My family and I were craving Mexican food and we stumbled upon this restaurant in hopes it would satisfy our cravings. We decided to get the food Togo. The ease of ordering online was great. But everything else was not. We personally thought the food was so bland, their green chile and red hot Chile is like water. I ordered a smothered burrito and it came unsmothered. We ordered fajitas and they forgot to give us the tortillas, I asked for some green Chile on the side and they didn't give us any. Unfortunately our cravings were not satisfied and we will not be coming back. read more

This place was not great at all. From the moment my friends & I walked in, the front workers were giving us ugly looks. When we got seated it took about ten minutes for someone to even come to our table for any type of service & it wasn't even a busy time. The waiter took our order fine but when she brought the food one of our meals was completely wrong. One waitress kept walking by & eyeing our table & being so rude to us. When we needed service no one would come to our table despite then being near by & workers all gathered around talking. The food was so dry & had no favor whatsoever. I wish I would've liked this place but between the food & service I would not recommend. read more

Good food. Bad service..Rude servers in the bar. Not sure our Server spoke English... didn't like answering questions. Bar didn't know how to prepare/serve drinks other than Margaritas and beer! Showed preference to Hispanic customers at our table. Won't recommend or go back!!! read more

Love this place never had a bad meal here they have some very tasty green chili and the fajitas are top notch here.. One if my favorite places in arvada to eat read more

El Tapatio - Mexican Near Me - Arvada, Colorado

Amazing service Food Taste A+ Service A+ Cozy home feel A+ Matter of fact I'm going again tomorrow new to area great service fajitas top notch read more

The food was excellent the prices were wonderful I had a marvelous meal with an excellent waiter we had a great time there I will certainly be back and I think this place is a really great restaurant read more

El Tapatio - I can't remember what this is called but it's the number 17 and it is excellent for a great price - Mexican Near Me - Arvada, Colorado

See all

Had the lunch special "Carnitas Plate" at $11.25 consisting of Carnitas (Shredded Pork), Beans, Spanish Rice, Guacamole and a bunch of sm tortillas. Overall it was good, but the Carnitas were on the slightly tough side, possible left over from the day before and reheated today. My server, Miguel approached me from being my back, asking me what I wanted to drink... I said, can I see your face plz... lol read more

El Tapatio - Lunch Carnitas Plate Special at $11.25 - Mexican Near Me - Arvada, Colorado

See all

I've been to other Tapatios many times before. Usually they are very good but I do NOT recommend this location to anybody! I ordered a combination plate and about 6-7 hours after eating it fell very ill. I was up all night with diarrhea and vomiting. I've never actually had food poisoning from a restaurant before, but would not wish it on my worst enemy. The service also was lacking. Somebody in my party had ordered a side of beans and tortillas and they were not brought out until we almost finished the meal. Do not go to this restaurant!!!! read more

I have been coming for years the food is amazing but today I walk into the bathroom to find a cockroach I was very disappointed and mostly likely won't be back suck I really love this place read more

El Tapatio - Mexican Near Me - Arvada, Colorado

The first thing in noticed about El Tapatio was the dark lighting inside. I appreciated this touch, albeit may not have been intentional as it added some sort of intimacy to my dining experience. I could've unbuttoned my jeans to eat another bowl of chips if I wanted to! All jokes aside, my party of 6 was seated within minutes of our arrival. We were quickly brought chips, salsa and had our drink orders taken. After much deliberation (their menu is quite extensive), I opted for camarones rellenos - jumbo shrimp stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon? I know, I know; my mouth watered when I read that description as well! Immediately after the chips and salsa were brought, our waitress took our drink order. A few people in my party ordered alcoholic beverages including margaritas and other specialty drinks all of which they appeared to be very happy with. Not long after we placed our order, our food arrived. Everything was super fresh and hot. I'm usually very picky about my Spanish rice but found theirs to be quite tasty. The bacon on my shrimp was cooked perfectly and the cheese oozed out after each bite. I thought their portions were great considering the price and awesome quality of food. After our meal, we shared their dessert platter which also did not disappoint. read more

