El Borracho

If I could give negative stars I would give this place –100. Horrendous service and very plain food.
Random music being played exceedingly loud was also annoying.

My partner and I tried El Borracho tonight and were super impressed.
We came for the $ 2 Tuesday special and between the two of us the bill was only $ 20– that’s with tacos, beer, sangria, and queso. Not too shabby!
The chips, salsa and queso were awesome.
The chorizo tacos were definitely my favorite. The flavor was very cinnamon-​y. My partner also said the chicken tacos were really good, too. The chicken is from amish hens stewed with onions and tomatoes– spicy and flavorful!
All the meat is free range, which is definitely cool.
The décor here is very cool as well and we received excellent service (so many chips!!!)

I had a very enjoyable few drinks here. I did not try their food, but everything I saw looked amazing. I am not sure how «Americanized» the food is, but sometimes it is fine to indulge in something not so authentic.
We sat at the bar to have a few beers and some tequila and they still gave us chips and salsa and made sure we were taken care of. I liked the mix of cans, draft, and bottled beer, I only wish they carried Victoria– I am dying to try it!
I will be back to eat and drink some more!

El Borracho is pretty typical of a Mexican restuarant not run by Mexicans. The Americanized view of the cuisine. This is why I probably really liked the chicken wings! So. Very. Good. I also tried the picado taqueria. I will guess that it wasn’t an authentic Mexican creation but it was tasty.
Don’t get me wrong. The food is decent and the place has tons of beers to wash it down with. However… don’t be fooled into thinking this is an authentic Mexican experience. Just sayin.

We went during happy hour which is from 4 – 6:30. They had $ 1 tacos which was nice. Especially liked the fish and pork tacos. I also had the drink special which was the cartel (el jimador tequila and coke). It was very tasty.
The atmosphere is cool. Their decorations are very unique and intricate to the theme. Will definitely be going there again soon.

We recently purchased a Hot Sauce Deals coupon so we all decided to check this place out one Friday night.
The atmosphere is very cool… lots of mood lighting, unique art all over and very, very dark.
Some reviews have said that the place is a bit loud, but we really didn’t mind the music… it was great in fact! That night seemed to be Gen X night, but not sure if that’s always the case.
We found a big comfy corner booth and started off w/​the Chihuahua Balls. These are large «balls» made w/​rice and cheese… not as cheesy as we thought they’d be but I loved them… oh and they are VERY, VERY SPICY!
We later ordered the Chorizo nachos (large amount and chunk sausage, not ground), Mexican Pizza (one of our favorites) Fish tacos (just so-​so) and Chicken Quesadillas (this was my favorite and reminded me of a grilled cheese sandwich).
We ordered various Margarita’s …all of which were pretty tame IMO.
The waitress was pretty nice, but lacking. She neglected to mention that they were celebrating their 2^nd Anniversary that night and that there were drink specials (which we ordered but were charged full price) and dinner specials. She also forgot our water and one of our friend’s 2^nd beer.
We are over the service issues since we really loved the look of the place and the food was great! We will be back to try other menu items soon.

$ 2 tacos, mini burritos, guac and queso dip on Thursday nights. And they’re serving late night. What’s not to like about El Borracho?

«Monster Monday» Buy one import get on free (beers not cars) w/​what seemed to be some of the sexist karaōke people I have seen. Plus $ 5 Grand Ma shots were a welcome surprise in glass. They also offer free chips & salsa.
I have been here after 11 PM till 3 AM a few times now & must say the festive south of the border decorations are a nice change for a Monday late night. The year round Christmas lights do not have the same funny tacky appeal this time of the year. As a bonus, they do have plenty of flat screens for watching Monday Night Football.
They do have some interesting import beers to order. (Some in oversized cans & most in bottles)
Overall this has been a good place to kill the Monday blues. The crowd seems to be intent on enjoying themselves & each others karaōke.

Cheap and delicious Mexican food. Let’s see…
The chips and salsa are addicting.
The jalapeño fire bites with dipping sauce is fire-​spicy hot and yummy.
Love having the option of having a multi-​meat dish — yep you can have beef, chicken, pork and sausage with whatever you’re having. Indulge yourself.
And the Mexican pizza is our favorite — we just haven’t had any this good.
Lastly, the owner is awesome — he often makes conversation and makes sure we’re taken care of.
The music can get a bit loud sometimes but overall it’s a good place for a quick bite. And it doesn’t break the wallet. An all time favorite.

