El Caracol

Since the last time I came here, this place is now under new management. Every time I see that sign outside of a restaurant that I love, I start to cringe. I think to myself, «oh great! Here we go… lets see how this place will turn out now…» Fifty percent of the time, my gut feeling is correct.
Well, for this place, my gut feeling was right. I was so excited to take my fiancé here during my lunch break since he went all the way to Vacaville to have lunch with me. As we pulled into the shopping plaza, I saw the huge sign hanging outside of the restaurant reading, «Under New Management». I had a bad feeling about it.
As soon as we entered, we couldn’t find anyone who worked there. Just one table filled with a family of 6, and a couple sitting at the corner. We went to the front counter to check out the menu, a lady then popped her head out and asked us what we wanted to order. I raved about the pupusas the last time I went here which was about 5 months ago and I recommend that my fiancé should try it too. So we both ordered our own. The lady told us to have a seat, so we did, she gave us, chips, 2 kinds of salsa, 1 glass bottle of Coca Cola (for me, because it tastes better packaged that way) and 2 glasses water. I was already so hungry so I started munching away. One of the salsas was very good. I almost ate the whole thing.
About 25 mins passed, and we still didn’t have our meals. I was worried, because I had to return to work. So my fiancé peeked his head behind the counter to ask what was going on. This time it was a man who came out and said the food was on the way. They seemed understaffed. And after we initially sat down, no one bothered to follow up with us to see how we were doing, nor offered us more water.
When the food finally came, I noticed the pupusa was kind of burnt and over cooked on one side, where parts of it was black like charcoal, and it tasted like it too. It DID NOT taste like the first time I had it.
It’s very disappointing that this place is not as delicious as when I first tried it. So unfortunately, I will remove my 5 star rating and replace it with a 2 star rating, because not only is the food not good anymore, but additionally because their customer service is now very poor.

The staff were obviously not interested in new patrons. The service started ok but eventually my wife and I were ignored for 2 other patrons that seemed to be regulars. It was more a click than a professional establishment. We won’t interrupt their private party again.

We ordered to go chile verde burrito and it was filled with 90% rice, 5% beans 5% Chile verde. When we got home, we discovered it was a very expensive disappointment. It was a culinary rip off. We will never return. It really makes me angry because I work hard for my money and I would feel bad if I were to perform my work with so little consideration and concern for quality. What ever happened to self respect?

good food, fast, and friendly. they were pretty busy with to-​go orders but the food was fresh and still pretty quick. huge pupusas, we had the cheese, pork and cheese and revueltas, all of them were awesome! and so was the cortido and the beans. yeah I liked it pretty well.

By far one of the best places in Vacaville for a burrito they are fast and have great customer service! Definitely heading back soon

This place place is good! I like the flavor, ingredients and sauces, but the meat to rice ratio is poor. There super burrito is good but when I bite into it, it’s 90 percent Spanish rice and 10 percent other ingredients (beans, meat, sourcream, cheese) if it was more 60 percent rice and 40 percent of others, I would eat here all the time. Keep up the good food, but please add more meat !

Special Burrito is $ 9 with very little meat, it’s 97% rice.
Go to another restaurants in Vacaville with better quality. I had Burritos that were $ 6 – 7 and we’ll worth it. Never coming back.

This place used to be my #1 place for enchilada. With the new management, it is not the best place but still gooood.

Not the worst, but definitely not the best either. The wait was long, the food was barely above average, the staff was very friendly.

One of the best little hole in the wall restaurants I’ve been too! Their mole enchiladas are absolutely AMAZING! The service is pretty decent as well…

I have to give this place 5 stars! I ate here years ago and was so unhappy I never came back, but current reviews sent me back for a second try, and boy am I glad I did! Not only did the owner provide exceptional customer service, he offered us a free pupusa, chips and salsa and waters while waiting on our to go order! And it was one of the best Mexican dishes I have yet to taste! For $ 10.99 we ordered a 3 item combo, and every single item we ordered was fresh, authentic and just absolutely delicious! I’ll definitely be back! What a fantastic turn around for this hole in the walexican joint!

