El Vaquero Restaurant

Great food but they always get my order wrong. Time and time again, but fortunately the wrong order is still always good. Perhaps wait staff should write down orders rather than trying to remember multiple orders. Would otherwise be five stars

Hands down the best Mexican food in Joplin!!! Everything tastes awesome and the service is the best !!!

I could drink the salsa!!! Only things I would change are: cook the fajitas longer, and bring out the tortillas when the food comes out. Also, the chips are too hard, and they need cleaner dishes. Otherwise it’s my favorite place in town.

This place was GREAT. We just moved here from Central Texas so we were a little scared to try Mexican food here. Wow! The salsa was not my favorite but it was good. The waitress was great! The queso sampler was amazing. I had Al Pastor, yummy. My husbands food was good too! This will be our favorite place to eat

For a Saturday night this place was dead, usually a good place for a Mexican meal, but tonight I see why it was empty. Overcooked tamale, sauce far too sweet for use on a cheese enchillada, and a poorly constructed burrito. That coupled with a server too busy visiting with customers she knew… ugh, poor experience!

I have eaten here a few times since they’ve reopened and I become a bigger fan every time. I don’t see how you can have a bad experience here. The staff is always friendly and welcoming with a smile. The Pollo Alteno is my favorite as it is served with freshly grilled vegetables and topped with a white wine reduction. The Chile Relleno is fantastic as well as it is all made from fresh ingredients. Also, Thursday is a good day to go in for lunch as they have great drink specials. If you’re looking for Mexican cuisine this is the place to be!

Great prices & choices for lunch but it was a bit too salty for my liking & even though it’s a new building the layout is confusing.

3.5 really but still really good. My favorite was the rice it was perfectly cooked. My party of 4 all had different dishes and all of us enjoyed them.
Décor is also very nice with nice large TV’s playing Sunday football. Our waiter was friendly and knowledgeable.
When passing through we’d definately eat here again.
Oh… The sweet tea was perfect.

My son is a vegetarian, sometimes I will order with him because the meals are very good. I find it degrading that there’s only one option for vegans on the lunch menu. When I asked why the vegetarian Fajita wasn’t on it too I was told they could do it. So we ate happily. Afterwards the waiter came back and said he wasn’t supposed to but could this once and he got in trouble.
Sad

I loved this Mexican restaurant before the tornado and missed it while it was gone. The new building is huge and very nice inside. There is tons of seating. Several TV’s playing sports. It seems to be busy every time I come but food is still served fairly quickly.
Chips and salsa are good, chips could be a littler thinner but they are not bad. Salsa tastes fresh and has lots of cilantro in it which I like. It is also not too hot.
The main reason I love this restaurant is that it has the best chicken Chimichanga ever. It is the Chimichanga to which I compare all others. While this restaurant was gone after the tornado I often dreamed about it. Fortunately, after waiting several years I wasn’t disappointed, it is still the best. It come with delicious queso on top too. I don’t order anything except for the Chimichanga but the people I go with seem to be pleased with other food they are ordering.
My one complaint about the restaurant is that it still has a smoking section. I had to take a star off for that.

Gotta agree with the Mrs. The food was subpar and everyone in the place was a weirdo. All but the busboy he was very friendly and said not to worry about the mess left by our tornado toddler.

Good food but terrible service. Those serving us were too busy visiting with each other.

I must have grown a third head, that or no one has ever seen a toddler before.
Sat us near the front door and EVERY single person who walked by our table glared at us like we were martians.
The food was WAY salty (shark tacos) or SUPER sweet (scallops and shrimp).
Not sure what all the fuss is with this place. I thought it was ok, but NOTHING like what other reviews had said.

We were told by a friend this was the best mexican restaurant in town before the tornado wiped it out and that we had to go as soon as it reopened. Well he was exactly right! My wife had shark tacos, yes SHARK tacos and they were delicious, I had the chimichangas and they were perfect and I am very picky about my Mexican food growing up in Dallas I have grown up on good Mexican food and this place would be a big hit down there. Staff was super friendly and fast, our waiter was funny and had great timing on when to come by for refills on drinks. The portions are huge and we had plenty left over to eat on again the next day which is always a plus. The prices were about average for a restaurant in Joplin.

The food was really good, and with the parking lot completely full, the restaurant still had plenty of seating – it’s huge and beautiful inside. Cheese dip was delicious, and meat was a good quality. Salsa was really good too.

