I had dinner here on a Friday evening for the first time. El Charro is located about 1 mile east of Hwy 89 and has a big parking lot when you get there. Outside there was an uncovered patio with a musician playing his guitar. Inside I saw a full bar in its own room and then 2 dining rooms. I ordered the chicken fajitas for $23.10 (weird pricing) and asked for the ranchero beans and homemade flour tortillas. First to arrive was a basket of complimentary chips and two red salsas. One was mild and the other spicy, I enjoyed them both the mild one more so. The meal arrived about 15 minutes later. I noticed the large bowl of beans along with a healthy dollop of sour cream and another one of guac. The sizzling platter had grilled onions and red and green bell peppers with the grilled chicken, of course. The beans were good tasting in their broth but I couldn't detect anything like bacon in them. Kiddos on being such a large serving but taste wise I thought they were average. The fajitas were good tasting with the added pico de gallo that came with the meal but not to the point that I would return for them again anytime soon. And at $23 for chicken seemed to be a little expensive. I would return to El Charro to try something else especially considering that the amount of restaurants in Chino Valley is kind of limited. read more

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Very cool bar area, outdoor seating, inside seating etc. Great cocktails, Margaritas, cold beers.... Food great as well. It's outside of town but totally worth it..... read more

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Juniper (not to be confused with Jennifer lol) was amazing thank you so much for the experience... food was great like usual (hands down best enchilada sauce ever) and the patio atmosphere was perfect read more

El Charro Norte - Crème brûlée cheesecake - Mexican Near Me - Chino Valley, Arizona

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What a nice hidden, gem! Great service (Juniper), Solid 4+ star Chili Relleno, very crunchy chicken taco, and BIG chicken enchilada (it was like a mini burrito!) - Good sized portions, 3 flavorful salsas (something for everyone), very light and crispy chips - excellent margarita (Prickly Pear highly recommended) can't wait to try some fajitas here! It's actually closer than driving into town (we live in Williamson Valley) that was the best Chili Relleno I've had since moving out here - very fresh. Everything was served very hot (temperature wise) and very quick and efficient service. read more

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El Charro Norte is near our house, so we eat there fairly often. I just the other day discovered Mexican pork chop! Wowie it is probably THE most flavorful meal I have ever had in that restaurant or any restaurant. Can't wait to go back and have it again! read more

I was greeted by a friendly smile. The service and food were great. Glad I found this place! read more

El Charro Norte - Half fajitas plate for one - Mexican Near Me - Chino Valley, Arizona

El Charro is the best ever! The food is always awesome and the back patio is great. Their hot sauce is my favorite!

Eat here alot and the food is good service is very good and everyone is friendly. They stay busy but the wait time is always reasonable.

We've been coming here for many years and Juniper single handed ruined it for me. I ordered an fajita plate and she asked " full or half", thinking the menu said for uno or for dos... and maybe they have a half full order ? Well I said full thinking full uno single order , and saw a $39 charge for a single order of fajitas. So beware of how you order because she will rip you off. read more

El Charro Norte - Proof of the encounter - Mexican Near Me - Chino Valley, Arizona

Sat for over 30mins waiting for service and not a single waitstaff came to the table despite multiple people walking past. Was always a regular but last few times there have been mistakes with orders or long wait times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt we returned and once again were disappointed. I worked in the industry for years and can completely understand being busy or understaffed, but every table had their order taken and was given either food or checks with multiple servers and bus staff on the floor. Very disappointing to see a once good restaurant go so downhill. read more

Service was outstanding. Environment was nice amd unique. Prices were reasonable. Taste was best we had in area. Definitely will be back. Would love to see appetizers on Happy Hour. read more

Not only the best Mexican restaurant in town but top in my list! Very reasonably priced & top quality/ I might even go tonight for dinner. Now what to have" Enchiladas or those fried chillies..... read more

I used to like this restaurant very much. It was lively, active, good view, service good, and the food was the best part of all. But the family went there on the 4th of July for an early dinner and the food was way below what I had experience before Order the taco salad. It can with only lettuce and shredded chicken. The chicken was tasteless, dry, and old. Other than the lettuce, there was nothing there. No beans, sauces, sour cream, etc. For over $100 for three of us, I was kinda expecting more and a better experience. Don't think we will be going back in the near future and it used to be much better read more

