Vaqueros Mexican Restaurant & Taqueria

Stopped here for lunch and was pleasantly surprised. Huge portions, great customer service and affordably priced. We will definitely return!

Food is amazing but the price for margaritas is pricy.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Our favorite place for Mexican Food. Food is always awesome. Service is mediocre at best. Yet the expectation of a tip is always there. We saw are service 3 times in the hour we were there. Then had to ask for boxes and the bill.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 2

Vaqueros is one of my family's favorite places to eat. We love the waiters. They are all lovely people. The food always had big portions and is cooked to perfection. If you cant eat it all they make great leftovers. The vibe in there is always exciting and happy. I love getting the Pollo con Crema. I love mixing the crema and rice. Can't wait to come back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Excellent food, service and attitude of the employees.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

This review is not about the food. The food is almost always pretty good. This is a review about very shady business practices and margaritas! The margaritas here are not cheap, but they do the trick. You have a menu listing various margaritas all listing different types of tequila. I noticed that I would order margaritas here and sometimes they would come out tasting great and sometimes really different and I thought that was odd.

On this particular visit I decided to sit at the bar. My wife and I both ordered margaritas off the menu. Both the same type and I was seated in a way I could watch them make the margaritas. In this case the margarita was to be made with Don Julio Tequila and topped with Grand Marnier. These are just under $19 each so not on the cheap end. If you take a look at the bar they have two big beverage dispensers.. one filled with a greenish margarita looking liquid and the other with what I am guessing is an amber tequila that is probably inexpensive. I noticed every margarita was being made out of these dispensers so I paid attention. When they went to make our margaritas they used tequila from the one dispenser and whatever the other mix is from the other. They then walked over to where all the premium tequilas are and did a swirl of Don Julio.. shake.. pour.. and then they pulled out a bottle that was obviously not Grand Marnier (very distinct bottle) from the well area under the bar and topped off the margarita. My wife and I were shocked we just paid almost $19 for basically a well margarita.

We decided to order a second margarita as an experiment. We purposely ordered a different margarita with different ingredients to see how this would go. This one was to be made with El Patron (if my memory serves correctly) and topped with Cointreau. To our amazement we watched them make the maragarita the same exact way.. using the Amber (whatever) tequila in the large beverage dispenser and then using the Mix in the other beverage dispenser, doing a quick topper swirl of the actual tequila it says you are getting and then.. the best part.. they used the same bottle to top the margarita off that was supposed to be Grand Marnier from the last margarita we ordered (which it obviously wasnt). I am guessing based on the bottle shape its a cheap orange liqueur of some sort.

We had to stop the experiment at this point because cheap tequila and orange liqueur still works pretty good and we had to drive home eventually.. but thats not the point. You are paying for premium liquors and they are, with purpose, trying to cheap out and being very deceptive. If you only get a splash of premium tequila mixed with cheap tequila you should know that before you pay $15-$20 for a drink. As far as the Grand Marnier or Cointreau topper.. they both came from the same bottle that looked like a triple sec bottle and I am pretty sure they completely lied on that one. It surprises me they are doing this.. why not just give people what they paid for! Buyer beware!!!

Very large portions. Very fresh food.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Lots of food for the money and great, fast service

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

This venue was exceptionally great. We were down in the springs for an appointment and decided to grab lunch here and we were pleasantly surprised. Yummy flavors and fast service.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Always hits.

My husband typically gets carne asada tacos and the plate is flawless every time. I normally get something from the seafood menu and have tried multiple items. Very tasty.

Kids are happy with the kids menu and often request to go here.

It’s super fast and service is always amazing.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Best Margaritas and amazing food. Come here alot and have never been disappointed. Always try something new on the menu. 5 stars

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Food was absolutely wonderful. Boy was confusing himself told me an outlandish price over the phone for takeout. The young man charged me or was gonna charge me $81. For a taco salad and enchiladas. when it was fixed upon going in. The order only ended up being $38. The food was absolutely wonderful though.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 5

Service: 2

Went here with my wife for a few margaritas and some carryout after the gym. Our waitress was very friendly, but everything went downhill after that. Our margaritas were super salty and I suffered through mine but my wife drank like 1/10th of hers and we ordered new drinks. We didn't ask for them to replace the drinks because we acknowledge that hey, we may not like the drink but that's not their fault. I wouldn't act like the restaurant owes me a replacement because I found their drink way too salty. I just won't buy that again, it's whatever. They didn't offer to replace hers even when my wife handed hers back 90% full but whatever, I wasn't expecting it anyways. Still would give 4 stars at this point.

Then, we ordered non-margs and my wife had a mule with a separate shot of vodka to add. After adding the floater she had one sip and accidentally spilled it across the bar. Again, that's on us. I don't expect them to replace a drink that we spilled but like, you sorta hope that a restaurant would proactively offer it? They saw it happen, they saw it was full...that's sorta normal customer service right? But nope, nothing. We cleaned the bar ourself with about 100 bar napkins while waiting 5min for anyone to acknowledge us or give us a towel. And the restaurant was busy. This is Friday night, there's a constant rotation of like 4 or 5 people behind the bar rotating around so you'd think one of them would acknowledge us trying to clean up a mess. I'd prefer to clean our own mess but they wouldn't even come over to give us a towel to clean it up and my wife and I are just sitting there laughing at like how little any of the staff seemed to care. It wasnt a huge mess or anything and again, we're not jerks and I've worked in restaurants most of my life so it was just sort of shocking how unexpectedly bad the whole experience was. Suffice to say we won't come back and we'll tell others to steer clear. There's no shortage of Mexican restaurants in town that at least have their act together.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 1

Fresh and delicious.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Service was quick and the staff was very nice both times I came here. The food was soooo good. I had the pollo asado one time and the carnitas tacos the other time. The original margarita was one of the best margaritas I've ever had!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5