They got out to go order wrong. The food we got was soggy and gross. We have gone there before so we thought we would get a to go order. I will never order or eat there again. read more

We went here for Mothers Day just because we knew every place would be filled. The food was great. The margarita was filled to the brim and our server, which seemed like a matriarch, was funny and nice. It's a casual spot and seems like a lot of locals hang here. Because it wasn't so busy when we came it wa very relaxing. read more

Much better experience this time food was good and Juan was super friendly and helpful. We got nachos and they were layered nicely, a lot of places will just throw everything in the middle. read more

Walked in, make shift dining room empty. Waited. Waited. Had to go into the bar to let them know we were there (me and my 13 year old). Service was friendly. Food was so so. My margarita was the worst margarita I've ever had. Neon green. Undrinkable and not because it was strong. But because it looked like Mountain Dew but tasted like nothing I ever want to have again. We are new to Ferndale and love supporting small businesses. This one is a one time visit. read more

I'm headed to Arizona in a few days, but I just couldn't wait that long to eat some Mexican food. My local insurance agent recommended this restaurant since it is nearby her office. Even though there is a decent sized parking lot, the spaces fill up during happy hour and many people park in the gravel and grass. The restaurant is small and looks like a pink hacienda from the outside. It has a nice patio area with tables. The spring weather was nice, but no one was dining outdoors. Instead, there were a bunch of smokers camped out at a table temporarily getting their nicotine fix. Inside, the wrap around counter bar was packed. There were several booths that were filled too and a few tables wedged in between the bar and the booths. Apparently this is a popular place for happy hour. It was 4 pm on a Thursday in June. The clientele were all white and mostly in their 60s with grey hair. They seemed quite jovial and familiar with each other as if this was a regular hangout. The bartender greeted me from her station behind the counter and asked me to seat myself. The table I chose was covered with a bright red and green, vinyl table cloth. It was a bit grundgy to the touch. The walls were tourquoise. Multicolored sombreros and colorful wall art hung high on the walls. Free chips, salsa and pico de gallo were delivered to my table along with a menu. I selected the El Nopal Burrito which was supposedly a house specialty. It was filled with rice, pinto beans, and meat and covered with cheese and sauce. On the side was a dollap of guacamole and sour cream. It reminded me of something I might get at Taco Bell, but at 3 times the price. I realize taste is a very subjective thing. However, if you've spent a lot of time in the southwest or south of the border, you might be disappointed with this food. It was bland. The chips were obviously from a commercial entity probably made cheaply in the midwest where corn is readily available. The salsa also appeared to be from a mass-produced source. There was plenty of food, and I was happy with the large dollap of guacamole on my plate. Many other restaurants skimp on this. I was also pleasantly surprised that they had the pink packets of Sweet-n-low which were great for my iced tea. Sadly, no one ever bothered to check on me during my meal, nor did I get a refill on my drink which was empty for half of my meal. Next time I'll save money and time and swing through the Taco Bell drive through. If I want a good quality Mexican meal, I'll wait for my next trip to the southwest...thankfully that's only a few days away. read more

Nopal Mexican Restaurant - El Nopal Burrito - house specialty - Bars Near Me - Ferndale, Washington

Maybe clean the place? The broken down sign has been on their front lawn for years. Curb appeal and cleanliness matter.

Food is great. Don't expect to be greeted as there seems to be only one server. It is a family owned restaurant.

We will never be back. Things need to change here. My food came out with no guacamole and peppers, my daughters food was horrible. They dropped my boyfriends food on the floor. The waitress came out to tell us they dropped it on the floor but told us a dish that he didn't order. We told her that and she was confused. Went back to the kitchen to bring food to him and it was beef and he ordered chicken. We told her it was wrong and she walked away. I got up and asked to talk to someone in charge and some man from the kitchen came out. I asked for our check and told him I was made about getting food we didn't order. He told us to leave and then started taking in Spanish while we were walking out. He wasn't nice at all. Horrible experience. read more

This place is on our way home so we do stop in from time to time. It's certainly not gourmet or authentic but the drinks are killer! I think that's the reason so many cars!! The happy hour drinks. And the bar ladies are super nice and helpful. We've had just about everything there on the menu, which is huge, but kind of all tastes the same (like subway), if you know what I mean. Quite a decent quesadilla with carne asada. And my husband sometimes gets the fajitas. Haven't seen any of their salads. Doesn't seem like a salad place. Kids have had the flautas. Anyway, it's passable Mexican food. Not the worst and not the best lol read more

