Nuevo Mercado El Rey

Teetering on a three star, but four stars because of helpful staff. I stumbled upon this grocery store during lunch. I used to work in the area, and it was either this, McDs, or Popeyes. I worked with some people that vouched for El Rey’s, and told me they had okay Mexican food!
This is a Mexican grocery store that has a mini restaurant in it. It’s to the far right upon entering the store. Not the best Mexican food in Milwaukee; by far not the worst! It’s great for ordering lunches. Call ahead or order at a table. I usually ordered tacos, burritos, or nachos. Although, the nachos cheese started to make me sick after a while. Large portions aligned with cost. I think I kept going there because of the lunch location convenience. All the same, the staff is nice and patient with you.
Tip: If you want something sweet and spicy, order the fruit from the outside vendor and get cayenne with it! Yum!

Always end up doing this when i go here… picking up extra thing i dont need however I might need it a few days from now. There’s always a lot of options and they also have green plantain which has been hard for me to find, I also like there cheese selection because I find the kind im looking for to make Baleada. And it also helps that you can pick up some tacos for the road :)

This place is a feast for the senses. I recently stopped in just to buy some leeks and avocados (which were an incredible deal at .50 a pop.)
I was impressed with the wide selection of very fresh produce, its artful display and the friendly people who work there. Most of the prices are quite fair, as well.
A few months prior, I saw an ad in the window announcing .99 Barbacoa tacos. I had never tried them, honestly not really knowing what they were. I found out what they are and proceeded to get medieval on a plate of three. Ooh, my. Ooh my.
For those of you who don’t know, here is your Barbacoa lesson. Traditionally, the head of a cow was wrapped in banana leaves (if I’m remembering this correctly) and grilled/​cooked in the ground. Now a days, it’s still the cow’s head but I don’t think it’s buried in the ground. It’s charcoal grilled, I’d assume. So the tender meat of the cheeks and skull are culled and served like chopped steak. But the flavor and texture are beyond compare. The melted fat and collagen give the meat a delightfully silky texture that is surprisingly not greasy (at least the stuff at el rey wasn’t.)
With all of the truth in my heart, these were the best tacos I’ve ever had.
Check this place out! Beware if you try to do all of your shopping there, though. I saw $ 6 boxes of cereal… Say whaaat? Maybe that’s normal but I shop at ALDI for that stuff.

What’s not to love about El Rey? If you don’t love El Rey I do. The heritage and culture is evident from the door.
I never focus on the price a because I usually go to get things not offered in typical supermarkets like churros and chihuahua cheese.
I don’t go often but I love El rey. Don’t be intimidated by the Spanish everyone is helpful. The bakery is bannanas! The produce is equally impressive along with the café Inside.
I’ll continue to shop here.

Everything you need for Latin American cooking is here. Affordable prices and great pastry selection, especially the conchas. I also had a great enchilada lunch the other day while there. On the 14 bus line.

This is where I get my tamales! They have a couple of varieties and are sold in big aluminum packs. I love them, and I love El Rey.

This store is open all the time, even on most holidays!
From the start you will see lots of pastries & sweets like churros and coconut, berry, tres leches, cakes. This is also a great place for fresh produce that you’ll see near the front of the store.
The middle are inside features in-​store dining, as well from a selection of meats, rice, beans, etc. and table to sit. Next is the deli counter and a meat deli counter next to that. This store is very traditional and has those uncommon needs like tripe for making home cooked latin style meals such as menudo. You will not see a huge selection of brands like «Kraft» at El Rey. But mostly El Rey branded foods and some of the other popular Hispanic brands (e.g La Preferida, Goya, BIMBO, etc.)
One of the things I like to get from El Rey is fresh sofrito. It can be the base of many meals (Hispanic or not!) and the jarred stuff/​premade usually contains MSG. With this being fresh, it’s much easier and all you have to do is take the container home from the deli cooler and fill an ice cube tray. When they freeze, viola! The sofrito cubes can be stored in a plastic bag in the fridge and is better than the jarred or premade frozen stuff with all of the unnecessary additives :)
You would not come here for a huge selection of alcoholic beverages. They do have a small area near the front back corner of the store but it’s limited and very cramped.
Overall, it doesn’t have everything but is a great convenience for certain ingredients.