Took a chance on this place that appears to be busy. Very pleasantly surprised! Huge margaritas with great flavor and very tasty. My husband and I always order carnitas when we are out for Mexican food. Can. Ot tellya these are some of the best we have had in quite a few years. Totally appreciated seeing a working manager as well. He was buying, delivered and the usual asking sure patrons were happy. We will be soon! read more

Waiting for my tire to get looked at so I wander over to El Tapatio for a bit of the old Huevos Rancheros. Firstly good service. But is it too much to ask for even one wee chunk of pork in the green chili? I would say no, but maybe they thought I asked for the veg chili....not a chance, yo! There are some better joints out there amigos. Go find 'em! Oh and another thing. read more

I would not recommend dining here unless you don't mind having bubble guts. The staff is very friendly and the ambience is nice. But unfortunately they're not doing something right with their food. I had shrimp ceviche and adobada tacos. I woke up in the middle of the night with my stomach all turned up. I thought it might have been the ceviche because you could tell from looking at it it was not fresh, like probably not even from that day fresh. My stomach settle down and was fine the next day and then for dinner I had the leftover adobada but didn't eat any of the ceviche thinking that was it. Unfortunately, middle of the night my stomach was brewing again. Pretty disappointing. They didn't give me food poisoning but it definitely was enough to make for two uncomfortable nights. My wife and I won't be eating there again unfortunately. read more

I went here with my husband and brother-in -law for lunch. I got the enchiladas rancheras, my husband got fajitas, and brother in law got the machaca con huevos. We were seated right by the kitchen but that didn't seem to make a difference in service. We sat there for 10 mins before the server decided to take our drink order. I asked for a Coke and he said he only had Pepsi so I got a Dr. Pepper. The server then took our food order with our drink order. As we sat there, waiting for our food my brother-in-law was served his entre much sooner than my husband or I and I really hope it wasn't because he is half Mexican. No drink refills, no checking to see how our food was. And then, I see the group next to us all have Cokes in the bottle! WTF? We will never eat there again! read more

Wonderful Mexican Restaurant that is in a fun atmosphere - a former Bennigan's! They have hung photos of old-time Mexican cinema stars and have nice Mexican Music and TV screens with a lot of Soccer and baseball games. Most of the staff is bi-lingual and you feel like you ae south of the border. Food is delicious, chips warm and fresh and beer/drinks very reasonably priced. It has a bar with seating, patio seating and booths/tables. They are also happy to accommodate large families and groups without an attitude. read more

Just not good. Very average. Menu has a lot of choices but maybe they should cut it in half and concentrate on making fewer yet better tasting dishes. read more

Food is okay. Nothing special. What pissed me off though is that they would not honor their 10% off after checking into their business. It's BS for a business to advertise a coupon and then deny it when you're a customer. My waiter was Jesus and the manager he talked to was also the bartender. Watch out for this business. Not sure what other shady stuff goes on here. read more

Tacos al carbon, chicken quesadillas, burritos, tamales...between four of us, we ate a stupid amount of food last night. Add to the feasting some horchata, a couple glasses of Fanta, two baskets of chips and about a half gallon of salsa, and daaaaaaaaamn. I was leery of the place - not too sure why. The service was spectacular, and my husband was over the moon that we opted to celebrate his birthday here. Their dishes have heat. I'm a spice wuss when it comes to Mexican food, so my steak tacos and the green mystery peppers threatened to do me in (which would probably be considered medium spice at most by others), but the meal was really good - and I loved the carmelized onions. Furthermore: holy crap, tons of food. I have at least two more meals to go. As it was the husband's birthday, the celebration wrapped up with some cheesecake loaded with whipped cream. The prices were a little higher than I'm used to for Mexican food, but the guys I dined with couldn't say enough good things about the place. I have no doubt it will become a staple for my husband who worships at the Mexican food alter. read more

