El Lorito Mexican Grill

Really friendly and attentive staff, generous portions, and reasonable prices. I recommend going with their street tacos or fajita platters. Queso sauce is also worth the up charge.

I had had a random hankering for that south of the border flavor a while back. I had driven past El Lorito a few times and decided it was finally time to go. It's easy to find and get to, and there's plenty of shaded parking--essential on a sunny day in late summer. Mom and I both admired the decor--it was bright and cheerful, and the chairs and booths were obviously not mass-produced. We loved it! We also liked the fact that it wasn't too loud--we could easily enjoy a nice conversation. The service was cheerful, prompt, and helpful--our server brought us some warm chips and two dips (salsa and seasoned mayonnaise) to munch on while we browsed the extensive menu.There is a small vegetarian menu available, which is always encouraging. I went with the chimichanga. It was full of veggies and was served with rice, fresh tomatoes, and a good-sized blob of guacamole. The portions are generous--we both took home enough for lunch the following day. That said, the food was rather average. While nothing was particularly wrong with it, it wasn't particularly good either. It was largely nondescript. Overall opinion: this would be a good place to catch up with friends if the purpose of the meeting is the company. Parking was convenient, the ambience is conducive to conversation, and the service was good. I wouldn't particularly recommend going here if food was the focus of your visit--there are just too many other options for a great meal in the area.

This is a tough review for me to write as I hate to give restaurants bad reviews, but I think this may be the worst dining experience I've had in many many years.Stopped here with a few friends to grab an after dinner snack. The ambiance is exactly that of a chain Mexican restaurant in a Midwest suburb - many families surrounded by over the top decorations, and blasting music.The restaurant was mostly empty, so we were able to grab a table almost immediately around 7 pm on a weeknight. Then despite there being almost no one in the restaurant, it took almost 40 minutes for them to come take our order despite our trying multiple times long before then.We all ordered 1 dish each, pretty simple dishes to make - a salad, tacos, taquitos, etc. For some reason we waited another full 40 min for our food to come out, and then when it did, they only brought out mine and one of my friends. Then 5 min later they brought out a third. And then 5 min later came out and asked to confirm what our fourth friend ordered (it was 3 steak tacos), and then finally brought it out another 10 min later (20 min after I was served). On top of that, the servers never checked in on any of us, explained what was going on, etc. - we were left in the dark for almost 2 hours while waiting for our food to come out.On to the food, my taquitos were pretty bad. The filling was mostly empty, they were sort of falling apart, and super unevenly fried. On top of that, they tasted really bland. My friend's salad looked okay, and tacos looked decent, but my friend got rice and beans to accompany their tacos. She took one bite and almost threw up. I thought she was exaggerating so I took a bite myself and almost did the same. They were completely rancid, tasted like a mixture of half cigarette butts and half instant beans. It was one of the most disgusting bites of anything I've ever had, still haunting me several weeks later.We all pretty much said screw it, we are going to just go home and not eat anymore of this and tried to ask for the check. Another very slow step, it took 40 min for us to get the check back.I want to emphasize that I did not exaggerate any of these time measurements, we were there for almost 3 hours in total, for some of the worst food I've ever tasted.I do not think anyone should come here. I am sorry if I caught them on an "off day" but I will never step anywhere near there again.

Came here for Valentine's Day with the intention of ordering food to go, but when we got to the restaurant we decided to stay because it was charming and not too busy! Parking was easy but also sort of weird, some people were parked parallel to the building and others diagonally with the parking lot lines. There was a bunch of snow on the ground so parking was kind of a free for all. When we walked in, we went to the bar (thinking we'd sit and order to go) but ended up choosing to sit at a booth. The decor was fun, classic Mexican restaurant vibes. All the staff were dressed in shades of red, pink, and black -- the colors of loooove! We were given a big basket of chips with salsa and white sauce immediately and put in our orders for drinks to make it in time for happy hour. Their happy hour is an impressive amount of time!! My one complaint is that I wish the chips were saltier, or something other than just thick chips. My favorite chips from any restaurant are Chipotle's -- the lime salt chips there have a solid grip on my heart. We got 4 drinks altogether, 2 lime blended margaritas (with fun blue salt on the rim), 1 strawberry blended margarita (red sugar on the rim), and one large Dos Equis in a huge frosted mug. Good stuff! The margs were $4.99 each, which was a great deal. The food we ordered were chorizo tacos and mixed fajitas. After eating an entire basket of free-flowing chips (oops), I was already ready to tap out. But! I prevailed. The 3 chorizo tacos came with fresh lime chunks to squeeze, and two tortillas per taco. The dish also came with a spicy smoky salsa (yuuuum) and avocado salsa. Very good!!! The fajitas were enough for a meal at the restaurant and two lunches from what we took home. They were seasoned well and easy to eat! Definitely recommend both tacos and fajitas. Our good experience with the food, nice drink deals, and kind staff will definitely bring us back to El Lorito.

