Old school, Austin original El Patio is one of our favorites! The margaritas are so delicious as are the chips and salsa. We love to share the nachos as an appetizer. The service is friendly and efficient, and our party of 4 was very well taken care of. It was busy but not crazy when we arrived. By the time we were wrapping up, several large groups of UT students had arrived. Lots of energy and a fun atmosphere! read more

El Patio - Menu - Tex-Mex Near Me - Austin, Texas

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SCAM. DON'T DO IT. Was planning to eat there but sell something next door at Pavement first so I would have a little more money to spend when I ate at the restaurant. I went into Pavement and they warned me about the parking situation so I returned to the vehicle within just a few minutes and my car was already booted. It didn't matter to the parking guy or the restaurant. They say it's about making sure the restaurant customers have parking. No it's about shaking people for money. The parking attendant literally hides up the hill behind the restaurant and as soon as someone parks and walks in any direction away from the restaurant (before OR after eating there!) he comes down and boot them. Also their food sucks anyway. read more

Everyone is booty hurt they can't read the no parking signs. Ya'll must be from a small town because that's how parking works in cities. Go back to your small town if you can't read signs. The food is acceptable. I go for the chips and salsa and deal with the enchiladas. read more

It's literally been decades since I was last here. This place is pushing 400 reviews and sitting at three stars, and to be honest, three stars is about what this place deserves. Parking is pretty tight, so it's usually best to come after the lunch rush or before dinner. Also if you park here and don't go to the restaurant, it's very likely you'll find a big yellow boot clamp on your wheel. The venue itself looks pretty good considering the age, although the floors need a good cleaning. This place has its own kind of spin on tex mex which is largely in line with what you would expect, but there are some deviations. Their version of a taco is served on an extremely greasy flat Chalupa shell. I have to admit I did like their smoky spicey salsa and fresh guac. We started out with their grande frozen margarita which comes in a 16 ounce mason jar. I got the three beef enchiladas, but this was the first time I've ever seen where they charge you $3.50 for rice and beans. They do give you a lot of food for the money. However, the one thing I noticed as I was working through my meal was the fact that the salt content reached the point where it eventually became inedible towards the end. Service was fairly attentive, although we never got any more chips or the salsa topped up. I'm glad we visited this local Austin institution, but it really wasn't enough to have us coming back. If you've never visited this place, it's definitely worth checking out... once. The 10 photos spell out the rest. read more

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The chips and salsa tasted store bought. The chicken tacos were terrible. They brought some raw corn tortillas on a plate with a bunch of lettuce and tomato's and a few pieces of chicken. This was the worst TexMex I've ever had. Very disappointing. read more

This is NOT the same El Patio food from 50 yrs ago. Or even 15 yrs ago. The Joseph Family no longer own this restaurant. Extended family members I believe, but not original owners. I had some take out today. Beef enchiladas, rice & beans were terrible. Extremely odd tasting. read more

Best Austin Tex mex. Always has been always will be. Great drinks, enchiladas and tacos. Queso on point. Worth the wait.

Worst place to eat. Won't be back. Made my wife sick and the dish I had was terrible.

Finally, after 40 years I return. Up front let me say, this is an old school Austin hole in the wall serving Texas style Tex Mex! Just that simple. If you come here wanting to decipher what the "old days" were like, you will be rewarded with a history lesson of simpler times.. Come hungry,get some cheese enchiladas,chips,salsa and of course a taco and you'l be a happy camper. Extra points for taco Tuesday! Go! read more

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We had been on a trip to check out Ceviche7 which, unfortunately, was closed. Then we saw El Patio and decided to try this Austin stalwart. In business since 1954, the restaurant is definitely old school and the interior has that 50's vibe but in a good way. The service was friendly and prompt and our chips and salsa arrived at the table literally as we sat in our chairs to begin perusing the menu. The selections are unsurprising but what you might expect at a Tex Mex joint in Austin: tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, chalupas...pretty typical. Our fajitas and enchilada came out quickly and noisily sizzling away. Fajita meats were cooked spot-on with a good helping of onions and peppers beneath. In fact the portions were generous with everything set before us. Our server was constantly checking on us and made sure our drink glasses were full. Was the food amazing? Not really. It was solid food and delicious, and the experience was awesome overall and worth the visit. Prices were definitely easy on the wallet. Recommended. read more

