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    EL Maguey

    3.6 (35 reviews)
    InexpensiveMexican
    Open 11:00 am - 10:00 pm

    EL Maguey Photos

    Business Info

    EL MAGUEY ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Outdoor seating
    Good for groups
    Good for kids
    Happy hour specials

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    Recommended Reviews - EL Maguey

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    Taco salad with guacamole.
    Matt P.

    There are more than a few Tex-Mex restaurants in Cleveland, TN. I checked this one out with some friends on a Sunday evening. When we went, the restaurant was mildly busy in the days before COVID-19. We were a party of 6 but our server was great in not only keeping all of our drink orders correct but offering advice on what to order or how to customize. I ordered the taco salad and its flour tortilla shell bowl was perfectly crispy with a giant scoop of guacamole on top. Around the table, everyone's meals looked delicious, especially the Hawaiian Pineapple. This is served in a hollowed-out half pineapple with marinated grilled chicken, steak, and shrimp, cooked with bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, rice, beans, lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo, and tortillas. I would definitely order that next time I'm in the neighborhood and stop by. The menu is huge and there's something for everyone. Plus the chips and salsa appetizers on the table are absolutely addicting. Check out El Maguey, it will become your favorite Tex-Mex in Cleveland.

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    Joyce N.

    This place is always packed and I would say good Mexican food. Nothing very different about it for me that makes me say we must go back. Unfortunately we haven't had the best service when we were here but nice servers just not attentive. I have only been here twice so may not be reflective of how they regularly serve. I think if they decorated the restaurant to look more like a traditional Mexican restaurant would greatly improve the atmosphere!

    Matt S.

    Another Mexican restaurant in Cleveland!!! Shocker, I know. First off, this place is huge and it seems every time we've driven past it, the parking lot is jammed full. So, going in, we had high hopes that this place was gonna be da bomb...not so much. Second, the dining room was a bit warm for our taste. Then again, it didn't help that the place was packed and the party of 25 next to us asked to have the ceiling fans turned off. So, it's pretty much your typical Mexican joint with all the same food...just different names and combo numbers. We weren't too terribly impressed...until my dinner arrived. It was half a pineapple slap full of fajita type meats and veggies!!! It wasn't described as such on the menu but, this thing was a beast. A gutted pineapple with steak, chicken, shrimp, peppers, onions and of course...pineapple chunks. Queso was run of the mill and the salsa was lacking something. Service was fairly decent, considering how busy they were. Would we go here again? Ehh...maybe. If we just happen to be over on Michigan Ave and haven't had dinner yet.

    Warm Apple Pie Cocktail
    A J.

    We ate there for the first time yesterday, Thursday 3/5/2020 and it was amazing. First off the atmosphere is a very cool vibe and welcoming. Lots of seating and really clean and upbeat employees. Service was fast, we were seated right away and asked if we wanted a drink and chips and salsa. Great food and drink menu and very affordable for everything we got. I got a wet steak burrito that was huge and so delicious and I had a Warm Apple Pie drink that was so good. Also on Thursday's, it's "$1 house Margarita's" which you would think for $1 they would be watered down, NO they were perfect. Our waiter was Hector and he was so nice and attentive and got my food order completely right and he made sure we had everything we needed. Excellent customer service. I'm always going to request Hector if he is there when we go. This is going to definitely be one of our new favorite places to go eat. Highly recommend.

    Locked Door to Patio
    Kenneth K.

    I work just Down the road, they are usually very inviting and attentive during lunch. I am a smoker and they have a Patio for seating and smoking. Upon arrival one of the main entrance doors was locked forcing me to walk around to the other door. Once seated (close to the patio) I tried to go out and the patio door was locked as well. Asking politely for someone to unlock the door to three people, I was then told "the manager had the key and was packing a to go order so I could go out front to smoke..." (Safety Violation - ALL doors are to be unlocked during business hours) even if you can't spell English see the picture. Normally my host and waiter are very attentive however today this woman was curt and to put it simply didn't have time or interest on helping me as a customer... until I handed her a 20 for a drink with no change requested and then the keys came from oblivion to unlock all the doors. I frequent many of Cleveland's Mexican Restaurants and most of the time I know someone on staff. Today, if this were my first visit, I'd NEVER come back! They have 2/4/1 margaritas on Tuesday night with entree... I've been here before. It's not my first pick but close to work and it's decent. However, it's COVID! Why would you not put your customers FIRST? People in a small town talk and Cleveland TN is small enough for your business to stay or fail because of word of mouth. My normal servers/hosts know me and are very attentive. I think the management need to remember that customers drive their business and let someone take a key to open the other front door and patio should be something that you would want them to do rather than making a regular customer question if they will come back. The food is good, small portions for lunch but enough, supper is more and well worth it, but without customers... in a pandemic... I'd hate to see it closed. CUSTOMERS CUSTOMERS CUSTOMERS!

