El Camino Community Tavern

I love this place! My boyfriend and I have been doing a «Taco Tuesday» tour of Denver and this has been one of my favorite spots. It’s located in a super cute area of Denver and is small & intimate (so you’ll most likely wait a bit for a table) but it’s definitely worth it. The tacos we got were delicious and only $ 1 (on Tuesdays). The tacos are pretty small but VERY good and seriously, they cost a dollar so eat your heart out. I will definitely be returning to El Camino!
Tip: walk down the street post meal and grab some ice cream at Sweet Cow for a night cap/​light dessert.

Super fun place for brunch. LOVED the $ 2 mimosas and guess what, they were strong. I was worried it would be 2 drops of champagne and mostly OJ — uh uh — it was full on boozy.
Great service & atmosphere. We had 3 different dishes (and I make everyone I eat with give me a bite!!)
Chilaquiles — great taste but the tortilla strips were soggy
Corn Cake Scramble — SO good. We had the corn cakes served separate — great taste!
OMGFT — slap-​your-​face good French toast — super decadent.

Just walked by and stayed for lunch. Friend had a bean and rice dish that she said the flavors were amazing and complex. I had a fajita salad with perfectly cooked fahita vegies and perfectly spiced chicken.

I like el Camino for its bar environment. However, it’s food is average. I’m pretty picky because we have so many Mexican restaurants in the area.
They have a Taco Tuesday special that is really cheap but also ridiculous. By that, I mean that the tacos are so small that I have to eat about 6 to feel full.
Their margaritas are good and their brunch is okay. Great if you want to get a drink with someone.

Have walked by lots of times when strolling in the Highlands but never stopped. Finally did yesterday on Taco Tuesday and glad we did! So yummy! We also ordered chips & guac which was good and lots of it! Tacos were street tacos so smaller but great! Fresh flavors and creative ingredients. Did I mention $ 1 tacos!!! We had the shredded chicken, veggie, and pork taco. Rest of menu looked tasty also. Nice décor. Tables a little close together so bet it is loud when busy, as we were here for lunch so lighter crowd. Great service. They were patient and willing to explain the menu. Average prices. Would like to stop in for happy hour and dinner sometime.

No grumpy people waiting for tables here! Everybody has a smile on their face. The bar can be busy, especially for happy hour, but who cares, the service is fast and efficient both in the kitchen and at the bar. If you are there, you are seen and asked what you’d like while you are waiting. El Camino’s queso is out of this world, and their tacos evaporate right off the plate! The bar has an excellent selection of tequilas that enhance any margarita, the beer selection is equally good, and the wait staff is one of the moat attentive I have found in Denver.
Be careful, this place is habit-​forming!

A unique take on Mexican with just the right amount of attitude. Don’t expect On The Border or service with a smile, but authentic people serving unconventional standards.
Can be crowded. Try the rellenos.

Happy hour and margs were pretty good. Food was OK. Tacos too salty and had a hair in it and no apology or deal; just a replacement taco. No biggie. The big problem happened toward the end of the meal. We were rushed to get out while a couple of us were not finished yet. Then when we got to the end of the block we realized we left our ToGo container and ran back to get it. The table was cleared and it had been thrown away. Boo. Then later that night I realized I forgot my sunglasses as well. No one had any idea about them. So not only did someone immediately throw away our ToGo, someone also, within 5 minutes of leaving the restaurant, threw away my sunglasses (or stole them). No thanks!

Great happy hour and creative menu!

I would go there only on Tuesdays for the $ 1 taco night. The place is really small so whenever you’re standing at the bar, you’ll get nudged pretty often because the space is so narrow. Our weight was alright, he did forget one of our orders though and didn’t apologize.
I would call ahead before you try and go there and you can get a reservation on the books so you don’t have to wait forever to get a table since they don’t have that many tables.

