Barrio Queen

I am writing this as I wait in the bathroom line. The food and service were excellent! However, 2 stalls in the ladies room is no bueno. Any place that has a bar should have a minimum of 6 stalls in the ladies room. In addition, please put a trash can by the door so I don’t have to touch the handle with my clean, bare hands. Thanks!

Excellent restaurant! The food is fast and 100% authentic. The inside of the restaurant makes you feel like you have taken a short flight to Mexico for food and drinks. The paintings are top notch and music is great.

First off… I’m not a food snob so this review will be pretty simple. I thought this spot was reasonably priced and had great food. The tacos tasted great and they have a wide selection of drinks. Give it a shot!

Not worth the effort. Go anyplace but there. The chips and salsa are not provided when you sit down and come at a price. The tacos are below standard. I had a fish taco and it was so small as to be ridiculous. My hubby had a pork taco and it was not worth eating, either.

Great food!!! Best mexican food i have had in a resturant. Would def come again and again.

The street tacos are a little small (3 for $ 10) but for one dollar more, you can get a nice big burrito that will fill you up. I love the atmosphere and location. It’s a great mexican place and it’s very affordable considering it’s in downtown.

Great addition to downtown Gilbert. I’ve been to Barrio Café in Phoenix and to Barrio Queen in Scottsdale and the Gilbert location is equally good. It was margarita monday which means $ 2 off all specialty margs. Got the skinny, which was ok, but you can really taste the cheap tequila. I remember that being the case with the house marg too. We got the fries with the street corn on top (which I fell in love with at the Scottsdale location) and they were quite yummy. The salsa is kind of bland. The rest of the food was good. I got the Queen Enchiladas (3 cheeses with spinach and onions and a cream sauce). They were good, but nothing great. Others got a variety of tacos. Good, but very tiny. Service was great. We had finished our meal and left out the patio door to head to our car in the adjacent field/​parking lot. As we were pulling away, I spotted our server running after our car. I left my credit card and she was nice enough to run it out to me. Now that’s service! Looking forward to going back when it’s warmer so we can sit outside.

We waited a few months after it opened to come here. We could see that there was the usual huge crowd to go here soon after the opening so we wanted to let it settle down first. Came here on New Year’s Day, I got the chilaquiles and my husband got the Azteca brisket burrito. I really liked what I got– it was better than the chilaquiles at snooze am. I tried my husbands burrito and it was ok, to me it was nothing special but he liked it. The waiter and hostess/​bus person were friendly. The chips they bring you are freshly made here and the salsa is good; I asked for more spicy salsa and the waiter brought it out. I would come here again because the menu is pretty big and there’s a lot to try. I liked the way the place is decorated too. I took a star away because the chairs are too high and the tables too low. Made me feel like I had to sit up straight the whole time and couldn’t relax.

Great service, awful food. Got the carnitas tacos, tortillas were very hard. Also got the guacamole which had no flavor. Margaritas were great and so were the waiters. But nothing near authentic Mexican food. Two stars for the service and margaritas but that’s about it.

Great ‘authentic’ Mexican food! 100% replaces ‘other taco place’ down the street.
Food: The chips were homemade and just came out of the fryer when they were served (and refilled… and refilled again). The complimentary salsa was delicious with a ton of (spicy) flavor. We both ordered vegetarian tortas and both loved them. Again, full of flavor and a great combination. Finally, we split tres leches for desert which was excellent as well. Portions are very large. Food was all prepared very well and plated with care.
Service: Seated immediately. Our waitress was phenomenal. She was always there to refill our waters and salsa/​chips without hovering or interrupting. Food quick, but could have come a tad quicker — it was a Friday night, so can’t really complain too much.
Atmosphere: Nice. We ate outside in colder weather and the heaters made it cozy. Inside was chill, less cramped than other restaurants, and the music wasn’t obnoxiously loud.
Prices: The food is all really well priced. Two entrees and a split desert came to 26 $. Drinks were rather expensive — about $ 10+ for anything but bottled beer — so we decided not to order any.

After driving down Gilbert rd and seeing the infamous barrio queen sign, I immediately told my partner that we were going there instead of another taco place around the corner.
Barrio queen is a place that is always on lists to try and I knew it would be my chance that Tuesday night!
We got seated immediately, and our server was nice. They weren’t that busy and I ordered a margarita, the spicy one, de los muertos, it was okay. Not really the spice I was looking for. But since it was Tuesday we both ordered three tacos each, and the table side guacamole that was divine. The guac was fast. My food came out after twenty minutes. Then my partners food came out five minutes later… the issue was it wasn’t his food. The orders got mixed up, which was the food runners fault. The table behind us got my boyfriends order and my boyfriend got their order. It took a bit to track a server down and when we did the table behind us got their food (as my boyfriend didn’t touch it) and then we waited for his.
I will say that it was nice of the manager to comp my boyfriends tacos! And the tacos themselves were definitely tasty. We’ll be back and hopefully I can give them a better rating because I really do like the food! Just the food runners and wait times for food were less than stellar.

