better than the lasts visit that left us not thrilled. The service which had become very slow and innacurate, was right on point in this visit. And the food was delivered nice and hot, which had also been issues a few times before. This was a lunch hour visit around noon so I can't for sure say that they are a hundred percent back in form, but at least it felt promising enough that I will give it another go soon at a different time to see how it goes. For now the rating is a reflection of what I feel the place deserves for past and present performance. If after a few more visits I realized it's gotten way better I will...