El Palenque Mexican Restaurant

Not awful, not great either. I’ve been here 3 times, most recently last Friday night and ordered my fave Mexican dish, a Chicken Chimichanga. Chicken was dry. My queso order was bland. Considering I had eaten salads all week, this was my cheat meal I was looking forward to. and I was hoping for better. Pro’s: Clean, good customer service, large portions, and decent prices. Con’s: Food is just barely ok. If you are deeper in the Galleria area, Ruchi’s is a better Mexican food choice on Westheimer if you are looking for good food on the cheap, with the additional benefit of live music on the patio and better margaritas, which are 2 for the price of 1 during Happy Hour. Chacho’s would also be a better Mexican food option than El Palenque.

This place has great drinks and even better food! Atmosphere was very nice and relaxing. I didn’t know what to order. Manager suggested item which met my approval. Wait staff was nice. There was one waiter that went above and beyond. Overall can’t wait to go back!

Favorites: The «Garden Fajitas» (beef and/​or chicken, plus some shrimp, cheese, jalapenos, and some tender grilled vegetables including mushrooms, cauliflower, carrots); «Shrimp and Crab Enchiladas,» and all their ceviches.
There’s a stuffed chicken breast with an almond sauce AND fresh pomegranate seeds (!) that’s worth trying, and a pair of Anaheim Peppers dressed as enchiladas. Someone creative is in the kitchen, and everything I’ve adventurously sampled has been quite delicious.
Your date is Gluten-​Free? Pick up a pack of «Paleo Wraps» at the Whole Foods a block west on Wilcrest, and the waiters will bring an extra, smokin’-hot Plancha so you can heat them up at the table for a grain-​free feast. You’re Welcome. :)

Had the Reynosa plate for lunch. The food came out quickly and was very tasty. The service was excellent. Prices were reasonable.

El Palenque has been a go-​to place where I dont expect the highest quality food or service. This Friday night the drinks were ok. My margarita on the rocks with salt was freshly made, but the proportions were off significantly. I can tell there was way too much simple syrup compared to lime and tequila. My wifes frozen strawberry margarita was actually quite nice, probably because of the portions poured into the margarita machine.
The food was better than normal. I had the Texas Burrtio with is enormous and tasty. It’s ¹⁄₃ chicken, ¹⁄₃ ground beef, and ¹⁄₃ steak covered in melted cheese and gravy. I’m not fond of the gound beef (from anywhere actually), but I had to give it a shot. I would recommend asking for half chicken half steak.
What I continue to enjoy is the core staff. Its always the same staff who has a great attitude and service.

Wow. Just wow. I had to take away three stars just because of how bad the service was. My fiancée’s niece and her husband were visiting us from Corpus, and we immediately recommended El Palenque to them. We also brought my fiancée’s sister along and had even told them beforehand that this place was awesome and that their service was usually stellar. As luck would have it, service was noticeably worse today. The last 5 or so times that we had come here before, we were always greeted immediately and given chips upon seating. This time around, it took a good 7 or so minutes for us to get our chips as well as even be greeted by our server. He also kept trying to sell us their ribeye fajitas for some reason. After getting our fajitas, we didn’t even get any limes. When we told him that we wanted some limes, he told us that he had to charge us $ 1 for every six limes! We looked at other people who had ordered fajitas and they at least received two limes each. He also tried to add an automatic 18% gratuity when we were only a party 5; not to mention that gratuity is 15% and not 18% for a party of 6 or more on their menu! He also charged us for beef fajitas when we had a mixed plate (beef and pork). His excuse was that he had to charge these because there was new management. We complained and had to drag the «new» manager in to get the charge removed. Needless to say, the «new» manager refused to remove the charges but took away the gratuity. I felt embarrassed that I recommended this place to them. I have always had a great experience, but my experience with their new staff left me disappointed.

