El Picante

Been coming here for 15 years. The best carnitas around. Period. Never disappoints. And the iced tea?! Get it. Even if you don’t like iced tea! I love this place.

BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! Glass half empty of their insanely great famous iced tea… no problem they will fill it up. The bar area «mi cantina» offers various deals through out each day of the week. The molcajete for 2 is my new favorite dish. CARNITAS are so tendered! One of the best micheladas I’ve ever tasted, it’s a must try!!!

Food was good, SERVICE WAS TERRIBLE. It’s relatively cheap but you get what you pay for. I had to ask if my margarita had tequila in it because I couldn’t taste it! We had two waitresses and one of them didn’t understand how to take an order. The food took an hour to get to us. My kid fell asleep at the table because it took so long. I asked for tortillas and literally got 2. They forgot half of our orders and only one or 2 of us were eating at one time because they didn’t bring the food out at one time. Which was ludicrous because we were served well after all the tables that we were here before. Don’t waste your time here. There are better places, with good food and much better service.

Really good food, sat in the cantina highly recommend it… Carnitas were good would have gave 5 stars but took a while to get our check and get back our left overs but over all really a good meal

One star only because I have no choice TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE ! waitress forgot to submit our order and later blamed it on kitchen issues. After waiting for over 45 minutes we finally got fed up and walked out !! While noticing the waitress showing a nervous giggle NEVER AGAIN Will I ever go back again it ruin that night appetite !!

We had the Sopa De Albóndigas, very authentic style of Mexican cuisine… the place could use a face lift but other than that it’s a good place for lunch

Came here to surprise a friend that checked in here. Just missed him, but stayed for lunch any way.
I’m glad I did. Great service. Fast and friendly. Best carnitas burrito I’ve had in my life, no joke.

Food was good but terrible service. Our food took a long time but what was worst is that we all got it at different times. One person finished their meal before one got served… The waitresses were very busy and then we got a new waitress and did not know our order and brought us different plates and was confused.
They kept taking things from our table to put in other tables. It was a busy Sunday morning but the management was terrible, they should have more people helping. Spoke to young owner about the issue and was very rude. She did not care and blamed it on issues with the machine and the waiters. Poor waitresses were stressing out and trying their best and frustrated with manager for yelling at them.
One would think that after this kind of service was given the owner would be trying hard to make it right but she instead got upset and personal.
She needs to treat her employees better!

My review for this place is lonnnnggg overdue!!!
El Picante is my ««favorite“‘ restaurant in BG.
Staff: they have the best staff on board. The ladies there are on it. Picante makes you feel like your at home.
Food: Mexican food at its finest!!! The food here is delicious. My favorite food here:
–green wet burrito w sour cream and guac on the side (the asada they use has great flavor) and they are generous on their portions. The burritos here are huge.
–molcajete (omg where do I start with this one? Chicken steak shrimp cactus chorizo cheese goodness w/​a side of rice, beans, and tortilla. It is so big it’ll feed a few big mouths and some
–the famous shrimp michelada (the shrimp on the rim of these babies are huge cold & refreshing along w your fav beer) just sooo darn good!!!
This family owned business has fed me well. Picante you have treated me well and I am so thankful for your great services and food. I am a fan!!!

my new favorite authentic mexican restaurant!!! Great food, drinks and best of all Micheladas! I had mole enchilada with taco dorado de pollo. Amazing!!!

The food is the best the atmosphere awesome & waitress are polite. Zero wait time & food and drinks are out quick! If you love mole u have to try there chicken mole enchiladas the BEST!!!

If I could add more stars to this place I would! Authentic Mexican dishes are hard to find outside Abuelita’s house. but El Picante has been our families favorite for as long as I could remember.
Breakfast specials are always delicious and a great deal. $ 5 for a huge plate of chilaquiles and cheesy beans.
Believe the hype over their Iced Tea it is amazing.
Service is great. Never have to look for a waitress even on their busy days they are very attentive (and helpful when undecided to make a dish your own.)
El Picante is #1 in my book.

Seriously a great restaurant! Everyone here is amazingly nice and welcoming. My entire family loves this place!
My go-​to dish is the carne asada wet burrito with the green sauce. It is so good! The portion is very generous and I often seem to take half of it home (It even tastes good the day after).
The filete de pescado al mojo de ajo is also a very good dish. It has a garlic seasoning to it and it is always a big hit when I order it in groups.
Happy hour at El Picante is the best! Make sure to ask about the Dodger special!