Calm the hell down you yelpers. I visit this location all the damn time. My recent visit was fast and friendly. I had the camarones a la parilla and my girlfriend had camarones las diablas. The first order is simple and always comes out great. The second one is a toss up. It's great all the time except sometime the chili is not as hot as others. Still a great meal though. Reading some of these other reviews; it appears they order combination plates and stuff that isn't different in what they assume mexican food is. Enchilada, tamale or chile relleno. Those foods are plain. Try something new and you'll see the difference. read more

I went here yesterday for a big group event. We called a week in advance to reserve a spot and then called again two days before to confirm the reservation. By the time we got there, there were no tables set up. They tried to put something together for our party but tried shoving 22 people into a space for 15. When we approached the manager he walked away from us and ignored what we had to say. He handled this situation horribly and said he wouldn't even want our business. Overall horrible experience and I would not recommend going here as they are not willing to accommodate their customers. read more

Normally this place is okay, but this time I was terribly disappointed. Not only did the beans taste like chunky water but we sat in the bar area to catch the rest of the game and get a quick bite only to have them whip out the old cleaning solution (whatever that cheap pine sol, purple crap is that they sell) and pour it all over the floor. The smell was overwhelming and literally made us gag. We could not finish our food and had to leave. I was terribly sick to my stomach for days after so get a clue, El Tapitio! Your food gets even worse when you mix the aroma of your cheap cleaning products. Gross! read more

This used to be one of our favorite places to go , yet last Friday night proved that what my friends had said was true, they totally were not up to par. My husband ordered a chicken chimichanga, that clearly was not deep fried. My favorite drinks margaritas were not top shelf as we requested. I want to voice our opinion made us feel even less welcomed needless to say we won't be going back there again. This had nothing to do with Covid. Service has really gone down hill. read more

I'm a gringo who loves Mexican food and thankfully Denver has a ton of really great places to eat. El Tapatio isn't one of them. They are about as original as the Bennigans that came before them in this spot. I'll cut to the chase. The chips and salsa was really good. The Tacos al Carbon arrived with so many Jalapeno peppers that I could barely find the meat. When I mentioned to the waiter, Manuel, that the food was ridiculously spicy, owing to the 3/4 cup of peppers for 3 little tacos, he laughed. Not a good sign. The kids enjoyed their plates and the kids menu was actually really decent. I should have ordered off their menu. This is the problem with the place: the service is lousy, the food is really hit or miss and the atmosphere is Bennigans. Save your money and frequent some of the mom n pop shops that do a much better, more consistent, job. read more

SO................The old Benningans next to the gas station had someone new moving in. I was excited it seemed to be a small business so I vowed to visit as soon as it opened. I did. My boo ordered the ceviche de pescado and I had the enchilada suizas. The ceviche was top notch don't tell my uncle but it was better than his. (head flinching from the smack I would normally feel if I made this comment.) Drinks were never empty and everyone made sure we were enjoying the evening. The enchiladas were good, plate was huge and I took half home to add scrambled eggs to the next morning. Went back 2 days later for breakfast. Boo had the ceviche again (still amazing with warm tostadas mmmm.) I had enchiladas again just cheese this time with scrambled eggs a personal favorite. These enchiladas weren't as good but decent. I prefer white cheese. Again amazing service. Went back last night (yes, yes I know that's three times in one week). But dang that ceviche has a hold on me! We started with that boo had the taquiza de tacos y yo carne asada with tortillas de maiz. Again delicious!!!! We will be back I know that for sure. Sometimes a Mexican needs a night off from cooking the normal. Amazing service--the waiter remembered us :D Oh yea and after reading the menu I found out they had 3 other locations, ha ha not such a small business. Oh well amazing service and food makes it special enough! read more

Terrible. Save your money. Bland everything. Even the chips they use for the chips and salsa were bland. Saw the "Today's Specials" sign when we walked in. When we were seated I asked the waiter what the specials were and he said he didn't know and that I could go look at the sign again. I asked if they had something in print that had the specials listed, and he just looked at me and said "no" and walked away. So I'm to go back to the entrance and look at the sign, and try to memorize it or take a photo of it to share the info with my wife and daughter?? ... Or your waiter could just have a list of them to read off to me? Maybe? Started off by ordering the queso... Turned out to be velvetta. No joke. Velvetta "cheese". Sub-par ground beef, mystery slop on everything, and chewy steak on the fajitas. Terrible. Save your money. read more