Great food & fantastic service! Pupusas are delicious, I recommend this place if you want a great place to eat and prices are good. Weekend menudo has handmade corn tortillas!

Unfortunately the ownership has changed and some of my previous review is not true any longer… the food is still great and tastes the same. However the portion size of the burritos has been changed. A large burrito is the same price but half the size, maybe ²⁄₃ the size. Also I believe the salsa has changed and isn’t as good as before. Give me back my large burrito please!

Three and a half stars —
New Management*
I came in at 11 on the spot and the worker there was still mopping the floor. He mumbled something (I assume, ‘take a seat.’ So I did). There was minimal conversation that I had with him but I did order the pork and cheese along with the chicken and cheese (side of chips came out while I was waiting).
While waiting I did notice that the guy was the only one in the dining area taking care of incoming customers while another woman was in the back cooking. The place got busy pretty quick and the phone kept ringing constantly.
The pupusas were HUGE! My favorite of the two that I ordered was the pork and cheese but honestly I could of put away one if I pushed myself. I ate possible one fourth of each and needed and box to go. I ended up having to walk to the counter to ask for the box and check while the guy was walking around frantically trying to tend to all the customers at once.
Maybe they should hire more people?

I recently moved to Vacaville from the Bay Area and the #1 thing I miss the most is the food. Everything out here is processed or franchised food or simply doesn’t match the quality of what I’m used to. So you can only imagine how happy I was to find this pupusa joint. It is a small mom and pop shop in a strip mall. I’m always greeted with a smile by a charming sweet lady. The pupusas are huge and are pretty on point considering the location. The quality is pretty close to my favorite place in the Mission SF. I can normally consume 2 but learned my lesson to not order more than one here. They are fairly larger than your average pupusas and don’t lack flavor. Today was my 3^rd visit and I have not been disappointed yet. Don’t let the older reviews fool you, they are under new management as of a few months ago.

I’m in love with this restaurant.
–great service: wanted to take a look at the menu so we can order food to go and the waitress sat us down with some water and chips to let us decided what we wanted, since it was our first time. She checked in on us numerous times after ordering to let us know how long it’ll be for our food.
–amazing pupusas: we ordered chicken with cheese and beans and cheese. I can’t get enough of the pupusa and the cabbage mix that comes with it!
I absolutely fell in love with their salsa and honestly, even the beans and rice were amazing. If you haven’t given this place a chance yet, I promise you, it’s worth it!

I was looking for a pupusa place after my husband and two kids finished shopping at the Vacaville outlets and I found this place only 7 minutes away. So as we sat down the waitress greeted us and immediately asked if we wanted any refreshments and chips with salsa. Within a couple minutes she took our order and gave us our drinks and chips with salsa. Soon afterwards the kids food came out which was great because they were so hungry and the proportions were large. A little after that our food came out (pupusas– which were great). Not to mention during the whole dinner the waitress and waiter were constantly waiting on is hand and foot. My son even dropped a couple of silver ware and the waiter got up to go get it telling me it was ok and that I didn’t have to get out of my seat. Overall the food was so delicious, inexpensive and the service was wonderful. Thank you ! I will definitely eat there again.
–Priscilla

New owners, same menu, same cooks, and same prices. You need to give this place another try. We always liked the food here, but the service had been so bad with the previous owners, we stopped going.
The new owner has improved the service and the food is ready quickly. We think the food is the same as before and we love going there now!
Enchiladas (especially the mole) and chile rellenos are our favorites.

Came out from American Canyon just to eat at this hole in the wall. Jannet working the front counter was friendly and made at least a half dozen stops to our table while we dined. Jannet even went out of her way to go above and beyond to greet customers and was suuuuper friendly! The food took about 10 – 15 minutes to come out… but it was well worth it! I hardly talked because the food was so scrumptious! The food was amazing! The price was lower than expected (not complaining) and we were very satisfied with our experience at El Caracol. Were ordered #19a 2 papusas and a flaunta, and #23 2 papusas and a taco. I recommend getting the mix of meat with cheese or just cheese when ordering the papusas. Definitely coming back to this little spot.

