The Nopal Special was just right--some skirt steak, shrimp, cactus, chiles, and onions....Cold bubbly draft beer at a reasonable price. Can't ask for much more. read more

The staff at El Nopal know our little group by name and are super friendly! They have cheap and delicious margaritas and great food - if you like Mexican. I don't, so they always let me order off of the kid's menu or customize an order. And no - if they are speaking Spanish to each other, they aren't talking about you. read more

El Nopal - Mexican Near Me - Shepherdsville, Kentucky

Really good taco salad. They bring two different types of salsa with the chips. Both good one hotter than the other! No wait for lunch! read more

El Nopal - Mexican Near Me - Shepherdsville, Kentucky

Love this place .. the food and service rocks. Ask for Mario.. he is the best and my husband loves him. He is always aware of what you need and checks on you very often. Leave him a good tip. read more

This is a great Mex Mexican (vs American chain, or tex mex) restaurant. Stopped by chance passing through for fuel and found pleasant service and a large menu with a range of choices from $7-14. Full bar. Inexpensive good quality draft beers 22oz for $5. Lunch specials discount many of the menu items. Two Burrito plate for $9 was literally two meals. On the way back the "Lunch Carnitas" was the special, 6.50 instead of $9 and included 16-20 oz of perfectly cooked pork loin cut in big meaty chunks with red chili sauce on the side. Warm chips and good salsa. Excellent queso - light and well flavored. All of the servers were very pleasant and helpful. I had no problem communicating in English, and they gladly sub'd food on request. Past reviewers have cited issues with cleanliness, staff, and food quality. It's possible management has changed, or just attitudes but I'm an experienced eater, and had no issues. Building was even getting fresh paint outside. Happy staff, good food, good prices! read more

What a great place to eat the food is yummy and service is fast, never had a bad experience going here to eat.

Very disappointing visit. Food prices were increased on bill vs menu prices. Received 2 salsas-hot and mild. Mild tasted like canned tomato sauce, hot wasn't as spicy as mild Ro-tel. Food was just okay. Taco Bell would have been a better choice. Margaritas were good read more

The food here is ALWAYS delicious. The service is excellent. I always get the #1 combo dinner which is a taco with 2 enchallidas and rice. I get a beef taco and chicken enchallidas..always perfect even on a carry out order. *I mix their hot and mild salsa for a perfect taste for me..not to hot and not to mild. Clean and nice atmosphere. I just here as often as possible. read more

Great friendly place. Very clean bathroom! Yummy food. Prices a little high but portions are huge.

You just can't go wrong at El Nopal. Sure, it might not be authentic Mexican, but for Americanized Mexican, it's consistently good. And I feel this one in Shepherdsville is the best I've been too. Jose is a great server and the food is always spot on. read more

Everytime i go to el nopal i really enjoy the food. I usually get the enchiladas with cheese and red sauce and its to die for! Not the mention i love the chips and salsa. The staff is always really nice, and its a very nice environment. Great for catching a college game! read more

This place far exceeded our expectations! We had a wonderful meal with great service in a very clean establishment. You can't ask for more than that. They brought 2 salsa jars one for mild and the other hot. We ordered the vegetarian #4 ( delicious red sauce) and the pollo con arroz. Both were delicious and more than we could eat. The chicken was cooked perfectly. Often I get chicken that is over cooked and crunchy on the edges. This was a nice change. We loved our meal and will be back read more

El Nopal - Vegetarian #4 - Mexican Near Me - Shepherdsville, Kentucky

See all

Horrible. I should have known that Mexican food in Kentucky would be bad. I ordered Carne Asada tacos, they were supposed to come with pico de Gallo . No pico and I had to ask for it. The salsa tasted like plain tomato sauce. Cold beans and rice, weak margaritas. Too many menu choices which is always a clue of bad food. read more

Amazing food. We came from Nashville so we were kind of skeptical about the restaurant . We judged the restaurant by the look and the amount of cars in the parking lot but we gave it a go. BY FAR , the best Steak Poblano I have tasted , ever, in any Mexican restaurant! Now I will be craving this plate from Home ! Good Job El Nopal ! Good quality food and friendly service !! read more

This place was really good, particularly for a tiny little restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We got the fajitas and they were dinner-sized portions for $8. And that ws the expensive item on the menu. They also have daily lunch specials for $5. Excellent service. Cute ambience. Great chips and salsa: go for the spicier of the two they provide, it's not really spicy but you can add hot sauce if you want. read more

What a gem! We stayed at the super 8 right across the street. Asked for recommendations from the front desk clerk for somewhere nice and she recommended Big Boy (rolls eyes). We went out and ventured on our own and found el nopal. Great service, good margaritas and good food. read more

Is there a way to rate less than ZERO. I am not a picky person. The food was bland, and boring. I placed an order with Uber eats. I distinctly touched the option to communicate with me if there was a problem with availability. Weeeelll guess what the carnitas dinner was never given to me , nor was I contacted about a shortage. I was told the Uuuberrrr driver placed an order for extra tacos.. Why have an option if availability is in question and not use it.. Is the restaurant lying on the Uber driver to cover up a mistake. The app states someone would get in contact with me within 5 minutes if they are out of something. Does the Uber driver work there? So in edition to all of this I received tortilla chips I did not order. Am I paying for them with all these additional and extra charges that are not mentioned before hand? My receipt is NOT itemized, go figure. When I spoke with the restaurant they do not have access to the credit card I used. Should I have trusted them and given them my card number over the phone. Where is there an element of trust at this point? This seems like such a SCAM. Thanks Should an Uber driver have the right to make a meal decision for me or any one else? read more