A few of us stopped in for dinner at the El Tapatio in Arvada last Friday and pretty much got what we were expecting - decent food and some drinks. The parking lot was pretty full but they were still able to seat us right away on the patio. We ordered up some beers and margs, and then got a preview of what was to come as far as the service goes - as it took about 15-20 minutes to get our drinks out to us. BTW, a couple of people got the medium marg and were very glad they didn't go for the large one, they were huge! I went for the combo #7, which came with a smothered chicken burrito, a beef taco, and a bean tostada. It took forever and a day to get our food but when it did come everything was OK, but IMO the green chile was a little on the tame side. Everyone else in our group also thought their food was pretty good - a couple of chimi's and a couple of fajita's (chicken and shrimp). I'm not sure why they are as busy as they are, maybe it's the lack of other choices in that area. It seemed much busier than the other locations I've been too. It was nice to see that the food seems to be pretty much the same in all their locations, as sometimes local chains can have problems maintaining consistency. All in all it was a fun time, and I'm sure I'll be back for more at some point. read more

Holy moly, I know Mexican restaurants have big menus but this was insane. So many choices and variations, I just had to pick something I know would be good. I ordered the chicken fajitas and my man got the chicken chimichanga. I'm not always a huge fan of Mexican food but this place was really good. We left not feeling too full because we opted against an appetizer which would have been completely unnecessary after we saw the entree servings! The fajita order was enormous and full of onions, red, green and orange bell peppers. I ate three tortillas full, boyfriend had one and I still had enough for a big lunch the next day. They even gave me more tortillas to go. My man inhaled his chimichanga, the sauce that smothered it was really tasty. Chips were warm and the salsa was spicy and we poured it in our entrees. Good prices, amazing service. They were all dressed in black and white and were extremely attentive. I would definitely come back again when we're in the area. read more

W'eve been hitting this place several times a month especially in the evening after working out at Lakeshore. I really do like this place and the menu is very extensive. I don't bother really checking in anymore since the last few times, they said the 20% off coupon from our yelp check-in is for the other place..UMMM well Hello the other Tapatio is too far for the check-in to work, so they really need to fix this. THe food, while not the best, is pretty good and is pretty huge portions. I say this is a worthy place to eat no more than once a month and I've made it a point to lessen going here. I always get their tacos and I've tried they're white fish plate before. Other than that I'm not really open to anything else on the menu. read more

El Tapatio - Guacamole salad partially eaten 4-8-14 soo good! - Mexican Near Me - Arvada, Colorado

Came in for appetizers and drinks not so good this time. I really enjoyed sitting out on the patio. Food drink and the service was very poor. We ordered Margs and green chili fries and the bill was 40 bucks. Order of green chili french fries was very skimpy and definitely not worth the money the drinks were very water down as well. Not the old Tapitio we once loved. read more

Good service, great lunch specials, and very good food. The prices were a bit high, though, so I'd probably go back for lunch if anything. They had the most extensive shrimp section that I've ever seen on a Mexican menu before.... and some of them looked awesome! Bacon-wrapped and stuffed with cheese? Yes please! read more

I went to El Tapatio a couple months back, and was treated to sub-par wait service. My food was pretty good, but I just can't get over how restaurants can make it while their wait staff is rude and ignoring most of the time. I specifically remember sitting with an empty water and soda glass for the whole entire time. Yep, not one refill was offered, even on the water! He took forever to take our orders as well! It will be a while before I return to this El Tapatio. I will still head to the one off Wads and Alameda! Maybe it was just an off night for our server.... read more

