El Fuego

Great Mexican food located close to the airport. The oysters charra style are awesome. Will definitely stop here more often.

This was the worst experience I’ve ever had. Waited 40 minutes only to have them lose our reservation of 8. At that point they said another 45 minutes and laughed.

We just walked into this place on a Saturday night with 8 adults and a child (1 year old) and asked the hostess how long. She said 15 min. Cool we can do 15 minutes. 40 min later we noticed groups sitting much before us and approached her to ask why. She explained people had reservations (completely understandable) and our wait would be 45 min longer.
We were very confused and upset… especially since we were told 15 minutes.
After the 55 minutes of waiting (after being promised only 15 min) then being told another 45 minutes we walked out. We were not rude. We were extremely patient. But waiting 55 minutes (after being told 15 minutes) and then asking if we had an upcoming table and being told ANOTHER 45 MINUTES is not acceptable. (I realize I just stated this TWICE). As we walked out the hostess and a boy with longer hair who worked there laughed and scuffed us off. Like it was really funny to them. This was the icing on the cake.
We went to Branded Steer, and told them about our experience with El Fuego. They didn’t seem suprised. They took wonderful care of us, our server was fantastic and the food was perfect. Absolutely no complaints.
We will never go back to El Fuego but it doesn’t matter because obviously the staff found it hilarious that we were completely put out by them. Keep those 19 year old workers around… I’m sure management needs them.

My go-​to Mexican restaurant. For now.
I’ve been going to El Fuego for a few months now after discovering it just trying something new. It subsequently became my favorite Mexican place. However, it’s starting to lose its luster to me now and I will be looking for a new go-​to place due to service.
Food is the main draw here. The not so cheap and flimsy chips and salsa really set the tone for where this place excels. Food is typically always made to perfection with an abundance of taste and flavor. I can never find myself straying from the enchiladas and Fuego wings because they’re so darn good. Size portions will leave you full for sure, with more to take home for a late night snack (tastes just as good re-​heated).
It’s the service that really cools off El Fuego. Can’t quite figure out if they’re just always short-​handed, have inattentive workers, or they simply don’t care. Things I’ve seen that really irk me: having to flag down the waiter/​waitress to get refills on drinks/​chips, favoriting/​servicing people that seem like friends/​regulars that got there after you first, getting entrees before you ever seeing chips and salsa at the table!
The food is worth the steep price. Only issue is you can’t enjoy something that’s not/​poorly delivered to you.
I’ll most likely give this place another chance or two, but sadly El Fuego is starting to flame out for me.

The garlic shrimp is to die for. We sat by the fountian on the deck and it was peaceful. The service was great, i would definatly revisit.

Very esthetically pleasing restaurant. The patio outside is amazing. The restaurant is huge but the chairs at the tables are not very comfortable. Our server Ishmael was extremely nice and accommodating. I had a shrimp dish and it tasted amazing. Plenty of shrimp on the plate. The enchiladas looked great as well! They also had great happy hour specials but this was a little pricier than most places.

Just flew into Milwaukee and wanted Mexican food for lunch. El Fuego was nearby. Ordered a simple quesadilla. WOW! Just perfect chicken seasoning and cheese combination. They made simple a great lunch!

Sub-​par, very Americanized Mexican food. Ordered the #1 combination plate with a beef enchilada, chicken tostada and pork taco which came with rice and beans. All pretty flavorless. The tostada was soggy. The enchilada was the better item on the plate but still not great. I barely ate most of it. Milwaukee has soooo many better Mexican restaurants than this for a cheaper price.

Ray is the BOMB!!! Not sure if he’s the manager or the owner. But he always shows us a great time. The food is ok, not the best Mexican food I’ve had. The drinks are really good. But the service is great.

First time here, went for lunch. Great atmosphere, comfy booths, huge portions! Loved the shrimp ceviche & guacamole (although priced high for guacamole) I think this is a great Mexican restaurant overall but priced a bit high compared to others locally.

Very good. Better than most. Kind of expensive. Fajitas are $ 20. Most other entrees Are more than $ 13. Mole sauce is good, not amazing. House margarita is ok and blanco silver are with the upgrade.
Have gone many time. Pretty big with nice patio for summer

The strawberry margarita is delicious I just had a pitcher on my visit there along with chips and dip but delicious

If you want good food, good price and good service El Fuego is the place to go. Everything here is good and the staff sweet and personable.

Pretty good Mexican place, décor typical. Service was good, chips and salsa above average. Fajitas were good and price was reasonable. Worth stopping at.

