We came into the restaurant & were greeted promptly & taken to our booth. I was pleasantly surprised that Melissa was our waitress once again! She is very pleasant & helpful and still did an excellent job today. I had a problem with my dish & she let the manager Debbie know and it was promptly taken care of. That's really A1 Service! I had the chicken chimichanga and hubby & grandson had the combos where they picked 4. They loved the cheese & chicken enchiladas. As always, the chips, salsa, and green sauce always hit!! Previous review: Melissa did an excellent job today! She was very friendly & checked on us a lot. She should probably be a trainer for other waitresses. Brandon brought all our chips & hot sauce. He was very nice. read more

The Jalapeno Tree - Melissa! - Mexican Near Me - Athens, Texas

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As far as Jalapeño Trees go (and I've been to 13 of them) this one was a little on the smaller side. Curb appeal was less visually pleasing as some of the other locations. I have made it a point to order the exact same thing at all locations so I'm comparing apples to apples. The lunch queso shrimp. Athens location did a pretty good job. The shrimp were yummy and only slightly overcooked. I arrived at 1:00 and was cashing out at 1:35. Fast efficient service and great food. read more

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Food was great! Service was great too! My husband and I each ordered the combo #4 where you choose 4 of your items and they came with rice and beans. Both my kiddos got chicken tender plates- HUGE portions for all! We left with happy bellies and a soft serve ice cream for the road :) Our waitress Brooklyn was attentive and I never once had to ask for anything- she was one step ahead each time! read more

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Service was quick & our server was very friendly & helpful. The food was very good & well prepared. Definitely will be returning.

Excellent food, beer was super tender, big portions, tortillas homemade, service on point

still just as good as before- great service once seated! good food and margaritas- good prices too- felt nice and clean also. they still have the separations for the booths from covid which is a tad weird but kind of nice too for actual privacy. they have an extensive menu, lots of size options which is great, healthy options too! the margaritas are nice and frozen which is great because a watery margarita is my pet peeve! jalepeno is always a good choice when in athens! it hits the spot! read more

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Service wasn't great today. We had to get our own silverware. We ran out of chips and the skinny mojito was awful!

I just picked up some food from there and I tried to get this lady's attention she was putting up wine glasses and once she was done I tried to get her attention by saying "excuse me ma'am" and she ignored me I said it again and she did the same thing I said it 6 times with no response I would like to complain about her attitude and behavior read more

great food nice vibes servers very kind and helpful free Ice cream claw machine scammed me 5 stars

Very little vegan food, but can be tweaked reasonably easy. Still, only 1-2 dishes, but we're in the minority. Ok. The food was good. Chips were stale. Salsa was 4/10, more like ketchup? I was really missing Chuy's! Staff was pretty quiet and avoided us mostly. Had to wave waitress down a time or two. Person that sat us was anything but cordial, but it was raining? Maybe depressed? Seemed adequately clean, but I didn't use the restroom, so that ALWAYS tells the truth about how clean kitchen and restaurant really are... Overall, we may return... but there are much better, and friendlier staffed restaurants. read more

The Jalapeno Tree - Veggie bowl without cheese. Guacamole without chips - Mexican Near Me - Athens, Texas

Was there waiting on a table for lunch the restaurant was not full at all They come back and the manager says we are now on a 30 min wait because we have no wait staff! We'll good I'll never be back,drove out of my way to eat there. Ask to speak to the manager he didn't care never came to talk to us. Didn't ever want us to go to the bar I'm done read more

Always fresh tortillas. Salsa is ok. Food is average. Very nice ambience inside. Staff is very helpful. Nice prices!

