Cinco de Mayo

Nice authentic Mexican joint. We had the large cheese dip which was creamy and very good. Chips were warm and great. Service was excellent. Chile Verde was fantastic but the sauce was a bit salty. We will be back!

I really hesitate to give CdM four stars because we have had a couple 2 – 3 star experiences, but the last two times have been superb.
We are lucky here in Lexington because there is a great Latino influence. There are amazing panaderias, taquerias, supermercados, roadside trucks and neighborhood bars, oh, and the ubiquitous Mexican-​American restaurants (they are usually called «El Rio Grande» or something like that). We have a couple go-​to Mexican spots and usually choose CdM for convenience.
Tonight was great. The service was fantastic. Skip everything on the menu and just get the molcajete (share between two, hell, three people): steak, chicken, chorizo, shrimp, nopales, cheese, tortillas, «salad» (which in a Mexican restaurant of course means shredded iceberg with globs of sour cream, guacamole and pico). It was probably the best screaming hot stone bowl of food I’ve ever had.
Muchas gracias amigos!

I got the tilapia and shrimp lunch, and it was wonderful. Everything was cooked well, and the rice was moist unlike most other Mexican restaurants. The asparagus was so tasty! I also got a chicken burrito, and it was delicious. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it all was :). I would definitely come back.

I have had a hard time finding a Mexican restaurant that has food that I really like. I’ve eaten here twice and actually really loved the food both times. They have a really nice outdoor patio, which is great to sit on when the weather’s nice. However, it is right on UK’s campus, so most of the crowd is college students. The only two complaints I have are that (1) service is slow and (2) we ordered 2 for 1 frozen margaritas and the server brought both at the same time — so the 2^nd one melted before I got to drink it.

Went here to enjoy some margaritas on their sizable deck/​outdoor area. They have a really nice set up where you don’t really notice that you are in the middle of college town on a busy corner. We brought our kiddo and the back area is perfect for the little ones to run around because it is enclosed and open so that you can always keep an eye on them. The staff was very kind and attentive. I would say the food is average Lexington Mexican American fare. Certainly not bad (like some other places I will not mention) but not amazing either. If you really like your margaritas you can go for there blasphemously obscenely sized margarita (which we did!) and you won’t even need to order a second round… they’re huuuuge! I also tried one of their top shelf margaritas and it was decent. Glad this spot exists, the outdoor area is the real gem of the place.

Amazing food, Fun fueled staff. The atmosphere is comfortable and the place is very big, so you probably won’t have to wait very long for a place to sit.

The food is great, the location is great, nice patio. The service needs help bad. We been here several times and it takes forever!!! To get waited on or checked on. They are always nice. Just need to check back from time to time. I worked in the business for a long time so i am trying to be fair.

Great margaritas — so/​so food!

If you’re looking to go somewhere and wait at the entrance for 15 minutes while none of the staff acknowledged you even being there to be seated let alone eating, search no further! Terrible service

Lots of great drink specials keeps me coming back for more. I like to sit in the Bar area with my besties.

I’m not one to give bad reviews but the people that use Unilocal should know about this. To start the food was alright. However, the service was beyond bad. The server was non existent, we had to ask 6 times for salsa and tortillas that were supposed to accompany our meal (fajitas). I do speak some Spanish and thinking it was a language barrier issue I asked them nicely in Spanish and after 45 minutes of waiting we got what we asked for only after we watched our «server» stand around and cut up with his amigos. I do not recommend this place to anyone that doesn’t have plenty of time to kill. It sucks because the food was pretty good…

I’m updating my review because I was there a few Thursday’s ago and the service was very poor. We waited at the door for 45 minutes and we were never even greeted by a host nor told how long the wait would be. Finally were were asked how many were in our party (just 4 of us) and about 10 minutes after that we were seated.
As a side note this was during one of the big snow storms and I’m guessing they were just extremely short on servers, but if you don’t have enough employees to open your doors then keep them closed.
I would have been totally fine waiting an hour for a table if there was at least some form of communication between the staff and customers but it was absolutely ridiculous.
Finally on each table there is a sign saying ‘Buy One Get One Margaritas all day Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday’ with a picture of different types of margaritas. It’s definitely misleading because what they don’t tell you on that sign is that it’s the house (lime) margaritas only.

The average Mexican joint. The food is fine yet slightly overpriced but you’re really just paying for location. It’s a nice alternative to the campus restaurant scene.

