I simply do not understand the 3 star rating... I travel the whole country for work and this is a top 3 mexican restaurant i've been to, if not the best in the country... would rate it 6 stars if I was allowed. Food and drinks are amazing and come out quick read more

El Sombrero - food and drink after it's been deleted... - Mexican Near Me - Gainesville, Georgia

So upon entering the restaurant, I was greeted by the middle-aged waiter who treated me like an inconvenience and basically pointed me to a table and told me to sit there. And then had an interaction with the younger waitress who had absolutely zero customer service skills, but once my actual waitress, the older lady showed up she was extremely nice and courteous, and was probably one of the best waitresses I've had at any restaurant in a long time. The chips and salsa were actually phenomenal, the cheese dip wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't special. I then got the enchilada plate which the cheese in it was really good. However, the enchilada gravy kind of just tasted like marinara sauce. The price wasn't bad in the atmosphere was good and the service was quick. But overall, it seemed like a majority of the waitresses and waiters in there do not belong being waitresses and waiters. However, I did not catch the name of the older waitress that I had but she was phenomenal. read more

Terrible all around experience. 14 dollars for carne asada fries. 3 dollars for hot sauce. Will not ever go here again read more

El Sombrero - Mexican Near Me - Gainesville, Georgia

This location has decent food but service is slow and literally will forget about you . Walled in tonight for dinner . Sat 15 mins and wasn't acknowledged by one waiter. I got up and went to walk out . Told the manager and another associate at the front that were watching something on their phone that no one even spoke to me so I was going somewhere else. One said um um um um and the other walked away , I believe was the guy that runs it. Won't be back here again. Been going here for years read more

If I could rate this place a zero rating I would. I have eaten here on and off for years but tonight was one of the worst experiences I have had in a very long time at a restaurant and my family and I eat out a bunch. Service was absolutely terrible and we ordered and everything came out wrong!! No chips and salsa were delivered to the table when we first arrived.... And finally after asking we received some. One of our orders had to be sent back 3 times before they got it right. Very simple order which was a bean and rice burrito with cheese sauce over it....... Again terrible and would not recommend!!!! read more

Service was nice, but the food just wasn't great. Hoping for a better experience next time.

Happy First Anniversary to our friends at @elsom_cantina Overcoming the obstacles and unexpected, has led to a truly amazing restaurant and incredible staff. Did you know El Sombrero juices their fruit and citrus by hand for all of their cocktails? While sitting at the bar enjoying the Cuban Bowl and Guacamole, we chatted with the lovely bartender who was juicing over 100 limes for their margaritas. She proceeded to make our drinks with fresh grapefruit and lime juice right in front of us and we were in awe. read more

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Do not eat here!! Absolutely disgusting place, people were so disrespectful, the food was awful and terrible service. The manager was even worse.. go to a different Mexican restaurant!! read more

This is literally the WORST El sombrero in the area. I waited forever for my order I called in. It's still not ready!!

You can never go wrong with Mexican. This place was affordable and the food portions are big. I got the burrito loco and was a little disappointed that it was only filled with meat, wish the burrito could have been filled with some rice or beans, besides that the food was delicious. read more

El Sombrero - Burrito Loco - Mexican Near Me - Gainesville, Georgia

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Actually my go to Mexican place and that is saying a lot around here. They do most things well. I like their chips and the salsa is a bit zippy which I am happy with. I typically rotate between about 5 staple items. This time it was the Enchiladas Mexicanas. Everyone was jealous of how good it looked and it tasted just as good. I also typically get a margarita on the rocks with one of those beers in it. The mix is very sweet but the beer dilutes it a bit. read more

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This use to be a great place but within the last year or so it has gone down hill the food is either wrong or has no flavor,they are also rude when calling in a Togo order. I wish it would go back to the way it was because this use to be my favorite place. read more

I usually love El Som but they were totally off the day I visited. Seats were broken. Took them 10 mins just to come ask for our drink orders. The sweet tea was horrible, sugar and tasted like water. There was almost an entire tomato in our salsa. The beef looked dry and like it had sat out on the stove in a skillet for a good hour or so. Chips were stale, asked for another batch and they were also too hard to eat. read more

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The neighboring businesses in the area are being renovated so this location is not the most pleasant place to visit. I believe the sign for this El Sombrero is actually being renovated as well because I remember I couldn't located this place right away. Anyway... This is an average lunch experience for me. I mean. There isn't anything special about this place other than their actual lunch specials. Lol! The service was average. No complaints here. The restaurant was clean in the areas I visited. Again, no reason for complaints. There was no wait time even though I visited here right around noon. The food came out pretty fast, and the quality is parallel to the price you pay. Food here is a tad above a fast food place, but you do get chips and salsa while you wait. :) read more

El Sombrero - Mexican Near Me - Gainesville, Georgia

Burrito Deluxe is SO tasty and fulfilling! YUMMM. Beef and Chicken tacos are also huge filled with meat cheese sour cream and your choice as well with toppings. but delicious!!! Fajitas are a must!! Not expensive & kid friendly and TVs and a clean medium size restaurant. Service is awesome and the employees too! I give them a high rating 5 read more

We ordered $49 worth of take out, and they charged us a $2 convenience fee for using a debt card.

