El Lago Mexican Restaurant & Bar

Meh on service and food. Slow service and chicken wings not up to proper food temp. Not a good value for the price either. Great location on Lake Tye. They could kick things up a few notches.

Really good food & drinks! We went on Margarita Monday, so the margaritas were $ 3!
The chips & salsa were great as well as the pico de gallo!
Delicious entrees with generous portions & superb flavor!

The only redeeming trait of this place is the view. Some of the worst service I’ve ever had, and I eat out a fair amount. Just completely ignored and it wasn’t even that busy. As someone else noted, «family and friends» seemed to get the preferential treatment. No thanks. Not coming back.

Awful customer service. Made the mistake of coming here on Father’s Day with my husband and daughter. Our waitress just disappeared… Didn’t bring the water that was asked for, no refills or offers to refill drinks, we were not checked on and had to flag someone down to get our bill. All we got was a lame sorry from the man who was flagged down. I will not be back. There are far better Mexican options in this town that provide much better service.

Went here for Father’s day with family and friends thought we would try the new place in town. The food was not good the service was slow at best, the water at the table was in a fancy carafe but I couldn’t enjoy it as it was warm and the aroma of chlorine was over powering. We were out of chips and dip which wasn’t a bad thing because they were stale. I usually bring home leftovers from a Mexican restaurant but servings were so small and again not worth keeping anyways.
Extapa is a far better Mexican restaurant.

Great food good service all in all a great
Restaurant really nice restaurant will come here again!

Really slow service and it wasnt that busy.
Some staff friendly, others could care less.
Took care of thier «friends and or family member» over us the entire time we were there. Even though we arrived much earlier.
Feels like some of the staff are very Shady. Sorry, but that’s the truth!
View is great.
Food was decent.
Drinks were watered down but ok.
This place has a lot of potential but most of the staff needs an attitude adjustment.
A lot more hussle, good customer service, attentiveness and non-​bias service would go a LOOOONG way at this establishment,
My bill was $ 90, I still left a 22% tip but if we go again, and service is the same as our 1^st time, that tip will be cut down greatly.
1^st impression was not great. Would go back for 1 last chance, due to great view on a Sunny day and ambiance.

Service and food are inconsistent we have 15 options for Mexican food in Monroe, need to upgrade service and have food be 5* every visit

Excellent food, great service, very clean restaurant! Loved the great selection on menu. Hands down best Mexican restaurant in Monroe (and there are many). Sad to see sockeyes gone but would recommend this as the nicest Mexican place with beautiful views of the lake.

This place is amazing! What a nice surprise. My wife and I are Mexican food junkies and we came across this place. The service is friendly and fast but it’s the food that we are so impressed with. I had the super nachos and my wife had taquitos. Huge portions and great flavor. I also saw many other familiar dishes go by that matched ours in quality and size.
Oh, the view. Right on the Tye Lake.
Yep, you need to try El Lago. You will not be disappointed.

We’ve gone for happy hour a few times. The service is excellent– attentive, friendly but not intrusive– and the location is scenic. (They took over from a higher end seafood place, and have a patio right on the lake as well as inside tables right over the lake– far nicer than their competitors in the area).
My husband has tried a few different things, but I keep getting the sopa de albondigas. The various things he has gotten have been good, tasty ingredients prepared well– some fantastic, some good but not great– but the soup is always amazing. It has meatballs of pork with rice and minced veggies, simmered with chunks of carrot, potato, and zucchini, served with lime, cilantro, onions and tortillas. Not overly salted, not toooo spicy, cooked long enough but not too long– reasonably healthy and totally delicious. Easily two meals for $ 12.
There’s a number of other things on the menu I want to try but I haven’t managed yet! The prices are less than most of the chain Mexican restaurants nearby and the location is beautiful. Also the service is a huge plus– great service, which we have always gotten here, will make me pick a particular restaurant over other, otherwise similar ones.
All in all I highly recommend especially for happy hour. They’re new (ish) so I’m sure not all hiccups have been ironed out but absolutely worth a try. We stopped in simply out of curiosity as to who ended up taking the old Sockeyes location, and nearly didn’t since there are so many Mexican places in the area– so glad we did!

Food was fantastic. Amazing flavor. Can’t wait to come back! My wife and I loved it. We ordered to go and it was ready very quick.

Brought out of town family here. It was our first time, too. Margaritas were very good. Plates were huge. Literally. Food was excellent. This will be our new go-​to for Mexican. Can’t wait to sit outside on the lake.