We visited El Lorito when we were in the area a few weeks ago, and were unfortunately disappointed.FOOD: I ordered some pork tacos and rice and beans. The tacos were ok, but were overloaded with onions. The rice was a little oddly spiced and a bit cold. The beans were pretty inedible unfortunately - they were watery and tasted very off and burnt.AMBIANCE: The ambiance was fun, with cool painted chairs and tables.SERVICE: Although we were seated promptly and given waters and chips promptly, it took an extremely long time for us to get to place our order, for us to get the food, get the check, and pay the check. I ended up going up to the bar to pay to speed up the process a bit. Our server was nice and friendly, but despite wait staff seemingly available, we were not helped promptly.PARKING: There are a few spaces on the side of the building, but they were full despite the restaurant being about half empty. We ended up parking across the street.

So... everything on your plate tastes exactly the same. Queso was sub-par. Exactly three pieces of shrimp in the shrimp burrito. My enchiladas were... not great. The tortilla was stale on the edges, the queso inside was completely unmelted. The pork was on top of the enchilada too? That part isn't a complaint, just an odd observation. My food was almost entirely undercooked (still edible, but not good), and my friend's food was all over cooked. The restaurant was barely half full and it took quite a while for us to be greeted, and to have food come after that. The music was quite loud, and the songs were all REALLY long. I think during our hour here, we heard about 4 songs. Save your time and money. Go elsewhere.

OMG!!!! This place is amazing!!!!! The staff is extremely friendly and helpful. The food....... Wow... this is probably the best Mexican food I've had in a very long time. Large portions and great drink specials! But the food.... Just thinking about it makes me want to go back again lol. Try this place out and you will not regret it

I tried to give this place a chance, in fact I did so three times in a span of a month to see if maybe, just maybe, I went on an off day/time. But I can wholeheartedly say that this restaurant is not catered to those individuals who have curious and expanded palates, who love food, who crave taste and savory in every bite. For the MSP area, this is a good encapsulation of the terrible Mexican food available here. The food has no flavor, it is not tasty, it doesn't draw you in. In short, it is flavorless, dry, lazy, unappealing and lacks creativity. I would avoid if you are someone who has an expanded palate and loves food.

Few things in today's visit, so last time I was here over the summer I was treated like garbage by one employee and me and my pregnant wife just left, and I left a review about the experience.Tonight my mom my 6 month old daughter and wife decided to give el lorito a 2nd chance. As soon as we walked in the server that was rife from the last time send us to with another server which was good she was very nice and even tho the food was actually bad and tasteless we had fun with margaritas and beer, after we payed for our food, the server told me the manager wanted to talk to me and I said yeah told him to come but he told me to go toward him instead. Then he told me IF YOU WANT TO BE A COSTUMER ERRASE THE COMMENT. I was shocked then he told me Alex the owner call him to tell him that. I was super shocked dude! I just tip very well and i really thought, whats this people's problem. It's hard to say I told him no..Then he stood by the door looking down on me and my family in a threatening way. Now there is something I left out in this resume of el lorito hopkins and it's management, also the ownership which is alex. No professional business will ever manipulate a costumer for a better review which I was about to do just for the good server we had for the Night.Look if you are latino don't come here, I used to work here 3 years ago and I remember the manager used to say to us that Latinos are bad tipers and blacks want free food,all the owner did was laugh and nodded his head.I was fire with out any explanation beside that the manager wanted me to tip the new busser 20 dollars just because he really wanted to get in bed with him and then I was out of the schedule because I told him to stop calling me at 11pm,12am and few times at 1am. The first time I was let go was because I didn't wanna work 40 hours plus with out getting payed and they moved me to other restaurant then ask me to comeback I really needed the money this is covid time we are talking. The second time another tantrum of management and ownership but the last one about the tips and the .manager calling me at 12 and 1am was enough so much work harassment from this people, a female coworker was harrase for her weight and the way she walk till she quit shortly after me.You see this is a long time coming with el loro they are just not good people. I hope someone know more about this toxic work environment el loro has done by not paying its employees and taking advantage of the kitchen stuff witch is also under pay. 1/25/2024Javier avila.

Overpriced and low quality ingredients. Stale chips, no sauce in chili verde and with little meat. Rice undercooked and no flavor. Texas fajitas bland with a lot of onions. Salsa was jarred with onions added to look like homemade. NEVER EVER AGAIN!!!