Villa Del Mar

The food is good and I live within walking distance to this Vivar’s. But I go to the restaurant on Gateway because the service is better and I don’t have to smell the stench of cigarette smoke.

Usually love the food, but the service makes it no longer worth it. Service is sometimes inattentive or unpleasant. But this last time around, we were charged double and the manager refused to do anything on his end to correct it. Saying they made a big mistake, but that we have to call the bank to have it corrected. Which we did from the parking lot and the bank also confirmed two charges.

I haven’t been here in a while and I ordering what I loved last time-​Large Shrimp Cocktail served in the Mexican Restaurant style — with Avacado, Cilantro and fresh onion-​yum!
The service has been good from being seated to the efficiency of my server. I am here a little early for lunch-11:30 and it isn’t too busy yet.
My meal came out and was as good as I remember. The shrimp were as good as anyone could expect in land-​locked EP. the veggies were fresh cut and the cocktail sauce was tangy with a little spiciness.
Now I’m stingy with my stars. 4 –star is a great for me for my first review. I’d have to go deeper into the menu and get consistently great food & service to move up.
And I loved the music being played — just heard Harry Chapin «Taxi» and a cut from Todd Rungren. Followed up by Dan Fogelberg «Leader of the Band». The person picking the music must be an old codger, too.
When I come back I’ll wish for a fish dish. I hope it’s delish!

Great food. great service. Grilled fish is a great item here. Both me and my wife liked the food. Fish soup is a great item to start with.

Excellent shrimp poblano. Actually, great, considering how far from salt water El Paso is. I have been to the East El Paso location a while back and had great shrimp posole. I was here on a weekday in the afternoon and I felt the service could have been more attentive. (I sat at the bar). I plant to return the next time I am in El Paso. My best dining experience in El Paso. I travel a lot and I am a harsh critic.

Food is good as always, we come here regularly but the service today was terrible. We complained about the size of the small cocktail as they recently started serving it in this mini plastic cup and we asked to speak to the manager who offered no reasonable explanation as to why they were giving smaller portions for the same price. We then changed the small for a large cocktail which wasn’t anything like the one they used to serve before which is the one on the picture on the menu. Anyway the waiter after that never came back to check on us, we asked for two extra plates he brought one and it was dirty. Later when he brought the check he charged us for a small and large cocktail. The waiter went back and removed the extra cocktail but he was very unprofessional about the whole situation so was the manager.

«Great Fillet Mignon wrapped in Bacon»
Fillet Mignon wrapped in Bacon was Delicious. Lobster was ok, nothing special. They serve a lot of extras: chips, Pico, limes, slaw of which I could not eat because too spicy for me. Waiter forgot my bread which is something I can eat, I noticed it on the tables on the way out that people did not touch. Manager gave me some to go after I asked. Perhaps they can keep costs down if they ask people if they want all the accoutrements rather than just serving them and being thrown out. Pricing was a little on the high side. Would I go back? Yes, for the steak only.

Was craving mexican style shrimp cocktail. Ordered the fish soup as well. The soup tasted old, but, was good. The shrimp cocktail sauce was a little sweet, nothing some more limes and hot sauce can’t fix! The Michelada’s were great. The overall service and experience was good and I will definitely go back.

Disappointed! I have been to the Juarez one, but this is my first time here in el chuco. The service was decent but the food terrible.

Don’t know what these people are talking about, if you want authentic Mexican seafood this is definitely the place to be. The campechana with oasters and shrimp, the campechana with shrimp and octopus is great. The pescadilla is absolutely superb they actually made fish and cheese work. The great Gordon ramsay would say «genius!!!»

The shrimp cocktails are amazing!!! I love the fish soup before the meal. If it wasn’t for such crappy service it be perfect. I’ve been a waiter and I can tell you from first hand, always fill up your guests drinks. We’ve been on empty for almost 10 minutes now. The food was great and the atmosphere was nice, parking is a little limited, if it wasn’t for the bad service.,. I don’t think I’ll come back to this place. I prefer the one on the eastside. No bueno del mar. I was disappointed.

I’m a happy loyal customer at the West side location of Villa Del Mar for a few reasons:
1. The quality of the seafood is great for being out in the middle of the desert. Looking at some of the other reviews, people complain about the quality. I can only attest to the fish fillets and shrimp, but both of those are always terrific. It’s not the same as being right on the coast, but always well prepared in my experience.
2. The prices. Wow, the PRICES! Eating seafood, having a couple glasses of wine and getting out the door for under $ 40 for two people? Yeah, that’s impressive. It’s economical, but doesn’t have the feel of a cheap place. That brings me to my next point, the surroundings.
3. When you see it from the road it looks cheesy. A lighthouse in the middle of N. Mesa Street? Yeah, that’s them. Come inside though and they have well maintained fish tanks, well dressed wait staff, and a nicely decorated interior. It’s not «fine dining» level or anything (see above comment on prices), but they do well to create a clean, fun, and friendly atmosphere.
The only thing keeping me from rating Villa Del Mar at 5 stars is the service. On some occasions, I’ve had excellent service. Additionally, the service is always polite and respectful, which is why it didn’t hurt my review further.
The only negative thing about the service is that, on occasion, you’ll get a server who disapears for 20 minutes at a time. This can get annoying if you just need something simple, but have to wait. I’ve noticed that if you flag down another server, they don’t seem to have an issue covering for each other. I just don’t feel I should need to do that. Again, this doesn’t happen every time, nor even the majority of the time. I have run into this issue more than once though.

