El Chico Cafe — Restaurant in Texarkana

It really makes me sad to leave a 1 star review. I grew up on El Chico and it has always been one of my favorite places to eat. Sadly, I can no longer feel this way. Over the years this place has really gone down hill. The service & management are terrible. I can no longer dismiss it as a coincidence. Over the last year, every time I come here, the service has been horrible. Every time I bring my wife and kids, we spend 2 hours there because of how slow, unmanaged, and unorganized this establishment has become. This last trip was the final straw. When we arrived, there were a handful of tables being used and they weren’t very busy, yet they had no menus and said we would need to wait until they can find us a menu. 30 minutes later, still no menu. We finally see our waitress as she comes to take our order only to realize we don’t have menus. There was a good 15-20 minutes in between times we saw our server. When we would ask for something, we may get it 20 minutes later. After 30 minutes of waiting for my wife’s drink she finally went to the bar and got it herself. Only, it had been sitting there for 30 minutes and all the ice was melted and it was extremely watered down. So, she asked for another one. Only this time they don’t have the necessary ingredients to make the drink (mexican martini). Needless to say, my wife did not get a drink. After an hour and a half of being in the restaurant, we finally get our food. After 2 hours in this restaurant we are ready to go. Only I had to send the wife and kids to the car while I continue waiting for the check. Once we left and got back on the road, we didn’t get 10 minutes down the road and my 8 year old daughter starts complaining of stomach pain. The further down the road we get, the worse the pain gets. Until we ended up having to pull over because she got sick. We had to stop 3 times for her to throw up. The only thing she had was the Mac n cheese from the kids menu. This is also the only thing that was in her throw up. Looking back, I didn’t think about it at the time but her Mac n cheese did look pail when they brought it out and now my daughter is still sick with severe stomach pain. I can’t say enough how disappointed I am as this has always been a favorite restaurant of ours. Needless to say, after 42 years of eating El Chico, we will never return to this location due to the extremely poor service we receive every time. I feel management is the biggest issue for not improving these issues. I have talked with the manager the last few times I have been there to share my disappointment yet nothing has improved. This is a failure by management. Get it...

If I were allowed to give 0 stars, I would. I know that this is a longer than usual review, but it's for several reasons.The hostess was charming. That's the nicest thing I can say about this place. The food left something to be desired. Their queso was alright, but bland, and most shockingly I was charged $6.00 for a very small bowl, which the waiter intimated was free when he asked if we would like some to go with our chips(stale and straight from a bag). I asked for flour tortillas(flat, waxy, cheap)they come wrapped in foil instead of being in a warmer, also they cost 3 for $2.00(instead of being complimentary)and were NOT freshly handmade. I ordered cheese enchiladas with rice(dry, bland) and refried beans(runny). It was just not what we were expecting at all. Also, my husband and I had been driving most of the day. We were on vacation and just wanted a nice, quiet supper. That is NOT what we got. The restaurant has a full bar, which is great, if you want to partake in a margarita. It's not great when a bunch of drunk 25/30 yr-old men meet up with a large party of very drunk women of various ages who come (to play board games apparently EVERY weekend)together to drunkenly flirt and proposition(yeah, explicitly graphic sex talk)each other very loudly right in front of our booth, and not one employee of the restaurant said anything about this. We were not the only ones who were upset about the situation. Other diners around us(with children) were so angry that they just got up and walked out because the manager never intervened. Then stayed so long, impeding traffic, that we were totally forgotten about by our waiter and had to keep asking the hostess for drink refills, etc. It was just a disappointing experience all around. What's the worst part of all this, you ask? The bill. They charged us for every little thing that they could. I thought for a moment when looking at the receipt that they charged us for our straws! It was that bad. Our overpriced disaster should not have happened. I can't say if our experience is a common thing because we've not been there before. But if I'm ever in the same town again, I think that I'll save my money and my aching head and just go to Arby's...

I would have given it 5 stars. But the waiter was slow to bring our appetizer. He hung out at the bar talking. And when it came time to pay. He brought both our tickets at the same time but didn't hang around for both to pay at once. So he made 2 trips in stead. On a plus note the food was good. 24 hour later update:!! El Choco was my only meal that day. That evening while I slept. My stomach woke me with cramps in my intestines. I passed it off as gas, because I ate the beans. And I was right. A while later I felt pins and needles in my stomach. A dull ache that turned into painful pain. I awake with a start to run to the bathroom. After at witch I slept no more that night. After laying down and not able to sleep. I thought about my experience. The queso was really good. The enchiladas was ok. Rice ok. Beans? Not sure. Having gas and intestines pain later. I could only think of that side item. And pessimistically thinking bad thoughts on my experience. I fell to sleep. Now 2 days later and having discomfort. I think about the reality of life we live outside our homes. Being a good and rational woman. I think about the contractions of germs between people and places we establish daily. So it's the old comment. "I caught from someone else". In reality, I caught something. That's for damn sure! I give El chico 4 stars for the queso Blanco. That's the only good experience I had that day. I...