This was our second attempt to try this place out. We came a few weeks ago on a Friday night and it was over a two hour wait. Today, completely different story. We walked in and were seated right away. We got here around one. As we walked up to the restaurant there were a bunch of people waiting outside and I was afraid it was for Barrio Queen. But turns out it was for LoLos Chicken and Waffles.
First impressions I love the décor. You’ll see the pictures from others. Bright and lively. Indicative of Mexico. What I didn’t love was the dead fly behind my husbands head in the window sill. Small details.
I forgot today was Dia de Los Muertos. All the girls had face paint on. They all looked good but face paint creeps me out. Our waitress was very quiet. Not very engaging. My husband ordered a Bloody Mary and asked for it to not be too spicy. Well that was a miss. He couldn’t drink it. For me it was fine but not to his liking.
We got the chips and salsa. Personally we liked the chips. They were thicker chips and unsalted. Thank goodness because you’ll find out in a minute why. The salsa had good flavor to it.
I decided to order the «world renowned» table side guacamole. Don’t let the price scare you. At $ 10.75 I didn’t know what to expect. Now for $ 10.75 you would expect some interaction from the server. I guess expectation goes hand in hand with assumption. We had non. So we were asked if we wanted everything in it. We didn’t know what that was so we asked. Avocado, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, tomato. Is what we were told. They didn’t mention salt and pomegranate. Remember I said the chips were unsalted? Well the salt put in the guac made up for the no salt chips. Two teaspoons of salt in the guac. My hands were so swollen after but the flavor of the guac was really good.
My husband ordered the pulled chicken tacos. You get 3 tacos for $ 10.00. No rice and beans. Sides are $ 3.00 each. No refried beans here. Black beans. My husband picked one taco up and it fell apart after the first bite. That was it for him. He got turned off after that. He finished his meal but these weren’t tacos that you could just pick up and eat. You had to strategically handle them with care. The other thing he said was that they were too small.
I ordered the chicaquiles with red chili. Flavor was great but there was no chili. It was more like enchilada sauce. Can’t really elaborate too much more here. I ordered my eggs over medium and those were cooked perfectly. I’m glad I ordered the guac because I wasn’t into eating the chips covered in enchilada sauce. This was really disappointing because I was really looking forward to eating chili.
I guess this place is banking on the colorful ambiance and plates to overturn the misses happening on the plates. This is not a place for those with a faint palate. The menu is more for those who don’t mind adventure.
Our bill came to $ 48.00. I have never paid that for a lunch. The only thing that really saved the day was the fact that my husband was able to watch the Cardinal game while we we there. Would I go back again? For the table side guac and colorful atmosphere? Yes. But not because the meal will draw me back.

These were probably the worst street size tacos I’ve ever had and I can’t believe I paid $ 10 for them. I’m not sure what took them so long to bring them out. The shrimp taco was cold and I ate half of it before finding any shrimp. We sat at the bar and the bartender was nice enough and took order but didn’t seem very interested in our presence.
The best thing about this place was their artwork and décor.

Not impressed. To start, the chips were cold, thick, and tasteless, but they are complimentary so it is what it is.
Their margarita menu has some delicious sounding concoctions, but be ready to pay for it. I tried the Queens cooler at the suggestion of our sever. It was really, really bad. It reminded me of Malibu rum mixed with the cheapest tequila you can find. It is expensive considering how weak it is (go get your buzz somewhere else…)
They have an extensive taco menu. Between my husband and myself, we tried about 8 different tacos and honestly we wouldn’t come back for them… soggy and boring.
I brought home a chicken quesadilla for my mother and honestly it was delicious! Yes, that’s right — the chicken quesadilla (boring old chicken and cheese) was the best thing we tried all night.
I will say that the hostess was friendly and our server was up eat, nice, and attentive. The bus boys did a good job keeping our table clear too.

This place does its best to replicate the Hispanic culture, food and beverage that Mexico provides.
The wide assortment of tequilas, tacos and Mexican dishes entices one to return for a second time. The experience of authenticity is carried further by the music and colorful art surrounding the restaurant. Furthermore, the absence of cheddar cheese on the menu lets one know that this place tries hard to authenticate what Mexican food is really all about; flavor deriving from a multitude of ingredients.
Four stars goes to this restaurant despite its mediocre rating because there are surprisingly so few of these places around Arizona!

