I decided to go on a recommendation from a friend. I ordered the 3 tacos combo, which were pretty solid. Nice to see an option for chorizo on the menu. I got one and it was nice and spicy. Overall the food was tasty and filling but nothing to write home about. Has a large patio for outdoor seating, bet it's nice in warm weather. Plenty of TVs for catching a game. read more

It was only a matter of time before I jotted a few words down about one of my favorite places... I come here often. The Mexican food is pretty average... I like the soft tacos with chicken fajita meat. The pizza is good & the wings are some of the best I've ever had... Buffalo Garlic is my favorite. But, what we really come for is the Bad Juan. I get mine on the rocks with a smidge of frozen strawberry or raspberry on top. This location is my favorite during warmer months because of the patio. read more

Elsa's Kettering - Patio Season! - Mexican Near Me - Dayton, Ohio

See all

At Elsa's off Stroop right now. The table next to us is vaping to the point that I can taste their strawberry juice instead of my food. No one asked them to stop. Service was great I however will never return as they don't care about our experience with the vape cloud surrounding us. read more

We were a group of teachers celebrating the end of the school year and it took about an hour and 25 minutes before food arrived. The three tacos we ordered were tasteless due to the meat that was not seasoned. We realize that the patio was full but several tables around us got their food and their bills before we got a single meal. We regularly go to the Elsa's on Linden and will probably go there from now on. read more

Stopped in for Friday lunch because of past experience with Elsas. I should have taken the Sports Bar in the name as a possible clue. Anyway, salsa was good while the chips were cold and greasy. I got their lunch special of grilled cheese and tomato soup. It wasn't too bad for $5.99. It came with potato chips. My wife got the chicken nuggets appetizer. These were $8.95 and there was ten nuggets with two dipping sauces Not a good value or taste. The time to order and to get the food was very long. And for no reason of them being busy. This place might be good as to getting drinks but for true food I would not recommend this place read more

I'm 53 and this is the only restaurant where I've had food hit me when flung from another table. Granted, the pizza crust wedge was meant for someone else, but it ricocheted and hit me. I want to like this place but I'm convinced that Bad Juans diminish civil behavior and make boorish behavior acceptable. At Elsa's, screaming is ok because "it's a bar." Actually heard that once. The screaming is a normal part of the experience. But if it's not shouting, it's kids running up and down the aisles, because we all know it's not a restaurant, it's Romper Room. This is ok in Kettering. Who cares about the food here when you can't hear the person across from you? And kids are running by your table? Skip Kettering and go to the original. It's much quieter, the clientele more mature. read more

So just had dinner at Elsa's Kettering.... had the WORST young lady for a waitress initially!!!! She proceeded to talk, chat, laugh, walk around after getting our drinks..... She took drink orders for 5 tables -- walked out to patio-- BS'd with a friend before FINALLY acknowledging my "hey look"!!! Then an Oh hell no moment!!.... as I stated a reply to her question about ready to order--. She proceeded to tell my wife --. "Well I do have other tables you now"..... Well you can guess my wife's reaction.... yep--- another waitress took over our table BUT..... I had asked for the manager and he NEVER came over!!!!!! I'll be looking for other media to post to !!! read more

Elsa's is one of my "spots." I've been to all of the Elsa's but this one is my favorite, mostly because of the huge patio. My friends and I come there all the time. Plus I like it's location. The Bad Juans are awesome. I get the half and half (half frozen strawberry half lime). They are so delicious and actually get the job done. They are strong but isn't that what people drink for anyways? They have a huge selection of bar food, the buffalo chicken quesadilla is my favorite. The staff could be a little better. I've had some really bad service there but it still doesn't stop me from going. Tvs outside too which is a plus. read more

Bad juans. Need I say more? I expected these to be bigger but they are tiny and pack a punch! Love this place.

This restaurant had terrible food, terrible service, and was not clean. Don't go. Don't. Go.

