El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant
| Address: | 2195 Riverside Dr, Upper Arlington, OH 43221, USA |
| Phone: | +1 614-486-4547 |
| Site: | vaquerorestaurant.com |
| Rating: | 4.2 |
| Working: | 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10:30PM 11AM–10:30PM 11AM–9:30PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
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Howard Luken
Middle-class milquetoast white bread white people. Thats just describing the food here as well as the crowd. I dont know what it is about middle-class white people but they seem to think this kind of stuff is Mexican mainly because its made with tortillas and served by nothing but Mexican folks speaking Spanish to one another. People this is not Mexican food. This is Corporate Americas idea of something approaching the Border where they want to build a big wall for some reason. Before you even sit down theres a basket of typical chips and something that is supposed to be salsa in a little bowl. This is not salsa. This is Pace not even picante sauce. New York City? More like Plainsville Indiana. No spice, no flavor, nada. Theres a couple bottles of your typical hot sauce so if you dump some of the habanero in there it might be okay plus a little pepper. The menu is typical corporate fare. No special on a Friday so I got what is supposed to be a three course meal for 12 or 13 bucks. Since they had already dumped lettuce and tomato on most of their dishes I opted for the soup instead of the salad to begin. The soup once again is your fake corporate idea of something Mexican which they like to call tortilla soup. The one Saving Grace is it was loaded with chicken probably left over from the last few days. Plain Jane ordinary but filling. Dont order the burritos whatever they are. Its supposed to be carnitas but turned out to be that pork in BBQ sauce you can buy at the grocery store in little plastic tubs. Overly sweet not really barbecue sauce and pork that doesnt taste roasted fried grilled or anything more like boiled to tastelessness. Kind of plain served way too fast as I was only halfway done with my soup when the guy dumped the small enchilada like burritos on my table. Again one Saving Grace probably what was a whole avocado sliced up on top. They dont have that great lime Juice drink that you can find in California and elsewhere these Mexican guys didnt even know what it was so I got the lemonade with extra lime slices that turned out to be completely without lime juice inside of them. Sliced limes behind the bar for garnish without a drop of lime juice within. Driest lime slices Ive seen in a long time. Once again I was only about halfway done with these Plain Jane tub-o barbecued pork things when he plopped a plate of dessert whatever they were supposed to be. Not the nice fluffy pastry like ones youre supposed to get with honey and cinnamon drizzled on them this was more like yet another flour tortilla dropped in hot oil. This meal is sitting in my gut like a sun-dried brick baking under the Guadalajara desert sunshine. I failed to take a photo of it so Im including a picture of more fake Mexican music in my car which is actually just more pop music masquerading as Hispanic. Heres to imperialistic Woodrow Wilsons guns! Send Lawyers, Guns and Money!
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Lisa Johnson
Hello my name is Lisa and I just want to say that El Vaquero is one of my favorite restaurants!!!! My husband Tom and I have been customers for a little over 6 years, and I dont see ourselves ever changing that! Tom and I are always out for business and its rare when we get to see each other for lunch! So when we do we always make sure to go to our favorite restaurant! Toms favorite vaquero is probably the one on sawmil he says they have great customer service and excellent WARM food! Not to mention a very well set up staff and leader! I havent really been there because I usually work in pickerington, but so far that location is amazing and I love the drinks they make there! Foods always great! Recently Tom and I were able to grab some lunch together since we were both near the riverside location, and were very excited since it was going to be our first time there! But sadly our experience there was very Bad!!!! First off I walked into the ladys room and there was no soap! But, that wasnt going to change my mind about vaquero! As we sat down My husbands menu had salsa all over it!!! The server was kind enough to change it for him! As we are both fajita fanatics we got the usual! Both of our favorite vaqueros set standards high when it comes to our fajitas! But when we got ours at this location they were no where near sizzling nor hot they were warm! We were very upset and asked if they could heat them! At this point very annoyed we kept getting different servers and it was never a consistent one! We were very upset and ask to speak with a manager! The manager never came out and at this point we had to go back to work and didnt get to enjoy a good lunch! It sucks that the experience here was that bad because we are fans of el vaquero! Tom and I will be sticking to our regular locations and will never be returning here again! We really hope other people have experience good service here, because we didnt receive good food and sadly very bad customer service!!!!!!!!
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Jonathon Martin
2195 Riverside Drive, Columbus, OH 43221-4020 I have eaten here dozens of times between summer 2008 and a couple weeks ago. The food is always tasty and fresh and the service is some of the fastest I have seen anywhere. The servers cover each other and seem to work well together. I sometimes have a hard time choosing from their menu because there are so many things that sound tasty. So far I have not ordered anything I did not like. I can not tell you if its 100% authentic, but it is fresh and tastes great to me. This location does have a lot of families coming to it, but I have never been bothered by children. If you have a thin skin for children then do not come here. If you are exceptionally picky about how "authentic" the mexican food is then do not come here. I will be back again and again to enjoy the tasty food and blistering fast service! About the only people I can think of who should not like this El Vaquero location is their competition. I suspect that other El Vaquero locations differ with quality and service. I can only speak to my experiences with the Riverside Drive location.
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Jessica McCormick
This was by far the BEST restaurant experience I have ever had! I have eaten at many restaurants and am very difficult to please! They by far exceeded my expectations! The food was delicious and the service was phenomenal! I have seriously never seen anything like it. They call ahead before they even seat you and there is already chips and salsa on the table waiting for you along with a waiter. We found ourselves just watching the servers almost the whole time we were there in a amazement of there customer service and speed. Pulled a manager aside before we left to let him know how impressed we were with his restaurant! We will definitely be back!
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Joseph Goodman
Our top Mexican place in the area. 5 stars for Columbus (I lived in Austin, TX for 10 years and this place can at least hold its own, but would be 3.5 stars in Austin ). Solid margaritas (no comment on the house margs--too sweet) and decent salsa and fajitas. Ok tortillas but could be more fresh. Everything could use more spice, but were in the Midwest. Service is fast and its a little noisy, so great place for kids too.