I rate my restaurant experience on five things: Atmosphere Service Food Price Wow - atmosphere - We sat outside on the patio area. It was pretty nice, a block wall surrounded you to about chest height, so when your sitting down you can't really see all the busyness around town. I do wish that there was some music playing or something outside. - service - Service was not good. Yes, they were busy, but we sat down at our table and received our drinks then waited for 30 minutes for someone to come take our order. It became a running joke to drink your water slowly because you never knew when they would come check up on us. - food - Was good I ordered the steak fajita nachos with green peppers and onions and a side of guacamole. The guac was really good, tasted nice and fresh. The nachos were good too, nice big portion, lots of queso. - price - I thought prices were very reasonable. The nachos were ~$11 and the side of guac was $4. My wife ate too and after hers I think we paid ~$25 for everything. - wow - There was nothing at this place that wowed me. It is your typical Mexican restaurant. - conclusion - Three stars. There is nothing special about this place. Even though the service was slow, the atmosphere and food were enjoyable and we didn't have to pay too much for a good night with good friends. read more

I'm giving a 1 star because I cant give zero. I just walked out before ordering anything. After waiting 10 minutes for someone to seat me, I sat down and asked for a booster seat for my 1 year old daughter. I put it next to me and a MASSIVE cockroach crawled across the seat. I've never got up so quickly and walked out. How absolutely disgusting. YALL BE CAREFUL EATING THERE. bugs are never a good sign. read more

We're passing through on our way back home to TN, and we decided to stop here for an early Father's Day dinner. The food was delicious, and the portion sizes were huge! They have $2.99 kids meals every day except Friday and Saturday, and the kids meals were adult portions! I felt bad that we left so much food on our plates and didn't take leftovers home, but we still have a 3 hour drive. The service was pretty good. A little slow being seated, even though there was no wait, but the employees were courteous and friendly. read more

Love the staff and the cheap beer. The salsa is great and if you order the Carna Asada you will be smiling!

If I could give zero stars I would. I suppose the one star is for the service and pico de gallo. The super nacho beef is like hamburger patties literally left in chunks. The flour tortillas they brought with my meal were crunchy like tortilla chips. Two of the three salsa bowls were dirty. My daughters beans were over cooked and literally crunchy!!! The steak fajitas had zero seasoning. Pico was amazing. And extremely over priced for this type of Mexican! read more

Fairly typical tex-mex restaurant that is about as close to tex-mex as Ky is to the equator. It's good for what it is and the staff is efficient and friendly. read more

I usually love El Nopal but this is absolutely one of their worst. Food tasted bad, creepy atmosphere, and had a stomach ache after. Thought it was just me but my party of 4 said exact same thing after. read more

Fast friendly , great Mexican food. Kid friendly and plenty of staff and seating for big parties

Service was excellent, as was the food. The salsa could be better: it has the taste and consistency of tomato soup.

Quite possibly the worst service I have ever gotten at one of the El Nopal locations. I keep telling myself that I'm going to stop going to this particular location but since it's close to my house I always cave in and go and they never cease to amaze me at how bad this location is. The food was cold and the chips tasted stale. Never again. read more

Served right away, very nice waitress, chips served immediately, my husband ordered coffee made a fresh pot immediately, nice and cold draft beer Yum! Place was clean! Salsa was okay but not hot enough for us so I asked for something hotter - done! Had to get pico di gio to mix in the salsa delicious!! 5 minutes from time we ordered till our food came it was hot! Very good food! Recommend! read more

I was disappointed. The salsa tasted like tomato sauce. They asked my husband if he wanted a refill on his tea, I guess they forgot him. They gave him a tea to go. We were there today and it was not crowded as we came early. The food was okay. read more

First time 3 weeks ago, took forever to order. Manager ended up taking out order. Food was good so we went back. Been a few more times and no complaints. We have liked everything we ordered. read more

This is personally my favorite El Nopal. They've always been pretty prompt and the food quality is better than the others in the area. Not to mention, the staff is much friendlier and they don't act like they hate their jobs. read more

The food is really good, as long as you order EXACTLY what's on the menu. They do NO substitutes, no exceptions. You have to point to what you want and that's it. They'd be a 5 star if they would substitute, sayyyy, beans instead of a side salad like any other Mexican restaurant so you could get what you want. We go to the other one across the street due to this. The food is good here though. Just be prepared and know this going in. read more

"Something" in my husbands food and when we told the waiter he asked us to show it to him. Disgusting. Service was terrible. Waiter is rude.

I give this restaurant a less than anything good rating. My experience here was awful. This being my second and last time in this restaurant was met with an absolutely undesirable atmosphere. Even the waiters were mingling with some customers that was rude and out of line. Let me mention also that one of the waiters was the manager, Emil I think is his name. The food was not at all good. The quesadilla was extremely greasy and overcooked and after the second bite of rice that I was choked on, I decided it was time to make my exit. I left them the check for food I would not feed to a hungry dog. read more