Review: El Pueblo

Who doesn’t love Mexican food??  There seems to be more and more Mexican restaurants popping up around the area, but my go-to is El Pueblo in Blue Ash.   First of all, always check the Reach magazine.  There is almost always a coupon in there for El Pueblo that you might as well take with you.  We went up here on a recent Friday night when it was kind of warm but not warm enough to sit outside.  The restaurant was PACKED and therefore, pretty loud.  This didn’t bother us though.  We put our name in and headed to the bar.  I started with a frozen strawberry margarita and my husband got a Dos Equis Ambar. Both drinks kept us busy while we waited for the rest of our party to arrive.  While we waited, a server gladly brought us a basket of chips and salsa to snack on.

For it being a Friday evening, and for how crowded it was, we were seated pretty quickly considering we had a party of 9.  I would guess we waited no more than 20 minutes. 

The menu can be a little intimidating at first, but I would say it’s pretty similar to most Mexican restaurants I’ve been to.  I have been to El Pueblo multiple times, but I still like to try different things.  I decided on this night to go with the Quesadilla Dinner.  This is a basic quesadilla: chicken and cheese with a side of lettuce, sour cream, guacamole and tomatoes.  It was just the right size for me since I had some chips and salsa as well.  This quesadilla was pretty good, but my friend Anna got the Super Quesadilla, which I have had before, and I would say that is better.  It is a little bit bigger and has a cheese sauce on top of the quesadilla as well. 

Our other friend got the El Zacatecano. This was grilled chicken with chorizo, pineapple and melted cheese served over a flour tortillia with rice, lettuce, sour cream, tomato and cheese.  I didn’t try this, but she said it was very good.  I just never think to get dishes like this when I’m at Mexican restaurants. I always get the standards: tacos, quesadillas, fajitas, or nachos.  However, I thought this looked really good and opened my eyes to other types of food on the menu!  I may end up trying this in the future.

I couldn’t get pictures of what everyone else got, but some items that were ordered was a burrito, a chimichanga, and enchiladas. Everyone seemed pleased and full when finished with their orders. 

So, to wrap it up, here are some positives and negatives about El Pueblo:

Negatives:  It gets REALLY loud in here.  It can be hard to hear people sitting right next to you. It also gets pretty crowded; there was a wait the whole time we were there. 

Positives: The food is good and reasonably priced.  A 12oz margarita is about $4.50, domestic beers are $2.79 bottle and domestics are $3.29 a bottle.  Drafts are cheaper.   Most meals are around $10.  I don’t drink margaritas very often, but I think these are pretty good.  They have a nice patio for when it gets warm and parking is easy. 

~Kate