El Cid

Decent food quality. Had the steak fajitas they were ok. The service was ok. The ambiance is ok as well. Renovated old building not so inviting.

Had a great lunch at El CID today! First off, they have great lunch specials and pricing if you're on a budget. The food was fresh, spicy and while basic (no fancy tacos like other local taco places, but sometimes you need something simple!), very flavorful. The highlight of the meal was the Blackberry Margarita, which is easily the best Margarita I've had in Lexington! Will return for the fresh food and drink.There is room for improvement with the chips (ours were a little stale), but the salsa was fresh and delicious! Great place to try when you want something new.

I came here Sunday night for dinner and drinks with my friend, and we thoroughly enjoyed our food and margaritas! The service was fast, and there was plenty of seating when we were there that night. I ordered the burrito bowl and a giant frozen margarita. Their burrito bowl was super good! Highly recommend this spot to whoever is visiting Lexington and wants Mexican food.

Four of us walked over to El Cid for lunch today. It's straight out the front door a few yards from the entrance to UK Good Samaritan Hospital. Very convenient. Chips and salsa were brought over right away. We ordered the queso to share. That was great! I got two fajita tacos with Buffalo chicken & carnitas meats. The chicken was salty but the carnitas meat taco was balanced. I liked the sautéed peppers and onions. Opinions around the table were mixed. The ground beef wasn't high on the list. My favorite was the Barbacoa. Ambiance was festive. Service was great!

I mean, it was okay? Look I love Mexican food, read my review of Taqueria Ramirez. I go into depth about what I look for. That said, I am gonna get the good out of the way. The fried fish taco was a banger and the atmosphere is great, sitting outside while music played was a good time and is what is keeping the at a two and not lower. Now that we got that out of the way, I went with some of my coworkers and ordered some Birria Tacos as recommended by my server (who also was okay, more on that in a bit). The taco itself tasted fine, but thats the issue it was just fine. The shell was crispy enough and the meat was nice and tender, but the consomé was the a disaster. The Au Gus made from the sauce/fat that the meat is cooked in was almost as clear as water, and devoid of flavor, so I ended up dunking my tacos in the salsa, which tasted good but had no heat. Our server today was super nice, I don't recall his name, and that is my fault cause I suck at remembering names. That said, he wasn't attentive much, and a couple drinks were not bring brought to table, until they were pointed out, so ya could have been better. The price of the food itself was a bit high as well, spending close to 15 dollars for three tacos ain't a good look.Its a great place to hang out, but everything else is underwhelming. I say there are better places for tacos, so ya, do with that info what you will. Final verdict is a shrug.

I didn't quite know what to expect when El Cid first popped up on Limestone in Lexington, but my sister is a regular and swore that we needed to go. When we went in, we were given menus and allowed to pick our table. We did have to go back up to the front to order when we were ready, but it was nice as a newcomer to be given the time to examine all the options, and EVERYTHING on the menu is worth considering. I appreciate that the menu shows which items can have substitutions or not and that you can choose your protein for most dishes (however the only vegetarian protein is beans & cheese). If your diet allows, the chorizo queso is a must-try! Reasonably priced for the quality and quantity of food you receive. Nice ambience and friendly staff. I'm so glad I visited while I was in town!

I usually rave about El CID but I was let down by this experience. The tortillas were not homemade like they usually are and there was way less chicken in the tacos than normal :( flavors were still okay but the tortillas were what made them so good typically. I'll give them another shot some time & hope this was just a fluke!

El Cid is a quick service joint that is sort of a hybrid counter/table service. You order at a register when walking in, pick up drinks at the bar, and they bring your food to the table. It's not a traditional Mexican place that has free chips and salsa at the table either. That said the prices are reasonable and the food was really good. Their specials really stood out to me. Tuesday's you can get ayce tacos for $7.99 plus only $2 draft beers! Then on Wednesday's 0.85 margaritas...yes that is 85 cents. There is a limit of 2/person then regular price after but who can complain with that?? We ordered both salsa and queso but only got a single basket of chips. We really needed a small amount more chips to cover both dips so maybe ask for chips with each (not sure how or if there's a charge for that). You're basically on campus so parking is what it is. We didn't have a problem finding street parking but your mileage may vary there. I'll be back for some of those specials for sure!

My husband's family and I stopped at El Cid for a family dinner when we were in town for a wedding. The venue itself is cool with lots of outdoor seating - I would imagine it is harder to grab table in the winter though. They had an upstairs portion to their restaurant but it was unfortunately closed off the evening we were there. They had a good variety of drinks - I was particularly interested in the blackberry margarita but they were unable to make it while we were there. They have a decent selection of food, I ended up going with the steak street tacos. The tacos were good, but not best I've had. Would probably try ordering something different next time.Service was very good, with our waitress being very prompt and attentive. We had our food and drinks out in a very timely manner, despite being a large group of 8.

Tacos birria Awesome take out service and food was excellent. Downside No chips and salsa