* Welcome Experience
— Blatantly Bad
This is another one of «those «places. The people I have encountered working at El Caracol have an evident lack of customer awareness in my opinion. Let’s get this straight, for a restaurant staff, that is A VERY BAD THING. I’ve encountered this on all three of my visits.
* Establishment
— Discouraging
It’s clean from what I can see, so that’s not why I find this establishment discouraging. The lack of spirit or soul just makes for a plain, unspectacular experience. There are about 16 or so inflatable beer ads hanging from the ceiling with string and a few fake plants.
* Service
— Blatantly Bad
Many previous posters point out that El Caracol is slow. I don’t care about slow. When food is done right, I will wait an eternity to get it. My schedule is flexible. So when I read the Unilocal warnings that service was slow, it didn’t bother me one bit.
Here is what bothers me. So bad.
The staff comes across as barely competent. I know this is next to impossible, because everyone has the aptitude to carry a plate from one place to the other. That’s why I said «comes across as» because.
Tonight I went to El Caracol for dinner. When I entered the empty dining room at 6:30pm on a Wednesday night, the staff who saw me walk in didn’t even turn their head to look. THAT ALONE JUST BAFFLES ME! But that’s the TONE for your entire experience.
I GUESSED I’d just seat myself because the person tending the dining room wasn’t interested in what I did and there’s no sign that advises me to seat myself. So I sat.
*rant*
As an aside, the owners BREAK THEIR NECKS to proudly display NOT ONE BUT TWO large signs that read «WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE» — one of the strangest things you can post in a restaurant… Am I wrong? As a business owner why do you feel like you need to put your patrons on notice that the privilege of eating at your establishment is subject to revocation at the owners pleasure. Ugh.
*/​rant*
Yes menus came. Yes an order was taken. Yes the chips slowly came out. Yes the food arrived. Yes, wait no, the check took so long to come I just walked to the counter and paid it.
El Caracol, here is a NICKEL worth of FREE advice:
Put some tiny amount of effort into ENGAGING your guest. I’d say you’re at about a 2 out of 10 right now, and with MINIMAL effort you could SOAR right past a 3 or even 4!
See, I don’t mind that you’re slow. I do mind that you make me feel like you hate that I’m there.
Try this, «I’ll go put your order in. We make everything fresh to order so it takes a little bIt. I’ll keep an eye on your order though, and let me know if there’s anything I can do for you in the meantime. Here’s some chips and salsa and some napkins while you’re waiting.»
That one is a FREEBIE El Caracol. If your staff said that to me I would wait AN HOUR for your DELECTABLE PAPUSA and EL PASTOR TACO. Feel free to use it!
Instead I get A DEADLY COMBINATION of food that comes out of the kitchen slowly and staff who SEEMS TO HATE THAT IM THERE and carries out their tasks in a DISINTERESTED FASHION. (Even easy ones like providing napkins!)
* Food Quantity /​Quality /​Presentation
— Outstanding
Eat. This. Food. The solution is probably to phone in a take out order to avoid the bad experience you’ll likely have as a diner.
The Papusas are EXTRAORDINARY! I’ll admit I don’t really know what a «real» Papusa is supposed to taste like since this is my first time eating them, but what I do know is this dish is prepared with care. The recipe is delicious, the preparation is deliberate and the flavor is spot on. Yum! (Pic)
The El Pastor taco is also EXTRAORDINARY! Like the Papusa it is clearly assembled with some passion!
The place is INEXPENSIVE TOO! Around $ 17 fed three of us!
* Stuff that isn’t important but I felt it was worth mentioning
The inflatable beer ads hanging from the ceiling make me feel embarrassed for them a little bit.
* What I’ll remember
The food is very well done.
* What I can’t wait to forget
The service. It would be so easy to elevate your service level just a lil bit.