El Pino Mexican Restaurant

our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant in Fredericksburg! Food is always good and reasonably priced and the margaritas are a deal! Highly recommend it.

El Pino Authentic Mexican Restaurant

12/8/2023


As relatively new residents of the Fredericksburg area, my wife and I have been trying out the plethora of restaurants and breweries in the area. A co-worker of my wife said we had to try El Pino, a Mexican restaurant in western Fredericksburg. so last night we had dinner at El Pino Authentic Mexican Restaurant, and the it did not disappoint. It is located on Route 3 just west of I95. When we walked in, we were greeted by a very friendly hostess, who showed us to our booth. It was a Friday night, so the place was doing a very brisk business. 


Our server brought us the obligatory chips and salsa. We were delighted to find out that the chips were warm. My wife started with a margarita, and I had a Modelo draft. The maragrita came to the table flaming, which was pretty cool. My wife reported that her drink was very good. As an appetizer, we ordered Ceviche. It came with saltine-type crackers, but we found using the chips was tastier. the Ceviche was full of shrimp and other seafood, and didn't taste too much of lime. Sometimes Ceviche can taste a bit too "limey". 


For our entree, we both ordered soft tacos. I ordered Al Pastor tacos, with pineapple. My wife had shredded pork. Both were served with beans and rice. The tacos were wonderful. The pork was cooked perfectly, and not overdone. Very enjoyable. Since it was our first time eating there and we wanted to test out the food, we also ordered an a la carte Chile Relleno and a Tamale. The  Tamale was good, but the Chile Relleno was excellent. I get that from my wife, who loves them.


Our server was very friendly and the atmosphere in the restaurant was quite inviting. And though the menu had fairly standard Mexican dishes, they were all very tasty and we will certainly come back again.

We stopped in after doing some Saturday shopping and I was thankful because the drinks are on point. The food was decent, but if I return it will be for the drinks.

I tried the texanas Fajitas and received a nice portion of food. The chicken and shrimp were good, but the steak didn't have much flavor. I also got a chille relleno on the side, but will never do that again. The best thing about it was the cheese sauce; other than that it was flavorless. They wrapped it up almost like a taco which was a bit weird.

The waiter was good with the service, and the restaurant had a good vibe. I look forward to my next visit. I may try something different in hopes that I pick a better entrée.

3.5 Stars

Customer service needs improvement and the quality of food. I ordered three lunch specials. The taco meat was dry and no toppings at all.

I stopped in for lunch on a weekday, getting there around 1PM, which I would assume was after the lunch rush, but this place was packed! The parking lot was packed and so was the inside. There were lots of servers working, so I didn't have to wait long for service, but the food did take a little bit to prepare.

Their salsa & chips (complimentary) are the typical from these "authentic Mexican" joints... thin and liquidy, with a little bit of flavor, but not much. The chips were thicker, I prefer not so thick and hard. I asked for their hotter salsa, which is a tomatillo style, but it literally tastes like they simply put El Yucateco Salsa Picante de Chile Habanero Green into a basic verde salsa that they made, so I wasn't too impressed, but it was definitely spicy!

My entrée arrived - it was a single taco and single enchilada on a platter with rice & beans... The rice and beans were decent. The taco and enchilada were boring and toooo "Americanized" for me, meaning they hardly had any spicy flavor to them (cumin, chili, etc).

Service was decent and friendly though. Would I return? Nope, I'm good sticking with El Jimador in Stafford.

Second time I come to this restaurant with my family and I tell you, it never disappoints. The food is delicious, fresh and the price is very good. I ordered steak fajitas, it comes with a side of salad, rice and beans, it only cost $13 and it was delicious. The place is clean and very beautiful. Workers are polite, helpful and proactive. We love it!!!

One of my family's go-to Mexican restaurants! The food is always good, you can't beat the price and the portion size, and the service is always great! The ambiance is very family friendly, but I've definitely seen groups of adults there to have a good time with the margaritas! Both my mom and I love to get the fajitas and my dad loves to get a burrito. I highly recommend trying this place out!

Other items may be better but skip out on the enchiladas, not much flavor and the tortillas has a kind of stale texture.

I really like this place
The salsa is so good and we love the fajitas.
I'm just not crazy about how they serve the sides

Stopped by for lunch and everything was perfect. The service was friendly and prompt and our meal arrived quickly.

My vegan sister got the vegetarian taco salad and was very happy with her selection.

I figured anything with super in the name had to be good and it was. I got the carnitas super burrito and it was delicious. I normally don't get entrees with guacamole but I did this time and I liked it.

This has become my favorite Mexican restaurant.