El Dorado

They reopened up derived new management.. this was our 3rd time there. They have daily specials, which is a pretty good price, $7.95 for a plate, ice-tea and soup. Todays (Friday)special, they had Carne Asada with rice n beans, fried fish plate and 2 chicken enchiladas with rice n beans, all come with tea n soup. We both had the Carne asada plate but they let me substitute my rice n beans for a salad. Steak was pretty good. I think their specials are different everyday. So for the most part it was good all around. Oh service was good n attentive.

The only reasons why this is not a one-star review is because of their prices and the cool JFK artwork in the main dining room. Nothing here stood out as even average. Service was extremely slow and short. It seemed like customers were bothersome to the employees. The beans were soggy and water-downed. The food had next-to-nothing flavor. One reviewer here is probably right in that it's probably microwaved. They use a clear and visible part of the restaurant as literally a storage closet. I don't know they do this, but they leave the bathroom doors open and you can have a view of the urinal and people doing their business in the men's bathroom. They don't know how to separate/split a check (see the photo for how they did it). You can see in my other reviews of the great options for Mexican food in South Tucson. Do not come to or expect authentic food at El Dorado. Avoid it.

Chile rellenos in the Tucson Area rated according to the Homeland Security Advisory System with three word descriptors.El Dorado: not really memorable. BlueSee photos.

I just completed a review of this restaurant, but it is under "El Dorado Tortilla Factory."In a nutshell, this place is the real deal: truly authentic truck stop Mexican food, you know, the kind that locals in central Mexico may prefer and probably snowbirds from Chicago would not. You can happily avoid the typical gringo/Mexican chimichangas, fajitas, burros, taco salads and hamburger tacos you find at most Tucson restaurants. Instead you can get machaca, pozole, menudo, huevos con nopalitos, picadillo, chilaquiles and other not-smothered-with-lettuce-and-kraft-cheese food. It may not be healthy, but for sure tastes good and is real Mexican food. Call it ethnic comfort food.Lunch buffet was very tasty with lots of choices, under $8 per humanoid including drinks. Compare that to a boring taco combo plate for over $10 and $2 more for an iced tea at most Tucson "Mexican" restaurants. Service was quite good. We were the only gringos eating there, and the servers (yes, several of them) stopped by to see if we were happy with our food.

If i could i would give No stars for this place, honestly can't believe people actually eat the food that is served. Back in the day they had the best Mexican food around, we went there a couple years ago and they were under new management and really didn't think anything of it well the food was cold old and nasty then. Well we visted again a couple days ago thinking maybe we just went on a bad night last time.... welp this time was SO much worse. The service sucked, the food was not edible and I'm pretty sure that the "beef" tacos we ordered were made with can dog food. It was so awful that we brought it home and are going to contact someone who can find out what the hell it is. The beans and rice were hard and cold hell the cheese on the beans wasn't even melted. I could go on and on but to wrap this up DON'T EAT HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO GET SICK AS WE ALL DID!!!

This isn't the place for Chile Relleno, big whoop. Try something else, like their chile con carne and you will experience true sonoran food. As a fifth generation Arizona with roots in Tucson's Mexican community, I have to say they have the best red chile con carne. The chile sauce is more than just any chile sauce. It has real flavor I haven't found at any other Mexican restaurant. South Tucson has some great Mexican food! If you get the ritas, try on the rocks. It's always a good sign you're at a good mexican restaurant when almost everybody you see there is Mexican. Also, no need to worry about language barriers like one of my friends was afraid of, the waiter I had, who apparently works there regularly can speak English with barely even a trace of a Mexican accent. Foood and atmosphere was impressive!

There's nothing memorable about this restaurant. My chips were stale & the salsa was something like: clamato with black pepper. Anyways, as you can see from my picture, I ordered the cocido soup. My cocido was obviously microwaved. The broth was warm, all of the vegetables were cold, & the zucchini was very soggy. I wasn't able to finish it due to the fact that it was disgusting.

My brother and I have been going to El Dorado for as long as we can remember, since at least the late 1970s. I live away from Tucson now and have faithfully made it a part of my annual return to Tucson each year - practically a pilgrimage. We eyed the building changes and addition of a buffet over the years with some mistrust but kept going. Sadly, that has meant that over the years I've observed a steady decline in quality and especially service that appears to be reaching an end point. Before picking El Dorado, we debated our choice. We noted that at another favorite South Tucson Mexican restaurant our most recent server had worked there for 39 years, while in recent years the staff at El Dorado seemed ever changing, and ever less capable. We went to El Dorado anyway.We were a party of 6 adults and 2 medium aged kids on an ordinary early Sunday evening. Far from overloaded, the place was nearly empty - there was one other table - a 2 top. There was only 1 waiter, a harried looking fellow, who asked for our drink order. I asked for a Bohemia - something every Mexican place in South Tucson always has. Our first sign that something wasn't right the only beer available was cans of Bud, Bud Light, Ultra and Tecate - notwithstanding the 12 types listed on the menu. OK - so It's Tecates, 1 margarita and sodas/water for the kids. The kids get their sodas and we get the margarita, the waiter comes back with a full tray of beers which he inexplicably sets on the empty table near us while going off to attend to the other table for a full 5 minutes... very strange. Our one margarita was nearly flavorless.With our drink order we also ordered a large side of guacamole and 2 cheese crisps for the table. The guacamole was strangely overloaded with onions but came promptly - a full 10 minutes before the first cheese crisp, which was burned nearly- but not quite too much to eat. Followed by another gap of 15 minutes until the second - also burned - followed. This pattern held throughout the rest of our meal. Utterly lackluster entrees trickled out of the kitchen at an appalling rate. My daughter's entree (unremarkable beef fajitas) was served a full 50 minutes after our first (a very boring carne asada burrito) had arrived. Red chile chimichangas and burritos - the thing we always looked forward to at El Dorado seemed to have as much salt as chile working in the sauce. The mole was described as 'OK'. At one point, after half our party had finished our meals while the other half was still waiting, I asked what the problem was. The flustered waiter could only apologize and explain that there was a 'new cook'. A new table - a family of four had just sat down nearby and overhearing the exchange - thanked us for the heads-up and took off, bringing the total count of tables back down to two. I'm actually not sure there was a cook. Or a bartender working - though there was nobody in the bar area. The only employee we saw for certain was our waiter - who may in fact have been working the kitchen as well. There was another young guy in a tracksuit who appeared and stood around doing nothing at all several times during our (very) long dining experience. Whoever he was he seemed utterly disinterested in the happenings around him.Our waiter comped a few beers for our trouble. One of the ladies in our party used the restroom and reported with understandable anger that there were no paper products AT ALL - neither toilet paper nor paper towels - in the ladies room. Good grief.On our way out the door, my brother and I stopped to look at and comment on the large framed photo by the cash register, a plain shot of the old, one story facade El Dorado of our childhood, with the name spelled out by single letter lighted signs, curiously uncentered, all over at the left. That El Dorado was a lively place with a professional staff and food to look forward to every time. The restaurant we were leaving seemed every bit as if it were already shut down.

Saturday afternoon lunch buffet was amazing! It was like eating a home cooked meal. Truly authentic Mexican food. The place was nearly deserted, which made it all the more relaxing. Well worth $8 a person. Planning to try the breakfast buffet next!

No one was in the restaurant except the server who was also the cook. That was the first clue. Disgusting hardly describes the experience. The chips were rancid. The quality of the food was horrible. I felt like I got robbed. I wish I could take back the entire experience.