I have been here several times. Good food, good service. Nice bar lounge area. Shrimp dishes are good. Not bad for Midwest

The food was fairly typical Mexican food that you could find in the middle of Indiana. Still, for the area it's quite good. The margaritas are delicious as well- and they're huge. 2$ off on Mondays. The service here was so so, however. They weren't the friendliest, but they were fast. I'll probably still be back again because this is among the best in Bloomington. read more

Sometimes I like this place and sometimes I don't. Chips and salsa come out quickly at no extra cost. A $7 meal tastes like it is worth $7 or less. I tried a special and the Guadalajara is fair at best. My server did not understand so brought me two beers. I could tell he did not want to take them back amongst arr half-price Sunday but I just blew that cost. The server attentiveness is zero. Had to ask for silverware. His English is not good. I have had some good meals here (Fajitas) & I have had a few better servers. A Mexican in a restaurant in Mexico City would likely not Elvin back - based on my many visits to Mexico City and great restaurants. I will likely returns when I am really hungry. My wife liked her burrito loco because of the many flavors. read more

This was over all an excellent meal. I meant to take pictures because I think it helps a lot to evaluate place but we all are so fast it was too late. Bar is definitely best place to sit. In fact it has a little to strong cleaner smell in the main dining room. It may face ruined the experience. I had something I can't pronounce or spell but it was chicken with vegetables cheese and rice along side was tortillas. SO excellent. My son recommended and had same. Friends had quesadillas and the steak one is a favorite. Chips were fresh and they luckily had queso blanco which was key. Amazing specials including drink specials. I would not have normally stopped here but glad we tried. read more

The food is great especially the queso there's no doubt about that. The reason why I give it 3 stars is that it tries to market itself as "Authentic" Mexican food to the unsuspecting consumer and that is not the case. It is very Americanized, if I have specifically to ask for Corn tortillas over Flour and explain what certain dishes are when I ask if they serve them, we have issues read more

I lived in Texas and this is not the same kind of food but it is yummy all the same. Solid, wonderful greasy Mexican. Great staff.

I LOVE LA CHA!! Everyone I know gets excited to come here! They have delicious margaritas with all sorts of flavors and they will even mix flavors for you! The food is always good and the prices are standard. Nothing about this place says classy or sophisticated, but the bar area has big comfortable chairs for dining and a square bar with stools. They also have a cute patio area for when the weather is nice. Don't let some of these reviews fool you! La Cha is awesome! read more

Love the new lounge area!! The atmosphere at La Charreada is always up beat; servers are on top of it, and food is yummy! Whenever we need to have the staff meet for a lunch meeting we often hit La Charreada. The service is always expedient even when we have larger group meetings. read more

Bean burrito, rice and chips for less than five dollars. As a native Californian I have to say that the food was less than authentic but it was still extremely delicious. I wish we could have eaten there more so we could explore the menu further. read more

Great Mexican food! Service is hit and miss. Sometimes it is great, other times it is very lacking. Almost impossible to get around with a walker or wheelchair, but worth the extra effort for the great food. read more

Huge platters of food, very quick service, lots of choices on the menu... And the food tasted good also...

One of my favorite Mexican restaurants in the country! It sorta gets overrun with rowdy students who go there to drink the beer towers and get cheap margaritas, but other than that it is pretty low key. Fairly large restaurant with 3 sections, and they pretty much put the loud drinkers in the back (w/ the bar). The menu has a good selection and pretty much everything is good. The chips and salsa are the best in town (well, other than Casa Brava, but it's the same chain). For some reason this place has always been a little better than Casa Brava, so if you are deciding between the two, do La Charreada. read more

Excellent food. This is the 3rd time to visit this Mexican restaurant and has been perfect. 5 stars in my book. Good job and see you in a few weeks when we visit our son at IU. read more

This is about service and not about the food. Didn't get a chance to eat the food. This was for my birthday, April 19th. 4 of us came and the hostess was going to seat us by the entry way to the restrooms. Before sitting, I asked to be seated somewhere else. The lady took me into the entry way of the restroom to prove to me that it was distant from the booth. She had a bad attitude. We decided to sit there and then finally, I decided - NO. What she should have done was just move me to a different booth and honor my request from the beginning instead of her trying to prove a point. The point she didn't get was that - I'm the customer, you are being rude, and you need to work on customer service. Won't ever return here. read more

The mole literally had no flavor. I'm not sure what their recipe is. This is a Mexican restaurant for people who have never been to a big city in the US, the southwest, or Mexico. Margaritas are big, but they are obviously made from a mix. I felt like I wasted my time and money. read more

My friends like meeting up and eating here but I've been here maybe 5 times and each dish I had wasn't satisfying, I didn't even bother to wrap it up to take home. The dishes aren't visually appetizing. I have nothing again Mexican food, whenever I'm at Uof I, I go to Dolce Reales every time. One major thing that I was disappointed was how hard it was to find some Orchada. The only reason why it's 2 stars it because the soup is good and the service is nice. read more