Horrible service and food. Restaurant patio was dirty. Sick the next day after ordering the grilled chicken salad. Chicken was cold and the sauce was suspicious. Asked the manager if it was right and he said no as did the waiter. Only ate a couple of bites. read more

Fun place great food and service and the bad Juan s cant be beat

there was a hair in my sour cream. boooooooo and it was not mine! thag is NOT ok. thanks. oops jk it was lettuce. the food was goood ok bye. oops jk again it was FOR SURE a hair and it was NOT mine. so please fix that. also the lettuce is poop ok byeeeee read more

First restaurant I had to get up and leave due to cleanliness. Our table was cleaned with windex... then the gentlemen who cleaned our table (bare hand) proceeded to shove his hand into the limes to garnish drinks. Shortly after, we witnessed the chips being served from a tub next to the menus and cleaning supplies in the dining room. Again, two bare hands straight into the chips, to give a quick toss before filling a basket, followed by a ladle of salsa (without a lid) co-located at the hostess station. But wait... there's more. Supposedly famous for their margaritas, they lack a drink menu; upon ordering said famous margarita, we were asked "which kind".... smh. Save yourself the trip and go to El Toro or somewhere instead. read more

this for the new springboro elsas sorry couldnt find it at this time on yelp. basically no service other than the front hostess set us and watched womens ncaa basketball overtop of me.no one would even look our way and the place wasnt very busy. 2 sets of people came in about 5 minutes and about 10 minutes after us and both got served.if i hadnt been so hungry i was going to wait and see if anybody would ever serve us lol. we left after 20 minutes. read more

Not a fan of the Mexican menu. Taco shell was very stale, cheese has no flavor (suspect it is not real cheese). Chili is so-so but has that fake cheese on it. read more

They have a great outside patio. It is perfect in the summer time. I usually have a BBQ Chicken quesadilla or wings and I usually walk away very satisfied. read more

Kitchen was slow, food was abyssmal, service was clumsy, and seating was uncomfortable.

The 4 star review is for the drinks. Get the Bad Juan, half original and half frozen raspberry. Just do it. They'll only serve you 3 in a night. The food...meh! It's ok bar food, but it really is just a means for soaking up the alcohol. This local hangout is a good time. Go see old friends and make new ones. A south Dayton establishment for sure. read more

The food is still very good...a lot of turn over with the wait staff....not as good....the place was always family friendly. But over the last six months gangs of blacks have been taking over the place. They beat two white gentlemen last week in the parking lot. Put one in the hospital. Made the local news and paper...I guess it might be classified as a hate crime...A lot of my friends and family don't go there anymore....a real shame...they need to put security in there or something. read more

I don't go for the food, but as others have said previously, the BAD JUANS are not to be missed. 3 is the limit and make sure you have a driver! read more

Nope...never again. Stopped by a few weeks back one Sat afternoon. Nice patio, but 20 min wait for server...she knew nothing about their famous margaritas, so waited another 10 min for the bartender I come over and to our surprise....he knew nothing about them either, other than they were premixed...so we tried a couple and they were not very good... Took another 30 min to get food ad a refill on the, average at best, margaritas...no refill on waters and waitress never checked back in...after another 15 minutes another waitress came over and said that she had just been assigned our table, as the other waitress was focused inside...wow.. I felt bad for her getting a room of unhappy tables, so have et a decent tip (more than the other server would have gotten for sure). Oh yeah, food was average bar food. Cheap, greasy cheese and nothing that stood out. Way too many good places in area to every waste another dime, not minute of my life here. Avoid this one...definitely nothing to see here!! read more

Stale chips, $9 burrito that would be $1 at Taco Bell. Would be better of going to Taco Bell for sure. Also got a piece of chicken that was $14. Will NEVER return there. read more

Waitress dumped an overloaded tray of drinks on my husband. No apology but she did give him his bill in full!!! He had tickets for a concert at the Fraze but had to go home because he was totally soaked in sticky beverages!! Major FAIL! read more

Work hard all week and wanted to spend my hard earned pay on a nice outing on the patio. Service was awful. We waited 10 minutes before the server came to the table, 15 minutes for drinks, another 10 minutes to get our order (would have given it to her when she dropped off drinks but she took off) and an hour for our food (salad, enchilada and wings). Will definitely go support another business that appreciates their customers. My husband and I have worked in the restaurant business 20+ years so we give some slack. This isn't the first time we have experienced this at Elsa's but will be our last. read more

My wife and I went here for a late dinner on a Monday night. We rushed to order after being informed the kitchen closed in 35 minutes. Our appetizer was left in the window for almost 10 minutes and was given to us with our meals. The food was sub-par at best. The enchiladas were very plain and covered in an overly thick layer of melted cheese. My wife's fajita burrito was covered in a nasty, thin cheese sauce. Our server, Shannon, was much more concerned with finishing her closing tasks than giving us service. We were never given refills. I was disgusted to see her sweep the floor and then use the broom to sweep the booths off instead of wiping them with a rag. We will not be going back. read more