The cuisine is a hidden gem deep in the heart of Westchase. I myself am of Mexican heritage and the ambiance and food are out of this world. This place doesn’t get too busy during the week and it’s perfect if you want to have a quiet meal by yourself or with a couple of friends.
Be careful, however.
My experience with a certain waitress made dining with my family probably one of the worst experiences we have had. Here’s the story:
My wife wanted us all to try this restaurant as it is one of her favorite places to eat in all of the greater Houston area. Nearing 8:30 at night on a weekday we realized that it would have to be a quick dinner, but we entered anyways.
We were a table of 6 and were waiting on my brother in law and his girlfriend. We were rushed into ordering drinks even before we got the two younger kiddos situated which made for a chaotic scene as I was pulling out chairs and moving table center pieces with the waitress hovering over me, repeating questions, and tapping her pen impatiently with an annoyed look on her face. We finally got the order down: 7 waters, a Sprite for a kiddo, and a Dr. Pepper for myself. Following an inquisition as to why we ordered 9 drinks for 6 people she had the audacity to ask if we were ready to order. Keep in mind that it is now 8:45 and we just received or menus. When asked if we could have our drinks first she chimed in, «the kitchen closes soon» as she began walking away.
The drinks arrive. We inform her that we have two others in our party that will be arriving soon. We receive another unwanted notification of the proximity of the kitchen close (9:30) and with that my wife and I decide that it may be a good idea to order if it will keep this lady off of our back. The only problem was that even though we knew what we wanted, we had no idea what my brother in law wanted. Instead of dismissing herself from the table to put our order in and return to take their order once we figured it out, she stood again, hovering over us with the same tap and face and repeatedly questioned, «do you know what they want?» We tried reading the best parts of the menu to my brother in law, but there’s something about having an impatient, rigid, and unpleasant waitress around that makes you want to put the phone down and call for the manager.
Instead, however, we managed to get the order out along with alcoholic drinks. We definitely needed those at this point. Those drinks came out and that was the last time we saw the waitress. Literally. She disappeared. No refills, inquiry about our status, or even a menu in the off chance that my brother in law, having arrived shortly after 9:00 decided he wanted more than a nacho plate and some ceviche for his girlfriend and himself to share.
9:15 and the food comes out. No waitress in sight. We call the manager over and request a menu and he takes another order from our recently arrived guests. He was phenomenal. I polished off my plate and looked around to find everyone else was still working.
9:40 and we finally see the waitress again! Without even prompting her she appeared with the check in hand. We hadn’t gotten any refills or anything and hadn’t even finished and she grew the lady balls to stand there with the check. So I asked her to get us some refills.
9:45 She arrives with the refills and looks around for the check. I realized it just lay on the edge of the table and saw the waitress once again hovering over us, so I pull it open for my wife and I to look it over to verify everything was charged correctly (we do this everywhere). She stands there– same tap and face– and waits for us to finish and hand her the check. That to me was the last straw and was massively rude.
Rude enough to get me to dispute the service charge for our group.
The food gets five stars. Service gets one star. Or none. I’m not sure.
Tl;dr
Alcohol is above par.
The food is massively great! Like really!
If I wanted to be judged and rushed through a whole meal I could have just had dinner at my aunt’s house.

Just amazing ! I don’t know why people rate this place low. They’re always sweet and food so good !

Great service — very funny waiter, Oscar.
Good food — not very unique, but definitely good.
Large portions.
Chips and salsa good. The green sauce was great. But chips and salsa wasn’t distinct.
Vegetarian friendly.
Tea was fresh and good.
The rice was good and unique.
I would definitely go back.
A solid 3, but not quite a 4. They would need to stand apart from the crowd to get the 4.
Improvement Opportunities:
Bigger Salsa bowls
Less Velveeta cheese on fajitas
More distinctive and fresh in house made food — try refried black beans or add more lime and cilantro.

This place has amazing food and Saturday nights are awesome. The staff is very courteous and knowledgable about the menu and the alcohol drinks they have! They have a house DJ every Saturday that plays whatever you want to hear!
Guarantee u will enjoy the food and the ambiance!!! We have been coming here for about 5 years now and we have never been disappointed!

I visit here a few times a month. I love the cheese enchiladas here. I’d say I’m an enchilada connoisseur. I’ve had the fajitas there and they are good. Salsa is warm and sometimes has a bite to it. 4 stars for a Mexican joint

We went at 9 pm and service was pretty slow. The food came out quickly, but it took our server at least five minutes to get our tortillas for the fajitas. We enjoyed the queso dip. The beef with the fajitas was moist and tender, but the cheese that came with the fajitas looked processed and gross… I’ll probably stick to Pappasitos or Escalantes in the future!

