El Nopal Family Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Sumas

First visit to El Nopal after the big pandemic. The chips and salsa were agreeable and a very nice and familiar pre-amble to the dinner that followed. I admit, I was hungry and took a leap of faith here, and ordered the Fajitas. In another life, I lived for 16 years in Fort Worth, Texas and am very familiar with good quality Mexican food.

Let me conclude this review with a piece of direct advice to El Nopal. Even if you have to charge a higher price for each plate, let's start with a much, much better cut of beef! and learn how to cook it for a plate of Fajitas! The beef on my plate of Fajitas was rubbery, over-cooked and about as cheap a cut of meat as you could possibly find. The spices and hot platter made the dish smell good. But that's where the appeal of the plate ended.

Tenderloin people! The plate of Fajitas I serve here at home, puts yours to shame even on your best day. Other than that, generally the meal was mediocre and agreeable. I ordered a Flan for something sweet to end the evening with, but then we discovered, that they did not have any flan. Thankfully my dinner company was pleasant and so the evening was not a complete loss.

Will I return again? I probably will. Think I'll try a cheese enchilada...

Love this place. As with all there are pros and cons but for a fun atmosphere and really good old school mexican food, this place is hard to beat. The food is great. I have never had an issue with the food. I wouldn't classify at is gourmet or super high end. But it is cooked well, tasty, a little greasy and delicious. Menu has great selection. I typically get the enchilada suiza or the fajitas but have also done the mole sauce, basic enchiladas and others. Wife loves the margaritas. They are generous and yummy. A heads up would be that a couple of times the alcohol content in the margaritas seems higher than usual. so be cautious. But less than a handful of times. The restaurant is a little aged, but it is spacious and a bit of a classic feel. Decorated with some basic, cheap mexican style decor. A bit cheesy but fun. Lots of TV's for sports. Accomodating staff. The bathrooms are a bit dirty at times. Minor thing to me. Bottom line, fun place to eat and have a drink mexican...

Food was good but service was not. Ordered Fajitas with my 2 kids, told server 1st time there. Asked about quantiy of food as was trying to decide on 1 or 2 orders. Server could not explain for some reason, also felt rushed in ordering. Given option for flour or corn tortillas, did not know corn were only 5", so 4 arrived with huge amount of food. Server told me flour are larger and most people know that. Good to know customer is supposed to know vs server telling me that.

They then bring 3 flour ones without telling me how many come as I would have ordered more. So asked for more flour ones at that time. We ran out of tottillas extra food was eaten on plate vs in tortilla as more did not arrive even after asking for them. I have an expectation from servers when out and I as the customer should not have to interrogate the server to find out every detail of a meal. Not impressed by the 2 servers who also kept switiching back and forth...