El Mercado

Stopped in for a quick drink before Segway tour next-​door. The bartender recommended «the don», which is no freaking joke. I had to ask for OJ to tone it down a little. The chips and salsa are delicious. The salsa is super hot, just how I like it! Great service in the 10 minutes we were there.

Good for happy hour specials and cheap hearty Tex mex. Because of the close proximity to campus, this location is frequented by students wanting a marg with some tasty chips and salsa. Drinks here are strong too so they get the job done without throwing away your wallet. Don’t try to be healthy here like I was, though, because the taco salad is not that great. Other than that, go for the specials and good company or go to a different Tex mex restaurant if you’re looking for quality food.

They have a very nice server her name is Angel. She is like her name. The salsa is HOT like I like. the quest is very good and creamy. You will like the
main course is a chicken — spinach plater with black beans and salad. Awesome!!!

Enchiladas were good. Chips were weird, almost like baked Lays potato chips. They left a strange taste in my mouth. Service was very attentive.

This place had a fun ambiance and I had such high expectations! But the food and drinks were such low quality.
The Spanish rice was chewy and cold. It has a weird taste to it.
The tortilla chips tasted like the kind you buy in the grocery store and so did the beans. We ordered drinks and tasted funny.
The waitress would often slam down plates she was cleaning and the restaurant was very very noisy with random sounds of plates slamming.
On the plus side the table salsa was sooooo good!

The convenience of this restaurant to West Campus is the reason why I keep coming here! If you are looking for good quality margaritas, don’t come here. The margaritas melt so quickly and taste horrible melted. The food is adequate. There is not much parking around the restaurant.

We walked in to be seated. We had just left watching a movie at the Imax and decided to check this place out. A group had just been seated (a large group of about 5 or 6) so we waited. The staff looked over at us… and away.
Ok. no biggie, do your thing. we waited some more… nothing.
No, «we’ll be right with you», «sorry for the wait», heck even a «just a second» after several eye contact was made… nothing.
Read an article on the wall for about 5 minutes. Ok, that’s all she wrote. If you cant seat us when you have a total of 8 people in your restaurant in the time it takes me to read an entire article… you just plain don’t want our business.
But what made me want to note my experience was she thanked us for leaving!!!
As we were walking about the door, she said Thank you! and I turned around to confirm she was indeed speaking to us and waived and smiled. Nope.
WAY too many places to eat at that will provide better customer service than this.

Worst place ever. I came in today to eat a nice Mexican breakfast. I sat here for 30 minutes waving down waitresses but no one stopped to help. After 30 minutes passed, I finally got some help. The food was okay, but the service was bad enough to where I’ll never come back.

Great chips and salsa! Awesome enchiladas! Lively and festive ambiance! Definitely worth the visit.

I work near El Mercado so I have gone a few times. The food isn’t amazing or fresh, it’s a typical bland texmex place. So if you’re looking for a quick cheap lunch it’s not the worst option. However if you are looking for fresh mexican food at this restaurant you, will be disappointed.

I was there with a group of friends and family before the Cal/​Texas football game last Saturday. The place was not as crowded as some other places closer to campus, so we were able to be seated right away. Service was prompt and friendly. Ambiance was festive with most of the patrons heading out to the game. Food was good… I had the Trailer Park Tacos. And a margarita.
Thanks to El Mercado for a great time!

Pros:
Only place open in the area for Sunday brunch
Outdoor patio
Salsa was spicy (if that is your thing)
Hand painted flowers on the chairs
Cons:
Food appears as if it was microwaved or sitting in the kitchen for days
Pancakes tasted like burritos
Presentation of food was ⁰⁄₁₀

The food was tasty, and filled my starving belly.
The coffee was hot, but not burn the roof of your mouth hot.
The salsa was spicy like my attitude.
The service was fantastic!
Everyone was super friendly, and attentive.
Two brunch plates with two bottomless coffees– less than $ 20.

While the location is convenient, the food is among the worst Tex-​Mex you can get in Austin!

Jason is a terrific server. The beers and margaritas are cold and the fajitas are really good.
If you’re ready to eat Tex-​Mex and drink relevant booze, this place is great.

Two stars for the peach margarita. Overall it was overpriced for the stale chips and nachos that I got. We went for lunch and the service was very slow.

If i could do a negative stars i would.
Went there tonight for dinner, got seated with a group of 7. We get our chips and salsa, second basket in of chips and there’s a massive cockroach sitting right on the top of our chips. I lift up one chip, and its right there. Cock roach as big as my thumb.
We immediately got up and left. NO WAY! Never have i ever had a cockroach in my meal. Disgusting. I couldn’t even think of brushing it off as no big deal and eating my dinner with no complaints.
Also, side note: our waitress couldn’t have cared less. She barely whispered questions and i had to repeat everything she said so people could hear what she was saying. And she let me, didn’t think «i could speak up so my customer doesn’t have to do my job». But i guess when your kitchen is covered in cockroaches speaking up would be the least of my worries.
Please, please do not eat at this restaurant. For just pure sanitation purposes, i’ve never been as disgusted as i am after that experience.
Completely dissatisfied customer.

Not high quality food, but the drinks are actually decently boozy. If you’re looking for a place to get chips and queso (not that it’s especially good, but still) and a couple drinks and just have that divey restaurant experience downtown, this might be a fine option for you. Especially if nearby restaurants are closed.
Service at time of my visit was pretty atrocious, but I’m very chill so I didn’t really care. But it was really bad. Waiter walked away in the middle of our making a request of him, etc. I actually suspect he just had too many other tables to deal with, or similar.
If I had come expecting great food and great service, I would have been thoroughly disappointed.

I am in love with El Mercado north but this location was just ok.
The food is great. No complaints on that. One of my favorite Tex-​Mex spots hands down. Best spanish rice I’ve ever had. If not the best salsa, definitely damn near the top 3 in my life. I ask for a vat of it every time I’m there.
However, this location just majorly lacked in service. It took FOREVER to get our drinks, and our server forgot my friend’s drink TWICE. Same with the food. We joked that they must have been going to the farm to get the eggs and such but I was getting both cranky-​hungry and totally full on chips at the same time. I believe we left over an hour and a half after we sat down even trying to hurry things along and almost didn’t make our movie a few streets away.
Great food — and just fine if you’re not concerned about wait times — but I’d definitely think twice about using this as dinner before something. It’d take half the time just to stop up north on the way!

After being forced again to eat here with a group, I realize my original review was too diplomatic.
It’s this simple: if you’re hungry for, let’s say, tacos, and are considering El Mercado, take my advice. Go to Taco Bell, buy 3 tacos, dump at least half the filling out of them, and remove the flavor. Then drop a 5 dollar bill in the trash can on your way out and consider yourself lucky you skipped the crappy service at El Mercado.
But maybe you were in the mood for enchiladas? Instead, grab a frozen El Charrito dinner (or Patio, if you prefer) for $ 1.59 at HEB and nuke it for 3 minutes in the microwave. Then punch yourself in the face. Inflicting your own misery just saved you 10 bucks. Now you’re a pro!