If you ever have a taste for seafood avoid this restaurant. The food is bland and below standard. The only thing fresh is the pico de gallo. I am appalled at the bag salad, frozen calamari and frozen steak and lobster tail. I wouldn’t return to this restaurant if it was the last standing restaurant on earth. If restaurant impossible is looking for a project this is the place to come. Food is so bland waste of my money.

Came in for dinner. The menu is filled with good options. The fish fillets choices is pretty good. My choice was a Monte Carlo and the fillet was a burned on the edges, but ok overall. The service was actually slow. I did come in when it was peak dinner hour, but the service could have been better; it may have been understaffed for a Sunday evebing. Altogether the place is not bad. Three stars due to service and delivery of food.

Skip it!!! Most of the options were not very healthy. And what I did choose was not very good (bland). Try somewhere else.

If it was allowed I think that three-​and-​a-​half stars would be more than appropriate.
As a note: It is not at all fair to say that the food at Villa Del Mar is «probably frozen» when you have absolutely no idea whether that is true or not. That is a completely unfair and inaccurate accusation to make and shouldn’t be part of a serious review unless there is proof of it actually occurring at the restaurant.
Being a little crustacean obsessed we decided that this outing to Villa Del Mar would be shrimp-​centric and so it was, with some exceptions the food was delectable.
We’ll start with the openers, we ordered exactly this
1. An order of «Shrimp Nachos»
2. An entrée of shrimp «Villa Del Mar» style, more on this later.
3. An order of cream of shrimp soup.
The reason I’d give Villa Del Mar three-​and-​a-​half stars isn’t really so much the food which we enjoyed for the most part, but because the waitress was just short of totally clueless on how a wait staff at a semi-​premium priced seafood restaurant should behave.
Every time both my wife and I had to ask for our drinks to be filled, they never got filled on their own, we had sat at the booth we were placed in for about ten minutes before she even got around to us. When she did it was fairly smooth sailing after choosing our dishes, which there is a great selection of — pretty much anything you want when it comes to seafood. Whether you want it fried or just grilled, you’re pretty much going to get exactly what you want.
Okay, so back to our meal; The first thing we got was a side of salad and a tomato and fish-​stock soup. They were both good and I had nothing to complain about, there was even a generous enough amount of salad to split between two very hungry people.
Then came the cream of shrimp soup, this was absolutely fantastic — it had an incredible texture and a variety of delicious and wonderful flavors and a generous helping of shrimp. I counted at least ten in the small bowl that was presented. Cilantro was a very plentiful and pleasant flavoring, absolutely smashing soup. That was my entrée.
Now unfortunately, this is where the bad service started to become a little more transparent; she brought the soup at the same time as the shrimp nacho starter, now I had told her that this soup was going to be my entrée and to please bring it with my wife’s shrimp entrée, she didn’t listen to that at all, apparently.
The shrimp nachos were really the only unpleasant part of the meal, there was no indication on the menu at all that they were absolutely covered in fresh-​cut jalapeños, from head to toe. There had to be at least forty slices of jalapeño on there… But do you know what there weren’t any of? Yes, that’s right shrimp. There were approximately two small cut-​up pieces of shrimp and we almost couldn’t tell that was what they were at first. I’m not a complainer but I said something to the waitress, the conversation went like this…
Me: «Ma’am, I don’t usually like to complain about these sorts of things but these ‘shrimp nachos’ don’t have any shrimp…»
Waitress: «Oh I know.»
Me: «Ok…»
Waitress: «But there okay, right?»
Me: «Uhh…»
And she walked away, is that how you would have handled it? I guess I am lazy when it comes to complaining but I’ve eaten at a lot of restaurants with semi-​premium prices and they’ll usually fix or add things for you when you have a complaint.
Next, came the Villa Del Mar shrimp, which were served with a sweet italian-​style pasta sauce and cheese. They were absolutely delicious, a very different and yet exciting take on a dish. They were served with a mashed potato medley and Mexican-​style rice which were both very good. I really had very little complaints about the food, we both really enjoyed it.
So, then our check came and I noticed that the nachos were still on there, perhaps I should have said something but I was tired, it was late while we were eating there, so I let it go but I did not leave the lady a tip, she was incredibly rude when she handled our complaint in that matter.
I left a comment on the receipt that I wasn’t going to leave a tip «But it’s okay, right?»
Other than the service experience, the food was pretty good especially because it’s hard to find seafood here, I’ll be going again (Just hope we get a different waitress…)
Let’s hope I don’t get another business owner to insult me on Unilocal by complaining… (See my review of Adventure Zone…)

I’ve only been here once, and it was dinner. It always looks packed at lunch. The thing I liked most about the place was the very extensive menu– every type of seafood prepared in every Mexican style you wish. I like variety. The food was just OK. To get good seafood in El Paso, you have to spend big bucks. That is because it is very expensive to have fresh seafood delivered to a restaraunt on a daily basis– especially to the middle of the country, far away from each coast. The stuff here is probably all frozen. On the upside though, if you don’t mind battered and deep-​fried, then fresh doesn’t matter as much! The décor was pretty cool– very lighthousish. Not a bad option for a quick, inexpensive seafood meal in El Paso.