I live in a Mexican-​American neighborhood, more specifically maybe two thirds of my neighbors are from the Guadalajara region of Mexico originally and the Chivas are more the home team than the Brewers, Packers, Badgers or Bucks. Walk out of my front door blindfolded in any direction and within two blocks your nose will guide you to an authentic Mexican family restaurant (Guadalajara style). But, if you ask these neighbors where to go for a special occasion, they will invariably suggest driving to El Fuego. I just can’t figure this out.
The main demographic for El Fuego are clearly suburban gringos, as noted by Mexican food fans below (well I guess it depends on where my review ends up, maybe above and all around). This is bland, overpriced, Americanized Mexican-​inspired food like Chi-​Chis or Chilis, only this is an independent. The décor is bright and festive, it’s a much nicer looking place than Taco Bell or Chipotle, and the food is better than Taco Bell but maybe not as tasty as Chipotle. But you won’t see just Anglo-​White people here, this is a very popular Milwaukee restaurant with a surprisingly diverse clientele, including lots of Mexican-​American and Puerto Rican families. This is a little hard for me to understand, but it made more sense when we were here on a Saturday in June and many of the Mexican-​American families were celebrating a graduation. If your parents came from Mexico, but you’re an American who speaks American English as your primary language, this is eating out — authentic Mexican in a family run restaurant is more like eating at home, nothing exciting.
We’ve been here a lot, so my review isn’t based on one bad experience. It’s a matter of taste. Our Canadian friends just love the food here, they don’t really like authentic Mexican, or authentic Puerto Rican cuisine. The service here is very fast, so if that’s good service to you, then the service is good here. If you prefer a more leisurely paced dinner, you might feel rushed here, I know I do. But the rapid service does make this a good choice if you need to get in and out because right after dinner you’re headed to a movie or something like that. Another reason I wouldn’t classify the service as good is that they have upcharged us 3 of the last four times we’ve been here. They have a range of drink prices based on the size of the drink, but even when I’ve been very clear about what size tequila I wanted, I’ve been served the larger size at the higher cost. Same with dinners, there are various sizes and even when being very specific about the smaller portion size, the lunch versus the dinner, the ala carte versus the platter, we get the larger portion size with the higher price.
The portion sizes are generous, and although the prices are high compared to more authentic Mexican, Mexican-​American, or Tex-​Mex places; compared to suburban chain Tex-​Mex near-​the-​big-​mall type restaurants, the prices are reasonable — even when overcharged and over-​served.

This place is fun to eat at. The portions are always gigantic and pretty tasty. If you’re looking for a margarita then prepare for a sugar bomb, otherwise that have a decent selection of beers.
The smart money is on guacamole unless you’re a crazy person. Sometimes a dash of salt is needed but otherwise it’s quite good.
Sitting at the bar can have bad service on a busy night but the dining room is almost always an easy way to go.
This last visit had is with one of the nicest sweetest kids working out table. His chipper attitude really made our night.

Maybe the tax evasion investigators have not been so kind…
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Seriously though… learning about the charges against Bouraxis made me want to visit here again. Now, I’d been quite a few times in the past. A ladyfriend of mine really digs this place, even though I live within walking distance of a handful of great Mexican joints. We decided to check this place out again.
There have been some changes. A few points:
1. Service has gone down hill. Substantially. I thought it might have just been the server I had, but everyone I encountered was just a little… off. In any case, it was weird. Our server sorta mumbled while she talked. At one point she had been explaining something on the menu; we were ready to order and were just about to start and she just… sorta disappeared.
2. They’ve changed the menu. I don’t know that any items have actually disappeared, and it’s actually better organized, but the prices seem higher. I don’t think there’s anything on the menu that is worth the ~$ 17.50 that they’re asking for so many dishes.
3. The food is… just not as good. I had the pollo gordo. It was decent enough and had a healthy portion, but it was just SO salty. And this is coming from someone who tends to like my food saltier than most. The room temperature salsa was also a little unsettling.
I reserve my single stars for the worst of the worst and well… this ain’t that. It’s still time for a downgrade, though. Two stars.

Service was great and the food was filling. I would say it’s not the highest quality tex mex, but the prices were pretty cheap so you get what you paid for. I really liked the chips and salsa. You can buy chips for like $ 4 a bag so you can enjoy them at home. FYI, the salsa served is mild and you have to request the hot.

On my latest trip to Milwaukee, my coworker suggested dining at El Fuego. This place is birthday party central. Every table had a birthday, including ours (the suggesting coworker). At the end of our meal, the birthday boy was serenaded, forced to wear an obnoxious sombrero, and given a huge slice of cake and a t-​shirt.
Our amazing server suggested we try a double margarita on special. For a dollar or two more, the margarita was twice the size (and with at least twice the booze). The first few sips were ok, then a couple of minutes later I realized I was hammered. Excellent.
I ordered the mole enchilada with mushrooms, the vegetarian option. The mole sauce was pretty damn good and the portions were huge.
The only complaint was the initial salsa cup was extremely small. 3 chips in, we were done.
If another coworker has a birthday while in Milwaukee, we will be back to El Fuego.

Oh, El Fuego, you had me and then…
I had been here 2 times previously; once with a group and once with my parents when they were in town. The food was delicious! In fact, I preferred this restaurant over El Beso because it was so much quieter. There’s actually room to walk between tables!
This fall, I finally, FINALLY, convinced my husband to try it. Things were great. The margaritas… delicious! The food… healthy portions and also yummy! We left and continued about our day.
The following day, we both woke up with «that» feeling. Thankfully, our house has two stocked bathrooms! All day, the two of us were in and out. I have never had food poisoning before and I can take a lot of pain, but the stomach cramps were so bad that at times, I was unable to sit up and at others, I was unable to lie down.
We asked our dining companion how she was feeling and she said that she was fine. We then put two and two together and realized that we had both eaten from my plate and I had had the chicken mole.
My husband swore that he would never go there again and I, unfortunately, agree. Adiós, El Fuego!
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