This isn't a spot you're just gonna happen upon by cruising by. You need to know exactly where you're going, when coming here. It's way out behind houses and in the middle of nowhere and you'll feel certain you're lost. Hubby heard about this little hole-in-the-wall place from a friend, and it was good. Great chips and salsa. Ordered the carnitas plate and hubby had the carnitas chimichanga. Good food, service and amazing views! Place has outdoor seating and corn hole games set up. This would be a great spot to dine outdoor with a large group of friends! read more

El Charro Norte - View from our table - Mexican Near Me - Chino Valley, Arizona

Went to dinner at El Charro Norte. Joshua was our server and was excellent. He was polite and took the time to make our dinner a pleasure. Our food was great. Have been going to El Charro for years. Always a super experience. read more

We have been going there twice a week for their Margarita specials and last night was so disappointing. First off, absolutely love the staff, but El Charro has decided to defy the odds of angering some of their most loyal customers. Usually receive 2 different salsas as one is very hot...nope...$2 Margarita I always get a Virgin...maybe, she'll check....only been 2 years of getting them. Then the upsell maneuvers both menu mistakes (there are consumer protection laws) and extra for additions. A simple Roberto Burger priced at $14.75 became $20.75 as the addition of French Fries went up to $6 (menu shows $4). The fries were not even all the way fried. The Chimichanga not really crisped became a bland tortilla filled with not even salt seasoned beef. What's happening? I did show the server who was apologetic but didn't respond to my comment of the menu prices need to reflect the charges...there are Consumer Protection Laws. She did say she's noticed the price increases and would tell the owner. I never thought I would be that person I've previously overheard talking with the manager about exactly this same thing. I am a defender of those servers that get bashed by terrible patrons with attitudes and that I am not as I have previously defended a couple of those servers in the past as totally out of their control. I have been in the business for over 20 years and refuse to believe that this great place is falling apart. read more

Great atmosphere . Great margaritas. Great live music. Great service. Food is good but not great. If you are just looking for great Mexican food, I may look elsewhere but the rest of the experience is worth it. read more

Very nice local Mexican restaurant in Chino tucked away off of the main highway. Easy parking in the dirt lot nearby. Servers are very nice and the ambiance is family friendly, as well as suitable for groups and larger gatherings. I think they have karaoke and parties on the weekends as well. Food is tasty and a solid variety of standard Mexican food options. Awesome taco Tuesday and margarita Monday options. Prices are reasonable and you get a solid meal each time you visit. Chips/salsa always a winner. Varying types of spiciness depending on your preference. If you're hungry and looking for a place to grab dinner w/ friends or don't want to drive all the way south to Prescott, this is a great option! read more

Love this place. I would define it as a hole in the wall. It's definitely off the main roads. You might think your lost. Great food, bar and service. I will definitely be back. read more

Interesting hamburger tacos with a ketchup and mustard base, cheese, and topped with pickles - they were delicious. Chips were fresh and the salsa was homemade tasty. Despite being somewhat crowded early on a Thursday evening, I was seated quickly and the service was fast. This spot is a roadhouse with good food and honky tonk music playing in the background...prices were quite reasonable and I got enough to eat. read more

El Charro Norte - Chips, hot and mild salsa - Mexican Near Me - Chino Valley, Arizona

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Extremely good mexican food. This place is well off the beaten tract, but well worth seeking out. I had a great burrito and wife had the carne asada. Server was very attentive, lots of beer choices. Did not have the margarita, but they looked good Highly recommend ! read more

It's off the beaten path. But the food and drinks are great. I enjoy going in for there specials, food and drinks.