I have been here a couple times before and never really had a problem, which is why I returned most recently, but I quickly realized that I had made one of the biggest mistakes in my adolescent life. The service has never been anything to brag about. It is usually sub-par and it feels like the customers work harder than the servers by constantly trying to flag down the speed-walking employees. This time, however, I was actually surprised with how terrible the service was. I came here at a time when it was not busy at all. There were two occupied tables in my section and a couple more on the other side, but overall the restaurant was empty. There were more employees working than there were customers eating, yet the only time I was able to say anything to my server (server code 08, didn't get a name) was when he came to our table to take our order. He rushed each one of us by asking, "Same thing?" over and over again after the first person ordered Arroz con Pollo. On top of this, he refused to make eye contact and took our order from a distance, looking like he had better places to be. The food was out very quickly, and at that time I asked for corn tortillas, but I was blatantly ignored and laughed at (they talk a lot of sh*t in Spanish, but I am a student majoring in the language and understood everything they were saying about me and my group). After a disappointing meal that we shouldn't have paid for, we left early and did not tip. I called immediately afterwards and talked to the manager. I told him that we did not tip and that we received awful service and we would not be back. His reply was a chuckle followed by, "It's okay, it isn't the first time he didn't receive a tip". Well, it isn't okay, and La Charreada of Bloomington is a poor excuse for a business, especially in such a nice town. They belong in a back-alley garage next to a run-down Jiffy Lube, in my opinion. read more

Food was delicious! I got the taco fajita salad and loved it. Also we got the chorizo queso dip and it was AMAZING!! Margs were huge but not that strong. Service was good but not great. read more

Just awful! The chimichanga was about a quarter of the size that it should have been. Food was over priced for what it was. I spent the following day living on the toilet! I would not recommend this place at all! read more

Chips, queso and margarita. Enough said. Huge menu, favorite Mexican in Bloomington. Visit weekly!

The food here is okay by Bloomington standards. It looks decent but the flavors are... strange. It's like they mixed all their sauces together and decided that was the way to go. Perhaps it makes sense since their tamales and enchiladas were relatively flavorless. At least it's cheap, but I wouldn't come here for the food. read more

While the initial entrance and loudness of the music was a bit disconcerting, the food more than made up for it. From nachos to burritos to quesadillas, this restaurant executed excellently in taste, appearance, and texture for every dish. The appetizer chips and salsa tasted Homemade in the best way, and the waiters were efficient and polite with drinks and orders. read more

This is really just a very generic Mexican restaurant, good reviews are generally written from people who have never tried Mexican food before. (The only thing this place does different from almost any other Mexican restaurant is smother things in cheese) Don't ever go here though the service is awful. Being busy is one thing but having to wait 30+ minutes for a server to even take a drink order is another thing. This place is close to my house so I used to just deal with it because of how conveniently close it was but then they really screwed me over--- I ordered a carryout meal for my girlfriend and myself at around 9:30 and their kitchen closes at 10:00, I figured 30 minutes is an acceptable amount of time to place an order before a place closes. They clearly gave us the oldest food they had and reheated some cheese, everything tasted awful. This is annoying and everything but at any decent restaurant when you immediately comeback and complain they would give you your money back or give you a credit. The manager there wrote my name down and the next time I went in we sat down and ate and I asked about it, I have worked several food jobs and all of them have a file for the people who get credits or anything, the manager asked me what the other managers name was (like why in the world would I take down his information?) and said that he did not know anything about it so I should get the other manager's name next time, and just gave me a measly 10% off event though my credit should have been for 25$. This just shows how garbage the service is at this La Charreada 1st he is calling me a liar by saying I need to present proof the them that they messed up a week ago or they won't believe me, 2nd my story is really believable and I was basically a regular there and never complained about anything before that point (Just about any food place will give you whatever you want if you complain even if it is clearly not true because sometimes it is true), and 3rd I only got like 3$ off my order so I am still out 22$ because La Charreada has terrible management. --- It's wait staff is totally incompetent, really avoid this place like the plague, service is awful here because the owner just hires his increasingly incompetent friends and family and pays them in cash so they can avoid being taxed. This place is really sketchy don't go here EVER, Casa Brave is right near the mall and has a much better wait staff and managers in case you ever do have a problem or want to have someone take your order within the first 20 minutes of arriving read more

LOVE LOVE LOVE this place! I go here as often as I can. I love how the staff is nice and friendly but not overbearing. They don't bother you while you are munching on chips and salsa. They service is fast and the food is FANTASTIC!! There is always plenty of parking and I have never had to wait to be seated. read more

