El Charro Cafe - The Original

Festive atmosphere with good food, be sure to ask for both the green and red salsa to go with your chips. The tres leches cake is a great way to finish your meal. That is, if you have room left in your gut.

Pros: Best tortilla soup in town

Cons: can be a little loud if you seek a peaceful meal

Posted 05/31/09

I love this place because the restaurant looks authentic. The service is great the food is great and the prices are good.

Posted 03/09/09

If you are going to be in the southwest, you MUST visit The El Charro. Their menu will leave you counting the days to your next meal there. I live in Chicago and frequently dream about the sour cream enchiladas, which are pure heaven and perfection. When I find my way back to Tucson, the biggest decision is what to order at the el charro. I will make my decision a hundred times on the plane ride there in anticipation. I have never been let down. Now that my mouth is watering, and my stomach growling, I have to go and book a flight. The Carne Seca is a must have if you have never been before. It is a main attraction and earns it's reputation.

They definately earn all 5 of the stars given!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pros: of course - the food, lots of parking, great ambience

Cons: cant ship it to Chicago frequently

Posted 10/17/08

I have heard everything you can possibly say about El Charro Cafe in my years. However, it seems that everyone wants to be a critic. No one is perfect, and El Charro comes quite close. They are passionate innovators and have put a lot into their beautiful restaurants. Besides this, the food is always amazing

Pros: GREAT

Posted 03/02/08

El Charro is a part of Tucson for a reason, it is the BEST. I think it is the oldest family run restaurant in the nation, and it brings an exclusive experience to Tucson. I have never had a bad experience here and even if my server were to mess something up, it does not compromise the food, ambiance, and experience. Everyone makes mistakes, people should learn to be more patient and forgiving. This place EXCELS in all culinary aspects and people "flock" to it because of these reasons. I AM PROUD to have El Charro in my Tucson backyard!

Pros: EVERYTHING

Posted 03/02/08

I don't know what the previous reviewer is talking about! The chips portions are for your own good... if you fill up on chips, you won't have enough room to truly experience the flavors of your meal. I highly recommend this restaurant, which is rich in flavor, friendliness, and history! If you're new to Tucson or just visiting, do not leave without tasting the authentic mexican cuisine of El Charro!

Posted 02/10/08

I have experienced El Charro Cafe for 5 years and I have fallen in love with it. The food is always excellent and you can taste the freshness of the ingredients!! If you want a clean and proud restaurant, eat here!

Pros: Great food, atmosphere, and cleanliness!!!

Posted 02/05/08

horrible, abysmal
slow service. when it came, waitress screwed up both the drink and the food orders. when this was brought to her attention, all we received is a flippant response.
red sauce w/ the chips was like tomato soup.
chile relleno was uncooked.
what was supposed to be a chimichanga turned out to be a sodden, greasy mess.
spanish rice tasted like uncle ben's one minute w/ katchup mixed in.

Pros: none

Cons: poor food, poor service

Posted 12/26/07

I am so amazed that people still flock to this place. I hear it was a wonderful, authentic place when it first opened decades ago and I long for that experience. I have eaten here on 3 occasions - the first because of the self-perpetuating myth that it is THE place to have mexican food in Tucson. The other 2 times were in hopes of better experiences and unfortunately they did not tranpire. The icing on the cake was where the manager refused to strike the horrible margarita from my bill while stating "my bartenders do not make mistakes" or words to that effect. Plus, 2 ofr our guests got sick from the undercooked CARNE SECA. I am dead serious. The new owners (kids/family) have run this place into the ground and it is tragic. Anyplace would be better, including TACO BELL.

Pros: Parking was good

Cons: Food and customer service

Posted 07/03/07

Surprisingly, we only waited about 20 minutes to get a table on a Saturday night. Once we were seated however, things went downhill fast.

The first person we saw apparently only drops off chips and salsa. After several minutes, finally our waitress came by to take our drink order. Since we didn't have drinks, we didn't want to eat the chips and salsa, so we waited, and waited. Finally my friend was able to get the attention of the first girl again, and she brought us our drinks.

