My review on "El Cholo" the mexican restaurant

[gregshin]

I've heard great things about this restaurant so i decided to go in try it out.

We get there and the place is packed! We put in our names to be called and were told it we be a 30 minute wait....So we sit down at the bar/lounge. We sit there for about 30 minutes...and no one asks if we wanted anything to drink...but yet the busboys clean up our lounge table. I take a look at the drink menu and see a very impressive array of tequilla...but holy crap they wanted $8.00 a shot of Don Julio. 15 minutes later i see people who came way after us being seated within 5-10 minutes. I went back to the maitre'de and asked about my party name....the lady flips thru her page and couldn;t find our name. She TURNS back a page and find my name scribbled out. Hmm....so far this place sucks.

We were immediatly seated and offered chips and salsa. The salsa was decent and so was tortilla soup. Took forever to recieve mah diet coke tho. I had green corn tamales which were excellent...the rice sucked and beans were refried =(. I had 1 margarita which costs 7 dollars too =( After the meal i was given the check...took 10 minutes for the server to come back for the bill.

Pros - impressive array of tequillas
valet parking

Cons - Staff was lacking service skills
over priced drinks

Summary - This place reminded me of el torito and aculpulco....tho a bit nicer. If you want real mexican food go somewhere else. This is mah 2 cents.

 

[amnesiac]

Strange, I get awesome service everytime I go. Serves you right for going during rush time on a weekend. Also sometimes it pays to check on the status of your table every now and then. Keep in mind that it's hard to judge the quality of a restaurant's service on one visit. They all have off days (crappy waiter, understaffed, etc.)

Also, I don't know if you noticed, but El Cholo is NOT Taco Bell. You'll have to expect to pay more because it's pretty much as upscale as Mexican can get in LA. $7 for their margaritas isn't really that bad. It's at most a dollar more than any other place, plus El Cholo margaritas kick major ass over anything else.

Yeah the rice could be better, but as for the beans, uhh...it's a Mexican restaurant. Mexican restaurants serve refried beans. It would be really weird and non-authentic if they didn't. This place has great fajitas, tamales, and combination plates (HUGE portions). I'd rate it as one of the better Mexican restaurants in the mid-LA area.

Equivalent food, cheaper: El Coyote Spanish Cafe, (323) 939-2255 7312 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles

Better food (best mex. EVER, IMO), same price: Bart Earle's Red Onion, 736 Silver Spur Road, Rolling Hills Estates (310) 377-5660

 

...the rice sucked and beans were refried =(.

The beans are SUPPOSED to be refried at a Mexican restaurant. That's the style of cooking.

 

[gregshin]

Originally posted by: amnesiac
Strange, I get awesome service everytime I go. Serves you right for going during rush time on a weekend. Also sometimes it pays to check on the status of your table every now and then. Keep in mind that it's hard to judge the quality of a restaurant's service on one visit. They all have off days (crappy waiter, understaffed, etc.)

Also, I don't know if you noticed, but El Cholo is NOT Taco Bell. You'll have to expect to pay more because it's pretty much as upscale as Mexican can get in LA. $7 for their margaritas isn't really that bad. It's at most a dollar more than any other place, plus El Cholo margaritas kick major ass over anything else.

Yeah the rice could be better, but as for the beans, uhh...it's a Mexican restaurant. Mexican restaurants serve refried beans. It would be really weird and non-authentic if they didn't. This place has great fajitas, tamales, and combination plates (HUGE portions). I'd rate it as one of the better Mexican restaurants in the mid-LA area.

Equivalent food, cheaper: El Coyote Spanish Cafe, (323) 939-2255 7312 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles

Better food (best mex. EVER, IMO), same price: Bart Earle's Red Onion, 736 Silver Spur Road, Rolling Hills Estates (310) 377-5660

hmm imma have to try out that bart earle's red onion joint. Why not expect decent/good service on a rush weekend? I went to valentino's in santa monica friday night and had SUPERB service. I know that el cholo is not taco bell but the food reminded me of el torito and alcapulco....i just expected better.

 

[gregshin]

Originally posted by: jumpr

...the rice sucked and beans were refried =(.

The beans are SUPPOSED to be refried at a Mexican restaurant. That's the style of cooking.

not a fan of refried beans...i was hoping for a choice of black beans or white beans instead.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: jumpr

...the rice sucked and beans were refried =(.

The beans are SUPPOSED to be refried at a Mexican restaurant. That's the style of cooking.

Yeh, what the heck did you expect?
Anyway, the prices and service level sound about par for the course for a chain mex joint. If you think $7 is above average for a margarita, where do you usually get them for less?
It sounds comparable to the Chi Chi's/Don Pablo/On The Border set....all of which I avoid in lieu of places that actual Mexican people eat at (and are MUCH cheaper. Can you say $4 burrito? $2 tamale?

 

[kermalou]

Originally posted by: gregshin
I've heard great things about this restaurant so i decided to go in try it out.

We get there and the place is packed! We put in our names to be called and were told it we be a 30 minute wait....So we sit down at the bar/lounge. We sit there for about 30 minutes...and no one asks if we wanted anything to drink...but yet the busboys clean up our lounge table. I take a look at the drink menu and see a very impressive array of tequilla...but holy crap they wanted $8.00 a shot of Don Julio. 15 minutes later i see people who came way after us being seated within 5-10 minutes. I went back to the maitre'de and asked about my party name....the lady flips thru her page and couldn;t find our name. She TURNS back a page and find my name scribbled out. Hmm....so far this place sucks.

