EL REY Mexican Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Texas

I walked in and smelled sewage and bathroom cleaner. According to locals, that’s normal. I also noticed dirty tables cloths under the glass with food and dirt stains. There’s different answers from them when you ask how often they change the cloths. It ranges from once every four weeks to once a week. That’s disgusting. Now, the food? Decent. Nothing outstanding. Typical Mexican place with Tex Mex options. I walked in for the second time in years and saw no difference. My first visit left me with a bad idea of this place but I was encouraged to try again. Since my food last time didn’t have any flavor, maybe they change. The first time I went, I ordered a steak. Absolutely bland. The second time was enchiladas. Still meh. Nothing exciting. I saw red sauce and dirt all over tablecloths and this was during a time between lunch and dinner so not much business going on. At least the glass on the tables was clean but this is just nasty. They might as well get rid of the tablecloths if they can’t clean them or replace them when they’re dirty.

Update: Years later and this place still smells like sewage. We came in for breakfast and I couldn’t get the eggs down because it smelled so bad. Instead of chopped ham for the eggs, they use deli meat. They cut corners. This place has smelled badly for years. I can’t figure out why anyone would eat here. Head to El Charro in...

This place was surprisingly good. I've been to El Rey before, but I wasn't familiar enough with Tex-Mex cuisine in general to leave a review. I have since been to enough places to get a good background in tex Mex to be able to comment.

Having moved to Texas about 6 years ago, I was slow to adapt to the Tex Mex cuisine. Part of that was due to a food poisoning at a famous chain within the first two years. I stayed away from the cuisine until about a year ago.

I only went to Tex Mex places when another person wanted to eat Tex Mex, because I never had the cravings for them. I got to try some very bland refried beans, under-seasoned fajitas and rice with no texture nor flavor.

This place was the first place I've been to that got rid of all those flaws for me. I had the fajita dinner combo plate. The seasoning was neither overdone nor underdone. The meat was charred, but not to the point of tasting burnt, the rice had decent texture and flavor, and the beans were actually seasoned, not poured straight from a can of refried beans.

While this may not be the best Tex Mex restaurant in the Austin area, it's the best I've tried. I've probably only been to about 15 or so different Tex Mex restaurants(including some big chains) in total, but this place beat out all of...

Worst service and food. When we arrived, there was a sign stating it would take 30 minutes for the food to come out. It was a wait to get a table which we were fine with. The trouble really started when we sat down. We ordered drinks and they took 30 to 40 minutes to come out. Once the drinks finally came out, they told us they were out of one of the beverages that we ordered. So therefore everybody had drinks to toast except for one person. About 20 minutes later, the appetizer came out. It was just queso. I chips had long since been gone and we asked for more chips which we had to ask a different waiter for 10 minutes later. The chips or a combination between fresh, stale, and actually raw. It was about an hour before they took our order. When we went to order desserts, we were told that the kitchen was closed. We got there at 7:20 PM. Absolutely ridiculous that it took that long to eat and we couldn’t even get a dessert. The food was definitely not the best that I’ve eaten at a Mexican restaurant. Not the El Rey’s I have gone to in the past. They could definitely retrain the wait staff. Maybe we’ll try this again six months from now but probably unlikely. There’s so many more restaurants in Dripping Springs in there have been...