Food wasn't too bad and their menus have a good variety of food, but the service was AWFUL, i went to 2 different el sombrero and unlucky enough i got the same guy twice as my waiter. He stared at us while we were eating once, not leaving the table and staring at the people i was eating with, and this time he kept staring as well. Tables were dirty and service was very slow yet not many people. There's way better Mexican restaurants around! read more

Pretty good food, servers have been on point since last review. I order a side of steak..since I dont do beans and rice..I also do flour tortillas...and a side of guacamole and a side of mushrooms. Get out of here for less than $16 bucks for dinner ...a steal of a deal!! read more

El Sombrero - Side of steak, beef taco dammyummmy - Mexican Near Me - Gainesville, Georgia

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The service was OK the food was not the best. My daughters little meal was not warm and not what I expected. Probably will not go back. read more

El Sombrero - Mexican Near Me - Gainesville, Georgia

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The food is typical generic Mexican food. They have the best frozen margaritas around which keep me coming back. I eat here at least once a month. The wait staff is almost always all men which seems strange. Update 6/4/16-I will Never again eat here. We came in on a Saturday night at 5:15 with a party of 5. We were not served or spoken to within 10 minutes and when asked for a server the employee acknowledged us with a nasty noise and wouldn't speak. We left and half the wait staff was outside looking at a motorcycle. Never again! read more

Nice neighborhood restaurant that is within walking distance of one of my companies business offices. As soon as you walk through the door, It has a very Mexican feel to it, however there isn't anyone to sit you down. its a self sit place. As soon as you sit down, you are brought a dish of tortillas and salsa for you to enjoy. a waitress typically comes shortly afterwards to place your drink order, as well as food orders. The food was not too bad, as I ordered a grilled chicken salad with a side of avocado. The amount of salad that they give you is very small (and shredded), however they do give you a good portion of chicken (probably equal to 1 chicken breast - also shredded). The avocado that was brought out was a full one, however it had a lot of black spots around it (almost rotten), so only 1/2 was edible. When you are ready to check out, they provide you with individual checks for everyone in your party, which is very nice and convenient. There is only one person at the counter who is very slow in taking payments, so it takes a while to get that done. Overall, its a nice little restaurant, however it would be nicer if they had someone who wiped down the tables before you 'self sat', and if some of the food were fresher. read more

This is one of the worst dining experience I have ever had it took forever to get us seated about 15 minutes yet no one was even there once we got seated it took them 10 minutes to get our drink order then they finally brought it back and left then while we were waiting for them to come and take our order we looked over to find the "manager" sitting at the bar drinking finally when he was done drinking he just walked around doing nothing along with the other workers finally he walked over to take our order we spoke clearly and where very specific about what we wanted the food took forever and everyone's food was wrong I do understand that there was 20 people but if ain't a single order right there obviously is a problem going on some examples where I ordered chicken and cheese nachos and they only put cheese on like 10 chips and put it on a plate my friend is allergic to some types of beef and so she ordered rice instead they put beef on her plate on her taco if one of the other people did not point it out she could have had an allergic reaction and have had to go to the hospital also one of my other friends had legit hair in her food and when we told the manager he told us none of the workers had that kind of hair that was black even though all of the workers had black hair he charged us extra for the stuff that we wanted to fix our food with he charge it on our taps I was by myself and got chicken and cheese nachos and two small cheese dips he tried to charge me 30$!!! He added extra things to almost everyone's tabs when we tried to get him to correct it he was very rude saying things like "well" or "that's not what you said" and was threatening us. Saying he was going to call the police and he said we should have read the menu better and that we were missing a ticket and was trying to get us to pay more. If I could give zero stars I would. read more

El Sombrero - The hair in the food - Mexican Near Me - Gainesville, Georgia

If I could give this place 0 stars I would! This is the worst dining experience I have ever had! To start, the server brought us stale chips and after we asked for fresh ones, he brought even more stale chips. I ordered a small cheese dip with jalapeños and got a cheese dip that was clumpy and had no jalapeños. We get our food and try to eat it but it tasted bad it was soggy and just flat out gross. I asked if he could take it off the bill because I couldn't eat it so he brought his manager over. When I explained to the manager that the food was not good and I would like it to be taken off the bill, the server proceeded to yell at us because we should have read the menu better and that we still needed to pay for the food we ordered even though it was awful. I told him I wasn't going to pay and then he told us to leave and then he practically tried to jump over the table at us (4 young women) and the manager had to hold him back. The only thing the manager said was I'm sorry and she took our food off the bill. It was a HORRIBLE experience and I would definitely recommend NEVER going there. read more

3.5 stars really. They did allow my partner to order off the lunch menu on a Sunday which was nice. The reason for the lower rating is because we waited for about 15 for drinks to be brought. The server was nice. But the food was just ok. I had beef nachos with a side of rice. My partner had chicken with onions and rice. His food was ok. The ground beef on the nachos was not the best quality. Like I said food was just ok. Nothing awful but definitely just average. read more

