Nacho Padres — Restaurant in Spring

Ok, Grand opening are never easy and we wish nothing but success for the owners. I'm going to try and be as evenly biased as possible here in my review. My wife and I - we always like to sit at the bar because we're social. Plus, it was our 19 year anniversary. The size and the atmosphere here is first class. It's large and open. We give the ambiance here a 10 out of 10.

Drinks: We both started with Margarita on the rocks using a reposado tequila. They were well made and delicious but on the weak side and pricey compared to the competition. 7 out of 10 ratings.

Chips & salsa: We rate Mexican / Tex Mex restaurants on their chips and salsa. It almost always defines how the rest of the food should be expected. Red salsa was thin and watery. It was only complimented by the saltiness of the chip. The green salsa however was better. It wasn't anything great - just better. 6 out of 10 rating.

Appetizer: We had the queso blanco - it was good but it also came with chicharon instead of chips. We're not a fan of pork cracklings so we won't include that as part of this review - it would be unfair. The queso was good though. Much better paired with their thick salty tortilla chips! 7 out of 10 rating.

Entree: My wife and I decided to split the Birria Tacos. The food came out in a timely manner. The tacos themselves were high on the greasy side - the dipping sauce wasn't like most Birria tacos we've had elsewhere. It was heavily oily or greasy and not 'brothy' as expected. I have to compare this to 3 other places we have enjoy Birria Tacos and give it a 4 out of 10 (more on this later).

Charro beans - by far, the absolute hero of this visit. We have had some amazing charro beans at other places but the charro beans at Nacho Padres ranks at the top. 10 out of 10 for this alone!

Dessert: I wanted to order the churros. The order quickly came out and 'whoa,' do you get a lot in this order. This dessert could feed 4 or more people. Maybe more. Again, a little more on the greasy side, just like the birria tacos. Good, but not the best we've had. 7 out of 10 rating.

Price: Compared to other restaurants, Nacho Padres is on the pricier side. Starting with 2 Margarita rocks (doubles), 1 appetizer, 1 entree - split, and 2 frozen margaritas, our total was about $130.00 before tip.

Conclusion: A mixed bag here. Again, I'm trying to be as honest as possible and we truly hope this can be a successful restaurant. Running a restaurant is NOT EASY!! Staff was awesome and the bar was highly attentive. However, the greasy food had a negative affect on my wife who threw up once we got home. (Greasy food doesn't sit well with her)

Is this place worthy of a visit - Absolutely! Was would we rate our first time experience? 6 out of 10 - because the charro beans and service were the highlights of our visit but our first time experience wasn't as strong as we had hoped.

We really want to see this place succeed so please take this review...

Food is as tasteless as their social media PR.

I used to go here to support a local business even though it is overpriced and not that great.

Ex. My shrimp taco had oil dripping out the bottom into a pool and the batter on the shrimp was thick, sweet causing the shrimp to be over cooked. Another visit, my nachos, which I thought they could do well because of their name, had soggy chips, cold meat, and plastic cheese.

Another trip when asked if I could get a spicy margarita they looked at me like I was insane. She said all they had were spicy watermelon or spicy pineapple margaritas. When I asked can the bartender just make a regular one and add jalapeño tequila? Or just take out the fruit juice?

The answer was a firm, “no we can’t do that.”So I ended up with a regular one that was so sweet, I switched to beer.

Another time I went, I was going to order crawfish until the waitress told me that if I get any bad ones let her know. I said “bad ones?” She said they didn’t have time to clear out the dead ones and someone earlier had a bunch. I opted no for that item then.

Another trip, I had the beef fajitas and the meat was so tough and sinewy, I ended up just eating the toppings & sides wrapped in the 2 bland tortillas they gave me.

Yet another time, we had reserved a table on the patio (right side) for 12. When we got there they argued that no one said patio, even though it was open and available. They tried to put us somewhere else and we pushed back. The hostess visibly rolled her eyes at the other hostess and annoyingly marched us over there and left our menus on a stack at the end of the table for us to distribute.

The last time we were there our waitress was quite chatty about how the restaurant was not doing well, business was slow, almost as if hunting for a large tip, which we gave.

I had brushed it all off and still planned on supporting, thinking they needed help and time to ramp up.

I say all this to show I’ve tried really hard to support this business but every trip has had let downs. But then this.

They issued social media post at another human’s expense in an attempt to be edgy and witty. The post was bad but what was worse was how Nacho Padres social media turned on their own customers who asked them to take it down.

They hid their own customers comments, including mine and worse issued retaliatory comments towards customers, trying to be witty and funny but falling flat.

This could have been handled quickly. ‘Hey y’all we didn’t have the full picture of this woman in crisis, we’ve removed our post out of respect, as a result.’

But they didn’t. They simply made it worse by supporting the calling of their customers “sissies” who could see the indifference and poor taste.

I appreciate you all showing me who you really are, so that I can spend my dollars elsewhere.

EDIT - Replying to...

I’ve been to Nacho Padres twice now, and I want to be honest: I want to like this place. The interior is spotless, the decor is fun and modern, and it’s got real potential. But potential isn’t enough when you’re surrounded by top-tier Tex-Mex competition.

Let’s start with the positives. The restaurant is very clean and has a well-designed interior—I’d rate the main dining area a solid 9/10. Unfortunately, both times we were seated in a side area that felt more like a spillover patio. It’s fine, but noticeably less comfortable than the rest of the space.

Service is the most glaring issue. Both visits involved long waits for basics—eight minutes just to get chips and salsa, and only after we flagged someone down. That’s just not the norm for Tex-Mex in Houston. And it wasn’t a fluke: we’ve had different servers each time, and the sluggish service has been consistent.

The salsa situation deserves a paragraph of its own. The first bowl was barely a quarter full and lukewarm. When I asked for more, they happily brought out four—this time, full to the brim and ice cold, like straight from the fridge. I honestly don’t know which version was the “correct” one, and the inconsistency is baffling. Also, it’s all pretty mild—surprisingly so for Houston, where most Tex-Mex joints offer some heat.

The food itself is mixed. My wife’s nachos were solid and generously portioned. The kids enjoyed their meals. I had the quesabirria tacos, which had great flavor but were shockingly greasy—like, tablespoon-of-grease-per-taco level. Not exaggerating.

Drinks are where this place really loses me. I ordered their “Grandma’s Margarita,” supposedly a 20 oz. premium drink. It arrived in a large glass packed to the brim with pebble ice—no shaker on the side, no refill, and frankly very little actual margarita in there. Tasted okay (though my wife found it too sweet), but for the price, it felt like a rip-off.

There’s one salsa I really liked—the creamy cilantro one that most local Tex-Mex places serve. Their version is quite good, though it was oddly salty on our second visit.

All in all, Nacho Padres has the bones of a great neighborhood spot, but they need to tighten up the service, bring consistency to the kitchen, and rethink their drink pricing if they want to build a loyal following. I’d love to come back and see improvement—maybe we need to give them more time to work...