We literally drive 35 minutes to come to Jalapeño Tree, this is our favorite Mexican restaurant! It's always very clean and vibrant, the staff is super fast and friendly, and the food comes out fast, fresh, and delicious! The only thing I'd skip is the bread bowl, the queso is delicious but the bread bowl is nothing special, so just get the regular bowl of it. And it's always a running joke when we go that no matter how many times I ask for an extra bowl of jalapeños I never get them. But it's overall a must stop and experience place to eat and relax! read more

The Jalapeno Tree - Beef burrito and crunchy taco combo - Mexican Near Me - Athens, Texas

I really didn't want to do this, but we had such a bad experience today I won't be back. We normally stop at the Jalapeño Tree in Canton when we're bringing our kids home from Pine Cove every summer. We have never had a bad experience! However, the Athens DPS was the closest one with an appointment for our teenager so off we went, and this is where we ended up for lunch. We were seated immediately, but things went downhill right after that. Even the guy who dropped off our chips and salsa slopped salsa all over the table and didn't wipe it up, getting it all over the menus. Our waitress was absolutely overwhelmed and flustered. Either she was on something or she was a nervous wreck, even though the restaurant wasn't crowded. She was middle-aged and seem to have been there for a while, so I'm not sure what the problem was, but the service was just terrible. I ordered fajitas with no onions. The food took forever to come out, especially considering how the restaurant wasn't crowded. When the food finally did come out, the fajitas had onions all in them. There was also a bowl of garlic butter on the tray that I asked her to leave off when they brought back the new fajitas. The manager came over with her. He asked if we could just leave off the bell peppers because he said the bell peppers and onions come mixed together, and it would be easier just to leave everything off than to try not to have onions. I said that was fine. I just don't want onions. She got the new fajitas out pretty quickly, but they were absolutely saturated in garlic butter. For some reason, she didn't notice it until she said it down in front of me and saw my face. She snatched it up, made a point to tell me she had said no onions earlier, and then whisked it away. When she brought out the fajitas, the third time, there was literally six pieces of meat on the skillet and nothing else. No garnish, no, nothing. It looked pretty pitiful to tell the truth, but at least there is no onions or garlic butter. She practically threw it down in front of me and left. She hardly looked at us or spoke to us the rest of our lunch. Not only that, the manager never came back to check on us either. We had to ask for a drink and chip refills and overall we're just really underwhelmed by the service. Good service really can make or break an experience. Last comment on the restaurant. Although it's decorated cute, and looks nice like the other locations, the women's room was gross. The toilet seat was too small for the toilet, it was cracked, and it was stained, which made it look dirty. We will keep eating at the Jalapeño Trees in Canton and Tyler, but I just can't recommend this location. read more

Party of 4 adults 2 kids, Aaron was our server and I highly recommend that if you go, you ask for him. It was a slower night but he was extremely attentive and nice. The food was extremely good. My wife got the Elvis Presley and I the fajita beef enchiladas, which were perfect. The margaritas were amazing. Highly recommend. read more

The Jalapeno Tree - Mexican Near Me - Athens, Texas

Foods pretty good. Drinks too. Service is good and the ambience is real good. My friend is a waitress there so of course the service was on time. read more

We had a last minute reservation for a graduation party of 18 people they seated us in about 10 mins. Then Justin was our waiter and could have not ask for someone else better . He was always on point bringing refills on drinks, chips and salsa and not to mention the wonderful flour tortillas. FYI this is my first time ever coming to Jalapeño Tree is this is how every time they treat me I will definitely come back. The food was also good I had the mix Fajita plate it was good but could be better with some bell peppers for presentation. My daughter had the pork tamal that was good. Not a big fan of the Mac and cheese it was dry and need more flavor. Once again Justin was the best waiter I have come across thanks for all the great service. read more

The Jalapeno Tree - Food table - Mexican Near Me - Athens, Texas

The service is horribly slow. We have waited multiple times for chips and drinks and at similar restaurants in Dallas the service is much faster with many more customers read more

