Charro Chico

What a great experience! Took advantage of the taco Tuesday $3 tacos. Rice and beans different and good Loved the AMAZING chips and salsa bar!!

Tried out Charro Chico for the first time for Sonoran Restaurant Week. At $15 per person, for a drink, a taco plate, and a cookie, it was one of the better deals this year. Like all of the El Charro family restaurants, the food was delicious. I got the Al pastor tacos on flour tortillas and chose the refried beans. My daughter loved the chicken--not too spicy or overpowering. It was just right. We also got an order of the mini chimis--because you just have to get those! Got bean and cheese and they were soooo good--also loved the cheese dipping sauce. The cookie, while small, was baked to perfection. Like all El Charro restaurants, the service needed a little assistance. It's an order at the counter place and we waited a little bit to order. Service was friendly, but the ice machine was out of ice, some of the drink options were completely empty, and the ladies bathroom was out of paper towels. These aren't things that would prevent me from coming back, but it definitely makes the experience fall short of 5 stars. I had been here when it was Barrio Charro and this concept doesn't seem vastly different so I'm not really sure the reason behind the rebrand or redesign. Barrio Charro had an awesome map of Tucson on the wall, but they sadly got rid of that in this new iteration. Overall though the food is absolutely delicious and I will definitely be back. It was also a very easy to navigate restaurant to bring little ones. So glad to have this option--a more casual way to enjoy the amazing cuisine of El Charro!

We LOVE this place. The food is so fresh and I love all the beverage and salsa choices at the salsa bar. Loved the bowl/salad I got. It was HUGE! Love that you can also get cafe de olla hot or iced. Pro tip- mix in some horchata!

Maybe an off night with staff and training. I got excellent food for a reasonable price point. I arrived about 5:50ish. I ask the counter person if it's still happy hour after waiting a few minutes in a restaurant with only 2 other people. She says no. I said is 550 something, I think I have a few minutes before it's over at 6 PM. I ordered a beer at happy hour price, chips & salsa, and two birria tacos. The place is quaint for strip mall dining. The tacos are on a summer discount of $5 each. Normally it runs about $12 for 2 tacos. I get my beer quickly and go to the salsa bar thinking chips should be up in a minute. I return with my dinner served. It looks and taste great. Chips come a few minutes later after I asked about it. So maybe off timing. Chips are pretty much made unless I'm missing something. I'm seated for a few minutes and a couple is turned away before 615. I'm thinking I barely got in when the hours showed open until 8 PM. Please see the screen shot of hours after the visit. They mentioned the internet says 8 PM. They leave politely. The food is great, but I feel like a jerk eating after what I believe to be closing hours a few minutes after 6 PM so I hurry and ask for a to go box. I noticed my bill was off so I asked. The server said I missed happy hour and I show her the time stamp. We wrapped up the transaction before 6 PM, the end of happy hour. She gets help to fix the issue with chef/manager. I asked about the closing time as I saw 8 PM online. He said today management decided 630 PM would be closing time. I said I saw two customers turned away before then. I was leaving about 630. The server didn't know closing time due to another employee telling them something different. The system doesn't have built-in happy hour pricing. I'll try them a try again if I'm in the area, but won't travel to eat there as we're in a crowded Mexican food market. So by no means a well oiled machine, but good food at a reasonable price.

Dined here for lunch and really enjoyed it. Service was friendly. You order at the counter and get a number. I had the salad with pollo asado. It didn't blow me away but I enjoyed it. I prefer more toppings and less lettuce and the chicken was a little dry. We also got the carne asada tacos, a kids cheese quesadilla, and the charro beef bowl. The bowl was definitely the best choice out of everything, it was huge and a better version of Chipotle. The salsa bar had a ton of yummy options. I see negative comments about the prices which I don't understand. I thought the prices were reasonable and comparable to other places with this kind of food. There's a patio outside and lots of seating inside. They also serve alcohol and have a self serve soda station.

My second time coming to this location came for a yelp event, and I had to return because the food is amazing fresh and delicious, love the salsa bar you get a variety great sources, with a number chart that tells you what each salsa that way you can pick and choose and discover your favorite. Mine happens to be the chipotle cream.Got some mini chicken chinos as well as the bean ones excellent looking forward to returning and tasting other food items

If you're a fan of the Charro restaurants around town (I am!), you'll be happy that Charro Chico, a fast-casual counter-service option, has joined their ranks! The menu is more limited, taking a "build-your-own" approach with a few variables that can be combined in different ways. We stopped in for lunch and got chips (so we could try all the different salsas in the salsa bar!), a bowl, and tacos. The bowl comes with black beans, cilantro rice, grilled vegetables, pico salsa, & calabacitas, and we added carne seca to it. For the tacos, we got one pollo al pastor and one carne asada, with rice and black beans on the side. For me, the pollo al pastor was the star of the day! It was very bright and tangy, and felt a lot lighter and less greasy than a lot of the typical al pastor options that feature pork. I will absolutely be getting the pollo al pastor again, in whatever form -- taco, burrito, bowl, etc. -- that strikes me that day! The salsa bar was a nice aspect of the experience. A lot of restaurants around town have them, so it was fun to see what Charro Chico had to offer. It included some standards (such as onion & cilantro, pickled onions, tomatillo salsa), some known favorites (the delicious salsa that comes with the chips at El Charro), and some unique options (piña & blueberry). It was very quiet when we went -- surprisingly so, to be honest -- and the whole space was very bright and open. Charro Chico is a quick, convenient option!

I found the concept similar to another fast casual restaurant down the street. The only difference is the carne seca from El Charro. For the price, I was expecting more meat, more rice, etc. service was ok. I had a Barrio Charro gift card and they would not accept it which I thought was not right since El Charro is still the owner.

This cute place, one of the El Charro restaurants, serves the best chicken burrito I have ever had. Ordering the Pollo Asado with black beans ( no rice...my choice) was the right choice. I believe the difference in taste was the mesquite charred chicken after it was "ancho" marinated. The flavor was delicious and their salsa bar was great too even though this was fine with no additions. My fellow diner had 3 Sisters Picadillo...very good also. Friendly staff as well. Keep it up. We definitely are adding this to our list of 'bests'.

Avoid this place at all costs!!!$15 for a carne seca burrito that would have been 3o% rice had I not chosen 'no rice'....Was 50% beans, due to my missing the fact that the beans and rice were NOT sides - they were contained IN the burrito!Ordered 2 'Green Corn Tamales'.....Got 2 questionable crumbly, tasteless tamale things with GreenChile sauce dumped on them. DEFINITELY NOT Sonoran Green Corn Tamales!For their tauting of "El Charro Carne Seca", it had to be the WORST representation of this classic meat I've EVER had in my home town....