Best taco salad ever. Even the lunch portion which is priced affordably. Yum!! Never have waited a long time for a table. The only thing i would say is needed is maybe some updating, and brightening the restaurant up read more

The Bad Juans were great but that was the only positive in my experience there. Food was very slow coming out and when I did get it it was very bland and not hot. When I said something to Tammy the bartender she asked if I would rather just scold my mouth and took it back to the kitchen. Later I heard her laughing about it and making jokes with the regulars at the other end of the bar. I then proceeded to move away from the bar and sit at a booth, the waitress was nice but the booth was so uncomfortable and it actually had a spring sticking out of it that poked me. So overall if you are going to this location sit outside on the patio and drink bad juans and that is it read more

Amazing food chicken wings are awesome!!! Food was excellent tonight keep it up!!! Fried ice cream with chocolate is the bomb! Whatever you guys are doing don't stop! Thanks for a great meal! read more

My favorite place on friday nite...It's a Mexican place..right ?? Dude..everything there is soooo wonderful...great burritos, pizza pie, and my favorite...they have really amazing chicken wings...oh wait....everyone gets complementary chips and salsa....I am addicted the Elsa's salsa...the best I have ever had...ever...It's a great place in the summer...they have this huge patio and the wait and bar staff are some of the grooviest people you'll ever run into...so..ya think I'm done ?? Elsa's by far has got some of the best Margaritas in the world....now I am a trained professional when I comes to margaritas....and these are the best...Bad Juan..Blue Juan and Gringo....if they only had a beach........... read more

The Bad Juan's are good but as far as food..I've had way better!

Stay away from this place until January when the hood for the fryer will be fixed. Sign on the door says no chips and salsa, but if you really want it, they will charge you $1.50 for it. If you want wings, they will smoke them. How can you keep a place open without a fryer? Also, can't believe they charge extra for onion for your sandwich. I won't be back until after January. read more

Was at the fraze. Heard about this place just ok. Not true Mexican. Sports bar with Mexican ???

On the fence with this one. The good, the steak fajita, Reuben, and Greek salad we ordered were all delicious. The fries were ok. I like thin fries. The bad, the prices. My husband had two beers and I had two margaritas and a beer and they all were seven dollars. Our total was $63 before tip which is a little high for two entrées and five drinks. We typically like to follow happy hours and this place has no good happy hours and for that reason we would probably wont be back, atleast not very often. If it had a good happy hour, we would probably be regulars. read more

Unacceptable service! Went in for food on friday night. Understandably busy so we didnt expect a+ service. After recieving our drinks we waited 15 minutes for our food order to be put in. When ordering, we also ordered a dish to-go. We were told they were out of queso.. how does a mexican restaurant run out of cheese?? Food was bland and below mediocre. Ordered cheese nachos and was charged 14$! The food was prepared incorrectly with missing ingredients, we were told absolutely no substitutions. Cheese wasnt not melted at all, like it was nuked. Never recieved chips and salsa, asked for them repeatedly. After our food was delivered we were informed that we couldnt get our to-go because the kitchen was closed. Wth????!! Then upon speaking with the manager, we were told by him that if we didnt like it, we should have sent it back sooner as well as blaming the table for not ordering the to-go sooner. I will never be back and will be calling the district manager. read more

Cold food served to 4/7 people at our table after waiting an hour and a half. The other 3 never got their food at all and we finally cancelled the order and asked for our bills. Refused to comp our cold food because we didn't "send it back immediately"...not the way to encourage us to give them another chance. I would avoid this location. read more

Food and drinks have always delivered high satisfaction. The patio at this location is great! My only criticism is organization among the servers. We tried to place a food order for more than 20 minutes because wait staff assumed someone else was taking care of us. We seemed to always have a different staff person at our table completing different tasks, just very disorganized. Eventually we got our food and drinks and enjoyed the rest of the night. read more

Came to have some drinks during happy hour...except the happy hour deals are sad. It was only 45 cents off my bad Juan. That was disappointing. Anyways, we ended up ordering food (for the first time) and it was good. However, some food items were over priced if you ask me. read more

They have the best buffalo chicken pizza I have ever had. Great patio. They could clean up inside a little.

Horrible customer service. Waitress seemed very racist. Made us all uncomfortable. Then the manager approached the table drinking what appeared to be pop as he talked to us. Horrible horrible horrible customer service . Cleanliness is not up to par . Somebody call the health department. read more