El Gallo Giro

I have been to this restaurant 4 or 5 times now and every time I have gone the food has been amazing. The food is fresh and seasoned prefectly. The waitress is nice, her English is limited but we managed to order what we wanted.
There is no ambience to the place but it is clean. I have brought friends to this place and they have loved the food as well.
This is my all time favorite Mexican restaurant. I highly recommended it.

Usually I expect Mexican restaurants to be good in delivering quality food BUT this one is the WORST. I did not like the food taste and the place is so smoky all the time, don’t feel like sitting there and eating as well. I would not visit again.

I stopped in super quick today on the way home for lunch. I got some chicken flautas. It was my 1^st time trying a flauta. Seems to be good but I don’t have anyhing to compare it to. I’m also currently wearing braces on my teeth so I can’t really enjoy crunchy things. The decent flauta coupled w/​the fact that woman inside was pleasant, will make me go back. They have some interesting menu items in the seafood section that I’d like to try.

So fresh and with all the fine touches of HOMEMADE food. Informal atmosphere and an outrageously varied menu. try the tacos or the quesadillas. It’s all good!

Went back and unfortunately nothing was the same… food was disgusting… wait staff was inattentive and with poor hygiene… bathroom was too horrible for description… let your imagination run wild. Never will return. So sad.

We walked in when they were setting up for a party and I surely thought we would be turned away but the gentlemen was very kind and served us and was a great host and the food was great

Authentic Mexican food and service was great. A little hole in the wall but great food. If you ever been to Mexico it is just like that. I will definitely come back to this place. It was a little chilly in the place so if your going in winter wear a sweater. I would suggest you try it and see for yourself.

So I heard that this place had excellent and authentic Mexican food. In Edison, land of East Asian food. Having traveled extensively in Central America, I have much culinary experience with food of the region. And I’ve often been surprised at the relative scarcity of good authentic Mexican food in the area. On the Border, Qdoba, and Chipotles represented the best Edison has to offer in terms of Mexican-​esque food, and their American versions were disappointing to say the least.
Entering the place, you understand why some reviewers took issue with the overall ambiance. Used deli case half-​filled with ambiguous meat, festooned with advertisements, the obligatory television mounted at eye level, the cliché red-​and-​white checked plastic tablecloths. Yeah we’re not talking about fine dining here, (They did at least seem to acknowledge the heating problem. There were two space heaters deployed. At least one of which was completely cosmetic.)
And yes, the female server spoke english marginally. But she was kind and sweet, and tried to make communication happen. With my poor spanish and her poor english, and a menu enhanced by photos, we got along.
She told us there were two specials ready, pork ribs and chicken soup, Which didn’t strike me as particularly Maxican. But I have learned to always go with the specials — especially in the small places. We also ordered two dishes off the menu: three tacos with choice of meat (we chose chorizo, chicken, and marinated pork), and mexican steak.
A few minutes after our bowl of unremarkable red tortilla chips and salsa verde, we were presented with two platters. One a typcal plate of black beans, mexican rice, queso fresco, and bits of chopped rib bones generously fringed with pork meat. And a giant bowl of clear broth, chock full of chicken on the bone and vegetables.
Both were excellent. The pork ribs had obviously been stewed for hours (it was only 1pm), The meat was falling off the bone. Sauce was mildly spicy, exactly what you would expect of a true Mexican dish, and subtlly flavored. Not like the crap you get from chain restaurants. Chicken soup was not what i expected. It had large pieces of bone-​in chicken, boiled in the soup. Broth was rich and hearty. No heat at all. And no absurd nod to «tex-​mex’ with some over the top garnish of buckets of cilantro. Chopped fresh jalapenos and onions were served on the side, however. :)
On the tide of positive feelings from these first two dishes, I was excited to get our second two «off the menu» dishes. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised. The three tacos was incredibly subtle and authentic. Nice heat in the chorizo, deep flavor in the pork al pastor, and extremely mild chicken. Served inside a freshly grilled CORN tortilla (!) with a finely julienned veg mix that i didn’t look too closely at, I confess. And two or three leaves of cilantro. No salsa, no sour cream, no guacamole. Yay! (To be clear, I do love those lovely and tasty additions. But that’s not how you get tacos in Mexico. Ever.)
And the Mexican Steak. Was just awesome. Served wth the same accompaniments as the ribs, the steak was pounded thin and quickly friend on a flat top. Smothered in a salsa roho, and covered with fresh sauteed green peppers and onions. Nothing pre-​cooked and sitting in a warming tray for hours here. I watched the chef cook that dish from start to finish. From scratch, whole simple ingredients. All came together for a fabulous steak youcould cut with a fork, but still had a good bite. Again, no heat in the sauce. Perfect.
(To be clear, I like heat. But Americans have a misperception about the use of the chile in latin cooking, IMHO. It’s an infrequent addition, used to selectively enhance dishes. It’s not nearly as ubiquitous as we seem to think. In my travels in Central America, it was more rare than not to get an extremely spicy dish.)
This whole lunch was served (and eaten) in less than a half-​hour, and cost about $ 40 with three sodas. I found the entire experience to be incredibly reminiscent of small family-​owned eateries all over Mexico. If you want a spicy burrito drowned in guoc and sour cream, please go to Chipotle. Their food is well and responsibly made, and appeals to the typical American palate.
But if you want a real taste of Mexico, cooked and served in a casual, relaxed atmosphere, by all means bring your Spanish phrasebook (or Google Translate) and head to El Gallo Giro, on Rt 1N in Edison NJ.
For more reviews, and recipes from a hotheaded Italian, head over to the HiHeat tumblr blog!
Happy Eating!