El Patio - Menu - Tex-Mex Near Me - Austin, Texas

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It has been decades since I've eaten here. I love their chips, so I figured why not go back? I had seen the negative reviews but fully expected to fall in the camp of lovers (as opposed to the haters). Man was I wrong! The chips were great and the salsa is also good. But that's it. My cheese enchilada was wrapped in an inedible tortilla. Couldn't even cut it with a knife. The cheese in the middle was not even melted. It's American cheese--shouldn't take very long to melt!! The beans had an off flavor to them and the rice was full of crunchy bits. My husband's meal of chicken enchiladas was equally disappointing. The highlight is that we can and do read reviews, so we knew not to even window shop at the nearby thrift store and we did not get towed. But I'm left imaging that El Patio's primary source of income may be the parking lot racket. read more

First off .. don't listen to the haters, they've probably only been in Austin for a year or two and don't know s* about old school austin. They'll be gone soon. El patio is a legend through and through. It starts with a LEGENDARY neon sign and epic 1940's architecture back when guad was basically a dirt road. Then come the chips and salsa. GTFO. Then comes the margarita. BAM. Then that ooey-gooey Tex-Mex enchiladas, beans and rice w guacamole! Another margarita. BOOM. Nice and competent wait staff. Maybe a praline, or maybe just a Dum-Dum on the way out? Who knows, but you just got the El Patio treatment! Thank you El Patio for sticking around and keeping it real while the aloha-burrito / LA / Dallas crowd hijack every sacred spot and flip it to become yet another MML luxury EXPERIENCE for Botox-boys and yoga girlies. (I kid, I kid, of course) read more

Omg! My bestie order me and my mom an enchilada plate. Let me tell you: we were disappointed in not having a picture of our food. It was soooo delicious that we ate it up hella fast. The presentation of each plate was amazing. Enchiladas surrounded by cheese, meat, and... more cheese. The service was fast and friendly. The restaurant was a vibe. We are coming back! read more

My brother and I ate their for lunch on June 30, 2026. We started with bean and cheese nachos, excellent. I had chicken nachos great tasting and full of chicken. We enjoyed the service and the rustic Mexican style inside. We will be back. Don't blame the restaurant for your ignorance of parking. Their was plenty of parking at lunch time for me. Don't be a hater. Uber, and taste the great quality of food. One stars are hard to over come. I live in San Marcos, and will be back, read more

"You've live in Austin how long and never ate at El Patio?! It's the best Tex Mex in Austin!" So I finally went and can honestly say, it's the best Tex Mex for people that don't like Mexican food. Bland and flavorless. How they're still in business since the 1950s is beyond me read more

We decided to stop here on our way home from San Antonio since we love their tortilla chips they sell in stores. We got seated right away and the chips and salsa was very good. Nice and fresh! We ordered sweet tea to drink and it was very sweet my husband said he can taste granulated sugar so it seemed like maybe it wasn't mixed well. We ordered the Spanish chicken Enchilada with beans and rice and the chicken fajitas. Hubby said the chicken fajitas were good and flour tortillas were fresh. The rice seemed undercooked and the beans were alright. My Enchiladas had weird taste to it and the tortillas were not soft very hard and undercooked. It was not good I got sick shortly after and felt very ill! Not a good thing to do especially on a road trip back home. The service was good but food for me is a 3 out of 10. I dont think we will be coming back. Definitely gonna buy their chips still since they are amazing lol read more

El Patio - Spanish chicken enchiladas and chicken fajitas - Tex-Mex Near Me - Austin, Texas

Super conflicted. The food is NOT good. It has no flavor. I've gotten multiple dishes here and the only thing I can actually eat is a plain quesadilla. However, the service is AMAZING. Our server Alex was so nice and attentive, despite the busy restaurant. Good place for margaritas and chips, but I wouldn't get food again. read more

El Patio - Quesadilla - Tex-Mex Near Me - Austin, Texas

Shit food and booted car. $100. Don't come here. Staff is rude and immediately booted our car just because we went next door for a few minutes. Food-wise bland and not worth it at all. Inside was drab and unwelcoming. Skip this place, there're much better options around. read more