As someone who has grown up eating authentic Mexican cuisine by my grandmother from Matehuala San Luis Potosi, Mexico. I was ecstatic to hear what a satisfactory experience my friends had after visiting La Charreada, a Mexican restaurant, that I decided I would join them the next time they went to have dinner at this establishment. My friends explained how the servers were friendly and the dishes were fantastic as well as inexpensive. We decided to go on Friday night around dinner time and upon arrival I noticed the restaurant was not as crowded as I thought it would be. As we walked in, we were quickly seated, and the server quickly tossed us a basket of stale tortilla chips along with a bowl frozen salsa. When I explained to the server that the salsa was frozen, he did not seem surprised but rather took the bowl and came back a minute later with a pipping hot bowl of salsa fresh out the microwave. Our orders were then taken and within less than ten minutes we were given our food. I ordered mole with chicken and rice, a simple dish, but everything was below satisfactory. The mole sauce was beyond salty and inedible unless I wanted to raise my blood pressure faster than the food came out. As for the chicken, it was blazing hot on the outside yet barely warm inside, the tell-tale signs that it was microwaved. The rice was bland and flavorless as if I were consuming air. Although the bill was around twelve dollars, I was still disappointed to pay that much for such a horrendous meal. If you value your wellbeing or tastes buds, I would stay as far as you can from this "restaurant". read more

Great food! Fantastic service! Excellent all the way around! My daughter and I had fajitas for two--generous serving-no way were we going to eat all of that after the margaritas!!!!! I highly recommend them to everyone! read more

I will never be returning. Our waitress was incredibly rude and had no personality. One of the managers brought us our food and was extremely rude. My food came out with ingredient that were not listed on the menu and that I don't like. Finally our waitress gave us the bill an proceeded to wait right next to our table until we paid. I was extremely unimpressed with this restaurant. read more

WOW! We moved to Bloomington 2 years ago, and have been on the hunt for any decent Mexican place in the area. We come from a city with a really great selection of authentic Mexican and were disappointed with what we found here. While I wouldn't exactly call La Charreada "authentic", it is really really tasty! What they make, they make really well. This is definitely a Tex-Mex place. The kids, who we had to strongly encourage to try something other than chicken nuggets (which they do offer for kids), scarfed down the taco and quesadilla we chose for them. DH had the chile verde and I had the flautas, and both were amazing!! read more

We always ate here when we lived in Bloomington. It was always clean and fly free. That's not the case anymore. We were annoyed by flies. The menu's had to be PEELED apart to opened. I have dietary limitations. And can't eat peppers, onions, and tomatoes. They don't fully disclose what's in their chimichangas on the menu. There's peppers, onions inside the chimichangas and on top a tomato-based sauce. There was like 2 tablespoons of shredded beef. I scraped off the sauce and removed the peppers and onions. It completely pissed me off! Had they disclosed it i would have made the nesessary corrections. Idk if I'll come back the next time. I tried not to let it ruin my family time. The guy couldn't even tell me if the 'cheese sauce' had real cheese or dairy in it. He didn't understand English well enough. Servers should be able to communicate with patrons for this exact reason! Ppl have limitations they NEED to communicate! I gave them a chance based on past experience despite the low rating. BOY WAS I WRONG! read more

The food is always good but the service can be sucky. Dinning service is better thank pick ups and delivery. I always call my orders in and give them more time than they say they will need, but they still never even begin my order until I get there. read more

It has good food, but service is TERRIBLE! If you are not in a group ordering a lot of alcohol, you will get ignored! I have experienced this many times at this restaurant. read more

I am going to be brutally honest. I LOVED this place (PAST TENSE). I even took my fiancée there before proposing to her. However, my last visit to this location was disturbing and almost put me in the hospital (This was in early 2010). We went on a relatively busy night, which at this location happens quite often. Personally, I had the chili verde...which arrived to the table VERY VERY late relative to the other dishes. I developed SEVERE food poisoning approx. 10 hours later. I could not even hold down water for nearly 48 hours. I had friends over to visit and all we did was hang around the house listening to me expel liquid from both ends. I'm sorry, but if you mess up an order or forget to send it out you should do the right thing and remake it so the customers do not have to spend 3 days sipping pedia lite to avoid dehydration. I will never go back to this place, a former favorite of mine, again. read more

Super good! Early on the delivery and sooooo hot! Great job guys...wish I had given a better tip

I was staying next door without transportation so my options were here or Steak n Shake, and little time before they closed. After reading reviews I didn't have high expectations but it fell even under par of that. The menu I was given was covered in someone else's greasy cheese fingerprints and cheese, which was an unappetizing greeting. The upholstery on the benches was filthy, and where I sat Iingered some kind of funky smell reminiscent of a pre school or dirty diapers. It took 15 -20 minutes before I was asked to place my order. I decided to play safe and keep it simple by ordering a beef taco, chicken chalupa, guac tostada combo. I managed to confuse 2 waiters with the fact I only wanted guac and no meat on my tostada, not to mention the other meat choices were thoroughly confusing and it took 5 reiterations of my order for my waiter to get it right. Each item from the combination came on a separate plate and at different times. I had to ask 3 times for sour cream and hot sauce, which I had ordered initially. The food was mediocre at best. Apparently the chalupas here are just tacos with very soggy tortillas. The salsa was bland. The atmosphere was full of loud, obnoxious, rude college kids. The reviews that said this place is good if you've never had good or real Mexican food were exactly right. The service was mediocre but friendly but I would never come here again even if it was my only option. read more