A brand new restaurant, and yet, they have a huge smoking section that allows the smoke to roll into other parts of the restaurant. (I smelled of smoke when I left and I wasn’t in the smoking area) I am SUPER DISAPPOINTED they didn’t go NO-​SMOKING when they opened, especially considering they are brand new, and the rest of the country is going no-​smoking indoors. Have your smoking section outside! Rant over.
Otherwise… THE BEST MEXICAN place in Joplin! The food has great flavor and comes in very large portions!
The chicken chimichanga is one of the best I’ve had, ever. Not dried out, and full of flavor.
The quesadillas are huge too but the inside is piled a little too high for me. I like to cut it and pick it up and eat it but with these, I had to use my fork. It also has a thicker shell than most quesadillas!
The soups… bleh! I was disappointed, tasteless. But they were a good portion.
The margaritas… BEST IN TOWN! hands down! Not too powerful and the perfect taste. There are 6 different frozen flavors you can get.

El Vaquero was wiped out by the Joplin tornado in 2011 and has finally reopened. Before it was destroyed I did eat there a few times and found the food to be just ok… my oh my has that changed! The food was fantastic and our experience there was great. When we pulled up the parking lot was packed and we figured we’d be waiting a while, but to our surprise we were seated right away! The interior is much bigger then it appears from the outside and they use the space very wisely. Lots of seating! I ordered the chimichanga with the fajita chicken inside and it was fantastic! Cooked perfectly. Fajita meat was tender and juicy and queso sauce was divine. The rice on the side was a yellow rice and is, in my opinon, much better then the typical spanish rice served at a majority of Mexican restraunts. It had a suttle yet very tasty flavor and it wasn’t in the least bit dry. The beans were good too, not too greasy. Chips and salsa were yummy. I personally prefer a bit of spice to my salsa, which there’s is lacking, but perhaps they have a hotter option if you ask (I did not). The overall flavor of the salsa was really good though. My boyfriend had the Mexican Flag which was three enchiladas, one beef, one chicken, one cheese. One smothered in chili, one smothered in queso, one smothered in red sauce. He really enjoyed it and said the beef was by far the best. The only downfall to our visit was that there were no frozen margaritas. And considering that was the one thing I did love about El Vaquero before the tornado took it out, that was pretty disappointing. But as you can see it certainly wasn’t enough to take away from the 5 stars I gave them. After all they had only been open a week or two and I’m sure that by now the full bar is up and running. I will find out for sure very soon, because I plan on going back again and again! I think this place just jumped up to #1 on my Joplin Mexican restraunts list. I highly recommend you give it a shot.

This was my first time eating at El Vaquero. I had heard it was good even before the tornado. But now, since it’s been rebuilt, it has an even better reputation. It is hard to find a place to park, even on a Tuesday. But it is very big inside, and we were seated right away. We weren’t big fans of the salsa, too much cilantro, but some people like that. There are a lot of choices on the menu, but more creative than your average Mexican restaurant. I had the grilled pineapple seafood combination platter. It was very good, with a nice spicy seasoning that wasn’t too overpowering. I loved the red rice. My husband got a mango chicken burrito that he really liked as well, and he is quite picky, not giving thumbs up unless it really deserves it! There are many more dishes that I hope to try in the future!

Not sure whether or not all employees are legal here, but the place is run very well and the food and service is great!

El Vaquero is the one restaurant that had most people eagerly waiting for after the Joplin tornado destroyed the building almost 3 years ago. It has now been rebuilt (finally!) and open for business.
My husband and I went here over the weekend, and I must say how lovely the restaurant is now. Previously it felt like more of a hole-​in-​the-​wall kind of place. Now it is new (obviously), very festive and bright with its orange and dark red décor, and very spacious. The contractors did a great job with this one; I highly applaud.
At this point, they do not have their liquor license so we couldn’t try their margaritas. However, we were informed by our server that it would be about a week, so hopefully that is true. It’s hard to eat Mexican food without a margarita, y’all. but we persevered.
The salsa was very good. Not too spicy; perfect flavor that would make even the kids eat up. We always have to get guacamole, though, because that’s my favorite part of my meal. Theirs is delicious. It was creamy, not super chunky (although I like that kind too), and very fresh tasting. Starting off my meal in a very happy place.
My husband got the pork carnitas because this is what he always gets. He said it was fine, although felt the seasonings could be kicked up a notch. At this point, Festival is still his favorite for carnitas.
I wanted to try the veggie quesadilla because it sounded so delicious. I love quesadillas that are stuffed with grilled vegetables. Theirs had a mix of mushrooms, onions, peppers, tomatoes and spinach with a bit of Monterrey Jack cheese. Divine! It was very flavorful and filling. I could only eat half, but that might be a good thing. I hate having to leave restaurants with my pants unbuttoned underneath my coat. Super not attractive.
The rice and beans were tasty. Rice was a fluffy yellow rice, light on the seasonings but still good. The beans were a nice texture, not greasy other than the melty cheese on top, which was minimal anyway.
I don’t remember much about the menu from when it was open previously. But this time around, I feel like it has many unique items to offer that would satisfy just about everybody. And because of that, I want to go back again and try more stuff!