I just LOVE El Camino! I cannot say enough about how wonderful the experience is every time I walk in the door. The food is delicious, the drinks are amazing, and the best part of it all is the staff and community here. I like to think of myself as a taco and tequila connoisseur and El Camino gets 5 stars! The hysteria margarita is my go to, it’s fresh, strong and not made from a mix… delicious. As for the tacos, normally I love a good pork taco (get your mind out of the gutter) but I have to say the chili marinated portabella tacos are my favorite thing on the menu! That is saying a lot for a veggie dish so you know they must be good. I have never had anything bad here.
As for the staff and community here… they rock! James is the best GM and one of the nicest/​funniest guys you could ever meet. The servers and bartenders couldn’t be cooler and the locals that hit up this spot are so friendly and welcoming. I am happy to call myself a regular and am hoping to get that pink card one day ;)

So the truth is, I forget about this place a lot. Denver is a town with a lot of great Mexican joints at various price points, and while I loved SwimClub32, I’ve only been back a few times since it transitioned to El Camino. One of those times was brunch over the weekend.
— The food was great, and reasonably priced. $ 8 – 10 breakfast entrees were hardy, thoughtful modern twists on traditional Mex dishes. Standouts include the hash, corn cakes, and chilaquiles.
— Great drink pricing
— Ambience works well; it feels intimate but also has plenty of community seating and bar space that lend a social, community vibe
— Our service was on point. We sat at the bar, and the bartender had just the right amount of friendly; she checked on us regularly but never hovered.
— They also have a top notch happy hour with both food and drink specials. I’ll be back soon!

Happy hour is awesome here! Came here and was not disappointed! The vibe, food and drinks were top notch and the staff was even better.
The margaritas were delicious in addition to the tasty salsa, guacamole and queso! The atmosphere is fun. Every time food was brought out near me, the smells were amazing. I will definitely be coming here for dinner the next chance i get! :)

Solid place to go if you don’t have to wait! If there is a huge wait, move on to something else.
Taco Tuesday– very small tacos but for a buck you can’t complain.
Any other time– the crispy tacos are really good. Same with the fajita salad.
Definitely recommended.

One of the best happy hours in Denver.
You may not know the person sitting next to you at El Camino Community Tavern, but there is no doubt this joint (Sorry, it’s Colorado after all!) is part of the community.
Cool vibe and great food in the Highlands. A half plate of nachos runs about five bucks. It’s more than enough for two people.
Me and my dining companions had two plates of nachos and a serving of the fried donuts served with salsa verde. Sounds unusual, but the sweet savory vibe with the fried dough and the salsa was a hit.
A selection of beer and wine come in around five dollars.
Our waiter, who’s name escapes me was very attentive and so friendly.
I’ll be back!

Love this place. Great for brunch, happy hour, and late night drinks. Its usually never busy for brunch, which is great, for a brunch obsessed town like Denver. I guess I’m guilty of contributing to that. Its a small menu, but they execute it well. Huge mimosas. Tasty margaritas. And the green chile nachos! My weakness. Priced pretty well for quality mexican food. Me and my roomie usually end up here on Sunday mornings.

Yuppy, hipster, skinny jean wearing Knock off Mexican food. Small portions and bland. Good selection of tequila.

The staff has been incredible lately at El Camino. My wife and I had a baby 5 months ago and the staff sets us up with our own table that has space for the baby carrier so we can get out and enjoy some social time in public. We go on Taco Tuesdays for the street tacos and margarita specials. There’s not better happy hour in our ‘hood!

We used to enjoy a certain restaurant just down the street form the El Camino Community Tavern. However, I got food poisoning twice in the span of about nine months so we had to find another Mexican restaurant we all enjoyed. This is it! Very friendly staff, great beer and wonderful food for reasonable prices. El Camino has become our favorite restaurant as of late and I encourage you to give it a try. It’s usually a good idea to get your name on the call-​ahead list for a weekend dinner however, we’ve gotten lucky at times and been seated right away.

Bummer! What did you do to the seating arrangement?! Front area feels like a doctors waiting area and the tables are crammed in! Food was still up to par but ambiance is way to important to me so, sadly, I’ll likely not be much of a return customer! Bring back the cantina vibe!!’