It’s true, they don’t believe in turning on the heat for themselves or the customers. Super cold. Be ready to eat with your winter coat on. The waitress is nice, but they barely speak English. I’ve been here twice. First time was horrendous. So then I decided to to go there again a couple of weeks ago to give it a second shot since the reviews on here are pretty decent. I went, and boy, did the food suck?! Compared to the other Mexican restaurants that I’ve been to, this place is horrible! Their chips were thick and stale. The dips were watered down. The ceviche mixto was horrific! Never going back. Ever.

I can’t believe this has such a low rating — food was fantastic. Little hole in the wall type place that has fantastic food.

Where do I start? «PLEAS READ ALL IT» OK, the customer service is absolutely intolerable here. The women that was waiting on me seem to present herself in a very frustrated way. She did not understand English and would frequently ask the cook to interpret what people were saying to her. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really understand people either. That says one thing about a restaurant like that: Your target audience is Latin people only. Its good to be bilingual. Not only was she frustrated but so was I. I will not speak for the other patrons but the look on their faces said it all.
Now, My mom always said if there are little to no cars at a restaurant then its not good, don’t go there. Well, in this case she was right. I went there at 5:30pm and it was only 5 people in there. Route 1 is one of the most driven routes in Central Jersey. The weather outside was 32degrees and INSIDE THE RESTAURANT WAS 32 DEGREES. Very drafty and the family of four that was seated, ate their food with their coats on. I ordered chicken flautas and chicken enchiladas TO GO and 80% of the chicken in the food was COMPLETELY OVER AND OVER COOKED.
Feeling bad for this restaurant, I know a professional who could have helped this place, so I gave the women the card and tried to explain to her why I was giving her the card, before I could finish talking, she snatches the card and throws it on the counter and says, OK OK. At that point, I just took the card back and took my «soon to discover disgusting food» and left.
I give them one star. I DEFINITELY DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE. its bad all around… very sad. Oh i will continue to check my bank statements, to make sure nothing weird pops up on my statement. She had some guy and not the cook to come out and run my credit card. That is how i paid (dumb on my part) It was all so very weird.

Don’t go here. They skim credit cards.
In full confession, the food here is some of the best Mexican food I’ve found in the area around New Brunswick, Edison, and Highland Park. That isn’t to say that it is particularly good, but it is tolerable when you have a hankering for horchata.
But after lunch there this afternoon, where I used a credit card I never normally use, my account exploded with unauthorized charges in southern California.
Mediocre Mexican food is not worth the difficulty of having a stolen credit card number.

There were good reviews for the place that used to be here but upon arrival I saw it had changed hands. Staff was very welcoming. Food took a while but they did make everything fresh so that’s understandable. Food was good, but nothing I would recommend to someone. We had chicken enchiladas and pork nachos. Portions are generous.