I live in the same neighborhood. You think it would be cool to have a bar in your backyard. No,not so much.My order a taco was stuffed with a big chunk of the same kind I put in my boil in my instant pot for 12 minutes that I buy at the grocery outlet. This is the same chicken that I feed my dogs. Drinks most of the time too strong to drink. I do give it two stars because after this experience I did go down and have a few margaritas. Though after sucking three down. I came home and vomited. read more

Solid 3.5 stars. Upon a recommendation, to try their chicken quesadilla, passed with flying colours. Lots of meat, even more toppings and sides. Even the wraps were nicely made. As with most Mexican restos, the complimentary chips a great start. Not as spacious as it looks from the outside, as left side is the bar, then a hallway to the right side of dining area. a bit hard on your touche lol, wooden booths. Great service. read more

Nopal Mexican Restaurant - Incredible value - Bars Near Me - Ferndale, Washington

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I order food from this restaurant through door dash. When I received my order I noticed that my order was wrong and I never received the fried ice cream I ordered. I immediately called the restaurant to report the mistake. The girl who answered the phone was nice and apologetic. She told me that she would inform the owner of the mishap and it will be resolved with a refund the following day. However, I never received an email, phone call or refund. This place obviously doesn't care about customer service. I urge anyone reading this review to reconsider spending their hard earned money at a restaurant that doesn't care if their customers are satisfied. I will not be returning and neither will any of my friends or family. read more

Service was fine but I asked for no mushrooms in my fajitas, just use extra onions. I got charged for adding onions. My fajitas was full of grease, I moved all of my veggies and meat to a separate plate. Not highly impressed considering this was my first experience here. read more

Nopal Mexican Restaurant - Bars Near Me - Ferndale, Washington

Whoever ate this food and thought it was good Mexican food drank WAY too much at the bar before eating. Terrible food. Canned, thin, bland off-tasting sauces. My Wife couldn't finished her standard two beef enchiladas. My Tacos alCarbon was gross. Thin green sauce, fruity taste???? No cheese on top. Thrown together canned microwaved junk. read more

OK after last night's poor Mexican food, I was hopeful of Nopal being much better...it was!! Just a neighborhood place like the Cheers bar--very welcoming and comfortable. "D" our server/bartender was quick with menus, chips & salsa. We ordered draft Modelo and looked over the menu. Honey ordered the Mole chicken and I had the shredded beef chimichanga with rice & beans, sour cream, guac and jalapeños. That is my go to choice every time. Here come the plates...looking hot & fresh!! Honey was extremely happy with his tasty choice which came with fresh tortillas and my chimichanga was fat & full of flavorful shredded beef and fried crispy!! The jalapeños were fried and seasoned with a seasoned salt....they were three nice peppers and quite tasty--not too hot. I must say we will be back and fajitas will be my choice. It's nice to be welcomed to the neighborhood with good food & service. read more

Nopal Mexican Restaurant - Mole Pollo/ Mole Chicken. - Bars Near Me - Ferndale, Washington

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If you are walking by, very hungry and don't feel like chewing your arm off for nutrients, give this place a try. If you like your Mexican food cooked in a microwave - well then, this place is for you. If you want excellent mexican food, go to Tadeo's. They have really good, cooked fresh authentic. read more

This place sucks. Sucky service (not the good kind) waitress wearing flip flops with no mask and coughs. She walked up to our table and asked "what can I get you" how bout a fucking menu???? Maria was nice. read more

I have to start this off by clarifying that I am not reviewing the restaurant or the service. We were at the restaurant at closing, and there was a brand new server in training that was helping us. Most people talk about the chips and salsa, yes, the chips weren't warm, but our second basket was. But their house salsa was tasty and on the spicier side which I prefer. We also had margaritas, which don't skimp on size or strength. Made from scratch not a mix with hand squeezed lime juice and triple sec. I got the pork carnitas. It's one of my favorites ever since I was in high school. My good friend who is from Mexico "schooled me" to carnitas, and I have been a fan ever since. Their menu says something to the effect of "trust us and order these." They were great. Served with a spicy green chile sauce, tortillas, beans and rice, these slightly crispy and moist morsels of pork were a real delight for my pallet. My wife ordered the tacos al carbon, street style tacos. They were big and had a delicious enchilada sauce served with them. We will go back. I like this restaurant compared to the other Tex-Mex cuisine offerings in Ferndale, Chihuahuas. read more

yum! really enjoyed the service. quiet when we visited. solid Mexican food

A small restaurant that does Mexican food right! Taking the food that is served at other Mexican restaurants and returning to the origins of bigger portions and food that has flavor and character. The two times my family have come here we were amazed about how much better the food was compared to the other comparable restaurants in the area and the prices are cheaper. The staff is very friendly and with the small size of the restaurant it is easy to get service. This will be our families go to restaurant for Mexican food while we live in the area. 5/5 read more

