El Porton

Clean and well maintained but there food just isn’t good. We used to love this place back in the day but it’s gone down hill from there. Our server was great and everything. It’s just lacked taste. I would go to las delicias in east Memphis. It’s good stuff.

Not as good as it once was… Food is okay. Margaritas tasted like lime water. Service was not very good. Place seemed dirty (especially bathrooms) :/

The guacamole is fresh and delightful. Our waiter Carlos was kind and attentive! My chimichanga was on point and my Mango margarita was yummy to my tummy! I highly recommend this place!

Time and time again I try to come back to this place thinking maybe the service was bad this time but it could be better or the food that I ordered was not the best but other things on the menu will be good– umm no. Do not waste your time, money, and patience on this place. The servers are very slow. Literally never got my water refilled, with 4 people on the table we only got one serving of salsa, and the food is overpriced considering the quality, taste and size. $ 30 for a bowl of chicken/​shrimp? Come on, even la hacienda and «My favorite place» sell those at $ 14-​$ 20 range and there are actually vegetables in there. Not to mention the portions and the size is exceptional. Once I told the server I was not pleased she brought the sever and simply said «pay or il call the cops» wow, okay. Do yourself a favor SKIP this place.

I’m an El Porton fan through and through. Met a girlfriend here a couple of weeks ago for dinner and we sat at the bar. I had the chorizo tacos with a side of avocado. DELICIOUS! The bartender was super, super friendly!

Went on 3÷30÷15…
Food was good. The restaurant was alittle dirty. Horrible service.
Wouldn’t recommend.

The food is usually pretty good but oh my god you better have 2 hours allocated to eat because the service is slow and disorganized.

This place serves up pretty good Mexican food, average for the Memphis metro area. The salsa is very good and the prices are average. What’s missing is atmosphere. From the outside the place looks like more like a bank than a Mexican restaurant, and on the inside it’s pretty dull. The interior reminds me of an Episcopal church, a snooty one where nobody talks much. I wouldn’t recommend going if you are looking for a“party” type atmosphere. The service was friendly and efficient even if somewhat unpolished. Parking is plentiful and getting in and out is easy.

This was a family staple while I was growing up. Whether my palate has evolved, or the quality has tanked, I cannot be sure. The service is always polite these days, but painstakingly slow at times, and the food has gotten to be like slop. I feel like they need to cut their menu by half, and refocus back to what made the restaurant so delightful many years ago.

Good food, relaxing atmosphere, nice knowledgeable wait staff, authentic Mexican music, and pleasant experience every time. Free WiFi too!!!

Food was satisfactory for a weekday lunch. The chicken chimichanga and steak fajita quesadilla we ordered were served promptly. Our waiter asked me if I wanted the chimichanga soft or fried. I chose fried as that is how I have always been served a chimichanga. It was barely crisp on the edges. I could have saved the calories and gotten it «soft.» The cheese dip, salsa, and guac were amazing!
I didn’t appreciate the server saying, «Let me know when you’re ready to order,» and then going to a corner where we had to go hunt him down. Also, the high chair they gave us for my daughter was literally on its last leg.

El Porton has the best cheese dip in Memphis, hands-​down. It is a local chain, so quality is par for the course. The cheese they use makes up for a lot of meat mistakes, like overcooked chicken, or sour ground beef.
The bar is good, with an ample selection of domestic and Mexican beers (try Bohemia, you’ll never go back to Corona or Dos EquisXX), and isn’t that what we all really want when we eat Mexican? Booze and cheese dip?
On the lighter side, try a tacoless taco salad, or the Sopa de Pollo (chicken soup). With fresh pico de gallo and avocado within, it is the best chicken soup for the common cold.

The food here is typical for a regional chain. I do like the salsa — very tomatoey. My wife and I were regulars for several years but lately prefer other local Mexican restaurants.
Service is ok — the place is fairly clean. I would return when I’m in the area but would not make a special trip.
Prices are about 15 to 20 percent more than other area Mexican restaurants.