The food and service here were both average. I will usually go for steak fajitas at new Mexican restaurants. I wasn't very impressed with the fajitas here. They cooked the typical green pepper/onion accompanying veggies too long. They were pathetically limp and had been sauced up and cooked so long that they were nearly the same color!! Green peppers are.... green..... and onions are a light whitish pinky/purple. Both of them were a dark brownish WAY over carmelized color. Bleh! The salsa was good with the tortilla chips and I usually am picky about them. Thumbs up there. Unfortunately, the best part of the meal was my beer. Guess its hard to mess that up. An average eatery with a fairly decent atmosphere. Not that wonderful. read more

This is our go-to place to have dinner and leave happy. The food is pretty straight forward American/Mexican food. Simple and delicious and the portions are more than enough. I'm sure everyone else has mentioned it but the margaritas are huge. If you're in the neighborhood and looking for a good one then this is your best option. Finally I don't typically give much weight to service but I've been here enough to know that it's consistently quick and friendly. Prices are also more than reasonable and the bar area is a decent place to catch the game. read more

I return again and again and plan to keep doing so. Prices are fair, the menu is huge so there's something for everyone. Some choices have been incredible, others just average. Nothing has been a disappointment but the stand-outs are the plate dinners (adobada, the steaks, etc...) and the Molcajetes are fantastic. I've tried enchiladas, burritos, fajitas, combo plates, etc, these are good but now that I know what they do best I stick to those options and never leave unhappy. Service is always great, attentive, friendly, and usually very fast too. I've stopped into their Belmar location a few times as well and can say the same for that spot too. read more

Finding decent Mexican food in Denver is harder than you might think. I'm not saying that El Tapatio has aced that field, but they do fairly well. I've been several times and prefer it over the Arvada/Westminster Three Margaritas (don't get me started). Service is great, food is hot and to the table in a flash...and it's even quite tasty. BUT, I have noticed they are pretty heavy handed with the salt. Now, I'm a salt girl myself, but they even have me reaching for the water. That being said, I am happy they are one of the few places that offers chicharones (pork rinds) burritos AND if they do charge extra, its less than a dollar; unlike other places ($3+). It's definitely one of my Go Tos, but I just gotta remember to take off my rings at bed that night! read more

I want to give this place 4 stars but I just can't do it. This place is ok for the most part the wife and I go there every so often and its usually pretty good and service is usually fast.(although last night they were really slow and it wasn't even busy.) The chips and salsa are good and the guacamole is yummy too. I will say this I think they have the best ceviche de pescado around. That is pretty much the only thing I order when I go,its that good! I have had a couple of other things and they're ok. The wife usually orders a combo plate and is full and happy when she's done eating so I guess that's a good thing.The wife always orders a strawberry margarita too and they are huge and strong. So that's another plus for the place. So all in all its an ok joint for Mexican food with for the most part good and fast service. Its nothing special and will curb your appetite for Mexican, of course there are better in my opinion,but I hate reading reviews when people say "go to blah blah's a couple blocks up the street they are way better...." read more

It is Mexican and it is food, but not great. The problem I had was with the additional tip being added to my credit card over what I left. Seems I'm not the only person to come in and complain. Management inadvertently let me know others had come into complain the same day I did. Service from the waiter/manager that took care of me was sub par at best. Management did offer to refund small amount, but had an attitude in doing so. NOT worth the time and effort to take care of or ever return to this restaurant in Arvada. Unfortunately, this happens quite often in the restaurant business. Be weary of using your credit card here, or anywhere for that matter where you may need to leave a tip on it. You get what you pay for. read more

I give four stars. The first time we came here i had the steak ranchera and it wasnt great it had no flavor. Well today I got a mojcahete or however you spell it and i am very happy lol i recommend trying it! Oh and our waiter is the reason its not a 5 star review. No chips and salsa didnt take our order the bartender did. The bartender gets the tip! read more

El Tapatio - Michelada to start... - Mexican Near Me - Arvada, Colorado

See all

Good food not the best, but enjoyable. Down side that makes my review low is that the wait times to get attended, or for a server to come to the table. Can take up to 10 mins. read more

Stumbled upon this place on a hangry mission and they saved the day! Delicious, fast, and affordable Mexican food! Customer service is A+ ! Can not wait to come back and try their margaritas read more