Ok so guac was awesome I will go back for that. In fact food was pretty good, but damn service was worse than worse. I ordered a Long Island was told it was $ 4 during happy hour great I got one no alcohol food comes I have my glass at the end of the table no one comes I am half though my food finally yes I want another it’s $ 4 right. Finish my food wonder where my drink is finally it shows up 10 minutes after I finish my food fine I got guac right. No alcohol again. Don’t expect water in between its a Mexico water shortage I guess because that is impossible to get. The enchiladas were good guac was great but come on can I get some drinks. Some service something. I was amazed how I was just ignored here. Btw when I got the bill the Long Island was $ 5 come on there was no alcohol just sugar.

First visit to this place. Good food, great service, really nice atmosphere and surprisingly well priced menu. I had the house special Guadalajara which is a bigger-​than-​huge plate with carne asada, an enchilada and a flouta — with rice, beans and all the fixings (including fresh guac!). All that for $ 18.
The chips are home made and on the thin side — which I prefer. The only thing not exceptional was the salsa — too much tomato sauce. If the salsa was better, this would be a five star review — but mediocre salsa at a Mexican place is a big miss.
On a side note, I really like the atmosphere of this place — which is mostly unchanged from when it was sockeyes. And I think that makes it better than most other Mexican food places with wall to wall Clay tile, arches decorated with parrots or sombreros and where it seems that everyone who works there is related to one another.
This place is tastefully decorated but comfortable and never loud — no matter how many large groups are dining.
Definitely a new favorite — give it a try!

We were in for a quick grub. The ambiance is much modern than the average Mexican places that I normally would go to. We were quickly seated and we got chips and salsa. those chips built my appetite. Was rather disappointed on my first bite. I ordered shredded beef burrito. And the burrito only contained that sherred beef that where chuncky and a bit tough. I chewed on though. The rice was good. The place is nice and clean and by the lake. And the servers were really nice. I just hoped that my burrito was as good as what it should be.

I ordered enchilladas, was happily surprised when the lettuce was fresh and included avacados. I enjoyed the enchilladas, yet they were average (cost about $ 11). My dad ordered a clam/​crab/​seafood soup, it also tasted average.
The best thing about this restaurant is the view. The resturant overlooks a small lake and also has a patio you can go out on and enjoy your meal when its warm outside.

I read the reviews, so came prepared to wait… which is expected with a new restaurant. But our drinks came right away, and our food within 20 minutes. The server came by twice to update us on the status of our meal during that time. We ordered bacon wrapped prawns and fajitas. The food was yummy and attractive. We will be back. Next time, I am trying the poblanos rellenos. By the way, the drinks are reasonable, generous and delicious.,

This restaurant has a lot of promise. They’re still in there awkward opening stage so timing is severely off. We received part of our food when the other people were already done or very close to it. The food that was delivered two items were not what we ordered but they fixed it very quickly and apologized for the inconvenience and the bill was incorrect we were overcharged but they fixed it at the front counter when they realized the error. So thats the only negative let’s go to the positive.
The food here was amazing my wife got carne asada it came out flavorful and not dry and included guacamole.
My daughter got enchiladas they were big full of meat and the food accompaniments were perfect.
My other daughter got a steak fajita burrito and it was the size of an adult’s arm huge it was extremely flavorful. I also got an enchilada platter with a couple different kinds of enchiladas and it came out as I requested. We will definitely eat here again I may even do lunch here this week. The people are friendly the food is good and once they get the bugs out this will be a great place to go for family night.

We went on their third day, so keep that in mind while reading this review (though it’s also the only thing saving them from a 1 star review)
The food was pretty average, nothing special but nothing to complain about. We tried the chimichanga, burrito, chile relleno, and the El Lago Cod. No one had any complaints or special compliments. A bit overpriced compared to other places in Monroe. Their margaritas (at least the Seattle margarita) seemed a little light.
The service was TERRIBLE. The women across from us asked 4 different employees for a check and waited for the check probably 30 minutes (we entered as they were finishing, they got their check as we finished). We were served by no less than 4 people ourselves, and it took an absurdly long time for our water to be refilled, even after we asked if we hadn’t asked I’m sure it NEVER would have come). They tried giving our drinks to another table at one point, and at least once there was a waiter just wandering around looking lost with a drink in his hand (he eventually set it on an empty table and… I guess went for help?). Basically there was a complete lack of organization.