El Patron Mexican Restaurant in Waterloo

By far the most inviting, friendly restaurant that I have been to. The Burrito California is the order..

Excellent food, GREAT prices, and most excellent service!!

Good food at really good prices. Nice size portions of food. Homey atmosphere.

The service was great and the food and drinks even better! We’ll be going back!

Favorite Mexican food in the Cedar Valley, lived in the area for 5 years and upset it took me 4.5 to find this place!

Delicious food, Great friends, Fun times 😍

Great food at good prices

Amazing food great service with a smile family friendly

Great little Mexican place downtown. Nice facility and a very friendly staff that went above and beyond to accommodate our large lunch group. The food was really good. Some of the best salsa i had in the area.

OMG I have now find the best Mexican restaurant in Iowa so far. The shrimp fajitas was off the chain they were so good my daughter did not want to share with me they're real chili rellenos was so awesome that I had to share with everybody. Definitely definitely will be back again

Great food, great margaritas, FRIENDLY staff and always clean

This was a wonderful meal. The service is great. Loved the salsa.

First of all.... Dang this is a nice place. Open dining room with a nice ambiance and a super friendly staff.I had chicken Pollo fondido, which was honestly the nicest looking Mexican plate I think I've ever had. Not only was the plating really nice but the taste was incredibly creamy and cheesy, the chicken was spiced beautifully.My girlfriend had taquitos which were equally as good.Service was fast and plates ranged from 10 to 15 dollars which was nice.Deffinatly recommend this place

Good food, great prices and very friendly &attentive wait staff

Delicious food. Handled order mixup in adequate fashion. Salsa is delicious.

Very good food. Service was really great. Price was right. The meal great. Everything was fresh and delivered to the table very hot and I don't mean microwave hot. Fried ice cream was huge and very good. Definitely will be back... again and again.

Great service, and I have friends that work there!

Everything on my plate was delicious. I ordered the El Patron Platter and my son ordered the Quesadilla plate. His plate looked scrumptious. The food was hot and flavorful and a nice portion size. The price was right and the service was nice. My server checked on me justice the right amount of times. 👌I love Mexican food and it's always nice to try it in different cities when I'm away from home. (The Great State of Texas) This was awesome and made me feel at home. If I ever come back out here I will definitely be eating here again. 😍

Have had a good experience every visit. Food was delicious, and drinks were made perfectly.

We were there last weekend. In the past had been good, but host was rude, service was slow, he forgot how many margaritas each person ordered so we told him what we each had. Then instead of the 4 we told him he charged my wife and I for 5. I can only imagine with the virus they were on edge, but if going to be open then take care of your customers. We will not be back.

Best Mexican food in towns. I recommend the tacos el pastor or the Chile poblanos stuffed with pork. If you order either of these two dishes you will be rewarded handsomely.

If you are looking for the best Mexican Food in Waterloo, you have to try this fabulous food without forgetting to enjoy the amazing Margaritas, with an excellent service.

So good!

Food came out in a decent time with the amount of people we had. It was excellent!

Excellent eating experience, the food was delicious. Meal was served hot and excellent taste. The restaurant atmosphere is very pleasing.

The service was excellent. Waitress was so attentive. The food was some of the best genuine Mexican food I've ever had. Highly recommend this place to everyone. Soooooo good!!!!

Great food, wonderful service

It was very comfortable serves was good in my food was perfecto

Very tasty, big portions as well.

Petty decent food. Never had a bad meal here.

Great salsa, pollo fajitas, service...so far, the best Tex-Mex in the area. Other restaurants to try before being able to give 5 stars.

Amazing food, friendly staff

Great food, hotter than normal salsa, very attentive service. The quesadilla was delicious and packed with meat, peppers and onions. The building was not the most upkept (reason for 4 starts), but it didn't seem to take away from the meal. Conveniently located downtown.

The food is great, the drinks are great and staff is awesome!

Ordered steak fajita quesadilla. It was excellent.

Nice servers, good food. Loaded us up with chips and salsa which is always nice!

I have came to this restaurant 3x and each time has been worse. The food is decent, but the service is atrocious. The main server is so rude and has an attitude all the time. I won’t be eating here anymore. I also believe he treated me like this bc of my ethnicity. My bf and I watched as he treated other customers of Hispanic and European decent better than he treated us. Really disappointing.

Decent food but booths and tables a little light weight and uncomfortable. If I dine from here again it will be to go.

When we came in as a group of 6, It was fine not many people there. Once it started getting busy it seemed like we became invisible. This place only had 1 server and 1 busboy. It seemed as though the server was getting overwhelmed with everything. We had to keep asking for things instead of him doing his job and coming to us to see if there was anything else we need. My suggestion to this place, now that it is warmer have more people on staff to be ready for the Friday -Sun nights. If it is a slow night you can always let them go home early. One of the worst Customer Servixe experiences I have had in 10 years.

Juan is a rude business owner. I like service with a smile. He will no longer recieve our business. Chilitos is much nicer.

Our fav for Mexican in Waterloo. We really like the steak fajitas. The house Margaritas are quite good.

It might have been 5 stars on a different night, but they were absolutely swamped for Irish Fest. While most of the servers were going above and beyond to make things better, the overall lack of organization made it very difficult! I'd give the wait staff an average of 6 out of 5 (and one young man was easily a 7!). Without them, I'd give the experience around a 3. Unfortunately, there are some serious accessibility issues! The friend I was with is in a wheelchair, and was COMPLETELY unable to ENTER the restroom, much less use it! Finally, the food was easily a 5, and I would love to eat there again - on a slower night, in different company.

Wonderful food. Can't wait to go back.

Fantastic food! Best I've had outside of Mexico. Very friendly staff, nice atmosphere. I will definitely return.

The best in town! If you are in Waterloo Iowa and looking for a great authentic Mexican restaurant, you must stop here. Great margaritas and chips and salsa. My favorite dish is “camarones al natural” . Great atmosphere and service. Our server Juan was superb!

Great taste, large portions, and great service!

Went here twice and will be returning. The food is very good, and the portions are definitely worth the money (come with a big apetite). The staff is also super friendly and incredibly hardworking. Support this business!

Used to be good, now "steak" is all chopped up and fatty.

Good food. Great selection of menu items.

This is my favorite Mexican place I've tried in the area. Their fajitas are delicious and they make my favorite quesadillas of any restaurant in the Cedar Valley. The atmosphere of the restaurant is always relaxed and friendly. I've never had a bad meal here.