Been looking for a good Mexican restaurant since moving to Ooltewah in October and finally found it. Food and service were great. The margs were very good and not just mixer. Decor was very nice and had a great outdoor seating area. Definitely recommend this place. read more

Being born and raised in California, it is a real pleasure to find a place that has REAL Mexican food! I've been to places in Tennessee that have served us Chile Verde in RED sauce! El Jinete is the real deal. Thank you for an excellent dinner. We will be back again and again. The Chili Verde was excellent, the salsa is really good, and Queso Dip is on point!. read more

This place is one of my favorites. I love their steak tacos Mexican style. I also always order a side of guacamole dip and queso. Staff is always friendly and the wait time is nothing to complain about. I'd rather wait a little bit for fresh food than get it super fast and wonder how long it has been sitting. I do wish they would add tortas, barbacoa, and birria tacos with consúme to the menu. read more

This is hands down best Mexican Restaurant in Ooltewah! Food is always hot and delicious and staff are very friendly and quick. I can't recommend the Lunch Fajita special on the weekends enough. Delicious and such a great deal!! read more

Our absolute favorite Mexican restaurant. Friendly staff. Nice hot food with great flavors.

Moving here from Southern California it was difficult to find a good Mexican restaurant. The chips and salsa here are pretty good, especially the tomatillo salsa! You can make anything vegetarian but substituting whole beans for the meat. It's our go to place for Mexican food in the area. read more

I'm always perplexed as to what to think about El Jinete. The first time I went, last summer, the food was great. Another time it tasted microwaved. The latest time was awesome, again. The service is always less than stellar. When asked how big a plate of fajitas was, a waitress once looked at us and said, "I don't know...normal size." This last time we went a couple of weeks ago, the host was not happy we wanted to sit outside and acted like it was an issue. I ordered fajitas that time and I received three small tortillas to eat my whole meal with. When the checks came I realized they charged me $1 for three more tortillas. They didn't give me enough of the thing I'm supposed to use to eat my meal, and then charge me for it without notice. The place is clean, the food is usually good, but I don't want to give the place my money anymore. read more

absolutely terribly service, everyone there was so rude my food had a hair in it and when I asked for it to be remade the food was snatched from my table? I'm sorry? is that MY fault? No it's not. then they still added it onto my bill and when I asked for it to be taken off they gave me attitude over it. I cant believe any service industry would DARE treat its clients like this. DO NOT EAT HERE THEY ARE AWFUL read more

We've been enjoying this restaurant since we moved to the area about three years ago. The chips and salsa are tasty and plentiful. My reason for leaving a 4 is that they usually bring our orders separately as they are prepared rather than all together. read more

Really no excuse for what they set before me this evening. i ordered the "Fajitas Texanas" which was supposed to be fajitas with a mix of steak, chicken and shrimp. And of course, fajitas are supposed to arrive at the table sizzling hot on a cast iron skillet. skillet was not at all hot, just warm. On it about a pound of dry, gnarled chicken pieces. steak was not chopped up and mixed in; there were just 2 small cuts of rubbery meat. Shrimp? 5 little ones. Under the meat was about a quarter cup of onion, no peppers. corn tortillas were steamed, therefore flavorless. Do you steam tortillas at home? Of course not. the only way to really bring out flavor of corn tortillas is to toss them on a griddle or fire. Would have given 1 star but was able to bring home the pile of dry chicken which I will dip in mayonnaise to snack on. read more

Great authentic Mexican food. Service was quick. Really enjoyed myself with my family.

Only thing good was the moonshine masquerading as a margarita. Food service and and seating was terrible. Not to mention the Leche that they're serving as queso read more

We frequent El Jinete for lunch on Sunday afternoon. The service is always great; friendly servers always keeping our drinks filled and plenty of salsa and chips. Love the lunch special of fajitas...always more than I can eat....so as an extra bonus I get lunch for the next day out of my meal. Love sitting outside and enjoying a good hot meal! read more

El Jinete - Sunday special of lunch fajitas - Mexican Near Me - Ooltewah, Tennessee

Always a favorite. The drive thru is so helpful during Covid. I've eaten at a lot of Mexican restaurants but their salsa is always superior.