We were immediatly seated and offered chips and salsa. The salsa was decent and so was tortilla soup. Took forever to recieve mah diet coke tho. I had green corn tamales which were excellent...the rice sucked and beans were refried =(. I had 1 margarita which costs 7 dollars too =( After the meal i was given the check...took 10 minutes for the server to come back for the bill.

Pros - impressive array of tequillas
valet parking

Cons - Staff was lacking service skills
over priced drinks

Summary - This place reminded me of el torito and aculpulco....tho a bit nicer. If you want real mexican food go somewhere else. This is mah 2 cents.

i am sorry but we have had nothing but great service there, even getting to know our servers and why they wear the get up that they wear. their margaritas are excellent also, great for the price.
the crowd is nice also.

 

[kermalou]

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: jumpr

...the rice sucked and beans were refried =(.

The beans are SUPPOSED to be refried at a Mexican restaurant. That's the style of cooking.

Yeh, what the heck did you expect?
Anyway, the prices and service level sound about par for the course for a chain mex joint. If you think $7 is above average for a margarita, where do you usually get them for less?
It sounds comparable to the Chi Chi's/Don Pablo/On The Border set....all of which I avoid in lieu of places that actual Mexican people eat at (and are MUCH cheaper. Can you say $4 burrito? $2 tamale?

this isn't a chain, there are only two of them. the other one is the original on western ave. and has been there for about +/- 65 years. it's a mom and pop place.it is good quality, that is why its expensive.

 

[Jzero]

this isn't a chain, there are only two of them. the other one is the original on western ave. and has been there for about +/- 65 years. it's a mom and pop place.it is good quality, that is why its expensive.

I guess on the east coast, mom and pop joints are much much cheaper and VERY good quality....interesting.

 

[gregshin]

Originally posted by: kermalou

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: jumpr

...the rice sucked and beans were refried =(.

The beans are SUPPOSED to be refried at a Mexican restaurant. That's the style of cooking.

Yeh, what the heck did you expect?
Anyway, the prices and service level sound about par for the course for a chain mex joint. If you think $7 is above average for a margarita, where do you usually get them for less?
It sounds comparable to the Chi Chi's/Don Pablo/On The Border set....all of which I avoid in lieu of places that actual Mexican people eat at (and are MUCH cheaper. Can you say $4 burrito? $2 tamale?

this isn't a chain, there are only two of them. the other one is the original on western ave. and has been there for about +/- 65 years. it's a mom and pop place.it is good quality, that is why its expensive.

I believe there are 8 locations in the area including some other different restaurant names

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: gregshin

Originally posted by: kermalou

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: jumpr

...the rice sucked and beans were refried =(.

The beans are SUPPOSED to be refried at a Mexican restaurant. That's the style of cooking.

Yeh, what the heck did you expect?
Anyway, the prices and service level sound about par for the course for a chain mex joint. If you think $7 is above average for a margarita, where do you usually get them for less?
It sounds comparable to the Chi Chi's/Don Pablo/On The Border set....all of which I avoid in lieu of places that actual Mexican people eat at (and are MUCH cheaper. Can you say $4 burrito? $2 tamale?

this isn't a chain, there are only two of them. the other one is the original on western ave. and has been there for about +/- 65 years. it's a mom and pop place.it is good quality, that is why its expensive.

I believe there are 8 locations in the area including some other different restaurant names

That qualifies as a chain in my book...Most of the time even with 2 or 3 locations, the quality starts to decline.

 

[gregshin]

El Cholo website

 

[uLHg182]

haha i know the people who own el cholo. the kid whose parent's own it goes to my high school. i personally don't like the place that much. i live in orange county and there are many better mexican places than it. one thing that i really didn't care for was their menu. their menu seemed to be very small and it didn't have very many choices. the one time i went to the actual place i was with the owner so we received good service but they cater at our school a lot and not very many people like it that much.

 

[Maverick]

put your title as YASCT

Yet another southern california thread

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: gregshin
El Cholo website

It even has a menu like a chain.
Real Mexican Menu

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Originally posted by: gregshin

Originally posted by: kermalou

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: jumpr

...the rice sucked and beans were refried =(.

The beans are SUPPOSED to be refried at a Mexican restaurant. That's the style of cooking.

Yeh, what the heck did you expect?
Anyway, the prices and service level sound about par for the course for a chain mex joint. If you think $7 is above average for a margarita, where do you usually get them for less?
It sounds comparable to the Chi Chi's/Don Pablo/On The Border set....all of which I avoid in lieu of places that actual Mexican people eat at (and are MUCH cheaper. Can you say $4 burrito? $2 tamale?

this isn't a chain, there are only two of them. the other one is the original on western ave. and has been there for about +/- 65 years. it's a mom and pop place.it is good quality, that is why its expensive.

I believe there are 8 locations in the area including some other different restaurant names

No, it's not a chain. There are 2 locations, the western ave one mentioned, and one in La Habra. They also own The Cat & the Custard Cup, which is right next to the one in La Habra, which is also an excellent French/Continental cuisine restaurant. Try the duck.

EDIT: Well I suppose I stand corrected on the chain issue. I wonder when they opened all those other locations. Anyway, I still think it's pretty good. The fajitas are the best thing on the menu. El Cholo strives to be a more healthy mexican, I think. They use no lard or very little in most of the food they cook. Your nuts if you think the place is just like an El Torito or something though...

 

[amnesiac]

^^^ I have no idea where you're getting the "healthy mexican" vibe from El Cholo. It's definitely NOT healthy. They use fresher ingredients than most places but definitely not healthier.

 

[Stark]

El Cholo rocks. It's way better than Acapulco/El Torito/Guadalaharry's/etc.

The mid-week dinner specials are awesome and very reasonably priced.