Our friends in Leona Valley brought us to Don Chato for dinner. Excellent authentic Mexican food! My chimichanga dinner was fantastic and the enchiladas were perfect. Inside the restaurant it's very clean with a festive design. This restaurant is the real deal. Waiters Gabriel and Eduardo greeted us with a smile and gave us an excellent customer experience. If you're ever in Leona Valley, check out Don Chato, you won't be disappointed. read more

I love this place. Great food, great atmosphere, great service. Never had any issues.

Coming back to do a second review after 7months of being here. I have been back a few times since but at this point I want to re-review it for current catch up.... No bland food here for me. I like spicy salsa, i like salted chips, crispy taco shells and savory meat as well as plentiful cheese!!! Chato delivers today! I don't know about other reviews here but I have to say that my experience has been excellent. Now I have to add disclaimer that I'm a loyal El Toreo guy and will hold them close to my heart. I will though say that Chato delivers for Leona Valley and I have had excellent meals here the last 7 months and intend on continuing! I'll also add that their salsa is decent with some heat and they also have extra hot sauce if you ask that is Smokey and damn spicy and excellent. I have no clue why anyone would say bland around here! Food is great! read more

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Awesome food, awesome location, awesome service. Love taking the family for a little drive on the outskirts of town. Highly recommended, just to get away and enjoy some great food. You won't be disappointed! read more

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A second location! Great food and friendly service. A great stop while touring this lovely area.

This is a favorite hangout; more than one location, so be sure to try them all!!! The food and the bar are both top notch

Breakfast was amazing so fresh made to order the service was amazing Oly a.k.a. Olivia was our server and she made our morning extra special! Great service and fresh food ! Breakfast is a must on a Sunday morning ! We saw the post that they opened at 9 and it was so very good !! Thank you guys ! Your awesome !! read more

Don Chato - The breakfast - Mexican Near Me - Leona Valley, California

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Food is good, the location is awesome, and the people that work here are all very nice and accommodating. We come here all the time! read more

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I'm a local. This restaurant replaced a good Mexican restaurant earlier this year. Both times I have ordered food for pickup, the order was wrong. My recent experience, the beef enchiladas were only cheese, the sauce tasted like ketchup with some spices (definitely canned sauce), the salsa tasted sour, the Italian salad dressing was just vinegar. The tacos (which we didn't order) were bland and the hard shell was soaked. None of my families meals were good. We ended up barely eating and throwing it away. Super disappointed and not worth $95 for 4 people. I am super sad that we lost a good restaurant and have this in its place. The only good thing is that their service is fast but that's probably why it is so bad. read more

Delicious chili relleno and chicken tostadas. Free cup of coffee while waiting. Great service. Plenty of parking.

I hate to say it but the worst Mexican food I've ever had. The 2lb burrito was all beans. Meat was almost undetectable. Had to beg for chips and salsa and chips were stale, could smell them across the table. All around no bueno. read more

Our group was just passing through, and we were 'starving'. One of our party lives in the area, and recommended this place. (In my experience, it's difficult to go wrong with this type of food.) It was this past Sunday night, we'd gotten there around 8:30pm; the restaurant closes at 9pm. As it was the end of their night, I must compliment the staff for the level of service. It was INCREDIBLE! The influx of customers had been slow that evening, so it was advantageous for us that they hadn't closed early. Ordered standard fare; soft drinks, enchiladas, rice/beans. Here's the problem. We asked first for lemonade, and found it 'tasted funny'. We asked for replacements (Sprite), which the staff again provided graciously, but found them to have the same funny taste. We could not imbibe. It seems either the water pipes need cleaning or the water filter needs changing. I advised the staff to have a plumber to service the water supply. (A suggestion courteously received.) The black beans were DELICIOUS! Well seasoned, perfectly prepared. The rice and enchiladas, however, were not. We ordered vegetarian, but were disappointed to find the enchiladas were ALL cheese. No attempt at a variety like sautéed vegetables or seasoned beans. Literally, a five-inch (circumference) clump of cheese. (Imagine an extra-extra cheese pizza w/out the dough.) The cheese was so thick, that I couldn't chew it and nearly choked. (It had the consistency of rubber or glue.) Had to expel the one-inch of tortilla completely. I could not eat any of it. The parts of the rice that were edible were seasoned, but the rice itself was either pan-fried w/out being cooked first or was the last remaining portions that had been prepared for that day. I also expelled the crunchy grains. Another in our party noted the same. The young and hungry one of our party, gobbled all w/out complaint. (Interesting to note, this young one was of Hispanic/Latino descent; the rest of our party was not.) We are hopeful that our experience is rare, and that the flavorless parts were not prepared just for the rest of us. I did make my observations known. And, again, these were acknowledged with professional politeness. But, insult was then added to injury as the total bill was $90+ w/ tip. I cannot find a bad experience w/ this type of food in recent memory. However, I'm sorry . . . this was one. A very bad one for me as I was the one who had to pay for food the majority of which I could not eat or enjoy. (Again, we were very hungry.) We asked for to-go containers, but unfortunately after fully realizing we couldn't eat any of it, discarded the nearly FULL plates after reaching our final destination. Prayerfully, at least the water supply will be inspected and fixed. And, hopefully others will have a better experience. read more

