El Azteca Mexican Restaurant

It pains me greatly writing this review. I’ve been a long-​time customer of El Azteca and remember when this location was a Billy McHale’s and there were 2 other El Aztecas on the other side and further north on Roswell Rd. El Azteca was where I had my first experience with mexican food as a kid, and where I fell in love with cheese dip, soft tacos, and chile rellenos. For the past 20+ years it has been my baseline for mexican food, not that great but solid and consistent. I can’t go here anymore. The first change was about 10 – 15 years ago when it became obvious they were just reheating food in the microwave, crispy on the edges of the plate and cool/​cold in the center. Even so I was willing to overlook that.
These days it has no redeeming quality. Servers are unprofessional (don’t pay attention to your order (and mess it up), chat, look at phones, etc) and are slow. The food is mediocre and everything is covered in red sauce. Portions have gone down over the years, as have condiments and garnishes on the food, while prices have gone up. Margaritas are watered-​down and obviously have a shot on the top to cover it up. Their business is suffering and instead of increasing quality/​value to bring in more customers they constantly cut quality/​value. Last straw for me has been take-​out, the past half dozen orders I have gotten from them have had something wrong… hard shell taco instead of soft, just meat in the taco (no lettuce or cheese), not receiving items that were paid for, etc. For one thing, if you place an order and ask for extra cheese, or sauce, or ANYTHING and pay extra for it they don’t give you what you asked for! Last time I spoke to a manager about it they argued with me that I didn’t order it yet it was clearly on the receipt and paid for! Basically, if you go here, you’re pretty much guaranteed a bad experience. As far as I’m concerned if I’m going to drop $ 20 on food I don’t want a bad experience!

I enjoy this spot. It was my 1^st time here. My brother and his wife are regulars. The drink was made good and the taco was delicious. The cverich come in a good portion size and taste good. The waiter was very friendly. Minis the cigarette it is a good spot for drinks and tacos.

If I could I would give this place –0 STARS. Came in for lunch today and was sat in the smoking section (mind you I’m 5 months pregnant) with out being notified that it was the smoking section. while noticing she set another party on the other side of the restaurant. Before noticing it was the smoking section we placed or order. The server gave us lots of attitude for what reason I do not know. All we did was ask her for stake instead of ground beef. She stated that world be a up charge witch was fine but kept on repeating it. When I already told her that was OK she gave me a rude look and just kept looking at me. That was strike number 2 in less then 15 minutes. At that point it was time to go. We went across the street to EGG HARBOR CAFE Called the manager to let him know what just happen. He was apologetic but that didn’t matter after feeling discriminated against and the dude service. Definitely will not be coming back to this location.

We had a craving for Mexican food after a movie — the closest was the Roswell Rd. location of El Azteca. El Azteca has been around Atlanta forever and used to reliable… I will NEVER return… food was dry and flavorless… but the service was the worst I’ve experienced in a long time — anywhere. Hostesses acted as if they could care less you entered the restaurant, our server in lime green eyeshadow was surly and acted like she was in misery — only got a smile from her when I wished her Merry Christmas as we were leaving. On our way out the hostesses were «lounging around the front» — one actually sitting on top of the counter — they did call out thank you as we went out the door.
We will stick to Pure from now on…

Won’t be making this mistake again. Aside from their location and their salsa, everything else is downright terrible. Horrendous from top to bottom and I am usually very generous with my reviews.
Frozen margarita (original flavor): bust
Jalapeño margarita: worse than the frozen one
Service: WHOLLY INADEQUATE — I wanted to order beer because my margaritas left me unsatisfied, but server was nowhere to be found. Literally only saw her to order and then when she brought the bill. Randoms we’re bringing out the food and drinks.
FOOD:
We had fajitas, hard shell tacos, enchiladas, burrito, & chile relleno. You can hardly tell the difference between the enchilada, burrito, & relleno because they’re all served drenched in tomato sauce. Like straight outbid a can. The tacos were mediocre and the fajitas were supremely disappointing.
I laughed when the server asked if we wanted dessert.
If you are hungry and you’re in the mood for Mexican and you close by… keep driving. Eat paper. It will be more satisfying and you’ll save yourself from having to deal with mind-​numbing incompetence. Oh! And smoke. By skipping this place and eating paper, you’ll prevent your clothes from having the stench of smoke because this joint still has indoor smoking.