Tasteless food and a too loud atmosphere makes El Boraccho El Yucko in my opinion. We were seated directly under a speaker and we asked the waitress if they could turn the music down a little and she said «I can always ask» and they proceeded to turn the music up.
My chicken chalupa was bland and tasteless and had pieces of bone and gristle in it. My husbands tacos were tasteless also. The waitress buzzed by our table so fast while asking if everything was OK we couldn’t even stop her to order another drink. Complete waste of a drive downtown.

I wasn’t a happy camper with my food at this place. The guac lacked heat. It was okay, but where’s the freaking kick? My tacos were okay. I ordered 3 tacos. One of the tacos had a cinnamony taste to it. Not my thing. One had way tooo many onions in the salsa. Several days ago, I learned that tooo many onions makes one really unhappy gassy Kat. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing. The rice definitely had way tooo much kick in it. I’m a wimp at spicyness. Given all of these problems, I’m definitely willing to give this place. Ambience was cool. I definitely liked the vibe. For some reason, the front of this place reminds me of City Museum.

Revisited this time for dinner.
I ordered the Chihuahua balls (yeah that’s right), and one of each of the enchiladas. The cheese balls were good. The enchiladas were just average. The food is pretty cheap though. All in all I was satisfied for the price. I’ve had the fish tacos previously. Those were better. Also, you can eat much cheaper here on Tuesdays with their $ 2 all night specials.
I’m pretty sure Borracho means drunk in Spanish… So I obliged and got hammered after dinner and had a great time.

I stumbled across this place when I was living down on Washington Ave on my way to the Pepper Lounge. This is by far the coolest Mexican place I have ever been to. Unlike most Mexican places that paint their walls in lime green or Halloween orange, this place has a Day of the Dead theme. I absolutely love the décor and feel of the place.
The Margaritas are kinda steep but they load in the tequila so it’s well worth it. And the NACHOS are ahhhmazing (I usually ask them to add onions).
This is a place in STL that everyone needs to go at least once.

we wandered in here for a quick bite a few nites ago. The décor is a strange blend of sports bar/​night club/​mexican club. there are a lot of flat screens playing sports games. its not great but its cool
the gringo tacos are so much tastier, its worth the .50 cents more. I had the carnitas for meat. it was delicious. The corn tortilla on the other little tacos wasn’t very good, felt really dry and tasteless.
quick, perky service from the waitress.

I have never before heard of this place (is this where Nectar used to be?). Last night while waiting for a friend to meet up at the Pepper Lounge we decided to pop in and grab a drink.
4 Stars for Décor and Crowd — Bevy of dressy chicks and laid back young dudes on a Friday late night. Deco is dark and gothic. I liked the Mexican-​themed murals and red lights (reminded me alot of Venice Café in Benton Park, which is one of the most interestingly decorated bars in STL imo). It would have been nice if there were more people.
4 Stars for service and 3 stars for drinks:
The bartender was chirpy and attentive. She brought us a basket of chips right when we sat down by the bar and fixed me a frozen avocado mango margarita. The margarita was not to sweet (which is a huge plus) however I suspect she put a little too much ice and too little mango flavoring in the mix. Since Avocado doesn’t have a strong flavor (as a drink) the margarita tasted a bit flavorless.
I wish the place was a bit more packed. But for our first visit, I give it 3.5 stars.

We’ve driven past this joint a number of teams, even next door for an event at The Pepper Lounge. But it was Groupon who prompted us to try this out. We have our favorite Mexican food haunts in the city so rarely venture far from our favorites, but El Boraccho… we will return.
The décor is really what makes the place different. Very ‘El Día de los Muertos’ inside. Dark, comfortable and different. But why ruin this mood with sportsbar-​like TVs playing NBA games? You are welcomed by the bar first and told to sit wherever you like (upstairs in back if coming for a meal). It took us a good while to be served but once we were John never forgot about us.
The best thing though is the ala-​carte style menu. You can mix and match tacos, burritos, quesadillas. One chorizo-​stuffed burrito, a hard-​chicken taco, and why not a fish taco. It’s mix and match and all for a seriously reasonable price ($ 2.50 for a taco).
It looks like a good place to come for drinks and some light-​fare before a night out, as well. The unique style and décor make it a change from the norm. Good location, with street parking. And yes, we were stuffed on $ 15.