This restaurant is not good. Was coming back from Macy's andmy girlfriend - who suffers from the unfortunate indignity of being born and raised in Abbotsford - saw the sign for this restaurant and recalled that her friends used to travel across the border here for Mexican food. Despite pointing out to her that the food reviews of Abbotsford teenagers held no water with me, I was hungry, caved, and we went anyways. The place is not attractive; it looks like a small-town bar, complete with rummys, AC-DC fans and pull-tab lifers. But, sometimes a place like this turns out to be a gem. Instead, this place was a turd. I got the fajitas, costing $18 instead of $15 because I got half chicken half steak (would have been nice to know about this price increase in advance). My girlfriend got an enchilada. My fajitas were bad: the steak was tough, and obviously cheap meat; and the chicken was tough too. The spices/sauces on the fajita were bad too - just greasy, with no real flavor. Add to this that I got very little lettuce, tomatoes or sour cream, and you are left with a greasy, tasteless, uninspired meal. My girlfriend was equally unimpressed, which is itself impressive because for her to admit her meal sucked was for her to admit that she was wrong to drag me to a Mexican joint on the recommendation of Abbotsford teens. All this would earn the restaurant 2 stars in my book, but something else brings it lower. I ate the food yesterday, and today I have now dropped 5 separate bombs in the toilet - roughly every 3 hours or so. Perhaps this is good for losing weight, but it hasn't been fun, and my bomb-dropper is sore. Yes, this is all gross and Too Much Info, but I am telling you this so you, the reader, avoids what I went through today. So forget this place unless you want to spend twice the amount of a Chronic Taco, for something a quarter as tasty, and then spend five-times the amount of time on the can. read more

I love Mexican food. I'd eat it everyday if I could, for every meal. This place is super authentic and delish. Greatest service too. They have a fun bar always doing different nightly events. You can't beat this place. Great people, food, drinks and prices. Ask for Karla she's a hoot and really loves her customers and makes everything fun! read more

Nopal Mexican Restaurant - Lunch veggie express burrito. Seriously under $6 and fed two! - Bars Near Me - Ferndale, Washington

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Worst place to eat meat wasn't even cooked all the way & still payed full price I don't recommend it

I heard this place was under new management so some friends and I checked it out last night. First of all you need to know that this place is primarily a bar. The parking lot is often full but it's all bar business, the restaurant is usually empty. That being said, you need to know that the dining area is tiny and a bit grimy. The place needs a good cleaning and freshening up. On to our experience - (I'm sorry for not taking pictures, once again my phone battery was on empty. In all fairness the pictures wouldn't have helped much as the food looked very homogeneous, covered as it was in sauce.) We were there early and got a booth which was nice but unfortunately there was a very strong odor of cigarettes which made my eyes water. (I think it came from the outdoor bar seating or outside the kitchen door.) Our server was training and greeted us promptly with chips and salsa. We had to ask for pico de gallo as they charge extra for it. The chips were cold and lacked flavor, as did both condiments but our margaritas were very good. Not too strong (which I like). I think they were made with lime juice and cointreau, not a mix. The menu is extensive and they claim that all items are scratch made. I had the Shrimp enchilada and Crab relleno. I know, I know... risky business eating seafood at a Mexican restaurant but, hey, it sounded good and it wasn't bad. We asked the server what type of chile was used in it, she didn't really know but the cook said it was a California Chile?never heard of it, I'm thinking it was an Anaheim chile. Anyway it was a bit smaller than most but also hotter, I liked that they removed the seeds as that is a pet peeve of mine. The crab was fresh tasting (probably frozen but it tasted good). The shrimp enchilada was unremarkable, lots of tastless tiny bay shrimp, meh. Aside from the nice crab, the entire meal lacked flavor and the enchilada sauce was watery. My friends enjoyed their meals, no one really raved about anything. I did try my husband's tamale, I liked it too, it tasted homemade, with a nice corny masa flavor and tasty pork filling. If you go, I recommend you try the relleno and the tamales and make sure to have a couple margaritas and you won't be disappointed! read more