Avoid if you are sensitive or dislike smoke! As soon as you walk in, even before the 2^nd set of double doors actually leading to the host stand, you are greeted with a nasty smoke smell. Not the kind where you expect to see smokers right away. Worse– the old smoke that has sat and permeated the walls, floors, and ceilings from decades of nasty smokers of the past. When we got home our clothes reeked of smoke as if we were surrounded by smokers all light. They need to just demolish this building and rebuild to get rid of that smell.
The food was ok– salsa pretty good, queso good, hard shell ground beef tacos pretty good, enchilada just below standard, rice and beans should be better.
Service– avoid when busy, our server was nowhere to be found after our order, complained about our food and they had a piss pour solution then tried to say it was our fault for the chille relleno being served to us cold.

I wanted tacos and margaritas so I ended up here. On Thurs house margaritas are $ 4 so I went with that. It was pretty good. I ordered a side of 3 soft tacos and pico de gallo. They don’t have the best Mexican food here but it’s decent and very reasonably priced. The service is fine and the food comes out pretty quick.
They have a lot of outdoor seating and a large patio. Plenty of parking in the plaza and it’s free.
They also have brunch, I want to go back and try that.

This still remains one of my favorite places to get Mexican food. It’s always on point when I go. I have been I a whole and it just as good as I remember. The cheese dip is to die for. The portions are pretty good and the prices aren’t bad either. You can’t go wrong with this choice in my book.

After experiencing terrible service, I decided to read the reviews. I won’t make that mistake again. Food was pretty good. I got an enchilada and tostaguac. Both were better than average, so I am leaving satisfied with my meal. Problem with this place is that the customer service is horrible. Long wait times to be seated, receive greeting, get chips and water and receive refill on chips. Long wait especially since we went at 3 and there were only 3 other tables. The worst part of this experience though is when I got my food. I told the waitress I wanted chicken. She said well the tostaguac is chicken, I said yes but I don’t like ground beef and the enchilada is beef. She looked at me shrugged her shoulders and said oh. Then walked away. Wait really???

First, I will start that we have been coming here every Wednesday afternoon for 3 years prior to our Bocce game because they have cold 32 oz draft Dos Equis for $ 5 on Wednesdays… and the service is always horrible.
Let me explain what I mean by horrible: They are very slow, have a bad disposition as though you are bothering them, and NEVER come back to see if you need something after getting your drink or food. You have to hunt them down to get anything from them.
I have been here for lunch too and the experience is the same. So, same service no matter when I have gone and mediocre food, so nothing to really write a review about until… what happened this past Wednesday.
Our bill was $ 18 for 2 beers and chips/​dip and I gave the server $ 25. He didn’t offer to bring back ANY change and I believe in tipping but this was ridiculous. He was horrible and he thought he deserved a 44% tip??? Oh, an there were 5 other people at the table so my tip was not the only one he was getting. In my opinion, that was poor taste.

I don’t see how El Azteca is still in business when you have real tex-​mex in Atlanta now like Chuy’s and Uncle Julios, and you have great authentic Mexican from places like Tres Hermanos.
We thought we’d try it after probably 10 years since our last visit. The service was fine — it’s why there are two stars, but the food is awful. I had the Enchiladas Supremas — they were covered with wet wilted lettuce and marginal tomatoes, the cheese was had fused its way into the tortillas as if it had been re-​baked after being melted once before. The worst part was how there was a pool of water around the enchiladas — making the bottom halves a soggy, rubbery mess. My wife had the combo with an enchilada, taco, and tostada — her taco was ok, but she had the same problem with the enchilada — it was just a wet, gross mess. By the time she made her way to the tostada/​chalupa thing, it was soaked, soft, and rubbery. I don’t understand how they can let food go to the table this way — they might as well put them in a blender and make smoothies.

