My cousin ordered a burrito ground beef he got shredded the beans tasted burnt the taco was not so great I did ask for shredded beef but they use the same meat in The enchiladas, tacos and the burritos it was shredded beef and had potatoes and some other veggies in it and red sauce I never had a taco like that ever and then instead of using flour tortilla they used a corn tortilla that wasn't quite heated enough so it was so not eatable but they have great salsa and the cabbage salsa way good I had two bowls of it but my cousin said it's the better Mexican food in town read more

With a health score of 67 (out of 100), as well as poor service and food that, well let's see..... if you closed your eyes and took a bite of anything, anything at all (I've given them three reluctant opportunities) you would taste absolutely nothing. No flavor. So with the uncaring attitude of the staff and their inability to get an order correct (had issues all three times) they bring absolutely nothing to the table. For those that love this place - YOU NEED TO GET OUT MORE! read more

What a great Mexican restaurant in the small town of Fruita. Everyone I went with enjoyed their meals, enchiladas, shrimp, salads and chicken dishes all were very tasty and uniquely spiced. I had the combo plate which was very good. I especially like the chile relleno which had a great crispy coating and had some pretty good kick. Overall a fantastic place to stop, relax and enjoy some quality Mexican food. read more

Surprisingly good Mexican food (for what seems like to me, the middle of the desert) and the place was crowded!! The milanesa was practically half a cow, delectable, crunchy, and had nice flavor. The cabbage salsa was pretty awesome as well. The service was painfully unfriendly and my waitress was not one who made small talk, but everything was brought speedily. All in all, I'd go back (and maybe have a margarita). read more

El Tapatio - Mexican Near Me - Fruita, Colorado

We saw a 4 star review at this place and we got excited for good Mexican food! Granted we are from Los Angeles and we are accustomed to having authentic Mexican food, we were very disappointed. The good: The interior is decorated really cute. See pic. The staff was very friendly and checked up on us often. The cabbage and salsa served at the beginning was good. The food: I ordered "7 mares soup" which is the soup of 7 seas which is pretty much a seafood soup. The soup had buts and pieces of scallop and shrimp that looked like it came straight out of a frozen seafood bag from the Asian grocery stores and bits of corn and green beans from a bag. The soup did include a decent king crab leg and larger plump shrimp but overall not good. My husband ordered the "Tapatio Special" which had grilled chicken, carne asada, and bacon wrapped shrimp with rice and beans. The food was salty and dry. Overall disappointing. Drinks: We got two micheladas with coronas which tasted like it came from a pre-made mix. Not worth $55. read more

See all

My scooter club roared in here yesterday afternoon and had a great time. There were seven of us and the server was great about splitting the check six ways. He even suggested it, which was nice. I had cabeza and carne asado tacos, which were excellent and my companions enjoyed their huge combo platters. Next time I'm going with one of those massive platters. I just wish it were downtown instead of in that new shopping area across the interstate. This is a very well run restaurant with great food and superior service. read more

El Tapatio - Mexican Near Me - Fruita, Colorado

Very friendly staff. Food is delicious! Chips and salsa comes with Mexican style cabbage with pickled jalapeños. Totally hit the spot when passing through on a road trip! Easy to find crowd pleases for both adults and kids. My husband and I shared the seafood burrito and the kids had carnitas tacos. YUM! Next pass through, we will definitely be stopping in! Also right across the street from the dinosaur museum which was also a hit for the kids! read more

Really worth the price. Food quantity & quality was good. The amount of rice served with dish was prefect. We stopped at this place on way to Utah. A definitely go to place for folks who like Mexican food. Ambience of this place was good. From pics put up in entrance looks like fav place for locals to celebrate their birthday. If am here next time during my birthday would definitely celebrate it here. read more

El Tapatio - Mexican Near Me - Fruita, Colorado

See all

This was our favorite of all the Mexican restaurants in the valley. Went to dinner with our grown children and my son went to pick up his beer mug to take a drink and the whole bottom broke off the beer mug. Of course beer went everywhere soaking my sons pants and even his wallet. My husband was wet with beer as well and had beer in his food. When the waitress, who had the personality of a fence post, brought the bill it was for the entire dinner. We expected some sort of discount due to the beer being served in a broken mug. My husband went to go speak with the waitress without a personality and was told we probably did it on purpose so we wouldn't have to pay the bill. I have never in my life tried to skip out on a restaurant bill or not pay a bill. The fact she even suggested it was totally insulting. I also mentioned to her that my sons dinner was way over cooked. Her response was he shouldn't have ate most of it then, he didn't. Not only does she not have a personality she's stupid, he didn't even eat close to half. We will not be going back. Time to find a new favorite. read more