The art was the best thing about the restaurant. We had a very accommodating waitress A reasonable wait for the food and apparently a very well respected selection of tequila and some foo foo drinks. The meat in the Chili Nogada (for me) was overcooked and the roasted corn in appetizer menu tried a little too hard. Not a fan.
Bar far the best thing I tasted was the five dollar happy hour Chili Verde absolutely delicious and– and a generous portion, at that. All in all the restaurant seems to b favored by by lots of nice looking, well scrubbed folks

So I am in town for some work and we decided to check out this new spot. Since I am not from Phoenix, I can’t really tell you where the heck Barrio Queen is, but I can tell you to come check it out!
Tuesdays are Taco Tuesdays and all tacos are $ 2.50 each. Normally tacos are 3 for $ 10.00. The beauty of Taco Tuesdays is that you can try several of the 12 – 15 types of taco on the cheap. There were several tacos that I had never heard of in California, such as carne asada and fried egg, carne asada and chili relleno, chorizo and egg etc. I had four of their fat street tacos: Carnitas, Fish, carne asada egg and carne asada chili relleno. Every one of those tacos was delicious. The meats were smokey and full of flavor. The produce was fresh and gave a good crunch. The egg was cooked a perfect medium so when you bit into it, the egg provided a creamy goodness over the carne asada. Everything was so good, I really wished I had room to try some more tacos!
We also ordered the Churros which were too large crispy sticks covered in cinnamon and sugar served with ice cream and the most delectable caramel I have ever had. The caramel was the real star here as it was thick with a deep caramel flavor. Seriously, we even thought about licking the plate it was so good!
Sorry I forgot to take a photo of the churros!
Great service is a key ingredient in any five star review and the staff was top notch here. Given it was very early and there was nobody there, but every staff member who walked past our table cleared plates, brought chips or checked on us. Our server also brought everyone at the table small samples of the house fruit drinks to taste, what a nice surprise.
The house chips and salsa are also very good. The chips are thick enough that they provide fantastic crunch but not hard enough to break your teeth.
Overall we loved the experience here and I am really going to miss not having a Barrio Queen back in Sacramento. If your here in AZ check em out!

The first time I went here with my husband for date night with get, I really wanted to love this place. The atmosphere is fun and I liked the dia de Los Muertos theme a Spanish slang on the menu (comida a toda madre!). We ordered quest fundido and a asking chola and dos xx. Aright, coo… got street tacos aaand royally disappointed on the al pastor, and pescado. The Barrio pollo was good, but I’ve had better street tacos, well, anywhere. the service was good, but the food bleh.
Went again about a king later with a girlfriend, sat at the bar and took forever for someone to even acknowledge us (it was NOT busy, still open seats at the bar and restaurant and was early Saturday). Ordered a drink to calm my irritated nerves, had a quirky male bartender who actually turned our bad start around. Left satisfied and this time ordered a pollo and a carnitas-​safe choices. Aright maybe this place is growing on me!
Went a third time for a hangover lunch and this is where I’ve concluded this place does not justify their pricey menu items. Waitress f’d up 2 of the 4 orders and while she quickly fixed it, her smug attitude was a turn off. I ordered a pork green chili taco and then there’s no fuckin pork in it just all green chile and onion, I mean come on?! Who is working back there in the kitchen? Only one way to describe their food-​Americanized and not in a good way, they can’t get it right and for $ 3.50 a taco I would expect better. I get $ 1.25 tacos better up the street on Gilbert and Broadway, but I might come here to get tipsy first.

We eagerly anticipated the opening of Barrio Queen. Barrio Café in downtown Phoenix has been a favorite for year, with the only downside being the 35 minute drive to Phoenix. Barrio Queen opening in Gilbert is only a short 10 minute drive from my Chandler residence.
Compared to Barrio Café:
Queso Fundido: Too much mushroom, not enough chorizo. Definitely not as thick and creamy as the Barrio Café Queso Fundido. Barrio Café wins.
Margaritas: So on par. Compared to the Barrio Bomba, the Queens cooler is very equal. HOWEVER steer clear if you do not like coconut. The taste of coconut is very overwhelming. The Casa (house margarita) was standard. Just a good margarita no complaints. The options for fruitier margaritas were non existent. So
Barrio wins.
Entrée: I had the The Queen Enchilada with chicken and my friend had the Carne Asada Torta. The Torta was really good. Had a lot of meat, it had cheese, avocado, peppers, onions — it was really good. For $ 12 it was a really good portion for the amount of food. The enchiladas were really good — except for the spinach. I hate spinach and this did not make me a fan of spinach. I have to say the food at Barrio is equal to Barrio café.
Other stuff: Waitress, Norma, was decent. Decorations were great. Artwork was fabulous. It was a very chill and comfy atmosphere.
Overall, Barrio Café is better, however I am excited to come here again.

The casa Margarita was vile. It’s worse than pre made grocery store blend. Skip it.
The service here is horrible. We had 6 waiters walk by our table and none of them helped us.
I hope this place gets better. They haven’t been open long maybe it will improve…