Second time coming to this place… let me tell you, if you love michelada (who doesn’t) you’ll love these… Just the right amount of lemon, clamato, and chile. Decent price for a 32oz glass. The only reason I give them a four out of five is because… they don’t have A/​C, it takes a while to get your food (even if it’s seafood), my table and seats were wet and some what sticky could’ve been an accident. Also, cocktails, tostadas de ceviche are the only «cold» seafood you can have. I wouldn’t call this a seafood restaurant. They need to give just a little bit more food on your tostada, just a thought. The A/​C thing is a big reason why I didn’t give them a five star. I hated the flies surrounding my food and drinks. The mojarra frita plate, my fish was dry needed flavor and I never had it served with fries. Usually it comes with rice, beans and a salad. The presentation and amount of food they give for the price can be better.
Other than that! Everyone is very friendly and it feels like a mom and pop restaurant. People know each other and everyone hugs and kiss, my waitress was very attentive to my kids. Family friendly place. Would go back even without A/​C

Been here on several occasions but decided to write a review. Was invited here this past Sunday and my first question was do they have AC since it’s been such a long time since I had been there… After about circling around a few times to find parking we found one at the church behind the restaurant, I’m sure the nuns didn’t mind, I’m sure they wouldn’t say anything anyway :0 back to the review !!
No AC was the first thing I felt… Besides that and the loud waitresses shouting to each other’s orders back and fourth for whatever reason I don’t know… The food was excellent and the portions were of course what’s to be expected large and great prices… Everything is good, I know I picked at every plate and there were about 10 of us.

Wow ! I cannot believe I have driven past this place for over 10 years and barely found out! I had the green chiliquiles with carne asada and scrambled eggs and Im beyond satisfied the choice between red and green was the hardest part. So I had a side of red sauce and still im torn between the flavors. PURO SABOR! And the iced tea is insane on a hot day like today complete refreshment… next to try it’s the wet carnitas burrito with a michileda. Definitely my new spot over my old favorites… I’m so upset I found out about this place a decade later. Happy hour is off the hinges especially during dodger games ! No hesitation for the 5 star review

Great food, like there wet burritos plus there ice tea is super addicting, this is bell gardens number 1 spot, plus I swear there staff makes u feel like you are eating at your family house

My rating is on service, we sat down and chips and salsa where brought to our table promptly.
A waitress takes our order. Party of 6.
Almost 45 min later our food didn’t come out an hour later, we asked and they had never put our order in. We where starving by then so the food well we couldn’t even rate it by then.

BEST Micheladas ever! ! After reading the reviews, we decided to give it a try. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by who we assumed was the owner. Everyone was very friendly and attentive. The food was GOOD.
We ordered shrimp fajitas, chicharones kn red salsa and the beef picado.
Definitely will be returning

The evening before Mother’s Day (5÷9÷15) I asked the hubby if he was feeling something spicy.
We have two girls still under the age of 2 so we didn’t want to venture out too far. El Picante in Bell Gardens has been in my bookmarks for ages. I truly regret that.
Because I had heard how crowded this place can get, I called about 15 minutes before we arrived to see that they would save us a table.
High chairs are available.
Place was clean. Beautifully and tastefully decorated. I love all the old pictures from when they first open, etc. in the hallway leading to the restrooms. The women’s single restroom does NOT have a baby changing station, by the way. The bar area in the back was surprisingly nice to me.
There is not a kid’s menu, but I ordered our daughter the chicken flautas plate ($ 10.50) that comes with beans, rice, and a side of guacamole and sour cream. She ate a little of the chicken, but shied away from it because it took a while to cool down. It was served piping hot like the rest of our meals! The girl devoured the rice and the guacamole. I tried the flautas and they were pretty good. I kind of wanted them to be a little more crispy, as did my husband with his chicken taquitos ($ 8.95), but overall they were good.
My pozole ($ 8.95 — Saturday & Sunday only) was delicious. I didn’t want Tapatío sauce in case our daughter wanted to try it (as she usually does), but they will bring it to you if you like. Also, they will bring the «side of cabbage» which entails lettuce, radishes, and onion. I took it for leftovers and it was just as flavorful if not better than when it was first served.
The hubby was my designated driver, so I quickly ordered a Modelo Michaelada ($ 7) before he could say margarita. It hit the spot! He ordered Coca Cola ($ 1.50) which was served cold in a can with a cup of ice on the side. They did not have juice for young ones, but they did have milk ($ 1.99) for our girl which was perfect.
Service was wonderful and mostly attentive.
My husband is pretty picky about his chips and salsa. The chips were nice and fresh and crunchy (not hot though if that’s your thing). The salsas — rojo y verde — were not chunky at all which is what he hates. Both tasted good to me. I preferred the salsa verde, though.
I still need to try the following:
— this tea everyone keeps raving about
— the cucumber margarita that our lovely waitress tried to sway me on
— and just a few more plates, then I’ll update my review hopefully to 5 stars. Additionally, if they can manage as well as they did that night (which was filled at maybe 25% capacity) with a larger crowd, then they will quickly become my favorite Mexican restaurant in Greater L.A.
Debit/​credit cards are accepted.
Plenty of parking on the street or in the lot behind the restaurant which was lit well after the sun went down. It’s on Florence Pl, accessible from Florence Ave.
Grade A posted on the door by the Health Department.
Review #366
Unilocal challenge 2015 ⁴⁷⁄₁₀₀