We stopped in at this restaurant for a Friday night Mexican food dinner and honestly we walked in and immediately walked right back out and left. The place is in serious need of maintenance on the inside....we saw flooring coming up in the hallway and just an overall really run down dinning area. We figured if the management has such little regard with how their business looks to the public, then what's the quality of the food storage and preparation behind the scenes? read more

The food was gross. I ordered chicken en mole sauce. The chicken tasted off, like it was cooked many days ago and left there to rot. The sauce was from a bottle or can, too sweet and not good at all. My BF got the chile relleno. They obviously don't know what a chile relleno is cuz what we got was like an omelet rolled around a chile (?). Avoid this place, so many other good Mexican places that are better around that area. read more

Don't go there unless you want hair on your guacamole. Under cook carne asada and dirty water.

Nothing too spectacular about this place. Came in around 11:30am and there was no one around to greet or seat me, so I sat myself. I ordered the chimichanga from the lunch combination ($6.95), which isn't too bad even though it is a small portion size. The food was fairly bland and not very well seasoned. The chimichanga had about 1/4 of it with just an air pocket, where they could have stuffed it with more meat. The salsa for the chips was bland as well and had a very large chunk of tomato that took up quite a bit of the bowl. The salsa was really runny and seemed like they just threw in the basics for it and didn't even season it, it was not spicy at all to me. The service here was very slow and I had to wait awhile just to get my bill or to pay. The only times the waitress came to see me was to take my order, bring my food and then came to give me my bill. Also I was the only one in the restaurant portion at this time as well. Later on I heard some people go into the bar towards the end of my experience. This isn't really a place to go if you are wanting good service and good Mexican food from what I can tell. If you are hungry and just want some really cheap Mexican lunch special then this might be the place but I don't think I would come for dinner or order anything else. When I went to pay for the bill I saw a giant box of chips on the counter in the back, so the chips are not made in house either. read more

Worst service ever. Server doesn't even know verde sauce is green. Been here before and all I can say is Carla where are you?? You are the best they got. read more

Very tasty food and an excellent Margarita. Friendly, good paced service and good prices.

I wish I would have known the enchilada I ordered comes with two droplets of sauce and that the chicken taco is served dry and completely flavorless. The beans and rice were bland. The service was sub par and the restaurant was run down looking but the horrible food takes home the prize. I will never come back here again. read more

Before today I had never met a Mexican restaurant I didn't like, but El Nopal changed that. My husband got the Carnitas special, what a disappointment. Although there was a generous portion of meat, it had not cooked long enough and was tough, fatty and flavorless. It came with a side of whole pinto beans that were seasoned with nothing more than plain tomato sauce. Even the tortillas were so dry that they shattered when you picked them up. My chimichanga was unlike any I've had before. The filling was ok, but rather than being deep fried as expected, the tortilla appeared to have been warmed on the flat top and then wrapped around the filling. We had been the the Sumas El Nopal several times and expected this location to be just as good. Sad decor, average service and sub par food. read more

When the Margarita mix tastes awful and you use to order handmade and you spend a ton of one year there and the owner refuses to let you get handmade anymore.......we eat there all the time during hay season that's just baaaaaad business read more

Over the years the food has been hit or miss. The staff has followed suit. Unfortunatley the food has declined to a point that it is no longer worth the gamble. The bar side is far more spacious than the restaurant which based on the clientele is the desired sale point. However if you are interested in smoke wafting through the opened doors, low rent discussions and drunk driver then the place might be for you. Don't get me wrong everyone needs "a place". Choose wisely people. read more

Found this local spot on a whim coming back from Canada and was pleasantly surprised. The waitresses were both sweet and accommodating, the house margarita was delicious, and the tacos were the perfect fuel. If you're driving through or are in the area, stop in and enjoy. read more

Good service, nice view, and a good hot salsa! You never know exactly what you'll get when trying a New Mexican restaurant but my husband and I were impressed, at a fair price too! read more

Never been to Mexico? Then head to El Nopal and transport to a delicious Mexican retreat. Yep its a small small venue next to a very popular neighborhood pub. Very authentic food, great serving sizes, humourous staff and good memories from our previous mexico journeys. Highly recommend the experience and food. read more

I had the moladas (mole enchiladas) and loved it!

My first time eating here and my first impression is was bar atmosphere and not so much restaurant especially with the jukebox playing as loud as it was. I walked into what appeared to be the main doors. Good chips and salsa and food was mediocre at best, service was good. read more

Just had lunch there, the food was very fresh, would go back again! I would recommend this place to my friends.