Taqueria Tapatio's Authentic Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Villa Rica

I knew better than to go here after eating at their Temple location. Lady behind at the counter spoke no English after asking for a booth. Booth and table distance would accommodate someone from my 600lb life. Salsa is picante' but has no actual flavor (The salsa of the Temple location tasted like ketchup when I visited there over a year ago) for this reason alone I would return to the Temple location. Waitress was sweet, very rushed (they weren't that busy, she may have been pulling a double but didn't look like she was pulling a double). She didn't ask if we wanted appetizers, only the main dish, and seemed a little put off that we ordered an appetizer, more on that later. The margarita glasses had no ice in them, and they were hot from the dishwasher. Every Mexican restaurant I have been to in the 40yrs of paying for my own meal the waitress/waiter poured the first glass for you, not here or not with this waitress at least. We received our order (Vegetarian quesadilla and the Texas Nacho plate) before our appetizer had arrived and the veggie quesadilla was very bare, no sour cream, no guacamole (I'm guessing that's extra here and standard at every other Mexican restaurant). The veggie q-dilla was missing the rice and beans as well. My Texas nachos were pretty good, lots of shrimp and chicken the sliced steak wasn't cooked fresh, it was extremely tough, and I ended up avoiding the steak all together. The steak at Los Cowboys is the same, only Monterrey's and La Parrilla cook theirs to order. I order a side of jalapenos for the queso, and it was dulled down salsa verde instead of jalapenos. The Texas margaritas were pretty decent; salsa and margaritas are the top 2 for me when I go to eat Mexican. The girl at the register, needs to be replaced, retrained and needs to learn some English if she's going to work the cash register. There was not how was your food, thank you, do you want a copy of your receipt, nada.

The owner spoke with us for a few minutes as we were waiting to be served, nice guy. He started talking about he church rush from the afternoon (we look like the white, Christian conservatives we are), my friend who is 72 said to him "we don't care about all that, how's the margaritas"? ;-)))

Other patrons had been there longer than us and they had kids, had finished their salsa, first round of drinks and were waited on after us.

Los Cowboys will still my local go to. If I want a different flare on Mexican food, I'll stick to Monterey's in Douglasville on Hwy 92 or Carrollton. Definitely waiting for the Monterey's in...

Well I only gave it one star because you had to do something to leave a review I will never go back to this place ever again my husband said something to the manager or he's the owner not sure which but he squared off up against my husband and started screaming at him all because we said something about we've never seen any restaurant charged for extra salsa they want to Dollar charge you to death when it comes to extra salsa more chips anything like that then they added the extra sausage to my mother's and my sisters tickets will we said something to him about that well he said he would fix it and then he wanted to get kind of belligerent with my mother telling her she didn't look at her ticket properly so therefore the waitresses not all that grand she took her order we had to sit around after our food came and asked them for silverware so that we could eat it with she never came back to the table and asked us how things were or offered us more drink or anything like that and it's probably a good thing because they probably wanted to charge you a dollar more just to refill your glass I got the fajita Texas nachos it had probably about four to five strips of chicken which are tiny strips the beef on it was so chewy that it was like chewing on leather and the guacamole no good you do not want to eat that and a couple of pieces of shrimp there was really no onions and no bell peppers to it which was supposed to been and then my sister's food she ordered the fajitas for one she sat there and had to wait to get the attention of the waitress to let her know that the rest of her order that went with the fajitas the wraps and the beans and stuff like that the rice and all they didn't even bring that out so the waitress had to go back into the kitchen to retrieve the remainder of my sister's order so all I can say is is beware if you go to this restaurant you may be sorely disappointed this was our very first and will be our very last but we ever go and eat there if you want good Mexican food you either go to the Lost Cowboys or Monterey's that's where you will find a fantastic Mexican food but you can go try it out if you want to but I wouldn't never give them another dime of my money they're rude the manager dude wants to square up on a 54-year-old man on oxygen then he wants to get nasty with my 75-year-old mother that I wouldn't stand for but anyway I wish I look y'all have a good day but don't go to...

The aesthetic of the restaurant is a bit maximalist and stereotypically mexican, but it's still quite charming. Cool chairs, and good music-- the music reminded me of when my family and I used to live in Miami, Florida. Our waitress seemed to like the music too, as I'd overheard our waitress quietly singing to herself as she brought over our food.

On that note, I'll get into the service; generally, it was very good. The staff brought out our orders in a timely manner, and refilled our soft drinks when they saw we were running low. Additionally, as my parents were ordering some alcohol, the waitress was sure to warn them about what could get them drunk haha. Really, I have no complaints besides that a very large party of people came into the restaurant around when we were finishing up, which considerably slowed the service. I understand that that's an exceptional circumstance though, and the staff still acknowledged us if we called them over.

Finally, the food was very tasty here, and I'd say it was almost better than Los Cowboys-- another Mexican restaurant in Villa Rica. Though, I do have some complaints in this regard... the food gave me abnormally bad digestive issues when compared to other Mexican restaurants. I was on the toilet for a good 30 minutes upon getting home. I did take home leftovers from my meal-- the Tapatio Deluxe-- and those thankfully didn't hurt my stomach though, so the problems I had likely stem from the quantity of food plus the grease. So maybe this place isn't best for somebody with a sensitive stomach (like myself), but I'm sure if you choose more carefully from the menu, you can avoid issues.

Attached to this review is a picture of the Tapatio Deluxe I ordered, and as you can see, it's a lot of food. Very yummy (even the spinach, surprisingly), but it was a dangerous gambit for me...