Have been eating at this restaurant since the 70's. I have always ordered the same thing-guacamole beef enchiladas but now they are putting onions in the guacamole and it seems they have changed the recipe for the enchiladas. Please go back to old recipe. read more

I went to UT in the 90's. I don't know if I didn't go to El Patio because I ate so many of the TV dinners or I thought it was expensive. Fast forward 20 years later and we finally give it a try. That was pretty good stuff and the price wasn't bad. Fast forward to today. El Patio has been in our rotation for a few years now. I really like the crispy tacos, although they're a little more like a chalupa. The enchiladas are excellent too. We showed up for happy hour, didn't really hold back, and wound up with a $50 tab. Maybe we only had two margaritas, but anytime you add drinks to an order these days, you're getting a $70+ bill (I'm looking at you, Fresa's). I will lamentfully note their queso is not all that good compared to everything else. Their chips though? Oh man, their chips. We were solid El Milagro customers until a friend had some El Patio chips at the house. They are so crispy, so light, and so corny, my God they're good. El Patio brings a solid Tex Mex game and there's usually parking to be had. read more

Ordered chilli and cheese enchiladas! They didn't ask red or green sauce. Didn't have chili. Was just a folded tortilla with cheese inside and the whole plate was cheese. $22 for a plate of Cheese read more

El Patio - Chili and cheese enchiladas? No chilli, just tortilla and cheese for $21. - Tex-Mex Near Me - Austin, Texas

El Patio has been a running joke in our family for years because, when we first went here many moons ago in our pre-Yelp days, it was one of the worst meals we ever had in the city. We even made a comical epithet for it that we won't share here to protect delicate eyes Anyway! We heard that they were under new ownership and that everything is better, so we decided to give it a go this past weekend. It still retains lots of charm on the inside and it was so nice, for a brief while, not hear any loud music playing. Things did not start off auspiciously. The frozen margarita is pretty good, but the balance of ingredients for the one on the rocks was way off. We ordered the supreme queso and the beef in it was so greasy that you could see the melted fat pool in the queso, which itself wasn't quite fully melted, so the whole thing was a bowl of glop. Our daughter ended up with the wrong dish, but her enchilada was fine. The chalupa one of us got was pretty bland and the beef on it (ironically) was quite dry. Meh. The El Patio #3 was consistent with everything else on the table. Our server was very nice but she messed up a couple of our orders. Well, at least the value was there! We're glad we went because the last thing we want to see is another Austin institution die but we cannot say in good faith that the food here is good. 2.5 stars, rounding up in a spirit of local business support. read more

Made everyone in our group - all 6 people - so ill immediately after eating the food. Everyone threw up. Staff was nice

Don't let the name fool you, this is not the same El Patio that is in Houston. The place is just a no all around. No air conditioning. The food was mediocre. The rice was more of a tomato sauce base than what most Mexican rice is. The tortilla's are not home made. They taste similar to mission tortillas. So strange for a Mexican restaurant in Texas to not have great tortillas or maybe I'm just spoiled from living in Houston with amazing Mexican food. Either way we definitely won't be back. The only thing it had going for it was the nice waiter that was running the bar and helping our table. read more

me and my friends threw up the second I got home after eating here. Servers were really nice but I don't think the pope would eat this food if it was served in the Vatican. read more

I would rather eat a microwave burrito in a gas station parking lot than ever go back to El Patio. The food tasted like someone Googled "Mexican food" and then guessed every ingredient wrong. The salsa had the flavor profile of spicy ketchup left out in the sun, and the queso had the consistency of melted plastic. Service was somehow even worse. Our waiter disappeared so often I thought he transferred to another restaurant mid-shift. We waited so long for the food that I had time to reconsider my entire life and question every decision that led me to sitting in that booth. The atmosphere felt like a sad birthday party where nobody showed up. The music was loud, the tables were sticky, and the overall vibe was "health code violation but make it festive." If disappointment were a restaurant, it would be El Patio. 0/10. I would not recommend it to my worst enemy. read more