El Tapatio - Mexican Near Me - Fruita, Colorado

See all

Not a bad little Mexican place! Pretty tasty with a mid grade marg. I certainly wouldn't search it out, but it kept the troops happy. We would go back on a multi night stay. read more

My boyfriend and I are from out of town and really enjoyed not just the food but, the service was amazing. Our waiter David was very nice, helpful, and polite the food was just amazing very flavorful and huge portions! We have been in Grand Junction for several weeks for work and this is by far our favorite place to eat! read more

Came from california passing by and stop by this place since it look like it would be good i was so wrong ... food is not good for the price i ordered a cocktail shrimp and just left it all really really nasty and the service was not good either read more

El Tapatio - Mexican Near Me - Fruita, Colorado

El Tapatio isn't the best Mexican restaurant in the world, but it's the best we have in Fruita. Generous portions, friendly staff, and plenty of parking all contribute to a great experience. I've had several dishes here, and they are consistently well prepared. I generally order all beans and no rice, and have never had them mess that up ( You'd be surprised how often a request like that gets overlooked). read more

This is a great option in a small town! The menu is HUGE, in physical size and quantity of choice. Now, I will say that at first glance it seems pricey, but they do not cheat you on portion size. The service is really good. Every employee seemed to be at our service, addressing us and offering more salsa, taking empty dishes, etc as they went by. Cool! The food. The chips and salsas served at the beginning were pretty standard. There was a cabbage based salsa that we both tried right away and did not prefer it. I don't know why, maybe because it had no "zip" and our lil bowl just seemed like a lil bowl of...cabbage. No worries, the red salsa was perfectly spicy and full of flavor. My husband ordered the Combination with 2 options, came with rice and beans. He chose the crispy chili relleno and a cheese enchilada. He said it was good! I chose an Avocado Tostada. We both chose "cholesterol free" beans. Man were those good! We both dumped our beans over our whole plate and chowed! So good! The avocados on my tostada were perfect! The tostada shell was pretty small but absolutely covered with beans, avocados, lettuce, tomato and cheese! It was a fork and knife situation that turned into basically a huge DELICIOUS salad! Good job guys! We always make an effort to stop when we are in town! read more

Hands down the worst Mexican food I have ever had. Should of just gone to Taco Bell, it would of been better and cheaper.

Delicious! Went there in between a trip to National Monumnent and Rim Rock adventures. We were a party of 6. Jumbo margaritas are the way to go! Most of the party got enchiladas. All of the sauces were great, my favorite being the cream sauce. The mole sauce was good as well. We ordered guacamole as an appetizer and it was outstanding. Overall, a great, authentic, dining experience. read more

El Tapatio - Mexican Near Me - Fruita, Colorado

Fantastic food and service! Very friendly, fast, tasty good food. Love this place. We were greeted and seated quickly on a Friday night, and enjoyed a great meal in a relaxing atmosphere. read more

Stopping through on a road trip. So tired and wanted dinner close to hotel. Came here and happy we did. Friendly, fast service. Colorful decor. Super delicious dinner. I had vegetarian enchilada which was sooo good! Husband had enchilada suiza. Kids has chicken taquitoes and burrito. Large portions, fresh taste, friendly, fast service. read more

El Tapatio - Bean and cheese burrito - Mexican Near Me - Fruita, Colorado

See all

Being from Arizona and being spoiled with authentic Mexican food I didn't really consider this to be Mexican food. Although it was good, but not my fav. read more

Great service and some of the best Chile Rellenos I've had, highly recommended! The Margs and Pina Coladas were also on point!