We returned to El Camino and similar to our last experience, the ambiance and service was excellent. Our impression is that the staff and owner are very attentive to their customers. 10 stars!
We had the small order of queso which was delicious. We really liked adding toppings to flavor the queso. We got the chicken enchiladas with the poblano sauce and the asada tacos with the jicama slaw. Both dishes were great (loved the marinade on the asada — will definitely order that again!). Our opinion is that it’s a lighter fare for Mexican food. It could definitely be a healthy alternative when compared to other Mexican restaurants in the area and we appreciated the use of local ingredients.
Would definitely return for queso and happy hour drinks!

We love this place for brunch! They have $ 2 mimosas and an excellent brunch menu. He service is really good too! If you’re in the mood for good Mexican food, this is the place on Highlands square to go to. It gets pretty busy, so be prepared to wait. It can also be pretty loud in there. Which would be my only complaint.

Great atmosphere; friendly and attentive staff; and, most importantly, excellent food and drinks at a reasonable price. I’ve been coming here for years and will continue to do so!

Dope music, good atmosphere, and chilled drinks! All around good time! Whether your looking to stop by for a drink, an appetizer, or dinner and drinks it’s a great place to start or finish your night out. They also have several TV’s playing games so you can eat, drink, and catch up on your sports teams.

I’ll give these guys two stars because my husband and I had a good lunch here a few months ago which is why we went out of our way to bring an out-​of-​town friend here this morning. Won’t make that mistake again. I put our name on the list at 10:50 and told the hostess that we needed to get out to the airport and needed to keep an eye on the time. She told us it would be 20 to 25 minutes and we decided to chance it. 30 minutes later, I asked if we were getting close. We were «next.» I explained that we needed to get to the airport. We wait and waited. Finally, 15 minutes later we went across the street to Mead Street Station and had a fantastic, attentive breakfast.
Don’t lie to customers about the wait time and especially when you know someone is keeping an eye on the time, maybe update them once in a while? She did tell the large group behind us that they were getting close. Why was it impossible to update us? I never did get a text that our table was ready so I am assuming she saw us leave but given the indifferent service I wasn’t going to go out of my way to tell her we were leaving. Denver has too much good food to put up with crap like this. Go elsewhere. Next time we will.

Had to downgrade my review. Sadly. I had not been in for a few months and things have somewhat changed. Food is not as fresh or flavorful as the past 39x we’ve been. Came in for happy hour and the drinks were still good and everything happy hour wise was still priced correctly and fairly. The crowd… This use to be my go-​to place for date night or girls night. It is filled with kids. Like ALOT. On a Friday evening… kids crawling on bench booths. Screaming. The food runner — chip replenisher guy is still on point. So that’s good! if you want really really slow service and very poor personality/​attitude, ask for the petite brunette from Dallas. I use to hold my company happy hours here, but can’t see myself or see myself bringing my employees back, or recommending it to anyone anymore. On to find a new taco spot. What happened Camino. You painted your building and it all went downhill.

A really great place to hang out and have a drink. It really does have a fantastic community vibe. Kind of a «go-​to» in the highlands! You can always count on the service being fantastic and the wait staff is always super friendly
$ 1 tacos on Tuesdays are hard to beat, but get there early because it will be busy!

I absolutely love this place! They have excellent food, wonderful customer service and great prices! The staff here always make us feel welcome and I love the laid back atmosphere.
When it comes to their food, I love their new creative take on Mexican food. I’ve tried many dishes here but I have to admit my favorite is the chile rellenos! I also really love their breakfast on the weekends.

I had a really great experience at Taco Tuesday and I will definitely be back and recommend it to all my other fellow Taco Tuesday goers.
Tacos are a little small (reason for ⁴⁄₅) but still delicious and only $ 1 as compared to other restaurants where they are $ 2.50 for the same amount. The service was great and very efficient. They kept all the seating areas clean and neat.
Tons of different sauces and the happy hour had great deals for it also be Taco Tuesday. I enjoyed the music as well (not live but a good oldies funk playlist).

El Camino… where do I even begin about this place. All the workers are awesome human beings. It’s such a relaxing place to hang out and grab a drink or dinner (or both). The cheesesteak burrito is so bomb. Like I haven’t tried very many other things on the dinner menu because why fix something that’s not broken? Margs are delicious and strong, both the flavored and house. Happy hour and especially happy hour on a Tuesday are really great deals. $ 1 street tacos and $ 4 house Margs. I’m such a lucky gal that my birthday is cinco de mayo and it just happened to be on a Tuesday this year. Day. Made.