Just a heads-up -- this has NOTHING to do with the restaurant itself, but about the parking situation. If you park in their lot, you are not allowed to go anywhere else -- not even for a minute -- before or after eating at the restaurant. My friends and I parked at 5:17 PM and walked a few steps over to check the hours of a nearby thrift store to see if we'd have time to stop by after dinner. We came back to the car at 5:21 PM to grab a phone, and it already had a boot on it -- placed at 5:19 PM, just 2 minutes after we parked. The man who showed up said it would be $100 to remove it. We explained we were planning to eat at the restaurant, but he still refused. He said that even if you do eat at the restaurant, you're not allowed to go anywhere else before or after -- or you'll still get fined. We ended up leaving and not eating there at all. Just wanted to warn others before they park -- the rules are very strict and the enforcement is immediate. read more

El Patio - Tex-Mex Near Me - Austin, Texas

We received the best service from Gabriel! He let me charge my phone, brought out substitutes for things we ordered incorrectly and all with a great attitude. Thank you so much Gabriel! read more

WONDERFUL.... The magic of the WISHING WELL, is back .....! I was worried if this historic little oasis of TeX-MeX , L O V E....! could hang on. But their (Staff & Owners) have done the damn near imposable of opening back up and doing business in Austin Texas where it damn near IMPOSABLEe for small family run businesses to operate... Stick with the Number #1 on the menu...., or any of the fan favorites listed ....... These good people are attempting the imposable some nights, however if your expecting perfect move on, but I for one can over look the small hiccups and be thankful the neighborhood and west side of history at El Patio..... I do wish they would bring back the crackers with butter and hot sauce. read more

second time visiting because i wanted to give them another chance after months, and just believe it when the reviews say that the cheese in the enchiladas tastes like melted kraft cheese squares.. everything is flavorless and barely tolerable. store bought enchiladas would have been so much better. sincerely confused as to how this place is so popular. read more

The enchiladas here will rival any Tex-Mex in Austin! I am the 3rd generation in my family to make this a must stop when in ATX. Great staff, hot food, and cold beer! read more

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El Patio has some of the best chips I've ever had in my life -- I seriously couldn't stop eating them. The food itself took way too long to come out, and I was already full from the chips by the time it did, but honestly, they were so good it almost made the wait worth it. read more

I ate here with my girlfriend a couple of weeks ago and had a decent experience--good food, quick and friendly service. Unfortunately, our most recent visit was a completely different story and we won't be returning. We stopped by yesterday to eat at El Patio again. Before heading in, we quickly ran into the adjacent thrift store to pick up some clothes we had previously dropped off (we were in and out in under two minutes). I then walked back to the car to drop the clothes off while my girlfriend went into the restaurant to ask for a table. Within that incredibly short window, an "employee" from Central Parking Enforcement booted our car. Despite clearly seeing us return and enter the restaurant, he refused to remove the boot. He even went into the restaurant to get my girlfriend--further proving that we were there to dine, not abuse parking. This restaurant uses a private towing company that boots vehicles almost immediately, even if you're a legitimate customer. The "parking enforcement employees" attitude was dismissive and unprofessional, and the entire situation felt aggressive and unfair. We won't be returning after this experience. read more

Came here for breakfast with my wife. After parking she ran into the cute thrift store next door, was in there for about 6 minutes. While walking to the restaurant I noticed that there had already been a boot placed on my car.. the young boy (Adrien battle) had been hiding waiting for us to park and boot the car, he then demanded $100 to take it off. We will never return to El Patio. Don't waste your time with this place. read more

This is super old-timey Austin Mexican food. It's like mat have the Velveeta delivered by the truckload. Not fancy. Not adventurous. Nice ambiance, pretty good food, pretty fast service. You know what you're in for when you walk in the door. No surprises. Once you become a regular they'll call you by name and hug you coming in. read more

Always our go to restaurant for Mexican food in Austin. Maria was our waitress and did a great job on a busy night.

Great customer service, specifically Betro! The queso and food is amazing. The vibes are always right in there!!

I am so glad we popped in here after thrifting. The food was delicious and the building is quirky and historic! read more

El Patio - Tex-Mex Near Me - Austin, Texas

Maria has been so amazing tonight! So kind and such an amazing server. We appreciate her so much! Thank you Maria!

This place is a great place and honestly they serve up some of the best Tex Mex around. Queso is amazing, same with the chips and salsa. I ordered the David Special which was a lot of food. The parking is limited due to the size of the parking lot and service is middle of the road. But the food more than makes up for it. read more