The Machaca I ordered was made fresh and very tasty. Its one of the best! My wife ordered a Grilled Chicken Salad and she's very happy. Service was very friendly and the place reminds me of old Mexico. "I'LL BE BACK" read more

Don Chato - Michilad also very tasty! - Mexican Near Me - Leona Valley, California

Their Mexican food is very good. I am a picky eater, grew up around excellent Mex food. Whenever I visit (live out of state), I make it a point to get at least one visit in. The service is excellent, ambiance very nice. My family is always ready to eat out, LOL. Im trying to work my way thru the menu for things yet untied. They also serve very nice assorted margaritas & other adult beverages. Lalo is an excellent & creative bartender/staff member. Highly recommend this restaurant. read more

Don Chato is a new addition to Leona Valley. The service was good, and the food overall was solid. The salsa, though--excellent! Some of the dishes were a bit on the bland side, but still enjoyable. I ordered guacamole, but it never came--apparently they had to make it fresh, lol. That said, I'm sure the community is happy to have another Mexican restaurant open in that same spot. I hope they do well! read more

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Came in at 8:08 on Thursday night to order something to go. Had just got off of a 11 hour shift where I hadn't eaten all day! NEVER was helped! Bartender saw me, 2 cooks saw me, and the waitress and all of them ignored me like I didn't exist. When the waitress finally came out from the back, instead of coming to greet me, she just stood there cleaning trays. My blood was starting to boil and then, she put the trays down and I thought, finally! But instead, she went back to do something else. I finally just walked out and went home starving. I stood there for about 10 minutes looking like an idiot. There were 3 tables still there. So disappointed! It was almost an hour before closing and to be ignored like that is unacceptable. read more

To start off I bought the Shrimp Cocktail, and it was pretty underwhelming as it was 20$ but most of the shrimp was very small and shredded, it was also powdery and very bland, along with that there was not a lot of shrimp in there and it was followed up with a ton of bitter vegetables. The service was okay it was kind of light for dinner and we waited 1 hour for our food but they did check on us a lot. The table was dirty as with the menu was full of water or something. the place felt nice but for what I was told and what I expected it could of been better. read more

Great margaritas and delicious food! Took a party of about 25 last night and the service was still very efficient with a party that large. Every staff member was and (always has been) very friendly and working extremely hard! We all really enjoyed our time and food. read more

Great food! Great service! Don Chato is an established brand and I am glad they took over the Leona Valley location! Staff is friendly and many of them check on us several times every time we go. Love the food! Ignore that 1 star review. Lately they had people dine and dash in Leona. All the other reviews tell you all you need to know, Don Chato is a great place to eat! read more

Authentic food. Great service. As soon as you walk in you'll be greeted. Rustic ambiance. Clean and comfortable.

Don Chato is what you would expect from a small town like Leona Valley. The food is delicious and the service is extra special. My favorites are the burritos and the crunchy tacos. What makes this place stand out is the fact that they also offer black beans. Awesome! The only reason why I did not give 5 stars is because they do not have queso fresco and for Mexican food you need queso fresco. Come and enjoy this great small town restaurant! read more

We went to Don Chato's our new Mexican restaurant in Leona Valley. They replaced the restaurant that had been there many years. The entire staff is unbelievably friendly (Alex, Gabriel, Omar and Beto) and the food amazingly good. We are trying something new on the menu each time we go. One thing that stands out is their beans de la olla , best I've had. Tried zarapes, chile verde, soups and salads (great blue cheese dressing) Menu is excellent and always several specials to choose from. It's really nice to have another great restaurant to choose from in our Lakes community, I definitely recommend it. Paul and Debbie, Lake Hughes read more

How this place got the best Mexican food in the AV award is beyond me and gives me very little faith in the AV press and its so called "winners" Not only is the food terrible and nowhere near real "Mexican food", the service, sadly, was just as bad. After we got our food, no one ever checked on us again and our waitress just disappeared and it took my husband needing to get up and go ask for our check. Margarita tasted like it was made with a sugary syrup premix and was terrible. I should have seen the red flags when I noticed little to no customers on a busy Sunday afternoon. I don't often write reviews but living in the AV I get excited to try new places that pop up and this one was a huge let down. read more

So glad we tried this place! Service it top notch and food is great! Happy hour specials in the bar are awesome! Seems crazy but have to give a shout out to the chicken tenders! Margs are good! Definitely will be one of our regular places from now on! read more

The meat was really fresh and high quality. I hope they keep up their standards. We'll keep coming back.