Everyone’s got an opinion on Mexican food, but I gotta tell you, whether you’re from Texas or Arizona or California, this shit is GOOD.
Despite it being a busy Friday night our little table of 2 plus a highchair were seated within ten minutes. Immediately house made chips warm and tossed in flakes of sea salt arrived with a delicately yet powerfully spiced salsa. Hubs ordered a jalapeño margarita and I had my standard mojito. Both arrived rapidly, before we even finished inhaling the first basket of chips.
Our son’s bowl of Mexican goodness arrived about five minutes after we placed our order. Clearly our server understands that a hungry baby makes for a terrible wait when dining out. We blessed him with an extra large tip. He chowed down while we relaxed and staved off inebriation with a second basket of chips. My mojito was solid, but nothing to wrote Unilocal about. The jalapeño margarita, however, was off the hook and really emphasized that the way to get your drink on here is to take advantage of their infused tequilas. As someone who got way too sick on tequila and still can’t really enjoy it 15 years later, you want to trust me on this one. It’s good stuff. Had I not committed to rum I would have ordered my own.
Also, these drinks sneak up behind you. I finished my first and wasn’t feeling a thing, so I arrogantly ordered a second. By time it arrived I knew I would have been better off without, but I committed! I suck down the second as i continue writing this review. That’s just the kind of woman I am.

I recently went to El Camino — after having heard about it from several different people — to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The hostess and waitress were so accommodating of our large party and we were seated in the back in side by side booths. While this was not the best location if we had all wanted to have a larger conversation, it ended up being nicely intimate for our 2 split groups.
Friends who ordered the margaritas swear by them. One in particular was just the right spicy to make you want to down several in a row.
My main squeeze at El Camino, though, is their queso. It’s hard to make bad queso, but it’s equally hard to make stand-​out queso. The combination here of chorizo, jalepenos, and cilantro with house made chips was outstanding. I ate more than my fair share and went home with a happy mouth.

All in all, this is a nice little eatery and watering hole. There are some pluses, and some minuses, depending on your tastes. On the plus side:
— It is a straight forward menu, with enough options to offer variety, but not so many that you spend 20 minutes trying to get through it.
— The staff is friendly, fast, and the space is interesting and well designed.
— The food is well prepared. I recommend the crab & spinach relleno.
Minor things:
— The place gets NOISY when busy. Not a good spot for a quiet romantic date.
— Tight space when busy. I got bumped a few times while dining there.

This review is specifically for the bar area alone…
Stopped in for a mimosa and dare I say, it was one of the best I’ve ever had?! We sat at the bar and even at noon on Sunday, it was packed with people getting their brunch on. The girls next to us had what appeared to be the biggest bowl of queso I’ve ever seen and that is what I’m coming back for next time. Watch yourself, El Camino!

As someone interested in finding the best nachos in the Denver area, the fact that Denver’s Westword Magazine named El Camino the 2011 winner for Denver’s best nachos meant I needed to try the crunch ASAP.
The restaurant itself is very nice, with a cool open air setup. Sit next to the open window on a nice day for a comfortably breezy lunch or late night dinner.
Back to the nachos. The waiter informed us Carnitas were the most popular meat choice, so it was on.
Basically, the nachos are amazing. To date, they’re the best nachos I’ve ever had. They include very generous amounts of melted cheddar cheese, black beans, pico, sour cream, meat, and cilantro with the occasional jalapeño accent.
A couple things contribute to making every bite here nacho perfection:
1) The chips are fresh, thick, never soggy, and clearly specially made to support the delicious mess of ingredients in each bite.
2) These were obviously plated by an enthusiastic nacho lover. They come evenly spread out across the plate, which makes every single bite perfection. No dud empty chips here… every chip is loaded.
3) The carnitas are extremely tender and deliciously marinated.
These are some incredible nachos, and the rest of Denver has some big shoes to fill if these are to be dethroned any time soon.