This was pretty good. I apologize to East Texans but I generally have a low opinion of Mexican food in the region. Jalapeños Tree was quite enjoyable and I would return. The queso flameado is definitely worth ordering as an appetizer for several people or an entrée for 1. There's so much meat and stuff on there it really isn't even queso any more. More like chopped fajitas with the requisite vegs and some melted cheese. Makes a killer burrito. The chile relleno is pretty good, too. Nice and crispy coating. Loved our server Emily. read more

Oof, this place. Ordered a top shelf margarita & it was terrible. I don't know when chain restaurants started thinking that a margarita is supposed to taste Mountain Dew. Between that & the house salsa that tasted like ketchup, we decided to skip having dinner here. The waitress was nice & she kept apologizing - it wasn't her fault, it was the quality of the food & drinks. There are lot of different Mexican food options in Athens, do yourself a favor & pick any of them over this place. read more

Ordered food for delivery. Food arrive late, cold, and was missing rice and beans. Basically I spent almost 40 bucks for not much food. Luckily waitr refunded me, but I will never be ordering delivery from this place again! read more

Subpar over-priced food. Salsa and sauce looked gross. Nobody said what the green sauce was. Entire staff clueless about what ingredients were in the food and basically said too bad about food allergies so I couldn't eat anything. My daughter had chicken tacos and there wasn't even an ounce of chicken in them. Only 2 stars because our young server was very nice. But food-wise, you're better off at Taco Bell and how sad is that? read more

The Athens jalapeño tree is the absolute worst restaurant I've ever had the displeasure of eating at. The food was pretty sad for how much I was paying for it. I mean almost 20 dollars for 8 pieces of barely edible chicken is pretty terrible. The bussers where always sitting and not doing their jobs and it took more than 20 minutes to get chips and salsa. In a Mexican restaurant!! I've never had this issue with other jalapeño trees just this one. The waitresses did amazingly for how crappily the managers treat them. I don't know who thought bringing in that new manager was a good idea but it wasn't. Kendrick seemed to work well with the staff when I've gone, but that woman named Debbie came across like the absolute devil. I've never seen someone treat their staff to poorly as that woman. I hope that one day maybe when that lady leaves and more people come to work under that nice manager the service would be better but for now the higher ups are failing the staff at this establishment The biggest upside to this place was the ambiance of the managers chewing out their staff and the sounds of people chewing over mind numbing country music. read more

I was at an event in Athens with group people and someone said let's go to Jalapeño Tree, I thought please no, but I didn't want to have issue. Other than the lemonade there was zero good about the meal. I didn't ask for crunchy rice yet there it was on my plate, the beans were old tasting and it got worse from there. I ate maybe a quarter of it and gave up. I honestly don't know how they stay in business. If you like Jalapeño Tree, you have no idea what good Mexican food is. read more

First off, Emily is a GREAT server! One of the best I've ever had! Ask for her section! The soup has always been my all time favorite but I also really love their tamales (habanero pork is super spicy but sooo good!) and their flautas are some of the best I've had! Flour tortillas are homemade and ask for the cinnamon butter!!! *chefs kiss* read more

Our table of four had combination fajitas, chicken flauta, cheese enchilada, shrimp taco, white queso and sopapillas. All tasted great! Queso has fresh jalapeño but is not too spicy. Chips were fresh. Destiny was our server and was fantastic. All the staff was friendly and helpful. read more

Wow. Stopped here on the way back from moving my daughter in at SFA. Grab a seat at the bar and was fortunate to have Christine as our bartender. She was just amazing. What made her additionally special is she would communicate if she was going to step away from the bar to grab and deliver takeout or serve other tables in the bar. We've been to many Jalapeños throughout Texas and this by far was the best experience we've had! Oh and the food was hot and tasty! Well done Christina! We will see ya the next time through for sure! read more

BEST JALEPENO TREE EXPERIENCE EVER. Usually Jalepeno Tree service is sub par, but my girl Keri made the world go round. She was attentive, she was sociable, and her accent was so gosh darn charming. Vote Keri for president 2024. #yallbettergiveKeriaraise #orelse read more