We went here just after it opened nearly a year ago and came back a few weeks ago. Very little had changed, and that’s a great thing. The food was still very high quality. Everything on the menu is «a la carte» enabling you to build your own platter of quesadillas, tacos and side items. It’s all super-​yummy and really cheap given the location. Drinks were good and also reasonably priced.
We’ve only been before things really «get going» for the night, so i can’t speak for later, but at that time, it’s safe for kids (good even, given the a la carte nature of the food — make as small a meal for them as you need).
My only wish would be slightly more attentive service. Our food was a little later than expected, and getting the attention of the staff to refill our waters or settle our bill. That may have been due to the early-​ish hour (and therefor lower staffed) time as well.

Good new restaraunt to the west end of Downtown. The restaraunt itself is very cool looking. I think this used to be an old wearhouse at one time. They have plenty of T.V.‘s to watch the game while you are eating. The lighting in here is perfect.
The food is pretty solid. Very good chicken burrittos and all. The service was pretty good too. Fair price for the neighborhood.
I think at night this turns into a bar.
Overall I really like this place.

WOW! The 2 of us were stuffed on $ 12 of food including tip.
I had some chicken tacos and an endless supply of tortilla chips and salsa (AMAZING SALSA). The salsa was nice and spicy and I put some hot sauce on my tacos which helped, too. The tacos were good and tasted authentic.
The service was speedy and they were one of the few places around still serving food that late at night (around 11:30 pm on a Sat night).
The bar wasn’t too crowded and the tv’s were plentiful. They had a live band, but it wasn’t so great. No cover. Street parking was hard to find at that hour.
We’ll be BACK!

So every time I read a review where the person had a bad experience, I say to myself «Why didn’t they say something? Why didn’t they walk out? Why didn’t they freak out?»
Because they’re wimps? Because they think «nah, it’s going to get better?» Because we’re used to just dealing with crap and happy we’re not being tortured?
Well, I wanted El Borracho to be good. I wanted it to be great. But, it wasn’t.
The décor was nice, through I was a little surprised by the multitude of TVs in the back (sort of ruined the atmosphere). Our waiter was nice (and eventually apologetic, I’m getting to that).
Chips and salsa. Chips were OK, but the salsa lacked flavor (my wife described it as «tasting cold.» That’s not a positive)
My wife had the burrito — it was decent, but sort of small compared to other places (and it lacked any sides). And she had ordered it wet and it came dry.
I ordered the lengua (tongue) tacos, pancho-​style, with the rice and refried beans. Unfortunately, our waiter came back after about 10 minutes and told me they were out of tongue. I went with housemade chorizo, which was pretty good. I probably made a mistake in getting these pancho style (trying to be different), but they were kind of dry.
OK, now to the big problem. So we ordered a pitcher of the house margarita. When it came to the table, the color looked weird, but it was dark, so we just assumed it was the lighting. Then we tasted it. Yikes. It tasted like diluted lime juice. Without tequila. We thought, it must be us. Try another glass, it’s bound to be better!
Stupidly, we continued to drink it. A group was later seated behind us. They ordered margaritas. Then we heard them tell our server «there’s a problem here.»
Yes, the problem was apparently we got the «bottom of the barrel.» For the record, maybe there’s a situation when bottom of the barrel is good. This wasn’t one of them.
When our waiter gave us our check, I finally spoke up, asking «so, you don’t have the worst margaritas in the world?» They took the pitcher of weak boozeless liquid off our tab.
Here’s my issue, beyond me being a total wimp and not saying from first taste that there was a problem. According to their drink menu:
«All of our drinks are made from Pancho’s family recipes. The juices and sour mix are squeezed fresh daily.»
So, either the lunch crowd around there gets seriously bombed or the above statement isn’t 100% accurate (we got there around 5:15). Or those are really small barrels.