Not authentic at all. For example chicken mole is highly sweetened for what they perceive Americans will like. And the chicken is not on the bone but rather chicken breast cut up.and cooked until it resembles slices of rocks - very hard. Big disappointment. Place is overpriced , with no lunch menu. You sir down and they try to upsell you to order Margaritas which was about 14 bucks. No thank you . Also tried the enchilada combo which has indistinguishable meats in different color sauces including the inauthentic mole sauce. Plus side: portions are huge ( but then prices are high), salsa was good but tiny portion, free coke slaw was very good. Go there if you don't care about good Mexican food. There were no Mexican customers so that is your first clue. So go at your own peril. read more

A gigantic plate of food, for a decent price. The location is charming, and the service was very friendly. The chile rellenos are in a wrapper (egg roll?), and our the crispiest I've had. I think they were green chiles, and they had some heat. read more

Service was great, food was excellent. I give five stars instead of four because I was on business sitting by myself and never got chips and salsa which are included with an order. Also I asked for no beans in my burrito and they did that but also left them out in my dish. Which they fixed and I still grant them 5 stars. The food is absolutely delicious read more

See all

Excellent, large servings... all very fresh! The chili relano was Absolutely the best I have ever had! Highly recommended!fast service, big servings, and very reasonably priced! read more

I'll start out by mentioning I'm not a fan of Mexican food, usually. It takes some pretty good quality ingredients and lack of jalapenos (paint me Irish, I just don't do super-spicy well at all), to really make me appreciate south-of-the-border foods. So imagine my apprehension when I step into this place, and the entire restaurant is covered in bright, overdone Mexican heritage paraphernalia. And I'm not talking about a few rugs here and there. They have the token authentic rugs scattered around, and then added onto that, plates, dolls, posters, pictures, and paint in florescent pinks, yellows and greens smattered all over the benches and walls in the entire restaurant. Literally, I felt like someone had come into the restaurant and vomited every Mexican stereotype possible onto the walls. Needless to say, setting is very, very loud on the eyes. Soft on the ears, though, for the most part, which was refreshing. Once we found our way past the maze of garish color and black and white photos, we were seated quickly, and since it wasn't rush, our waitress was very prompt. She was very friendly, and referred to us all as "amiga" or "amigo". Which came off as somewhat stilted and awkward, to be honest, and forcibly reminded me of those little kids in elementary school that are overly nice to classmates because the teacher ordered them to be so, with retribution in the corner as punishment for acting otherwise. It wasn't anything major, and I certainly don't think of it as a detraction, but I couldn't get over the feeling of suddenly being five years old again. The food, though, is AWESOME. I ordered a fish burrito, and it was brought out within about 10 minutes of ordering, which is always nice when you're ravenous after a day of walking around with a 21lb baby all day. Great sour cream white sauce, with mushrooms and tilapia inside, served with enough beans and rice to serve at least three people. The plate comes out incredibly hot, though, as does the food itself, which is great.. Unless you have an 11 month-old who really wants to shove both her hands into the mix and grab all she can. Waiting for it all to cool down so she can begin to stuff her chubby little face can be maddening for everyone, I assure you. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by my experience here. True, the general decorum was loud and tacky, and the catch phrases for the waiters were more than a tad awkward, but the food definitely made up for it, and the service was speedy, polite, and efficient. I would definitely recommend stopping by here. read more

Food was very lack lustre. The strangest authentic chile renellos ive ever had. Anaheim chile wrapped in a tortilla and fried. The mole that my husband got was like eating chocolate sauce, too sweet. When we asked about it, the waiter told us that was an American favorite. The restaurant had great atmosphere, but being used to Az and NM food, this just did not cut it. I wont go back. Sorry. read more

Killer post ride feast- don't miss it. Chips, salsa and marinated cabbage mix are top notch! Oftentimes I find myself disappointed with this opener but El Tapatio did not disappoint. Portions are MASSIVE! Loved the creative variations on standard meals. Had the fish burrito. Loved how the sauce complemented the flavor of the burrito. Generous use of mushrooms and veggies. TIP: you might want to ask for the sauce on the side because it's seriously smothered. And if you are not into that, then you might not be in for a good meal. Friends had chile relleno and loved it. Ate every bit. Margarita made with a mix instead of fresh - bummer. Not enough to salt either. There were about 14 flakes of salt total. Service was attentive and generally excellent. No complaints there at all. Beer came in a new frosted glass every time. Always a plus. Atmosphere was super fun and festive. Loved it. Not cheesy. Well, maybe a little but that's the charm. read more

I really enjoyed my food and I've had great Mexican food from various locations in northern and southern Mexico and all over California. Unfortunately, my buddy and I both hurled chunks after eating here. Cross contamination of some sort I'm assuming. Food was good but not worth vomiting again afterwards. read more