My husband and myself stopped in before heading home from staffing a Cub Scout event at the Boy Scout camp in Athens. We both ordered the beef fajita chimichangas. The fajita meat was the most tender I can remember eating, not chewy and tough like most beef fajitas. The rice also was very tasty. The salsa tasted like it had a lot of cilantro in it. I'm one of those few people who think cilantro tastes bad but I'm not blaming the restaurant I'm sure there are those that like it. I ate half mine and took the rest home. It made a great lunch. read more

I've actually liked Jalapeno Tree until my most recent visit, in town for restaurant management training and without alot of picks for restaurants here I come to the J. Tree...I came into the bar area this evening and ordered the Taijana Tea from bartender Tara, whom was not personable, never smiled w/ attitude I felt, anyways I've had this drink before n it was perfectly made with the other bartender.....NOT THIS VISIT, nothing but sweet n sour and coke NO liquor, as I watched her pour the entire drink incorrectly....totally disappointed...I asked for an beer instead then ordered combo quesadillas which were good I must admit BUT NEVER ONCE DID MY BARTENDER ASK IF MY FOOD WAS GOOD OR IF I NEEDED WATER NOTHING SMH, and to mention the bar itself was NEVER cleaned from previous guests dining throughout my visit! Just terrible terrible terrible customer service and nasty this visit!! S/N: Please train your staff better THANKS read more

Love the food here. Seems to be clean and runs smoothly. The service is very good and the employees are polite.

The chile con queso was very good, wasn't as big fan of the white queso. I had the combo plate with 1 cheese enchilada with chile con queso, chicken enchilada with sour cream sauce and beef puffed taco - I was very excited to see puffed tacos on the menu because it's hard to find them. It was the best one I've had but very good. I'm very impressed by this place because I live in DFW and was surprised to find someplace this good out here. read more

The new manager was helping the staff to make it better. It is not the Restaurant's fault that few people want to work with Covid being out there and the government paying them more than they can make working. However, maybe the restaurant can limit the people they seat to insure better service . Food was better this time. read more

This was our first time ever eating here. Ok well when we first walked in the two girls were very rude as if they didn't want to be there. Then we got seated and the guy that brought out the chips and salsa just chucked them on the table and was rude as well. We sat there for sometime and no one came to get our drinks for about 10 minutes. Then a waitress noticed that we didn't even have our drink order take yet and she came straight to us even though it wasn't her table and she apologized. She took our drink order and our food order and made us experience a wonderful setting. Then I went to the bathroom and the lady that was supposed to service our table was in there texting on her phone by the sink. Felecia was very attentive to our wants and needs all along working her own tables. Anytime she walked by our table she asked if we needed anything and if we did she went right away and got it. This lady's name was Felecia she is an outstanding waitress. In fact she provided the best service that we have ever gotten at any other locations. Whatever she is making she isn't making enough for the level service that she provides. She deserves a good raise. Thank you Felecia for everything you do and for caring. The restaurant really needs to reevaluate their staff. At first we said this was the worst experience ever that is before we met Felecia. When we left we said that turned out to be the best service that we ever had. Keep up the great work and caring heart Felicia and if the manager doesn't give you a raise then that would be piss poor management. read more

Food was great but the service by our waitress was lacking. I hope she was having an off day. We had been sitting for quite awhile and had began to think we were forgotten. Then a guy came by with chips and salsa and left without a word. I will say the manager came by and noticed we had not been served and quickly had someone come and get our drink order and shortly someone else took our order. Our order came out in a timely matter but my husband had chili and was not given a spoon and immediately asked the waitress for one. She said she would get one and she disappeared. I finally flagged down the drink server and she immediately got us a spoon. It is a good thing because the waitress never brought a spoon and appeared to forget that we had asked for one. When she finally did check on us she never mentioned the spoon. My husband's chili was fantastic and my chili relleno was delicious. I would suggest that all staff be a little more aware. read more