How in the hell are they still in business? Worst food I have ever ate and the service is just as bad... they didn't last in prescott and iam shocked he is surviving in chino, barely!!!! read more

Monday, December 26, 2022 We live in Southern California and are used to MUCH better mexican restaurants, but we're here in AZ visiting family this week and were advised that we absolutely had to experience El Charro Norte. I'm a major food critic when it comes to mexican food. I can easily tell you the restaurants that are doing it right and the restaurants that are not. I'm always on the hunt for extraordinary Mexican restaurants no matter what city I'm in. When we visit this area of AZ, we are always disappointed with the various Mexican restaurants here that are pretending to offer good Mexican food. In other words, we haven't found any seriously good Mexican restaurants here like we have in Southern California. However.... someone we know in Southern California told us about El Charro Norte and told us how it was the real deal. So when we arrived in AZ today, El Charro Norte was our very first stop! So the four of us had lunch here today. I am VERY impressed with this restaurant, I agree with my friend this place really is the real deal. Yes it's a little off the beaten path but I would come back again in a heartbeat if ever in this particular area of AZ. Our family lives in Prescott Valley so it's a little far for us. The good news.......FINALLY this area of AZ has a Mexican restaurant that can actually call itself a real Mexican restaurant. These guys do it right. The cooks know exactly what they're doing in the kitchen. El Charro Norte is the closest I have found to the real deal Mexican restaurants we have in Southern California. They have three different sauces. Mild medium and spicy all of them are great. Personally everything about this place is great. The vibe, the food, it's all great. The only thing they could have done better is to melt the cheese on the enchiladas more. Food needs to stay in the oven longer to properly melt the cheese all the way. I don't want to see shredded cheese on my food still looks like it's shredded cheese. It needs to be all melted together with scorch marks from staying longer in the oven. But....if you're looking for some real Mexican food, you will finally find it at El Charro Norte. Don't even bother with the other pretend Mexican food restaurants around here. See my photos below. read more

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What An Amazing Hidden Gem! I was recommended here by some locals. I came in and ordered a enchilada and chili relleno for dinner. I sat at the bar since I was alone, even on a very busy Friday night I was sat right away. Kelly the bar tender brought me chips, Salsa and a drink right away. She brought me a drink and took my order super fast considering she was completely slammed! In addition the AMAZING service, this was one of the BEST Mexican dinners I've had in ALL the QUAD CITIES! AMAZING, OVER AND ABOVE FOOD, DRINKS AND SERVICE! read more

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The food was delicious. However the service wasn't great. I never had an issue before but the server was very forgetful.

Not real Mexican food. Most of it comes from a can. The bar is nice so if you just want to drink it's great

So we just moved to Prescott about five months ago. We had our former neighbors come visit us from North Scottsdale. We ventured out to this Mexican restaurant in Chino Valley. Boy! What an authentic Mexican restaurant. You really feel like you're in Cabo or Rocky point. We were wanting to sit out on the patio- that was our main reason for going out there. But it wasn't very inviting. They had these little machines sitting on top of the tables spinning around that were a deterrent for the flies and there was no shade . We decided to sit inside. We had a nice booth that looked out to a nicer area of the fields. There is one side of the restaurant that has a view of a small junkyard area. Not sure why they don't clean that up.? It would look so much better if they did. No comment on the chips and the salsa. We tried a bunch of different items from the menu. The two top hits were the chile relleno and the tacos with the cilantro ranch sauce.. all four of us thought the beans were very bland . The weekend Bloody Mary was great! The drive out there was fun. Out in the countryside. We will be back because it is a unique and rare find, and our visitors will enjoy this restaurant/drive . read more

Great food, great service and great atmosphere! We stumbled upon El Charro by accident and so glad we did. Looking forward to a return visit soon. read more

I'm a bit surprised at all the negative reviews. Ok it's not a five star place but the atmosphere is fantastic Otis very clean. And I was with some 19 other guys!! Everyone enjoyed the food it came out quickly and Efficiently. The staff is great. And the food well it's very good. Is there better Mexican food or n this area? Yes. But that can handle a large group every month. And serve $2 margaritas on Mondays? I do no t thinn no k so. I had the chili Relleno stuffed with prawns the priest I was with had chicken fajitas salad. Both dishes were great. Ok my poblano chilis we're freshly done and had a little heat which was great. They were freshly made not some frozen stuff. The prawns were also cooked perfectly. That is hard to do folks!!! And their flavor told me that they were from either Mexico or Hawaii. Yes as good as Kauai prawns. That nice taste. Padres chicken looked great and he really enjoyed it. Yeh it's definitely north!! But a great little gem. 20 of us will be returning for the monthly meeting dinner social. read more