Living in Germantown sometimes kills me as I have to travel some distance to get real authentic Mexican ingredients when I cook real authentic Mexican food (sorry but sour cream and cheese is not authentic on tacos people!!!) When I first walked into this El Rey I felt like a kid in the candy store, the produce section is AWSOME, I’ve been able to have fruits & vegetables that I am only able to eat when I visit Mexico. I’ve eaten in the restaurant once and it was ehhh, not to sanitary IMO. I love the variety of cuts of meats also and the vast varieties of sour creams and cheeses. This store is my «retail» therapy, I just wish there was a closer one to Germantown.

There’s no better place in town for mexican groceries. Fresh torta rolls for $.33, the best «bulk» tortilla chips in the city, mexican spices and a huge selection of meat and produce. I far prefer shopping here over the PNS up the street.

For some reason, I thought prior to coming to this location that since it was the Nuevo! one, it would at least marginally exceed the experience I had at Burnham Park in the Plaza. Sadly, I was mistaken, and this turned out to be a temporary minor disappointment and hopefully at some point in the next few weeks, a forgettable experience when I return to Burnham Park.
Location: 4 out of 5
Admittedly, this location is much closer for us since we’re in the Third Ward, as it’s located at 16^th and National. It’s so close that if I were ever to return (unlikely), I would bring my cycling satchel and take the ol’ biciclette out for a spin. The parking lot is large enough and spaces wide enough that pickup trucks can park easily, though this is not a guarantee that drivers of said trucks will be any more mindful of opening their doors against your car while you’re sitting in it.
Selection of Items: 3 out of 5
It’s like the Burnham Park location… oh wait, it’s not at all. A very stripped down selection of fruits and veggies (no raspberries, blackberries, or watermelons, for example when I went today) juxtaposed with an equally pared down meat section makes this location worthwhile only if you live within a 1 mile radius or so. I took a quick walk through their beverage selection, and they did have a nice mix of Coca-​cola products that we would typically find in the States, as well as the products that they manufacturer for our neighboring countries. They did carry a few odds and ends (cat food, cat litter, cleaning supplies), and perhaps the most telling sign of this place’s usefulness all things considered was that the Western Union and the Post Office centers located in the building were the institutions being the most heavily utilized. Interestingly, they had a little section towards the back of the store where they pre-​packaged produce, perhaps for quick sale due to their quickly coming end of shelf life
Quality of Produce: 2.5 out of 5
Had this been based solely on the mountains of mangos I had to pick through to get two nice ones, the rating would have been zero. Honestly — many of the mangos (both regular and the yellow skinned Champagne ones) were visibly bruised, wrinkled, or otherwise just overly ripe. Luckily, the apples, cucumbers, peaches, and beets that I got were all in excellent condition, so the rating is truly somewhere in the middle, slightly weighted towards the lower side for having to sort through at least 40 mangos to find 2 good ones.
Price: 4 out of 5
The price is still right at this location. Cucumbers were 59 cents each, loose beets were 69 cents a pound, and the mangos were 79 cents a piece (slightly higher than what I purchased them for last time, but they were on sale). Powerade was 69 cents for a quart bottle as well.
Cleanliness/​Organization: 3 out of 5
Because of the smaller size of the store, the aisles were slightly narrower. Not to a point where you can’t get two people with carts past one another, but in the sense that you can’t place your cart in the middle of the aisle while you study the multitude of dried goods available without causing a traffic jam.
Customer Service: 4 out of 5
The young lady ringing us up was actually really friendly. Asked how we were, if we found everything to our liking, etc. No complaints at all in this department.
Overall: 3 out of 5
Realistically a 3.4 star experience based on a flat averaging, but a 3 here. I wouldn’t avoid this store if I lived closer, but because Burnham Park isn’t that much farther, I doubt I’ll be returning to this location in the near future.