Sat for half an hour with no waiter. Went and asked for one and sat there for another five minutes and no one ever came.
When we were leaving we told the hostess made a snippy comment as we were walking out the door. I went back and asked her what she said and she wouldn’t repeat herself. Then said «I’ll get you another waiter, but if you don’t want to stay, oh well».
Not how you run a business. Ridiculous. If I could give 0 stars, I would.

Years ago I disowned El Porton on Germantown Parkway in Cordova.
However, my wife and I recently discovered El Porton in Germantown and we were pleasantly surprised. The atmosphere is family oriented and it could stand a remodeling but the food is fast and delicious. Those are two very important things when going to dinner. I’ve been to fancier Mexican restaurants with terrible food. I’m not there to eat the décor. Lol
The food is great. Stop in and check it out.

We were die-​hard fans of the Highland location before we moved away in 2009. When we moved back to the area in 2013, we couldn’t wait to get back to El Porton. Unfortunately, this location has continually disappointed us.
Service and food quality are both inconsistent. They seem to do basic Mexican menu items (tacos, burritos, etc…) okay. However, anything outside of that is iffy. That’s unfortunate since they have expanded their menu to include some really interesting and appealing items. They just don’t execute them well.
Recently, the cleanliness of the restaurant has become an issue also. On our most recent visit, we noticed a putrid smell when we sat down and eventually realized it was the menus. The entire restaurant needs, at a minimum, to be dusted and to receive some minimal maintenance (including things as simple as replacing dead light bulbs). Ideally, a full revamp is in order including carpet and furnishings.
We have been to this location a dozen times or more and a couple of other locations half as many times (Collierville, Cordova, Wolfchase). We have decided to find another go-​to Mexican restaurant at this point. There was a time when El Porton was the premier authentic Mexican restaurant in the area, but that ship has sailed. There are too many other good options now. If El Porton doesn’t execute on the basics, they likely will continue to lose customers.

consistently good. It is cheap TexMex, but I enjoy it. I love the cheese dip and they have good fajitas. I know it is tough to judge a place on a sizzling skillet of meat, but that is what I am doing.
I don’t like the booths very much, but you gotta take what they got sometimes.
I had the St Paddy’s margarita. It was a little sweet. But it was green.
Erin Go Bragh

Horrible service brought food out rice was cold and the dip was nasty and lumpy.
Will never come back here again

We only came here because it was the only place within about a mile of GPAC where we thought we could grab a quick snack before the show. If I’m wrong about that, please let me know — because we’d love to go somewhere else.
I haven’t been to an El Porton in over 10 years, probably because better Mexican places have popped up all around Memphis. But this place was close to GPAC and we (correctly) assumed it wouldn’t be too busy. Note to self: not busy = not the best criteria for choosing a restaurant.
The bartender was very nice, although she did seem surprised to see us walk in and sit at the bar. There were about four servers standing around in the bar area watching TV, but they dispersed pretty soon after we plopped ourselves down.
This place was on its way to a 3-​star review — just your standard Mexican place with giant mugs for frosty beverages, when I saw the wall behind the margarita machine, which was filthy — covered with what looked like backsplash from filling the machine. But this wasn’t «fresh» backsplash — it was brown and dried onto the wall, which made me think it had been there for a while. Now, you might argue that the cleanliness of the wall doesn’t impact the cleanliness of the food, but my argument is that if the areas you CAN see aren’t clean, then probably the areas you CAN’T see (like the food prep areas) are even less clean. (I learned this from Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares).

This location isn’t as good as the others. They’re all so standard, I’m not sure why this one tends to suck.
The Mexican food is classic, as at all El Portons. But at this location, I’ve gotten a really obnoxious server before. She was older, Hispanic, and aggressively rude.
I also have a consistent problem with the enchiladas not being cooked long enough and the enchilada and burrito never have enough sauce. Then if you ask for extra sauce, they still come out the same.
I like the Germantown road location better. And the one behind the mall next to the Olive Garden on highway 64.