After several minutes, our waitress came back again to take our order. No apology for forgetting our drinks. When the food came out, we asked for drink refills, which we never got, and I discovered that the food I received was not what I ordered. When the waitress finally came back again, I reminded her about the drink refills, and asked about my food. She frowned and said, "I'll talk to the person who made it." Again, no apology. By this time my friend and my husband were halfway done with their meals, so I decided to just eat it, rather than making them wait for me while the kitchen remade my food. Still no drink refills, and as the waitress rushed by another time, she said I wouldn't have to pay for my food.

My friend had asked up front for separate checks, but when the waitress brought the bill, it was all on one. She had to ask again for separate checks, and we had to continue to wait. When we got the separated checks, I noticed I was being charged for the food I didn't order! When I finally got the attention of the waitress to ask her about it, she said that what she meant was that I wouldn't be charged for what I ordered, I would be charged for what the kitchen sent out instead!

To recap, we had to order our original drinks twice, the waitress forgot to bring refills after being asked twice, I received the wrong food, which I was charged full price for, and we had to ask twice for separate checks. To top it all off, the waitress was extremely rude!

Pros: I can't think of any

Cons: Rude, incompetent service.

Posted 03/13/07

Decent if not a little bit bland food, but the rice and beans were great, and so was the service...We got in quickly with 2 people and it was a great experience. Food was good, but not the best, could use a little more seasoning, but very authentic and would reccommend!

Pros: Great atmosphere downtown, and good food, for decent price Awesome service!

Cons: Food is not the Best...

Posted 02/27/07

After moving back to Tucson after 2 years away, I happily returned to El Charro. I was shocked at how poor my overall experience was. The host made us wait 30 minutes in the bar for our table, and then when we were ushered in, we were seated in a nearly empty restaurant. They do not allow you to transfer your drink check from the bar to the restaurant. The host was not at all personable or welcoming. He was blatantly rude to the servers as he sat us and said "sit there!" to us pointing to our table. We waited 15 minutes for our server to pay any attention to us, and when she did, she made no eye contact and acted as if we were holding her up. She barked twice at us that our food would be out soon. My husband's fish tacos were over cooked, and both of us felt we had had better quality Mexican food in many other sites around the city. When we were finished with our food, our server practically threw a box at us for our left overs. I heard many other tables rumbling about the poor service as well. On the upside, the girl serving the chips and water was very friendly and apologetic, and the site is in a nice area of the city and has a lot of history. I am very disappointed that such a well-known Tucson landmark would fall short in so many areas. I will never return.

Pros: nice site, historical

Cons: horrific service, poor food, unnecessary wait at bar, too comfortable with landmark status!

Posted 01/22/07

Terrible!!! 20 minutes, no chips. Food was cold and there were flies all over the place near the windows and on our table. The server staff out numbered the customers. The other location is good but someone needs to do an intervention at the North location!

Update to original posting: I was contacted by the owner of the El Charro Cafe and he encouraged me to visit again. I did twice. Once at the original location on Court Ave and another trip to the Orange Grove location.

There is so much Tucson Hype about El Charro's Carne Seca I had to try it. I ordered it at the original Court Ave location for a business lunch. It was served piping hot but had a slight smell of decay in the reconstituted dried beef. It was ok but I did not enjoy it like I do at Maria Bonita Mexican Restaurant on Oracle.

2nd Chance at the Orange Grove Location ended up being a failure. This time I went in with my daughter and a girl friend visiting from Australia. Again the wait staff seemed to be confused and inefficient and could not deliver what we asked for. Chips arrived very quickly but they seated us right next to the kitchen door in a restaurant that was basically empty. No flies that I noticed this time but the chips were stale and just unappealing. Looks like they buy them from Tennessee.

We noticed another group of patrons at the next table were complaining to the manager and it seems to me that they are batting 1000 in the complaint department in the 3 times I have been to this location. The food was so wrong, I ordered my date a carne asada burro chimi style, fried and with sour creme etc. because she told me she doesn't like tortillas but got a plain white burrito anyway.
She also spaced out our request for another round of cocktails for about 10 minutes and dashed to the bar as she saw my hand go up to get her attention for the check and end our pain. The assistant manager checked on us and tried to explain the poor service but its too late, just shoot me!

Pros: Location

Cons: Not a single thing. Remember this is their North Location only.

Posted 07/23/06

I expected better. The food was plentiful, and our server was pleasant but overworked.

