Mercado Juarez Restaurant

I haven't been to a Mercado Juarez in close to 10 years and we had a great experience here on a Thursday night. We were quickly greeted with friendly smiles and immediately seated. The place is massive with plenty of open areas of seating. They placed us in the room beside the bar and we were by ourselves in there most of the time. My Dad enjoyed the TVs in that room to keep an eye on a few college football games. Our waitress was very attentive and friendly. A Manager also checked in on us once. We enjoyed a cold beer, grande skinny margarita & the chips and salsa that were brought promptly. They have nightly specials and on Thursday's you can get a free cup of queso for the table with purchase of an entree. I really enjoy their queso. Not spicy unless you get a bite of jalapeno from the pico which my Mom appreciates being able to eat it. For entrees we enjoyed combo fajitas, beef quesadillas & taquito plate. Each of us had leftovers to eat for another meal. Easy parking in their big lot.

Unfortunately the menu changed for the worse. The got rid of the best item on the menu: the queso fundidio! As soon as it comes back, so will we. This has been my fave dish my whole life.

5/5 - Usually menu changes aren't good... this is not the case this time! Got the Juarez Plate and the Guiso, which are items we have gotten before. And OMG... WERE THEY GOOD!Changes aren't always the best choice for a restaurant but being a regular customer, the quality has improved SO MUCH, it wasn't bad before, it was just good. Now it's fantastic. Service was good, we got drink refills and more salsa, and the ambience is always the same but can't complain too much since it feels like you're at a patio in Mexico (Maybe play some Mexican music? ;) )

Love this place...the food is always good. Service is awesome and always smiling staff. The ambiance makes you feel like you are in Mexico. Recommend you try at least once. You will be hooked.

I used to live in Arlington many years ago, but then moved out of state. We were back for a short visit to Texas, and this was top of my list to return to for dinner. One of my favorite things about this restaurant is they actually warm the salsa. Whenever I mention this to people, they always look at me in horror, but wait till you try it, it's awesome! I had just recovered from a bout of stomach flu a few days earlier, so I was keeping my meal on the bland side as my stomach still hadn't fully recovered. I did order a side of tortillas, and like other reviewers, found them to be crispy and dry. But other than that, we enjoyed our stop and would certainly return.

Overall, I don't recommend Mercado Juarez. In my opinion, it's a restaurant whose time has come and gone.The service was spartan, but that's not to say bad. The restaurant was mostly empty for peak dinner service, and there was only one waiter for the entire great room we were seated in. We received very good service, though I had my concerns at the beginning when the glasses of water and Margaritas were very slow arriving. The food was fine, not bad, but well below average. The fajita dish was lively and fresh with brightly colored vegetables. It was a good choice. The enchilada platters, unfortunately, were unremarkable. The best way to describe the flavor of the ground beef is that it reminds me of leftovers; made fresh yesterday. Though it probably wasn't leftovers, the food didn't strike me as fresh. The taco also suffered from the same problem as the enchiladas. The salsa was okay, but it seemed a bit lowbrow to serve it in disposable plastic cups like we're at a sports bar. Overall, the menu options are tried, tired and generally uninspired. There's at least a dozen better Tex-Mex restaurants in the immediate area including Pancho's Mexican Buffet just a few miles away that shamefully would have been a better choice for dinner.The ambiance is colorful and reminiscent of old Spain or traditional Mexico. It's the best part of the entire visit. But, the pink exterior looks like they found a sale on paint back in 1970 and were too lazy to update it ever since. Because the restaurant was mostly empty of customers, the interior frescoes looked like they wanted to tell stories of the glory days of old. In short, I can't recommend this restaurant. It's not a bad experience, just certainly disappointing and left us thinking that we should have gone elsewhere.

The food is always awesome at this place. We got there early so we were seated as soon as we walked in. I tried something new, poblano relleno. Its was delicious. The atmosphere was calm and the waiter was excellent. Love this place!!

The shrimp plate we had was good! Shrimp wasn't fishy!! The carne asada plate was good! Not a fan of the rice and beans!! The onions had to be cooked more ! I love grilled onions with my meat!! To raw!! The queso flameado was good with chorizo!! And our server was on point!! Good experience!

So sad. Been my favorite place since 2000. Went Saturday and reviews are correct. PriPrices are up by nearly 20% food quality is horrible now. Queso was like water. They used to have great flour tortillas. They were very hard and dry. I always order the beef fajita qusadillia. Worst I've ever had. 1 tiny thin piece of fajita meat in each one and the price went up. The first-time in 25yrs of eating there I've had a bad experience. It was 5pm on Saturday and the place was near empty. Will give it one more try. Maybe they had an off day. But looking at the reviews I might be wasting my money. So sad this place has been great for years

I've been a huge fan of Mecardo Juarez ever since the chain started decades ago. One reason is their signature "warm" salsa. I love, love, love it. They used to dust their tortilla chips with chili powder to give the chips that extra "snap." Unfortunately, they no longer do that, but I still remain a fan of Mecardo Juarez and their food.Around the corner, I had just gone through an imaging procedure, we were hungry, and Mecardo Juarez was the perfect fit. Who doesn't like margaritas and chicken fajitas? My wife and I do, so Mercado Juarez it was.We arrived early evening so there was no wait. In fact anytime we've arrived at the Arlington location we've never had a wait due to the large size of the restaurant's seating capacity!We ordered bean and cheese nachos as a starter and a single order of chicken fajitas to share plus a couple of frozen margaritas. It was to be able to sit, relax and enjoy our delicious meal. For once, we didn't have to rush off to another commitment. After our drinks arrived, we dove into a basket of hot tortilla chips and Mecardo's delicious salsa accompanied by our perfectly blended frozen margaritas. Shortly our chicken fajitas, plus all the fixins arrived. Can you say "Yummy!" at the top of your lungs. Everything was SO delicious. We need to make a point to return to Mecardo again real so to enjoying incredible TexMex cuisine.