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Service was very good . Food just did not taste very good at all. Cheese enchiladas were greasy and really just hard to eat. Rice taste was very plain, my folded taco was soaked so I had to just tear it apart to eat it. I was sitting in a hole in the booth. I.d never go back. The servers were the highlight of the whole thing .. read more

Our first visit to El Charro Norte was very pleasant. We were taken care of by a wonderful server named Josh and had a table visit by the very nice owner. We are so happy to finally find a restaurant in the area that is open 7 days a week, has the best Mexican food around and wonderful service. Not to mention, the location is unique and the view is gorgeous! We totally recommend Earl as an amazing server. He made our second experience so pleasing. He has a positive, welcoming and humerous personality and made sure we were taken care of the entire evening. We'll see you soon Earl!! read more

OK food. Loud music hampered conversation. Somebody must have failed to show up- Saturday night. Twenty minutes to get a beer - kids soft drinks took even longer. Food order slightly wrong - apologies but no replacement. Waitress was very friendly but overwhelmed with the situation. We have been there several times and will probably return, but ...... read more

It is great Mexican food, service is good and food comes out in a timely manner. Did have to send our water cups back a few times because they were dirty and some had lipstick stain on rim. read more

Great service, delicious fresh food, friendly staff. There's outdoor and indoor seating.

We have been going to El Norte for a couple years now and we have always enjoyed ourselves service. That always been wonderful and the food was always awesome, but not too long ago. We went over there and ordered food and of course the food was good but the service really sucked and then before we even got the chance to finish our meals, they picked up our plates and took them out. We were just in shock. We understand that the business was busy. Maybe they were trying to rush us out so they could get more people in, but that was very rude and we were not happy because here we are paying money for the food that we didn't even get the chance to finish so one of our friends said she was never returning so a week ago we decided to give it another shot, they took us to our table. Somebody brought us chips and salsa and got our drinks for us and we sat there and waited. Another table came in. They sat down. They gave him chips and salsa and this really big party had come in and they did the same for them. We were just waiting to meet our wages and then they waited on the table next to us and then they went and waited on the tape on the big party and every time we try to get somebody's attention, they would turn around and walk away. We were just being ignored. We don't understand why Finally we got a hold of somebody and said we don't know who our waitress is but we would like to order and then they walked away. We waited a few more minutes and finally somebody came and said well I'm not really your waitress, but I'll help you so we made our order And the food was delicious as always, and the other table and next to us as well as the large party they were getting ready to leave as we were just getting our food. We were so frustrated. We didn't understand why this was happening. We paid for our food and took care of our waitress, but we decided we don't want to be treated bad like that again so this was twice we gave him a second chance we were thinking maybe it's because they're busy but obviously it has nothing to do with being busy and we don't know why they couldn't wait on it. It wasn't the color of skin cause everybody else was different colors of skin there too so we will definitely not return anytime real soon. read more

We have not been back since I was served a disgusting Boracho Burrito. The raw tortilla wrapped around the filling, then covered in green enchilada sauce, was truly horrible. It's a bit like finding a cockroach in your soup. read more

Amazing Mexican food off the beaten path. We've been in Prescott for about 18 months and have eaten at many restaurants. This is by far the best Mexican food we've had in all of Prescott, Prescott Valley and Chino Valley!!! We both had a house margarita, great pours. We also had two different meals with Carne Asada...outstanding!!! The waitress was very attentive and helpful. Eagles and country music at a level that allowed for normal conversation. We are definitely coming back! read more

I have been to the restaurant twice hoping the 2nd time would be better than the first but no change. The service is very good and the prices very reasonable, but the problem is the food. The meat in my taco (1st time) and taco salad (2nd time) was very bland and tasteless. The shell for the taco salad was soggy and difficult to break apart. It left grease on the bottom of the plate. Too bad because I like the location and atmosphere of the place, the service, and prices but if I want Mexican food in Chino Valley I will have to return to Arturo's where it tastes much better. I am being generous with the 3 stars because of service, price and location. read more

The Good: The waitress was attentive, there is a nice view from the back, and the place was fairly quiet. The Bad: The food did not have any flavor, if it's fried - it's saturated in oil. Any drink on the rocks are watered down or have no alcohol. Order beer... The Ugly: Had to find clean silverware and glasses.... yuck. read more