I would recommend going to a local that is not so congested and busy like their Oklahoma store. This is the place to go for authentic Hispanic meats. spices, fruitas, and pastries, however language can sometimes be a barrier. I have some limited Spanish. Usually the people are very friendly but I didn’t have a good experience on my recent trip to this location. It was very crowded, hard to park, and hard to maneuver down the aisles. The ready to go rice and tamales are usually right on but the rice was dry this time. I will probably be checking out their other location because you can’t beat the produce and those hard to find items. I even purchased my tamale steamer there. I will be back but not to this location.

What’s not to love about El Rey?!
When you walk in you first see all the Donas, or donuts, they have in their bakery off to the right, which are the best donuts you will have so you must grab one of those for walking through.
I tend to get items from the hot bar and bring home but in the case that you need a cactus to cook or a pigs head, they do have that, which I haven’t seen at any other grocery store.
I love going into El Rey since there are so many families getting meals to prepare for that day and just buying what you need for that day instead of stocking up like its Dooms Day. Everyone loves speaking spanish or english with you.

I have been going to El Rey since I was a kid. From its original location on S. 16^th before it became Cesar Chavez, I remember eating at the little taqueria or picking up fajita meat from the butcher to cook at my dad’s friends house under the shadow of the Allen-​Bradley clock. There is just something about El Rey that links me to my hometown.
When people visit me, or when I bring a friend to Milwaukee, I always take them here for tacos unless they are vegan. An ex GF ordered the fish tacos and ever since then I have been ordering one of these when I have tacos. When I was much younger I would come here for my «morning after» breakfast. I still love to come here for breakfast — even though it can be crazy busy on the weekends after church or when people are stopping in to get meat to cook out.
Got a grill? Want to make some home-​made fajitas? You must come here!
If you are looking to cook prepared Mexican style on the grill this is the place to come. They have a good selection of marinated meats, fresh avocado, and ready made items to go. I am not a fan of the guacamole here, but other than that everything is great. The small bakery usually has a good supply of sweets — although not a real panderia. I do like the hard rolls here — in fact a friend from Italy outside of Rome prefers these rolls to the — in his words — «junk» they pawn off as Italian bread.
The restaurant has a fairly large space and the servers are often very busy. So, depending on the time you get here, there may be a table to clear, or a bit of a wait for things to show up, but there are usually just one or two servers working. The hot sauce — green — is super freaking hot.
Overall, this place is more than a trip down memory lane for a guy who first came into El Rey in the 1970s as a kid, but a place I would stay stacks up to any Mexican grocery in the USA, and with a bonus café where you can get great fresh food!

Visiting El Rey is like stepping into a completely different world. Packed with people, you don’t have much time to awe before you need to get to where you’re going, and I was making a beeline for the lunch counter.
The tacqueria occupies a significant portion of the store, and during lunch it’s probably the busiest section in the place. Taking a seat at the counter and finally grabbing the attention of the one woman who was getting drinks, taking orders, and working the register, I didn’t bother asking for a menu in fear of having to wait until she gained a free second again. Instead, I sat in clear view of the checks, which conveniently listed everything they sold. I rattled off my typical smattering of meats (something like carne asada, carnitas, pollo, and al pastor), and watched as two guys maintained a zen-​like approach to the constant stream of orders that kept getting attached to their spinning wheel thingy.
Judging by the number of bowls of caldo de res I saw passing in front of me, I thought I may had made a mistake, but the tacos were equally exemplary. I eventually got some salsas to play around with, and along with the simple double-​wrapped-​cilantro-​onion presentation that makes for real tacos, I was plenty happy.
Sometime near the middle of my visit a man of equally Caucasian persuasion sat down next to me and I watched as he asked for a menu, ended up ordering a plain beef taco, then tried to screw it up first by asking for sour cream and then by asking for salsa that wasn’t so hot. This is not a guy who gets it. But at least he made the effort of visiting, which can admittedly be intimidating. Luckily, this isn’t the type of place that capitulates to someone who can’t handle a spicy salsa.
I looked around on the way out and noticed in the bakery section they had little single-​serving cups of tres leche cake — aka the Best Dessert Ever — for a few bucks. Even better, one of the leches was strawberry milk. Yes, El Rey, you get five stars from me.