Prior to my last review ~~~
The first time we came all we only got was margaritas, chips, and salsa. We had such a great time, margaritas were delicious and the environment was welcoming.
This time when we came in and we ordered a margarita from the same server as last time, he did not offer the happy hour promotion and he «had to check» to see if it was Happy hour? Seriously you know if it is happy hour or not! We ordered a margarita and wanted to get another before we ordered food. (There were only two tables there) he came back and said I can’t do on the rocks right now, we are out of ice. We said ok I guess do it frozen. He comes back with a glass ½ on the rocks and the other half frozen. I was thinking seriously wtf is this? And I did say I wanted another one, a normal one (in a nice way) and he kinda got an attitude with me. After that I was just thinking are you kidding me I don’t even want to order food here if they can’t put a little bit of effort into making a drink correctly and respect their customers.
We then told him to just bring us the check. I said I guess we will just go somewhere else and eat, in front of him and he had nothing to say.
El rancho Tapatio is where we ended up going! I’ve been going there for years and have never had a bad experience if you want good service and an awesome margarita go there !!

After a few more visits and trying things other things, I totally agree with my Unilocal friends Olwen and Nick… I’m less impressed too.
The taco salad was a simply shredded chicken, lettuce and cheese sauce in a small taco shell.
The small parking lot is continuously full and street parking is scarce too.

I have to update my prior review after coming here several more times. When they first opened, it was good, the food was always fresh and tasty and of decent quality. But on my last 2 or 3 visits, I feel the quality has declined quite a bit. I ordered carnitas on one of my first visits. The plate was huge and had a ton of tasty meat and fresh onions, rice and beans were fresh and looked like they had just been cooked. This week, I ordered the exact same thing and what came out to me was disgusting. It didn’t even look similar to what I had before. The meat was fatty and tasted like it’d been cooked a long time ago, it did not taste like a quality meal. The onions were dried up and oily, and the rice looked dry as if it’d been sitting around under a heat lamp all day. Another huge disappointment was the guacamole «dip»! I ordered a small side of it that cost $ 4 and what I got was shocking. A tiny bowl with some kind of green goo that had maybe a little bit of avocado in it. What WAS that??? In fact, I took most of my food to go (partly bc I wasn’t very hungry and partly bc I just didn’t want to eat any of it) and the next day this green stuff hadn’t turned brown like real avocado would have.
There are plenty of Mexican restaurants in Lexington, and I’d choose a different one. The only positive thing I can say today is they do continue to provide friendly service!

I’ve been to Cinco a few times now and every time I go I’m less impressed with the food. My first trip it was quite good I would say. Tonight was terrible though. The carnitas were bland and had a strange texture, the salsa had a new flavor that I didn’t like, to top it off even the chips were stale. Would not recommend this place

Went here last night with a few friends for dinner and drinks before we headed out to the bars.
Pros:
— Great location right next to Joe Bs
— There is great parking (which is key to a downtown location)
— The drinks are reasonably priced and poured well.
— The food is pretty standard Mexican
Cons:
— The waiter was very friendly but kept bringing the wrong things
— The food is standard (not to bad but nothing special)
I would go back to Cincos if I was in the mood for margaritas and downtown. I recommend that you stop by sometime.

I can only describe my experience at Cinco de Mayo as bizarre. I joined a group of friends sitting in the courtyard outside. The staff at Cinco de Mayo were kind to accommodate our wishes to sit in the courtyard instead of the deck.
Our waiter was friendly and the chips and salsa were tasty. He brought out pitchers of water for us so that we wouldn’t be thirsty and have to wait for refills. :) The waiter seemed confused as he took our orders, but we were a large group, so that is understandable. I ordered steak tacos, he said «beef tacos?» and I replied «Is it pieces of steak, not ground beef?» and he affirmed that they are made with steak and not ground beef, so I kept that as my order.
When our food was brought out a couple of items that we did not order were brought to our table. One of the girls ordered grilled chicken nachos, but he brought her shredded chicken nachos. She told him that she ordered grilled, so he took it back, only to bring it out again twice with other orders. She finally took it. In the end, she did say that it tasted good.
I received chicken tacos. I was surprised to receive chicken, as it seemed that it was clear that I was ordering steak. Not wanting to create even more of a hassle since many orders were incorrect, I kept the chicken tacos and they were good.
One of my friends brought two teenage girls that she mentors to the dinner. It was one of the girl’s 15^th birthday. The staff brought out a big sombrero for her to wear, sang to her, and gave her a complimentary dessert. She loved the attention. Later, a bartender came out and offered the birthday girl a shot. We were surprised, and let the bartender know that the birthday girl is only 15!
While we were sitting in the courtyard waiting for our bills to arrive an older man, obviously high, came off the street to our table full of girls to ask for money.

Three and a half stars really. It’s decent food but not amazing. I’d certainly eat here again but prefer El Charro. The rice was very salty. The chips and salsa weren’t as tasty as El Habañero Loko’s. The service was very fast, everyone was friendly. We had a group of eight and our orders came out correctly, though one lady’s burrito was cold.