Friday Lunch The waitress made the Meal,1 Ask For Lizbeth for the waitress/Sever Fast service great attitude from her. The Staff seemed to be well trained and all had positive attitudes The Food the Burrito Plate and Cowboy Chili were spot on and Hot. Super restaurant. We were surprised it has come a long way from where it was our last visit. 2 years ago That visit sucked. Management change maybe?? Wife made me go and I was glad she did. Right now Its a example of what a dining experience should be. Great Place. Get the Cowboy Chili read more

The food was great! I had a beef burrito and it was good. The staff was efficient and friendly. I recommend!

The first time I ate was great...let me take a deeeep breath and tell you my last(definitely) experience at this restaurant. After being seated, I looked over and there was still food from the last patron in the seat...on both sides. I used a card from the table and whisked it into the floor. The tall lanky multitasking waiter took our order and brought we asked for extra napkins. He brought them and I noticed after he laid them down the top one had whatever he had dipped his fingers in, on my napkin. I asked him if he was bleeding when he came back and then I explained why I asked. I then noticed a lady come right by our table with a very large trash can, presumably with bathroom trash in it, and hurried it into the kitchen.I then noticed the same woman (had a good view of the kitchen from our table) carrying a bag of trash around in the kitchen...I then saw the same woman carrying plates and food to tables!!!! She was not wearing gloves while carrying trash around..couple minutes later I watched her digging into the big Ice machine with the same hands. I was praying she washed her hands, but I suspect she didn't.. then she walks over with a broom and dust pan sweeping right night to our table....nice...I always enjoy a little dust with my meal. Our overworked (?) waiter then brought our fajitas and told us he would soon bring tortillas The fajitas sizzled in the pan for a while,as the waiter took another order from some people behind us. Meanwhile the fajitas were starting to cool. He brought the tortillas, and left. As we waited without eating, he comes back over and asked if everything was ok. I said I need some plates...he says oh ok, I'll bring you an extra plate..I said no I need TWO plates one for me and one for my guest! Did you just expect her and I to eat in mid air and let the drippings flow onto the table? He finally brings plates...food was good when we finally got to eat it, even lukewarm. I also overheard the ladies behind us telling him he got their change wrong. I sat in silence, wondering if they had a similar experience with the same waiter. After the meal, I did not speak to the manager,as I did not want comps. Mister, if you want better tips, do a better job. 1.68 was too much for your lack luster performance. Did I mention the hostess/host was shooting me dirty looks every time he/she seated someone? I finished my meal and headed for the door...I had to say "see you, thanks a lot" before he would say thx or goodnight or kiss my butt...very indifferent attitude. I have no issues with the transgender community but I do take issue with rudeness and lack of customer service from anyone. Is it so hard to pull yourself away from your phone and do your job as a greeter/host?? Managers need to do a better job with training their employees. There were probably 4 managers seated at a table in the dining area, not ONE asked any of the customers about their meal. I realize people get busy, but our waiter had 4 tables to work a couldn't do it. Please managers,do not patronize me by saying, "we are so sorry you had a bad experience" speech...actions speak louder than words. A lot of restaurants and businesses have went out of business in this town. One would think the Customer service would be top notch but....no...next time I eat out, I'll skip your joint and go somewhere else read more

Delicious food and salsa. The best in the area. I wish we went here first day. The salsa and the guacamole were so yummy. The place was clean and the staff welcoming. They seemed to care and had a cadence to their service. Should be number one in Athens. read more

The service was hands down the best I have ever seen our server Anthony was absolutely amazing very attentive well spoken polite and knowledgeable far beyond expectations well mannered and just hands down the best server I've ever met I have been all across the United states and I am still in shock that this caliber of server was at this restaurant I would have been expecting this service from a restaurant managed by Gordon Ramsey but not Jalapeno tree in Athens Texas if y'all don't do everything you can to keep this gentleman you will lose one of your best assets. read more