Kiko’s Mexican Food Restaurant & Cantina

This restaurant is amazing! The food is so delicious. Serving size is HUGE and very inexpensive! Our service was a little slow, however it was a very busy Friday night. Very understandable.

Food was good, service was not. That’s about as simple as it can be put. Waited 20 minutes for drinks, another 30 for appetizer and 30 more for dinner itself. With 3 kids under the age of 9 I don’t need a 3 hour meal. Slow to fill drinks and just generally unappealing service. When food finally showed up it was decent but the bad taste from waiting stained our palate by that point. Unless you are itching to spend a bunch of time sitting around without food, find another restaurant — there are plenty of Mexican restaurants in Corpus Christi.

Owner contacted me in comments Marcus B. of Kiko’s Mexican Food Restaurant & Cantina
Owner Marcus B. is saying somethings in my review are untrue. we came to Corpus Christi, TX l to take our children to the beach. wanted to eat some where special. went to google and some how picked Kiko’s. looking back big mistake.
1. had a party of 6 waited 45 min understandable must be worth the wait (Wrong)
2. re fried beans stuck to the plate like the plate was maybe reheated in microwave or oven?
3. Spanish rice was in some places stuck together in like chunks or pieces like taken out of the fridge and reheated *(don’t know why the rice was like that)
4. Waitress forgot our flour tortillas. The tortillas tasted OK probably better if we could of ate them with our meal not 20 min later. Raw onions on my food!
5. The tea was great. Restaurant clean Staff at the door great. experience one star came here to eat not to be entertained .
6. owner Marcus B. of Kiko’s Mexican Food Restaurant & Cantina has insulted me. This was surprising since I was a visitor to his city and his Restaurant. 33 years n business I thought maybe e would of reached out to me after all we spent 80 dollars in his Restaurant.

YEs, I agree
The food has gone downhill!
visited restaurant on Wednesday! Tried the Carne guisada had no taste !!
Enchiladas don’t taste the same either.
they changed the recipe its the cheese the sauce… Not sure…
Pricey, Pricey and not worth it!

We stumbled upon this place and on the outside it appears that it might be closed. Keep driving in the parking lot to see the entrace. It’s a large restaurant and the inside has an old world feel. The service was great! The food was delicious. Best beef enchilada I’ve had in ages!!! Would definitely recommend this place!!!

I have been to Kiko’s 4 times and tried different things every time. While many of my friends love Kiko’s, I think it’s an overpriced Mexican restaurant with sub-​par food. The service is decent but I’ve never been impressed.
***EDIT***
Because the owner commented and took the time to be a good owner, I upgraded this restaurant from 2 stars to 3 stars.

I have no idea how anybody in this city loves this food. Taco Bell serves more authentic Mexican food than this place. In a city full of legit Mexican restaurants, any place you pick will be better tasting than this place. The tortillas are rubber, the Carne Guisada has no flavor, and the waits to be seated are ridiculous. The beans they serve taste horrible, if you can’t get one of the basic staples of Mexican food right then you aren’t going to get anything else right. Do yourself a favor and save your time and money.
Update: Very witty Marcus, unfortunately for you it’s more like a consensus.

One of the best mexican food restaurants in Corpus. Try the cheese enchiladas! The only bad experience my wife and I had was a female server that made us the tableside guacamole. She added a ton of the hottest jalapenos we had ever tasted without asking us first. When she came by and asked us how it was we told her we really could not eat it because there were way too many jalapenos in it. She told us to pick them all out. I don’t pay that much for a dish that I have to pick out stuff the server screwed it up with. We love the food and other servers. Thankfully this was our only negative experience.

Delicious comfort Tex Mex! Love their nachos, queso, guacamole, fajitas! Margaritas, chips, and salsa are great too. Very nice wait staff! It’s great for kids and large family gatherings. They have a bar you go to, if your’e on a wait list, which is good. When we crave great Tex Mex, we go to Kiko’s!
Restaurants should offer bottled water during the drinking water ban/​issues.

The place has a cool, old vibe on the inside, but once you got the menu in hand it became clear this was not going to be the greatest. I ordered the Special Dinner, which was way over priced to begin with, then to make the enchiladas chicken instead of cheese I had to pay an extra 4.99! They first brought out the «appetizer» which was a taco, a fried tortilla cup of melted cheese and a flat fried tortilla fully covered in guacamole. Other than the taco I had no clue what to do with the other two items. The rest of the meal came, and the enchiladas were very tiny and completely smothered in cheese and brown sauce. It was so much food and not very good.
Everything else my family got was bland, huge portions, and just not very good.
We will not be coming here again.

