I go to Guadalajara, Mexico City and Tequila frequently for work. This is hands down the best tacos I have had in the US.

In my opinion, the classic Mexican/Tex resturant in either Warren or Hunterdon counties would be El Patron. My wife and I decided to visit El Patron for an early dinner. We ordered the Taco Salad, Shrimp Salad, and Tacos al Carbon Dinner, which were delicious. There was just one problem we encountered while dining: the restaurant was so cold that we ate with our coats on. read more

Great service and food. We've ordered takeout and eaten in and it has been consistently delicious.

I love El Patron! I've ordered in-person and for delivery via DoorDash quite a few times from this restaurant, and I'm always satisfied. This time, I went in-person with some family members. I got the plantains and the chicken tacos, which is my go-to order. We also got margaritas, which are always delicious. I'm a huge fan of plantains, so these are particularly my favorite here. I also recommend the nachos! The atmosphere has a lot of character. It's cute and colorful with a lot of personality. The servers are all incredibly warm and kind, and the service is fast. I also got the flan this time, as did another person who joined me, but we weren't a fan of it, as the whipped cream or another ingredient tasted somewhat sour. Maybe it was just this batch--I'm sure it's typically great just like the rest of their food. Overall, I highly recommend El Patron! I've been coming for years, and will continue to do so. Thank you, El Patron, for your delicious food and fabulous service! read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Chicken tacos - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

Great food! Good service everyone was so nice and very quick to help us! And good music! I will definitely be returning !

Great authentic food. Jalapeño marg was on point. Good service, well priced meals. We will be back in the future.

Mexican food is excellent, not your common burrito feed. The beer on tap is crisp and cold. Service is excellent. The seating is rather close and the decor is bright, festive neat. read more

Food was excellent and the wait staff were great. We have gone many times and we I'll continue to do so. read more

Good news was the chips and salsa were good. Bad news, everything else was mediocre fast food quality, if that. Chicken burrito average with watered down or diet sour cream. Sautéed shrimp with lemon sauce was tasteless with scoop of rice and mashed beans for $24. Oh, ordered two premium margaritas without mix and got commercial tasting mix. So, a burrito, tasteless shrimp and 2 drinks $81. Again chips and servers were good...the rest meh! read more

El Patron is a Mexican restaurant in Clinton New Jersey located right off of NJ-31. This is quite the hike for me but came highly recommended by a friend of mine that happens to be a Mexican cuisine connoisseur. If my review was solely based on the food it would be a 4 because everything I had was delicious. The salsa had a thick consistency that was made with fresh ingredients and the Cawboy Burrito was stuffed with tender barbacoa and topped with creamy queso. Even though all the food was very good, it's definitely overpriced. The portion sizes aren't huge either. We didn't have to wait to be seated which was nice. Our server was okay. He wasn't very personable but he was accommodating. Curbside pickup and no-contact delivery are both available if that's what you prefer. Chips & Salsa - 8.1 Cawboy Burrito - 8.3 Food - 8.2 Service - 7.5 Value - 7.5 Restaurant score - 77 read more

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Love the food! Prices have gone up though and the service is just ok, the ambiance is fun but way too loud for conversations

I have eaten here many times and loved it Today I think I was not meant to come here Everything that could go wrong went wrong. They did not have ground beef! I mean how do you taco if u don't have ground beef? Of course did not go well with my picky eaters. We unfortunately spilled our drink and server wiped it on to the ground over my son's legs. Then no one came and clean the rest. What an experience! Better luck next time read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Nachos - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

Stay away, steals credit card information. This Mexican restaurant has great potential. (But is operated by degenerates) A different person waited our table every 10 minutes; weird but ok. First I ask for a burrito containing steak, rice, beans, cheese, pico de gallo and sour cream, dry no sauce. I received an unwrapped burrito laying over steak and onions with cheesy sauce on top. Weird but ok I ate it. I asked for separate checks; they pretended to give separate checks and ran them all on one transaction. This costed me money as now I can't expense my dinner. Then the cherry on top: A few hours after visiting El Patron, THEY TRIED TO USE MY CREDIT CARD ONLINE! read more

Excellent and friendly service, not crowded and food was delicious! Everything was fresh and well prepared. We had a guacamole appetizer prepared table-side, a chimichanga off the daily special menu, and a chicken burrito. The black beans were a great option to refried beans. Excellent meal! read more