If I could give El Rey 10 stars, I would.
— I’ve only eaten tacos and burritos from the taqueria, so my food review is based on those. The tacos are amazing — just as good as almost all the roach coaches and dives I frequent in LA and SF. All the meats have just the right amount of fat in them to give the tacos the best flavor. My favorite, by far, is the barbacoa, which is offered only on the weekends (pastor comes in second). Make sure you get in early if you want the barbacoa Order them with just cilantro and onions, squeeze some lime juice on them, pour a little salsa roja/​verde on them, and you’ve got $ 1.89 worth of perfection! And you can’t eat a meal without a horchata or one of their several agua frescas (pineapple, lemon and cantaloup are the offerings now).
— Bakery — The doughnuts are good here, but it’s the cake rolls what I go for! Their two cake rolls are strawberry and a coconut cream. The servings are big, and for only $ 0.75 each, it’s one of the biggest steals around!!! I’m looking forward to getting a full cake from here one of these days.
–Grocery — El Rey has a huge selection of fresh produce, meat, and other Mexican and Latin American goodies. I’ve purchased pre-​marinated chicken and asada from the butcher in the past. The meat’s always been marinated well… once cooked and served with cilantro and onions, it’s the closets thing I can get to the taqueria! The prices are great too! ~$ 2.50/lb for pre-​marinated chicken breast pieces. Another plus of the place is that they have every flavor of Jarritos sodas! Sometimes you can get lucky and get them on sale for $ 0.69 per bottle!
All in all, it’s obvious that I think this place is pretty awesome!!! if you’re a good eater, definitely check El Rey out!

Coming from Chicago and living in Latino/​Hispanic neighborhood most of my life, it felt like home when I walked in to El Rey. They have a lot of the stuff that you’ll need from a regular grocer, everything you might need for Mexican cuisine, a good meat counter, and a good little taqueria (which I may or may not have spelled wrong). Plus, they have awesome tamales.

I love my El Rey on 35^th but this location… it pains me to say it… is better. It’s the best El Rey, hands down.
*In house taqueria. You aren’t supposed to shop on an empty stomach, right? You can get a tasty, cheap meal here and do all of your shopping after.
*Produce area is VERY large, well stocked/​organized and priced reasonably.
*Extensive selection of staples, both Hispanic and not.
*Great deli. It’s my favorite part of any El Rey. Carnitas, tamales, rice, beans or more. This location stocks barbacoa and birra too.
*This particular store is big & clean, with vibrant murals on the walls. It still manages to be crowded and chaotic as aisles are pretty narrow.
*Big butcher counter where you can get anything (and I mean anything) cut to order.
*They sell beer and a limited selection of liquor here, the other locations don’t
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I love you El Rey.

I work by the El Rey on 13^th street. I eat here frequently. I am a fan of the flautas and the pork tamales. I used to eat the pork tamales more often than I’d like to admit, but since the price increases (they now run like 9 bucks) I have been eating them less. Plus I can’t help but put salsa roja on it and El Rey’s is spicy! Delicious, but spicy! My body appreciates me not eating this as often as I did.
Produce prices are dirt cheap. Yeah suck it Pick N Save. Employees at this location understand Spanglish pretty well. I never had any issues with clients or staff.

Why do I love El Ray?
1. It’s close to downtown, but still feels like you’re getting away.
2. The new store is super nice (wayyyyyy better than the old location), clean, and the employees are helpful.
3. Their brand of tortilla chips
4. Meat and produce prices are super low. Limes 20/​$ 1? Sure.
5. Taquería is a great place to grab a quick snack
6. Hot tamales — right by the registers

So much to say about this great super market. Bakery has nice selections of breads and sweets. Great prices for deli foods and produce.
This was my first chance to stop into the new El Rey. Prices have definitely gone up for beer and hot deli items. Limes are still the best price in town but they are 10% smaller. 15 for a buck. The weekday shopping was less busy but it was busy nonetheless. Parking was tight at this location. Security with armed guard was nice. Deli staff and clerks were attentive. Loaded up on corn tortillas 3 bags for a buck. Menudo, three bundles of tamales, carnitas, chicharones chico are delicious. A nice trip to our version of Mexico North of the border. And I can still drink the water.