El Molinito, Oro Valley AZ

For starters the service was excellent and the management was very professional.

The issue was we had a cockroach crawling on the floor, food was cold, eye lash or hair in my food, and the table was sticky. Food was not good at all Nico’s or Filiberto’s is much better and that is not how it should be as this is a nice looking restaurant. Unfortunately we will not be back.

Please understand staff and management was excellent they only charged for the two alcohol drinks and not the food that was about 16.00 and we tipped 10.00. I do have pictures but do not want to post at this time because the situation was taken care of but wanted to be honest about our experience.

Eh, nothing to write home about. It's hard to see why this place is so hyped online. Food was very "meh", tasted like it came out of a can and the margarita was harsh. Customer service was so and so, not rude but could improve. Overall felt like this place just cares about how things look on the expense of the food quality and has no passion for the Mexican cuisine.

It's unfortunate, I really wanted to like this place due to the hype online. Sadly though this fell far far from the hype.

My meal was "The Sampler" (shredded beef taco, chicken chimichanga, beans, rice, green chilies.
Strawberry margarita
Iced tea
Chips and salsa

First bad impression is the salsa and chips. A basic thing when it comes to Mexican restaurants. The salsas had no salt whatsoever. I had to add salt and pepper myself as well as a little lemon to make it decent. Frankly they tasted like they came out of a can and into the little bowls. The chips also did not have any salt at all either. Already went to a bad start when your customer has to fix your chips and salsa from being so bland.

The strawberry margarita was for a lack of better description. Harsh. It was pretty bitter and was very strong in the tequila they put. The mix also tasted as though it just came from a pre mix with a shot of tequila and 2/3 ice. I enjoy mine that have flavor from the strawberries and just a hint of the alcohol. This was mostly just the bite of the alcohol and barely strawberry.which yes for some that might be fine with so much ice and alcohol taste but not my cup of tea when it's very little ingredients and ice is the main filler.

The main dish itself, the taco was served on a bed of wet lettuce and rice which made the shell fall apart from how soggy it got. The beef filling itself was "alright" again lacked salt.

The chicken chimi was all tortilla and just a spit of filling. Nothing but a little roll of very chewy tortilla. The filling was good but you had to remove almost all the tortilla to taste it.

Beans were surprisingly good, nice flavor which was a nice little bit and frankly the only good part of this meal.

Rice, undercooked, again lacked salt.

The green chilies were horrific how bad they were. It had that out of a can extreme sour vinegar taste and i was a little shocked at how bad they were even when everything else was already iffy.

Also to top off all the food. It was all room temperature. Nothing was hot. Just "warm". As though it had been sitting under the hot light that wasn't working properly for far too long.

Last is the service. Service lady was friendly but never once checked on us to see if we needed refills or anything else. We only saw her at the start and at the end of our meal. There was almost no one there and we still had to wait a pretty darn long time for our bill because no one ever checked on us.

I wouldn't recommend this place sadly. Only reason it isn't a 1 star review is because it wasn't horrible. Everything was just VERY "meh" And tasted like it's all out of a can and very lazy. I feel you essentially come here if you're drunk because you won't know the difference.

Terrible service. Server was quick to take our drink and food order, but was otherwise absent. Waited 15 minutes for our chips and salsa (the table that arrived 10 minutes later got theirs at the same time). Salsa bowls and ice tea were left empty for a long time.

When our food came, we asked for more salsa (this would be our first refill). Two people assured us it was coming, but we had to ask a third time and another server kindly brought it to us (she was quite attentive to her tables). She must have said something to our server, who came and asked if we were “still doing ok. ” We haven’t been doing ok, where have you been? My food had become cold at this point waiting for the salsa to come.

We again waited for our check. We eventually got up and went towards the checkout area. The other severs were apologizing to us while someone had to hunt her down, it seemed as though even they were embarrassed. If we had had a different server, this review would likely be very different. We were considering having our rehearsal dinner here and, while the food is great, I will not be in a hurry to return to this location at all after this experience.

Friends took us there. Margaritas were great. Food was good but not special. Beans were runny, like gravy. Tamales were very small and I ordered one green and one beef. Beef was good. Green was sweet with a stringy chili in the center. Recommend ordering something else. Service was great.