Good food and a lot of food very fast. Just a little on the expensive side for rice and chicken. Quesadilla

Had an enjoyable lunch. Seemed like a pretty typical Mexican restaurant. Service was friendly and the food was fast. I ordered a beef taco. The shell was a great texture and it was loaded with meat. I never usually order soup at a Mexican restaurant, but decided to do something different today. I ordered the chicken tortilla soup. The bowl was massive! It came with avacado and pico on a separate place. It was delicious. I could definitely taste a good amount of cilantro in the pico, which I love. read more

Great Mexican food in Ooltewah, TN. I really enjoyed the food and time spent with my family in this place. If you wanna have excellent food and family time, this is the place for it. Enjoy!!!! I'm from Mexico and usually get sad cause Mexican food in the US tastes no so good, but this place is good. Still kind of TEX MEX Mexican food but still has good options and an excellent bar........ read more

I will start with the positives of our experience when we went to El Jinete. Upon entry to the restaurant we were greeted by a friendly hostess, clean facility, and comfortable atmosphere. The server was friendly, prompt, and attentive. The chips and salsa were fresh and had a good flavor. We were very disappointed when the food came out. I had ordered a cheese enchilada & chicken tamale combo. Based upon the only place in the menu that listed a chicken tamale, I expected the tamale to be brought out with a tomatillo sauce on top of it. My husband ordered a steak burrito. What we received were cold beans, a pile of ground beef on top of my chicken tamale with the red enchilada sauce poured over the beef. The cheese enchilada was a cold corn tortilla wrapped around grated cheese with the same red sauce drizzled over the top --- not even covering the entire tortilla. What a waste of money and food!!! My husband's burrito came out with cold beans & rice and strips of beef that did not have any seasoning to it (not even salt and pepper). We will not be going back and do not recommend it to others. read more

Worst place ever! Food was not good and stood there for 10 minutes waiting to be sat for a table. Many workers looking up at us from their phones, most just sitting around doing nothing. Never will return, will always spread bad words about this place. read more

Good food. The sauce on enchilada,burrito, chile combo plate had a nice tanginess. Fast service even on a very busy Friday night.

Good food, friendly and quick service, laid back vibe AND an exclusive margarita menu...can't get much better! Will definitely be back!

This is the second time we have eaten here. Terrible service both times. This time they sat us at a dirty table with the Covid situation. When I asked the lady to clean the table she told me they did earlier. I had to ask again for it to be cleaned and then she only wiped one area. We had to ask an additional time for the table to be cleaned as there was dried food on the table and a wet ring from the dirty margarita glass that was left sitting. They then brought out salsa and when we went to eat some there was a long dark hair inside of it. Mind you our waitress had long dark hair. There was no social distancing in place at all. People sitting on top of one another Inside waiting. When we went to leave and pay for our sweet teas they tried to charge us for the dirty margarita glass that was left on the table when they originally sat us. We will not go back this place is not sanitary and they are not complying with the Covid restaurants requirements. I would not recommend taking my family here. read more

Those moving to the area looking for quality Mexican food, this isn't what you are wanting. You won't find quality at any of the family restaurants. I have tried most. When asked why the food is so poorly done. The answer has been.... the locals don't know any difference. If you want good food, you have to go where the workers go. Taco Roc has been a pleasure also in Cleveland Nela's This area is a culinary wasteland. read more

A couple of friends and I came here after work for margs and food for my birthday. One of my friends arrived about a little while after us but we were all still drinking and snacking. It started to get busy but my friend who arrived later was still eating her guacamole, that she paid for, and chips and drinking her marg. She had just taken a bite when our waitress, who barely came to our table to check on us in the first place, decided to remove it (with some pieces still in it). A few minutes later as she was eating chips and salsa, since they had so rudely taken away her guacamole, a man came up to us and said "everything good here because we need your table because people are waiting". My friend is literally sitting there still eating chips and salsa and drinking her drink and you're trying to push us out?! I am so disappointed and disgusted by the rudeness and disregard to those who have a table and are still eating! I understand being busy but when paying customers are still eating you really shouldn't be so inconsiderate. Not a nice way to end a birthday outing. read more

Best Mexican food I've had in Tennessee would totally recommend and the people that work here are so great

This is my favorite Mexican restaurant in the Ooltewah area. The entree prices are a bit higher than most Mexican restaurants in the area but the quality of the food and taste is worth it to me. The service is always excellent and the food comes out quickly. Portions are large enough that my husband and I can split an order of fajitas and both be satisfied. Try the Texas Margarita! read more

Best Mexican Restaurant!! Food & customer service fantastic!!! I highly recommend going alway worth the wait!!

Disgusting, no flavor, milky queso, order took forever...good strawberry moonshine margarita though.