Seriously should have believed the reviews about the customer service here. It. was. terrible. I can only imagine that the other reviews that were positive were due to good food or drinks. Food was okay, not great, but okay. However, this could not overcome the total dislike every staff member had for being there. The hostesses were odd and spacey when we walked in — giggling in a way that makes you uncomfortable. Very weird right off the bat. We were largely ignored during our meal by our waitress. Noticed another table that had to request to be served and the waiter that came to help was not happy to help. DON’T do it — don’t go here! Oh and the bathrooms were kinda gross too.

Food was good. I had the super burrito, didn’t seem super but it was good– salsa that covered it did make it watery. Rice on the other hand dry and overcooked but did have a Mexican flavor. The salsa could be improved, tasted like store bought Pace (which I hate). The cheese dip was great! Music from the Mariachi band was fun, loud but fun.

We love El Azteca. Namely, good cheap Mexican food with REALLY good margarita deals. Their top pitcher is only $ 21.99 or so.
We probably average eating here about two to three times a month. It is very standard, typical, traditional Mexican food. Nothing fancy about the enchiladas, chimichangas, quesadillas, etc. They marinate their chicken, which my guy loves, and then they use that marinaded chicken in all their dishes from tacos to burritos.
For me, I am driven by what cheese a Mexican restaurant uses. Lately some places have been using mozzarella, and that is NOT what I want at a Mexican place! Queso fresco is what I want, and El Azteca sticks with it! Shredded or melted in queso dip, that’s their cheese and it is perfect.
We have only had questionable service once, and it was not our server that was the problem. We were sat (in a different section than normal, but that’s okay), and we continued to sit, and sit, and sit. I also noticed a mother with her two little girls next to us had not been served yet either, and they had been their longer! Finally, after about 10 minutes, we flagged down one of the servers who had been passing by while servicing her tables. She helped the table with the two girls and flagged someone else down to assist us. We still do not know what happened to our original server or even who it was supposed to be, but once we had been helped, our server was great.
Food is always fast and hot, and they keep making sure your margarita glass is filled.
We love this location, and it is actually cleaner and nicer than most Mexican restaurants with the same style of food. My only qualm is they have a smoking section, and you can always smell it when you walk in to the hostess stand. Other than that, all is great!

Avoid this place at all costs. I will state this very plainly — it has the worst customer service that I have ever experienced in the USA, and I have eaten at a lot of restaurants in my life.
Restaurant was not even half full of customers, and had a lot of waitresses standing around. We were seated, and it then took them 15 mins to bring chips and salsa and take drink orders. It took another 10 mins to get our drinks and then they were not even correct. The waitress disappeared and did not come back until we had another waitress track her down. It was 30 mins before we were able to place our orders, and then the waitress never even got all of the orders.
At the 50 min and at the 1 hr mark, I went looking for the manager, and he was no where to be found. Another 5 mins later, I saw him and approached him. I told him how we still didn’t have all orders taken, and that we had been there an hour already.
His response was (and I quote), «if you want to leave, then leave.»
No manager should ever act like that to his customers. At that point, I definitely got upset, and decided to take my group elsewhere. He said again — «if you want to leave, then leave.» — there is no confusion in that statement.
I took my group to another place, where we had much better service.
I am one of those that always tips over 20% if the service is adequate. If the service is excellent, I leave an extra large tip. This place was so bad that even a penny would be massively over-​tipping them.
Avoid this location, unless you want the worst service in America. None of these people should be employed in any customer service industry, with their attitude and laziness. I used to eat at El Azteca all the time when they had one on Buford Hwy, and it was always good, but this one is the polar opposite. Se the other reviews — it’s obviously not an isolated incident.