Terrible service, lame chips & salsa, the highlights were lemon in my water & celery in my salad… terrible service from beginning to end. Sad

Great atmosphere and fantastic lunch specials. Generous portions as well. Highly recommend.

Great food and great service. We went to the one in Oro Valley for my Mom's birthday. Had a lot of fun!

Very good Mexican food. A lot of cheese and such so maybe a bit americanized but I love the refried beans. Asada is good here, as are the enchiladas and the tamales. A go to for me if I want a sit down Mexican meal.

For the love of God clean your vents it'll help the smell waving through there other than that the food was delicious service was pretty darn good as well?

Quite busy so it took about 20 minutes to even have someone come over to take our drink order. Food was good. Had a full cup of ice tea spilt into my lap and boots. No comped food, coupon or nothing. When leaving I spoke with the manager and she said I know my waitress told me.very disappointed and food wasn't great.

The food was not bad, but it was also not good. To be frank, it was the most “meh” meal that I’ve ever had. On the bright side, the hot salsa was delicious

I love El molinitos. I have been at the one on 22nd St. I have been at the one on INA. Both have great food and great service. I expected the same at the one on Oracle. But sadly it did not happen. I sat for almost 20 minutes having chips and salsa. But in that 20 minutes, nobody showed up to ask me if I wanted food or drink.

The food was good, the atmosphere was nice. The prices were okay. There were a couple of mistakes with the food, but they prepared it so quickly the first time and they fixed the mistakes so quickly as well, that I didn't even mind.

Where do I start - will NOT recommend this restaurant at all. Bland food no taste. Chicken tostada- chicken tasted like it was boiled in water and shredded. Ground beef tacos tasted like beef was just browned and served with no seasoning.
Enchiladas with green sauce is served with some kind of white cheesy sauce with green chile. The mild salsa tasted like pure tomato sauce.
The only redeeming factor is the tamales and shredded beef. This is the ONLY reason why I gave 2 stars.
We asked if beef tacos were with ground beef or shredded beef and was told that they are served with ground beef. We received shredded beef tacos!

Not impressed. Taco only meat, no onion, tomato, cheese or lettuce, cheese in enchilada not even melted. Won't go there again.

Done. Won't come back.

Just walked into this location right now, was seated, and walked out.

I've never entered into a restaurant only to be greeted with such apathetic disregard.

With the host, management, and the wait staff standing at the host register desk as we entered, for us only to be noticed and ignored. When there wasn't more than two other dinners in the restaurant. When one of the wait staff actually decided to acknowledge our presence, rudely asked how many without another single act of professionalism or hospitality. When I replied two please, and he walked us over to our seat and dropped the men's on the table and walked off. I immediately called it done. If this location doesn't want business, I'll gladly assist them in that. From this moment forward I will advise all those within personal, professional, and political spheres of association to avoid this location at all cost.

We were sat by the manager, who clearly did not communicate to his server that we were sat and had been waiting for more than 10 minutes before he helped the two tables that were sat after us. The server was underwhelming at best, and forgot items that we ordered. The food was lukewarm at best and my son wouldn’t even touch the chicken tenders we ordered as they appeared to be undercooked. We were there between the lunch and dinner rushes for Mother’s Day, but it was incredibly disappointing. The manager was definitely unprofessional and undertrained for his position.

My family and I arrived on Friday night at about 6: 45. There were 4 of us. There was a hostess cleaning menus and what appeared to be a male manager to the left. He seemed to try to get the hostess’ attention but she ignored him as she was ignoring us. He asked how many we had and we said a party of 4. A server who was next to the manager seemed to get mad at him for trying to help us. She then said to us that it would be 20 minutes before anyone could help us! We were pretty shocked considering over half the restaurant was empty. The server who spoke to us was extremely rude and made us feel very unwelcome. We left and went to Chilis where we were much more welcomed and were greeted by a friendly hostess. If you’re that unhappy with your job you should do something different! That server is a very negative representation of your restaurant where we had never had a bad experience before! There are way too many other restaurants around and we will never be going back to El Molinito in oro valley!

Even though the resturant was short staffed - the hostess and the manager jumped in to fill the gap and made our visit more than delightful. I want the owner of this resturant to know that these two employees are invaluable to your success and should be acknowledged as such - if you are the smart kind of employer that I hope you are - thanks for a great time