Ok the water boil in corpus has the Kikos restaurant gouging its customers. 6 12oz sodas cost 13.75. Having eaten at this place before the usual size of drink is 32oz. So why would you sell a can of soda making such a high profit during this water boil time? The savy customer knows you went to Sams club bought cases of sodas at a much lowercost. thank you Kikos for showing the city your business ethics once again.

LET THE PRICE GOUGING BEGIN. and it looks like Kikos is in the lead. Lets see, at sams club a 36 count of 12oz pepsi cost $ 10.28. I was there for lunch and saw the $ 1399 Yeti cooler they kept the drinks in. Dont worry, in a few hours the cooler should start paying for itself. Paying 13.75 for 6 cans of soda! Yeaha. KIKOS for taking advantage of an unavoidable situation.

I’ve been eating at this place for years. I remember when it was next door & just a single walkway. I was happy to see how popular it’s gotten over the years also. But with that popularity service & food quality has taken a turn. The standards have changed there! I visit still randomly now it’s not my go to place.

Worst service I’ve had in Corpus yet and the food is extremely overrated. I went with my wife because the place always has a full parking lot, so we figured it had to be good. The server was friendly, but thats where the good stuff ended. She took the order and disappeared for 30 minutes until the food came and she disappeared without leaving silverware or refilling drinks for another hour. Had to flag down other servers several times for that. Food was all tex and no mex. I asked the waiter for the best thing on the menu and it was very flavorless and overall forgettable. Never going back.
Edit: In response to the manager, my visit was the Tuesday afternoon before the date of the rating. My server was a you g lady with glasses and my meal was a combo plate (don’t remember the name but it seemed to be one of the main things on the menu). I appreciate your response and in my book that attempt to find a resolution shows a level of service most places lack. Taking that into consideration I’ve bumped the rating up one star.

I love this place because it tastes like comfort, my childhood, and happiness. I grew up coming here and the food, service, and atmosphere have been consistently solid for like 30 years. I have always ordered the same handful of dishes but my favorite is the chalupas. The broccoli enchiladas are also unique and delish.
I’m not sure if it’s the establishment itself or all of it’s sentimental value, but Kiko’s is the best Tex-​Mex in Corpus.

I’m originally from Corpus Christi but moved to San Antonio in 2002. Kiko’s is truly one of the only things I miss about living here. I get my fix whenever we come back to visit. It’s always excellent, and yesterday was no exception! We eat out a lot, and I’ve never found enchiladas anywhere else that come close to Kiko’s. I always order the Special Mexican Dinner. Even though I can’t eat all of the huge portion served, I love getting a little bit of everything. Thank you Kiko’s for continuing to be my favorite restaurant even after all these years!

The crispy beef burrito is really good and big enough to share especially if you get the beans and rice with it. Not to fond of the salsa, tacos or enchiladas. There many other Mexican Restaurants in town that do a better job.

Service so bad I thought this place was self serve! We went on a Monday night and waited 25 min to be seated which is completely fine. When we were seated it took 23 minutes to get a drink order despite out waitress chatting with the larger table. Once she took our order, the drinks came out 8 minutes later.
We finally got our food 36 minutes later and didn’t have time to tell the waitress we didn’t have silverware. After an extensive wait, I was inclined to use the spoon in the tea to cut up and begin devouring my tasty enchiladas. Once the waitress noticed I was using my spoon, she proceeded to bring our silver a few minutes later.
Overall the service has proven to be the worst in Corpus time and time again and is almost not worth the wait for the delicious food.

«Go to» Mexican food place in Corpus Christi. Never disappointed and have brought others who travel with me here. Some of those have come back on their own afterwards.
Good margaritas. Nice staff. And good for them that they’re closed on Sunday’s so employees can spend time with their families.

Best. Mexican. Food. Ever.
I went here for my grandmas birthday this past week and was confused of how a Mexican place would quickly and ideally serve a party of about 30 people. After a short wait and some mariachis, 6 platters loaded with guacamole, fajitas, beans, rice, and salad. I thought it wouldn’t be good because everything was kind of just plopped on there, but I was wrong.
The fajitas were the most soft and tender fajitas I’ve ever had. They were like meat ice cream. The guacamole was perfection. Rice and beans? Outta this world, man. Everything was great. Even the atmosphere. Except the lighting was a bit dark and the mariachis got annoying after a while. But I digress, I’d gladly come back here again!