This place was wore slap out 20 years ago. More than a renovation it needs to be demolished. The interior is old tired and dirty. It got the same menu as other locations about time but they are unable to replicate the quality or flavor of their brother restaurants. Service is ploddingly slow with little effort by staff to improve. It's a sad place that has seen better days. Skip it, there is much better nearby. read more

This place is our regular weekly go-to for great Mexican food. The servers are pleasant and friendly, the food is great and tasty, and if there is ever something wrong with our order they are so quick to fix it. We love dining in and getting carry out. Their rice is especially delicious and the menu variety is fantastic! My husband is a big fan of their street tacos as well. The atmosphere is very casual and the decor is definitely nothing to write home about, but no matter where else we venture out to try for different Mexican food, we can never find a good substitute for the dishes made here. read more

Great standard mexican food not gourmet authentic Mexican type place. What brings it down is the service. There great at the beginning but towards mid meal they hust about ignored us with one waitress give us the hold your horses hand signal they sevond time we asked her for something while she just continued about sweeping the floor. read more

Not sure how this place can be so poorly reviewed. I've been eating El Sombrero since I was on solid food, so there may be a bit of bias here, as I'm looking back on it through possibly rose-colored glasses. The food is good. No, it's not authentic Mexican. The portions are huge and about what you would expect for the price. Free chips and salsa on the table. I don't typically drink here but the margaritas I've had weren't terrible. I usually get the sincronizada (tortilla filled with shrimp, fajita veggies, and cheese then grilled), the nachos, the taquitos, or #18 combo platter. Their rice is my favorite of any Mexican restaurant I've ever had. read more

Cheap food cheap beer. If that is what your looking for go ahead. You get what you pay for and there quality isn't that high.

I am surprised by the bad reviews for El Sombrero. I am staying at a hotel nearby and just wanted to walk to dinner rather than drive. I read the negative reviews but decided to go there anyway. I disagree with all negative comments. The food was fresh and delicious and the service was fast and friendly. My husband ordered the chorripollo and I ordered the shrimp cocktail. My husband went on and on about how good it was and mine was good too. We also ordered a margarita and sopapillas. Everything was great! read more

There was a cockroach in my rice. I scooped up a bite of rice on my fork and as I was ALMOST putting it into my mouth, I noticed something that looked weird. Thank god I checked because it was a dead roach!!! I have never been so disgusted. The server apologized and gave us half off our check and tried to give us free tequila... I don't think so! That is completely unacceptable. I will be contacting the health department. read more

The food and service sucks. I ordered mixed fajita nachos and had to send it back. The first time the steak was raw and tasted spoiled, and the cook didn't drain the liquid from the nachos so it was like liquid nachos. The second order the steak still tasted spoiled so I picked out the steak. Waste of money. read more

Ok ... guilty!!! La Parilla was closed for renovations so we fell for the trap. It was a BIG mistake. Worst margarita ever! The food wasn't even mediocre. The order was wrong for starters but we were in a hurry so we accepted it and it was not a good choice! Who screws up a simple taco and enchilada?!? El Somb that's who. Went straight home to recover - it was THAT bad. Won't be making that same mistake again! Avoid it at all costs and go to Taco Bell - yeah, it was That bad!!! read more

If zero stars was an option I'd put that. The worst service I've ever had. Waitress was rude as hell, I got 4 burnt chips as my nachos plate. Got charged for guacamole and pico, got my own water twice, waitress rolled her eyes at me, and just came up to my Spanish speaking friends and talked sh$t about the rest of our party to them in Spanish. Thanks for the crappy experience marybel. Will NOT be coming back. read more

I don't know how this place has bad reviews. This might be the closest Mexican restaurant close to authentic Mexican food that I've had. The service was quick and very proper. The portions are huge and reasonably priced. The atmosphere is cute and the art is lovely to look at. They even have a vegetarian menu option. I had the vegetarian option A which came with one bean burrito, one cheese enchilada, and one bean tostada with cheese. I will definitely be eating here again. read more

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My food was good. The others in our party didn't like theirs. The service is slow and two of our orders were forgotten.

Great food and service! This is a quick trip from the college campus and is a regular lunch spot for my coworkers and I. Menu selection is good. They have a lunch menu which is reasonably priced. I would recommend the lunch fajitas. read more

El Sombrero has great food. I can't complain. The staff is nice and they always provide quick service. My friends and I love coming to eat here and I always order something to go as well. read more

Overall great experience. Had Texas fajitas that were has good or better then any I have had. The cheese dip with jalapeños was good. Super fast service. I well be back. read more

First, I'm not a huge fan of Mexican food, I prefer Italian. I was overruled and my family and I ate here with my in laws, very nice people. Getting a booster seat/car seat holder took some time. They weren't very busy when we arrived. I liked what I had, I forgot what it was called, but it had a little kick that I'm not a fan on. Everyone else loved their food. My husband had to build his own burrito which he enjoyed creating. read more