There is a reason this place is packed every time I go in...it is delicious! Especially if you want quick service! However, if you have special requests, make double sure your that your server understands your request. I would have given it 4 stars, but I can't stand that they still allow smoking. read more

The past few visits here have been less than tasteful... and i'm not referring to the food. I know this is no 5-star Mexican Cuisine restaurant as if its located on the country club plaza, but I am coming out to eat to have someone serve me food / drinks and paying them my money + excellent tips so I DO expect them to at least pretend like they want to do those things and to put a smile on while doing so. Is that so hard to do anymore? Your job? This past weekend my family and I came to eat for an early dinner. The restaurant wasn't busy for a Saturday surprisingly and there was about 9 of us so it was no issue getting us right in and bringing together some tables to do so. We all got there one by one, not together. So when my boyfriend and I arrived some already had their chips, dip & drinks. We hadn't been approached after sitting for a while about drink orders and neither was our other 2 / final family members who arrived shortly after us. My mother in law then had to ASK where the service was and that we needed drink orders. A man, our original server, I believe, came over to ask for all final 4 of our drinks he failed to ask the lady next to me. Then my mother in law had to ask AGAIN for service to come help us. Let me remind you again.... it was a very SLOW Saturday in this restaurant. Another server, a lady with dark brown hair in a pony tail, then came over and asked for the lady's drink order sitting next to me. I knew she was very hungry as we all were so I asked the server if she could also bring chips and salsa for her because they hadn't any yet. I was then told (snapped at, really...) "I'm taking their drink orders right now" even though she was done taking their drink orders. I could not believe an employee would ever openly say that to a paying customer. Whether if she was our designated server or not, it's not acceptable to basically shut down what the customer is asking for. She was extremely rude and very open about that and the fact she didn't care to serve / help the original server with a party of 9.It's bad enough when you're the customer and you try to figure out and justify why they the service was so bad, especially being a former server, but I can't figure out 1 reason why it's okay to ever treat customers (paying or not) like that. Wish I could say I will return because it's so close and the food has never been bad but I'd rather take my money elsewhere from here on out. read more

The food tasted good. But If you know Mexican food well, you may be disappointed. My enchiladas and salsa tasted more like Italian food to me. Cilantro was no where to be found! Nor fresh onion! My suggestion to the chefs if you're listening is to use cilantro in your dishes! read more

Took forever to get to us when they were dead. Only one person could speak engllish and that. Still wasnt very good english. And also brought my the wrong food after waiting a good wgile for food. Very dissapointed. read more

Like most reviews say the service was pretty good but the food not so much. As a Grain Valley resident it's one of the only sit down resturaunts in town, so we come here a lot. I had their burritos and it was disgusting the cheese wasn't melted and the beef was undercooked. read more

Love this place. During the week we go to the location in Independence and the food here is great!! Fast takeout when you order.

This location use to have great service. And its great that there is a location in Grain Valley. But, the past few times I've been in there, service has been HORRIBLE. My friend and I were there for a few hours once, and our server only checked on us 3 times, when our beverages and chips were empty the majority of the time. Today, we walked in and were sat, and sat there for 10 minutes, with NO ONE coming up and greeting us... so we walked out. You couldn't pay me to go back to El Maguey in Grain Valley. I'd rather make the drive to Oak Grove for better service. I'm pretty disappointed with it, and hopefully it is resolved soon so they don't lose any more customers. read more

Great place to eat. The chips are always hot and fresh. The salsa is good and there shrip burrito is great. There prices are very fair.

Horrible service and food was not up to par today.... Perez 04 was my waitress and she was less than friendly or accommodating

Tried this one instead of driving into Independence. Love the food and prices, but will NOT be back. It has smoking and non-smoking seating, yeah right. The place was so smoky, I could not wait to get out of there. If you don't mind smoke, I recommend it. Will drive the further distance for the non-smoking restaurant. read more

I've been to many el maguey restaurants and this is the best one. The service was super fast and I was surprised the food was far superior to the others. Keep in mind I've never been a fan of this restaurant in the past. Also, they keep the smoking section way in the back away from everyone else so it's no big deal. read more

Staff is always attentive, food is good, prices are great and food is plentiful.

Stopped at El Magueys for a quick lunch. Bad idea!!! Danielle and I both ordered lunch chimichungas. Took about five or six bites...cut into it again and chopped a large cock roach in half. OMG OMG OMG..SO DISGUSTING. Almost threw up on table. Waiter grabbed it up real quick and said sorry and walked away. SERIOUSLY, SORRY...he kept on serving people like it was no big deal. Should of taken a pic and posted it for everyone to look at!!! We will NEVER GO BACK THERE AGAIN!!!!!! read more

My Family and I have been coming here for years, and over the past several months not so much The atmosphere is cold and rushed, and the service is non existent. This past Saturday, all of our family were in town for a birthday party, so we decided to try El Maguey in Grain Valley. Not only was the service slow and non existent again......we had to track a waiter down (there were 9 of us) and ask if we could get service he looked at us like why are you bothering me, then he took our drink order ...well most of ours, he decided one person in our party apparently didn't need a drink so he didn't ask her what she wanted. About 5 minutes after that, the waitress showed up with an attitude look on her face. We told her that the person who was left out of the original drink order needed to place her drink order. After she took the drink order, my daughter-in-law asked if we could get some chips; the waitress in an extremely hateful tone said "I'm taking the drink orders not the chip order". I said, the drink orders were already taken by another waiter except for the one person that you just took (as I had already told her)! She was extremely rude and ridiculous. I never feel like the customers are greeted in a friendly welcoming manner there and everyone who works there looks miserable...never a smile or thank you from anyone there. There are so many other things......3 of the orders were wrong, and 1 margarita order was wrong, one margarita was delivered right before we were leaving, etc etc etc. Ridiculous how she treated us, Ridiculous service! The food was good but that does not make up for her rudeness! There are too many options for customers to choose to have great Mexican food that also treats their customers with respect to ever choose this place again. If you aren't happy in your job, then find another job. I would never have this type of behavior in my place of business -- it runs customers off. Most do not give feedback, and just leave and never come back; if I were a business owner, I would want to know the experience. We were there approximately 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. Saturday, April 16. You need to hire an entirely new waitress staff that wants to be there, and wants to make money for your restaurant, and wants the customers to have a great experience. El Maguey in Grain Valley met none of these expectations. read more

Food was decent, but the service was not. We did have a party of 12, but the place was not busy (we arrived at 5:30). We had to ask for our server to come to our table to take our drink order. Once we gave that, he came back wit the drinks and took our order. We did not see him again until food was delivered. And then We did not see anyone again. I had to track someone down to get more tortillas and then again to get our bill. Another thing to note was that my nephew spilled almost and entire Coke, my two sister-in-laws scramble to start cleaning it up. I'm the process, one of them had to go ask someone for more napkins. She pointed at the mess and a staff member simply gave her a handful of napkins and walked off. Only until we pointed out the mess on the floor did they step in and get a mop and bucket and clean it up. Another note is it smelled like smoke. I know another person made a comment about the smoking areas being so far away from everyone, could have fooled me. read more