This is my favorite Mexican restaurant in the area.
The food is great. The portions are more than adequate. I haven’t had a bad experience yet and I have been eating here for 4 years.
Love the Fajitas.

Pretty good food. Like their nachos. Nothing to write home about but it’s a good place close to our house with lots less crowd than places around City Centre.

Have to say that my review could be a little biased because the experience started off poorly. I walked into the door at 9:55 PM and the restaurant closes at 11 PM at several different people repeated several different times that they close at 11. I ordered the Grande Plate which consists of two’s cheese enchiladas, rice, beans and a taco. The consistency of the cheese was like toothpaste. It was like very very cheap American cheese it wasn’t quite holding together. It was hard to eat. The rice and beans were fine. My friend had the taco plate and it was actually kind of weird. It was a tortilla with diced meat on it. Two of the dice me piles or chicken and one was beef. it was very basic and nothing really tight it together. It seem like it needed something else that wasn’t on the plate. This may be a small struggling business so I am giving three stars but mostly out of pity. The condensation from the air conditioner dripped in the middle of my plate.

Tortilla soup was good wish there was more stuff in it besides so many chips
Needed more carrots more onion more filling stuff
But overall everything was delicious
Rice on the side would’ve been nice because I would’ve put it straight in that soup
Top shelf margarita was fantastic!!!

Woooowww.
And I don’t mean that in a positive way as indicated by my one star rating.
Service was terrible. We ordered queso as an appetizer and it came out luke warm. We sent it back to have them heat it up– one would think they would bring it back out with a fresh basket of chips but noooooooo. We had to physically track our waiter down to get a refill on tea and chips.
Then the fajitas arrived. No sizzle at all which means the food was probably sitting out. The beef was greasy with no flavor and the chicken was very dry.
The server took forever bringing the cold plates out so the fajitas sat out that much longer.
And the ice tea tasted bleachy.
Just an all around disappointing experience. Judging by the empty restaurant at 8:00 on a Saturday night only tells me that I’m not alone in my opinion.
Won’t be back.

El Palenque has been around for a while, and it has had its ups and downs, but lately I’ve been impressed with the consistency of its quality and service.
The sides are where I really determine the character of a restaurant, and while there is room for some improvement they’re of good quality. The menu isn’t brimming with exotic Mexicana, but there are enough authentic non-​Tex-​mex entrees in there to satisfy even the most diehard Mexican food snob.
The service was prompt, but had a worn, tired air, like they were handling a few other coworker’s tables. Either way they managed to take good care of us.
With the competition in the area heating up fiercely in recent years, I hope that El Palenque maintains this upward momentum; I want to enjoy some caldo tlalpeño and Anaheim enchiladas when I visit Houston again.

I work across the street, so the convenience factor weighs in somewhat for me. There are a few items on the menu that I absolutely love: the Tacos a la Plancha, the California Burrito, and the Nachos Palenque. In all three, ask for the chicken fajitas for the meat, not the pulled-​chicken they normally come with. I also ask for chopped fresh jalapeño or serrano peppers on the side to add some heat.
Someone else said their guac is good– it is.
The regular fajitas are competently done, but fajitas are so easy,
Service is EXCELLENT. The wait staff and hostesses are friendly and remember regulars after a couple of visits. It’s also one of the cleanest Mexican restaurants I’ve visited in Houston.
In the Spring and fall, you can sit outside on their porch (covered seating)!

We ate here for early dinner yesterday and we ordered queso, guacamole and shrimp brochette as an appetizer. The queso and guacamole met our expectations. The bacon wrapped shrimp was very delicious with a large shrimp, however the price tag of $ 17.95 for four shrimp may have been a little pricey. We ordered mixed fajitas for two which could comfortably feed 4. The meal was delicious and received 4 stars, with the only issue was the slightly higher prices than competitors. I understand they have specials during the week, so we may follow up on one of those nights.