The moment you walk in you are surrounded by the culture, feel, and sound of the Mexican heritage. It isn't a restaurant as much as it feels like an experience. The food portions are massive and worth the money. The service are friendly, tentative and always looking to help. The drinks ! A family friendly or intimate date environment! read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Jalapeño Margarita - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

We got the combo dinner, and it was very tasty. One steak taco, and two chicken burritos. The burritos are NOT burritos, they are tacos I don't know why it's called a burrito. Portion size wasn't that great. The chips and salsa came with two big bags of chips though, which I don't know why they would do so much of that and not more in the actual meal. I'd come back but it's very very expensive for not that much food. read more

Lemme tell you something. This is the best steak quesadilla I have ever eaten in my life. It took every fiber of my being not to eat the entire thing in one bite. Please thank the chef. Someone give him or her a raise. They even even gave me chips. I am so grateful. read more

A good Mexican restaurant with great food and drinks. Can't wait to try more items from their menu. read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Chicken tacos - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

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Do not go if you are looking for a burrito bar. This is a first class Mexican restaurant. Beers and Margaritas are icy cold and delicious. The guacamole appetizer, prepared table side, is not to be missed. The entrees are delicious and the menu varied. There is usually ample table space. read more

Usually good service! They do not speak English! Ordered Enchalldas got a salad with chicken! Fyi, don't order over the phone, clueless

Solid spot for Mexican. A lot of choices. Chips, salsa and best guacamole around! Service is attentive but not rushed. Overall, love this place. read more

This place is soooo good! I got the sour cream enchiladas with chicken, and I think I am addicted to them now! I also had a piña colada, which was delicious! The place is cute, and I love that all of the booths chairs have different engravings with the restaurant name. It is so bright and well-decorated. The service was really good, too! I cannot wait to go back!!! read more

Great Mexican food, very good service, reasonable price. It is open 7 days/week, whenever you need an option for real Mexican food just go there read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Bar - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

Everything was fresh and delicious. It was pretty busy but the service was able to handle it.

The best margarita I've ever had. You have to order it with casamigos. Also the veggie quesadilla is 10/10.

I really wish I could say this was a great Mexican food place. It's good but it's not great. I love Mexican food and I would go here in a pinch. But there are better places in the area. read more

Really good Mexican food but a bit expensive for what you get. Tttttttttttttt Ytttttttt read more

The food was delicious and plentiful. We ordered a chicken chimichanga lunch special and a burrito special and there was more than enough food to eat. The chips and salsa were also very good. We definitely would come back here again. read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Chicken chimichanga - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

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THEY LOVE CILANTRO ON EVERYTHING. It's like they depend on that being the only spice. We first got salsa, which was the worst I've had, just a bunch of cilantro and what tasted like regular tomato sauce. We got Guac, which they make in front of you which is cool but seemed like a hassle for the waiter to be doing it constantly, in my opinion. I did however get to see him dump a whole bowl of cilantro into the guac, that being the main ingredient of the appetizer. The chips were good but beware they are veryyyy filling, especially to have before a meal. Chicken tacos were good, and so was the skirt steak. I was quite upset when I saw the sides it came with, the rice was good but the portion was very small and cheap. And the beans were refried, so it looked like slop was dumped on our plate. Usually this is supposed to be specified as refried on the menu, but the menu just says "beans" I brought this up to the waiter and he said they do have other beans but it's always refried unless we specify it, and that we are supposed to specify it beforehand when ordering. I'm not sure how I would've specified it, if it wasn't made known to me beforehand that they were going to be refried? Beans usually mean beans, not refried. I was looking for beans that were higher quality than taco bell at the very least. Our waiter did seem to hate his job for the majority of our stay. I'm not sure if he was just having a rough day because after our meals he did seem to loosen up and smiled and joked with us finally lol. Overall, I was kinda disappointed with this restaurant I was excited to have a Mexican place near us and the menu seemed very promising, but it didn't live to my expectations at all. I don't think I would recommend anyone going here, including myself again. *Note: their parking lot is very small and sometimes there isn't even any parking for you to go in to eat. So make sure you have a backup spot to go to if it's full. read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Refried beans - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

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Great food. Great people! Next time I'm in town I will definitely go back to try more authentic food read more