Absolutely horrible, I have a lot of patience have worked in the restaurant industry, but this place shouldn't even be opened, or should fire everyone and hire new employees. My boyfriend and I went in to eat, told hostess 2, she went to go take us to a table right by the front that had two dirty glasses on it, she grabbed them after laying down our menus and had no intentions of cleaning/wiping the table. My boyfriend made a comment that the table needed to be wiped down and she ran her finger across the table as if she was checking that she didn't need to wipe it down. It clearly had water marks from glasses, salt and other wet looking spot. So after she wiped it down with attitude, she replaced our menus and walked away without a word. Next, we don't even get greeted by a server, she went to the table directly next to us that had at least gotten their drinks and chips. She took their food order and walked away to the back. Not to be seen for a few minutes. Still no one greeted us or said anything to us. Finally she comes from the back looks at us, the rest of the tables in her section... and turns around still not coming to greet us. So my boyfriend saw a woman that was cleaning tables and sweeping..went and asked if she was a manager, she stated an assistant manger and after he told her our rough beginnings there... she said okay let me see, walks to the hostess desk and talks to the employees about the tables being neglected, instead of offering to take our drink order. That was enough for us and we left. Only to find out that a table near us hadn't been served either, and another table on the other side had a horrible service experience as well. With the attitudes and lack of customer service, cleanliness I didn't even want to put 1 star. I do not recommend this place at all. read more

Tried this place several times, specifically for take out. We order for a family of three and always get queso dip. Every single time we ask for an extra bag of chips because we get queso dip and salsa with our order. They only include 1 in our to go bag and when I ask for the extra the servers look at me like they are annoyed. This last time when I asked she walked off, came back 5 min later, ignored me and started helping another person. I asked another server and she looked down at my receipt to for a minute then walked off without saying a word. She came back 5 min later to hand me a cold bag of chips, again without saying a word. I normally wouldn't complain about this but it happens EVERY time. Not to mention that the tacos are cold, tiny, and the queso dip is. Normally half full. I'll never be going back. read more

My fajitas where cold the steak tasted like it was cooked in water. Also I asked with jalapeños and instead of bell pepper all that was serve was steak and some onions nasty do not no recomend stay away not real Mexican read more

Finally. A Mexican restaurant my husband and I can agree on. We moved to the EB area a few years ago and have struggled to find a Mexican restaurant we both enjoy. We drove by El Jinete a few weeks ago on a Saturday morning and made a mental note to try it one evening. We finally got to enjoy it last night and it was great! The service was wonderful and the restaurant was very nice and clean. One of my favorite things I tried was a quesadilla with Pastor meat. It was pork with onions, peppers, and pineapple. I was trying to get something I wouldn't normally try and am so glad I did. It was excellent, and my husband enjoyed it as well. If you haven't tried this place yet, definitely stop in. Much better than the other 2 options just down the street. read more

Better than elmatador - still struggles a bit with the grease but a pleasant addition to ooltewah. A bit pricy for Mexican of this caliber but very pleasant staff, friendly manager and like I said it's a restaurant addition to ooltewah which is always good ! read more

We order here every Tuesday and the last 5 times my Margarita doesn't have salt or lime. I even ask when we place the togo order and it's still wrong. Not happy because this is one of our favorite places to eat read more

Wait staff handed a plate that was apparently taken straight out of the oven to my husband, who promptly dropped it but not before he got burns on both hands. Telling someone that the plate is hot and then reaching it out for them to take implies that the plate can be safely handled. I have never been anywhere before that didn't place a very hot plate down on the table. read more

Great food. Almost scary fast service. Vast menu with tons of options for everyone. I have never ordered anything that I didn't enjoy. I personally suggest the El Real dip as an appetizer and the Churros for desert. And their chips and salsa are some of my favorite in town. read more

The Fajita special is always a great value. It is around $8 for a huge plate of piping hot Fajitas. Service is always fast.

If you get the shredded chicken tacos, it comes with too many onions and green peppers and not enough queso. My teenage daughter had to send hers back (she did try to eat hers-but it was just too much onions and green peppers) and had to get beef nachos because the shredded chicken nachos do not come without all the onions and green peppers. I like onions and green peppers but that was just way too much for me. Luckily, I had ordered sliced avocado so I just ate the avocado to help mask all the onions and green peppers. The waiter was very nice and accommodating. That's why I gave them 2 stars instead of 1. read more

I'm from El Paso and this Mexican place is not authentic but it has its own uniqueness. Checkout all the things I got from here. read more

El Jinete - Mexican Near Me - Ooltewah, Tennessee

See all

Will not return to this restaurant due to their attitude towards people that cannot wear a mask to walk to a table. Went to another Mexican restaurant close by with no problems. Good bye from a loyal customer. Doubt that they even care! read more