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El Vaquero

5.0 (1 review)
Open 7:00 am - 9:00 pm

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Photo of Sharon R.
26
19
22

10 years ago

Absolutely fresh, authentic Mexican food. Friendly wait staff. Small, quaint. Clean.

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Las Vegas Restaurant

Las Vegas Restaurant

4.1
(250 reviews)
0.7 mi
$

I never thought I would ever be typing these words, but it's the end of an era--hopefully not…read morepermanent. I've been eating here since 1970 when menu was written daily on a small blackboard on the wall and plate lunches were $1.25, drink included. I left the area in '84 but have returned frequently ever since. Las Vegas is always my first stop, and last night was no different, meeting up with ten family members for dinner. Our server, Elizabeth, was superb. When I saw the menu, I was concerned. It was six or eight pages, with dishes I never expected to see here. But I understand why, even though my first thought was, "I hope they haven't messed with the traditional dishes." I've always maintained the cheese enchiladas here are among the three or four finest in the world, if not THE finest. That's what I always order. I also ordered panchos and guacamole. My wife ordered beef enchiladas. The guacamole was very good. The nice thing about LVC is they don't use much (if any) cilantro. This stuff ruins guacamole. Their homemade chips are beyond incredible and so is the salsa. The panchos were terrible. Way too much cheese. Ratios are important. The refried beans and rice were very dry. And finally, the cheese enchiladas. They were not good. There was very little gravy (this is what makes them so good) at all, and the gravy wasn't right. They have changed the recipe. There was also way too much cheese on top. Ratios are important. The medium (soft, medium or crispy taco shell) ground beef taco was perfect. My wife said her enchiladas were also disappointingly dry with bland gravy. I ate the taco and about half the rice, beans and enchiladas. I paid what might be my final tab here, and picked up everyone else's check. 56 years ago, I paid less than two bucks out the door. Last night's tab was over $250 with tip. Times have changed. Unfortunately, so has their food. The women's restroom was repulsive. I won't go into detail about the trash can.

I ordered this on Door Dash, so one never knows how fresh it's going to be when it arrives…read more Fortunately, it seemed to show up at my hotel room door about as fresh as if I were at the restaurant. I ordered a plate that had a cheese enchilada, rice, beans, guac, a beef fajita taco and I got a carne guisada taco on the side just to try it out. I also got chips & queso because I wanted to try that, too. I think I'm too used to crappy fast food Mexican food like Taco Cabana, because I was expecting everything to be on the smallish side. I was dead wrong. The tacos are large and the carne guisada one was stuffed to overflowing. Two people could easily split the dinner, and the extra stuff was just wasteful on my part. I ate a fraction of what came. As far as the food goes, the rice is seriously good and so are the beans. That's typically where most restaurants just throw some filler on the plate and call it a day. The guacamole was good, too. The homemade chips are also delicious. I did enjoy the queso, but wouldn't put it too far above average restaurant faire. The fajitas were very good as was the carne guisada, although I thought the beef chunks were extremely large. I didn't care for the enchilada sauce, so I ended up not eating those. But, that's just personal preference, so take it with a grain of salt. Overall, I thought it was good food at a good price and I'll probably order it again when I come back through Harlingen.

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Indoor seating
Indoor seating
Smoked Sausage Taco
Smoked Sausage Taco
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Interior

El Vaquero - mexican - Updated July 2026

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