A todos quienes saben bien la comida que sabe bien, este es el restaurante mexicano de Fruita, ¡para los paisanos! I know Mexican food really well. I came here for a 40th birthday, and really chose it because it was next to our hotel. Whoa, very impressed. HUGE selection of really good tequilas, and the prices weren't that bad. The staff is legit Mexican, and they have the recipes to back it up. The service was incredible, the entire staff helped us out, the plates were ENORMOUS. The Special plate for two was incredible, especially the bacon wrapped shrimp. The Palomas (tequila and Squirt) and margaritas were very good as well. Lo recomiendo con ganas, muy animado para un restaurant impresionante. Y esta recomendación viene de Redwood City, entonces si vale. ¡Gracias a Maria y los otros para una noche fenomenal! read more

Don't usually go to Mexican restaurants the closest I'll get is Taco Bell and that's not saying much. Once inside the guy who brought us to our seats was very friendly so that made me feel really welcomed, I got the menu and was surprised at all the options. Not just a lot of plates to chose from but also a lot of drink options too that was nice to see, although some drinks I wish labeled the type of syrups and spirits used in it. Still looked super tasty although that night I stuck with a Pepsi Our waitress brought is chips and salsa with cabbage. Usually I don't like things like cole slaw or anything but whatever that side fish was was super tasty and so was the salsa. Ordered the Tacos al Pastor and my oh my was the plate very large, probably could have shared it but oh well. Beans with cheese were amazing and I don't like my beans whole I prefer them mushed up like that so it's a plus. Rice was great and guacamole tasted fresh. The tacos were delicious, the meat was mixed with pineapple. I thought that was weird but the taste of the meat with the pineapple was amazingly good. Overall I was stuffed and a bit sad I didn't get to try the desserts but it was a great place. Food was excellent and didn't take too long, staff was friendly and attentive and made us feel welcomed and the options were great too. Not to mention I did like the decor of the place. Thought it was cute how by the door they have pictures of customers on their birthdays who celebrated there. Maybe one day I hope to come back and have enough room to try their desserts ! read more

El Tapatio - Tacos al pastor - Mexican Near Me - Fruita, Colorado

Four of us decided to go to the Fruita El Tapatio restaurant. I know they were real busy because it was a Friday night. However, the waiter got 3 orders out of 4 wrong. Not wanting to wait another 10-15 minutes to reorder, we accepted the orders. It also took almost 20 minutes to get our check. We live in Fruita and try to support our local business, but this was the last time we will go to this Fruita Mexican restaurant. read more

Best Mexican food I've had in a long time. Excellent service. Huge Portions. The cabbage slaw is to die for!!! We tried the taquitos appetizer and 4 different types of tacos. All deliciously fresh and amazing! Wishing we had a place like this back home. Five stars!!! Don't miss this one!!! read more

Super clean, social distancing and masks! Pleasantly surprised by the space and friendliness of staff. Food was great too.

Wanted to stay close to the hotel after a busy day, and didn't want to drive to a restaurant, so we walked over to El Tapatio. EXCELLENT food...and get the margarita or pina colada. For the price, you can't beat this place. Try the cabbage salsa with the chips. read more

Great food for a reasonable price, and the service was great! My son and I split the Mole chicken enchiladas - it was plenty of food and the mole was really yummy. We'd definitely eat here again. read more

9 people high season Saturday night at 7 pm - awesome service. Fast and exceptionally friendly. Nice shaded outdoor patio. Great decor. Great veggie/cabbage salsa, as well as traditional salsa. Everyone was happy with their meals. Great sopapillas!!!! read more

Crazy as it may seem, it's not uncommon to run into a great place when traveling! I love Mexican food with the best of them and this was up there! Who would have thought a Mexican restaurant off the interstate some miles outside (west) of grand junction in a small town call Fruita would have such a gem. Even the cowboy who stops regularly from rodeo circuits claims this spot as his own. It's good for me as well. Chk it out for sure if your driving through this small town! read more

El Tapatio - A good spot by the interstate! Opt for real Mexican food oppose to fast stuff! - Mexican Near Me - Fruita, Colorado

See all

This place was really good. Flaming Tapatio for two was great. Kids had nuggets and a corn dog. The guacamole dip was fresh and came with lime and jalapeños to adjust it to how you want. Service was fast and friendly! Highly recommend it. read more

The food was about what you would expect. Nothing to write home about. Service was extremely quick which was nice.

Service was meh. Items were expensive. Was just staying at the hotel next door. Wanted warm food. Wouldn't go again. Lots of drinks on the menu though! read more