Good food and good service, but it was freezing in the restaurant and I'm usually warm all of the time. It seemed like they had the air conditioning on even though it was about 30 degrees outside. Anyway, while deciding on what to order from their massive menu, they brought out some delicious salsa with a basket of tri-colored chips, and that was a nice starter and very tasty. After looking through the many choices, I decided to get the fajita trio of shrimp, chicken and steak. I asked them to hold the sour cream and wondered if the kitchen staff would get it right. From past experience, they get it right about 50% of the time, but here they were right on the money. When the meal came, there was this massive amount of food. Portion size seems big here as my dinner mates also had huge amounts of food and had to get togo boxes, as I did. The fajitas came with guacamole, refried beans and rice. I was a little surprised that it didn't come with pico de Gallo, but it was ok. They were flavorful and delicious with just the right amount of seasoning and lots of peppers and onions. I ate about 2/3rds of the dish and brought the rest back to my hotel hoping to finish it before I check out the next morning. The food was good, the reason for the reduced star is the fact that no one came around to ask if we wanted more to drink and the air conditioning fiasco. It is bad for business when you try to freeze out your customers in December! But based on food and service, aside from not returning to ask about getting more ice tea, it was a great meal and I highly recommend a visit here. read more

I give one star because the service and place was okay. The food was not that good and when we asked questions it was if the waiter was upset or annoyed with us asking or calling him over. Multiple times we had wished we were undercover food critics because the service and food would have been 10x better. I would not recommend this place, drive a few more minutes and spend your money elsewhere. read more

It has been a few years since I've been here and decided to give it another try. Figuring that midweek would be a slow time and we would be able to get a table quickly, I guessed correctly. I went here with my wife and daughter for dinner and we were seated quickly and had a server at our table almost immediately. I opted for a draft beer which was served in a large ceramic mug and my wife got the house margarita. The margarita had salt colored like the Mexican flag around the rim. That was a really neat touch. The chips and salsa were far better that what I remembered and probably amongst the best in the area. The sweet plaintain appetizer was delicious and prepared excellently as well as our main entrees of burritos and pollo milanese. My daughter got the tres leches cake and that was also delicious. It must have taken a while to get on track, but they did. The restaurant is bright and well decorated. The music is just loud enough and quiet enough at the same time for us to carry on a conversation. All staffers were friendly and polite and nobody appeared to be wasting time. We will return. read more

The food was delectable! The ambiance unique and the trip down 31 to the new El Patron was a great one. This New Mexican restaurant joins a few others in the area but boasts its own salsa which is amazing. The shrimp tacos were amazing and the chips were plentiful. There was a short wait. The furniture was beautiful. The only thing that was hard was the volume inside. It was difficult to talk. read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

Excellent food, kinda pricey. Drinks are weak Nice environment. Good service. Way better than the awful Italian place that was there before read more

This place has potential. The parking & front door is located in the back & the interior room has nice wood-carved chairs & booths so it's decorated nicely. Very large bar with tons of tequila! Wine is the Cavit brand. The salsa was delish - very good. This chips were good but a weird yellow color. I asked for a side of guac ($2.50) - excellent & a nice serving side. We both got the skirt steak taco's. At $21 that is a hefty price for taco's! They were good but not worth $21! I would not get them again plus they came with full stalks of scallions which I could not eat as they were not chopped up. Nice touch but useless - I tossed them aside. I did not try the refried beans or rice. I saw a lot of fajita's going out that looked real good - I would get that next time. I also saw several people getting guac made at their table - another nice touch. I would try this place again for the fajita's & guac & possibly a shot or two of tequila! read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Good guac - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

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They took a last min reservation for 7. Bar selection was good and food was great. We had all different dinners and all enjoyed. read more

El Patron Mexican Restaurant - Model Special on tap - Mexican Near Me - Glen Gardner, New Jersey

Came in blind before reading any reviews. This place inside is beautiful and clean with a polite staff. Not a lot of money for a meal. The best part was the food. Great flavor and presentation the whole way. So happy to have found this place. read more

Great margaritas! Terrific local place for an authentic bite. Guacamole is great but their pico has to many onions .

Overpriced, mediocre food. The beans taste like they came directly from a can, microwaved and put on the plate. I think next time, I'm better off getting a frozen Mexican meal from the supermarket and heating it up. read more