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    3 years ago

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    2 years ago

    I love it here. Truly Alex is a king and honestly in heaven I hope this is what the dinner tastes like. Service is fireeeeee !!!

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    6 years ago

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    4 years ago

    The food is always good and fresh! The people are always friendly and the service is fast.

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    9 years ago

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    3 years ago

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    3 years ago

    ordered the chimichanga dinner and got two miniature chimichangas, that looked like they had not ever seen a fryer.

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    7 years ago

    The best mexican restaurant in town. The fajita quesadilla is so good! You won't be disappointed.

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    5 years ago

    Great Mexican Restaurant!! Great Service & Always full when we leave!! They also have a side patio to enjoy when the weather is pretty!!

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    7 years ago

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    8 years ago

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    8 years ago

    Love this place!! Great food, and reasonable prices. Lunch is super inexpensive and you get plenty.

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    6 years ago

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    8 years ago

    Great food and service. Had a pleasant surprise today. It was their first anniversary and everything was half price.

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    6 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    9 years ago

    We were looking for some good authentic Mexican, and we found it! Service was great and so was the food. Highly recommend

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    Nela's Tacos - Pupusas with carnitas, side, interior

    Nela's Tacos

    4.7(74 reviews)
    4.0 mi
    $

    I've always passed by this area but I didn't realize that there was a taco place and la michoacana…read morehere! My friend and I stopped by for lunch to try their food. When we walked inside we realized that both places were combined inside which was cool. It was very spacious with many tables and places to sit. We came on a Tuesday for lunch, it wasn't that busy. I ordered a Carne Asada plate and chose flour tortillas. It also came with a Jarritos drink too, you can choose which flavored drink you want from the fridge by the counter. My friend got a pupusa, and carne asada (beef) and chicken tacos. The carne asada was phenomenal. I was really surprised at the portion of beef that came with my plate, it was huge. Not only that, but it was flavored and seasoned so well. It was savory and tasty. The frijoles (beans) and arroz (rice) was good, and the veggies on the side tasted very fresh. I took a bite of my friend's beef taco too and it was great. Every bite from my dish was great, I loved it. The only thing was that I wish the sides were a little bigger in proportion to the carne asada. For me, the sides are just as important as the protein. So I wish they gave a little more to balance out the whole dish. Other than that, I liked what I ordered. I'd come back for the carne asada and ice cream.

    Great Honduran menu. Friendly staff. Clean and nice inviting restaurant. Great pupusas and baleadas.read more

    Photos
    Nela's Tacos - Interior, ice cream parlor

    Interior, ice cream parlor

    Nela's Tacos - Sopes !

    Sopes !

    Nela's Tacos - Carne Asada (Mexican Style Steak)

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    Carne Asada (Mexican Style Steak)

    La Altena - Burrito with rice and salsa (salsa was like just tomato sauce with few pepper seeds)

    La Altena

    3.6(57 reviews)
    4.9 mi
    $

    We had very good food here a couple of years ago, but this week (3/31/2026) was disappointing. My…read morehusband's chili relleno was not edible. He found one piece of pepper (less than half inch) and the rest was a mix of mushy dough and rock hard cheese that glued it to the plate. He had ordered a dinner so he could get that along with burrito and rice. I decided to just get the daily special of taco salad since our server was not very knowledgeable about menu items. The soft drinks were almost $5 each. I don't have exact price because we didn't receive a receipt, but our lunch for 2 ended up being almost $40. We got the soft drinks because on our last visit, the food was good, but water had a strange taste. See photos of our food. The taco salad was very basic, no guac, no pico, somewhat brownish shredded lettuce and an overcooked taco shell. My husband, who usually loves salsa, would not eat the salsa that came with our chips. He said it just tasted like tomato sauce. Nobody checked back with us after food was delivered. There were no drink refills or to go cups offered, and we had to flag down someone to get the check. There are many better Mexican restaurants closer to our home, so we will not be going back.