Posted 05/24/06

Excellent food, representative of authentic Mexican food without skipping on good ingredients. Take your time here, El Charro takes their time to make it right. Expect to pay a little extra for the good ingredients.

Pros: Excellent Quality

Posted 05/18/05

Especially with a USA Today Top Five rating, I was expecting something a bit and beyond the ordinary. I didn't. The special on the menu was the Carne Seca, which was dried shredded meat. A lot of food, but not tasty enough to finish.

Posted 03/26/05

I saw this restaurant featured in 2 shows on the food network. I made the 90min. trip down from Phoenix to try it. What a waste of time. The food was mediocre at best. The service was terrible not to mention we were seated right next to the kitchen where the group of 19 year olds running the place were loud and obnoxious. This aside, I decided to try the specialty - a $16.95 carne seca chimichanga called the USA Today special. The carne seca tasted alot like soggy beef jerky. I paid about $12.00 too much for this experience. My gilfriend had the chile relleno. It was so stringy, her knife wouldn't cut through it. DON'T GO....SAVE YOURSELF

Pros: lots of history, great exposure, a lot of hype

Cons: , very young wait staff, sub-par food quality

Posted 09/01/04

Why wait? Why have servers that are borderline nasty? Why do this to yourselves for an outdayed review from USA Today? Carne seca dried on the roof? Hmmm... tasted more like the roof itself! There are about a 1000 taco joints in this city all of which are at least equals to this well over rated Tucson Icon.
Want great inventive Mexican in a friendly atmosphere? Go to Cafe Poca Cosa.
Want traditional food? Go to La Puriza Suza.

Cons: , Food

Posted 06/07/04

went to the wilmont &broadway location, it is a nice place to eat, only if you are not in a hurry, it is not a really long wait as long as you are not trying to get there on saturday night at peak dinner time, the ambience is pretty cool and their cuisine is very aunthentic they have some house creations which are delightful and very rich, if you are not a spicy food person READ the menu carefully, some dishes can be blazing. The ambience is much better at night, lunch hour can be little slow. this is the place to go if you like vibrant music and see people moving around not a place for quiet candlelight dinner. but is very fun and kids friendly too.

Posted 05/22/04

This is one of the best restaurants of any type in Tucson. I have been to El Charro more times than I can count over the years, and have never had a bad experience. We even held a business meeting there over lunch, and they were very accommodating and gracious. Each time I go, I swear I'll try something new on the menu, but I just can't stop ordering the carne seca burro, enchilada style. The carne seca, the specialty of the house, is air dried in a cage hanging over the roof. Go out on the patio and check it out. The one time I strayed from my carne seca addiction, I ordered from the modern section of the menu, and I was rewarded with an excellent meal that went beyond typical Mexican fare. Next time I go, I promise to try something new!

Pros: Carne seca, Good salsa, Attentive wait staff

Cons: , Pay parking, Small restrooms

Posted 05/07/04

This place was the best. Great food, service, and the most colorful place I've been to ever. Can't wait to go again.

Pros: Great Food, Beautiful People, Lively

Posted 03/07/04

We have been to EL CHARRO 3 times. Usually with quests. All three times we have found the food to be mediocre at best, the service to be poor and arrogant, and the prices far exceed the experience.

Posted 12/24/02

If you're into boring chain restraunt style food El Charro's the place for you. The mexican food is edible but there's nothing special about it. An excessive amount of cheeze is found on almost any entree.

Cons: boring food

Posted 09/11/02

If this place wasn't such an institution, it would have closed. The food is bland, the service mediocre, and the management seems not to care because people will still, for some reason I will never understand, flock to this place. El Charro wouldn't last a week in Phoenix.

Pros: Near Downtown

Cons: Everything else.

Posted 08/28/02

where else can you get carne seca that is actually sun dried on the roof , enough said absolutely the best!!!!

Posted 07/24/02

Awesome, the best Mexican Food in the USA! Everything is good, you will not be disappointed.

Posted 07/23/02

I'm not normally fond of Mexican food but I love their Carne Seca platter. service is always fine at
the Broadway location.

Posted 06/28/02

these people have no right to own a business, they hire kids that treat customers like crap. do yourself a favor and go to mcdonalds, at least you save some money and time.

Posted 06/13/02