    With a nice addition to my birthday meal…read more I will repeat Service Our server was really nice and gave us ideas of what to order

    Photos
    La Altena - Taco salad- overcooked shell, hard tomato slice and browning shredded lettuce with a bit of meat in bottom.  No pico di gallo, no guac.

    Taco salad- overcooked shell, hard tomato slice and browning shredded lettuce with a bit of meat in bottom. No pico di gallo, no guac.

    La Altena - Chili Relleno was inedible. Mushy dough, hard cheese that glued it to the plate and just a tiny (less than 1/4 inch) piece of pepper.

    Chili Relleno was inedible. Mushy dough, hard cheese that glued it to the plate and just a tiny (less than 1/4 inch) piece of pepper.

    La Altena - Trying to find pepper in chili Relleno ands also scrape some off the plate. It was terrible.

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    Trying to find pepper in chili Relleno ands also scrape some off the plate. It was terrible.

    Catrina’s Bar and Grill - Chocolate Overload, spoonful

    Catrina’s Bar and Grill

    3.7(18 reviews)
    2.4 mi

    I arrived at 6:25 PM. Regarding the daily specials, they change by the day and I believe my server…read moreJose said they try to keep the daily specials the same week to week. He did clarify that Thursday and Friday are their big specials day, and I think because they have alcohol specials on those days. If I'm wrong, then perhaps someone from the restaurant could reply and correct me. There seems to be some outdoor seating available, but I opted to eat inside. Regarding the bathroom, it's a public bathroom with 1 urinal and 1 stall that provides paper towels. The condition was fine, the paper towel dispenser was empty and paper towels had to be gotten from the roll that was on top of the dispenser. It would have been nice if someone had just put the roll in the dispenser. For my entrée, I ordered the Chamorro En Mole, which took about 28 minutes to arrive. The lengthy prep time could be only for certain menu items, as it seemed food orders for other customers came in a timely manner. Still, had I not brought my Steam Deck to play, I would probably have been more upset with how long the food took. They do give free chips and salsa, so if you come hungry and order something with a lengthy prep time, you at least get a free snack while you wait. As for the food itself, the house salad that comes with the Chamorro En Mole seemed to be comprised of grated carrot, onion, diced tomato, lettuce, spinach, and cheese and came with ranch dressing on the side. The salad did taste fresh though and not like it had been sitting out. As for the Chamorro itself, the mashed potatoes tased just like potatoes. I don't think they mix anything into them since they're served with osso bucco and sauce on top of them. The osso bucco itself was thankfully moist and tasty. I had never hade mole sauce before, and while I wasn't taken by it on my first bite, the more of it I ate, the more I liked it. As for spice level, there was a hint of spiciness to it, but I'd say its barely there. For dessert, I went with the Chocolate Overload, which is a slice of chocolate cake with whipped cream. That only took 4 minutes and 39 seconds to arrive. The whipped cream was light, and the cake itself was indeed very chocolatey, so I enjoyed it. When I got the receipt for my bill, I noticed that they don't list the specific things you order, which I wish they did to help verify the cost of the meal. As a general summary of my experience, despite the lengthy food prep time and the paper towel roll not being in the dispenser in the bathroom, I still left satisfied with my dinner and am willing to give it another try. Last thing I'll mention is that if you eat here for your birthday, they will sing happy birthday to you and offer you a free dessert.

    ate here for my bday 4/21. I am not one to leave bad reviews but I was highly disappointed. we were…read moretold they had certain dishes, and they did not. the Quesabirria was made with a red tomatoe sauce. and did not come with consome. we waited 30 minutes on refills. I am still trying to figure out what I was served because it was not Quesabirria. the server apologized profusely but still charged us for the Quessabirria.

    Photos
    Catrina’s Bar and Grill - Interior, 2

    Interior, 2

    Catrina’s Bar and Grill - Chamorro En Mole, top ruler, 2

    Chamorro En Mole, top ruler, 2

    Catrina’s Bar and Grill - House Salad, side

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    House Salad, side

    EL Maguey - mexican - Updated May 2026

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