Sarah R.

I had been the El Patio's old location just a couple blocks east, but hadn't tried their new and updated spot. So I gave it a whirl for dinner last night. The location is much nicer than their last, a long narrow interior with a partially open kitchen and a full bar with tequila flights on the menu. It's definitely a nice looking place on the inside and doesn't have the cleaning chemical odor of their last location. The food, however, is majorly lacking. I ordered fajitas and when they order came out within 3-4 minutes after ordering, I was happy with the promptness. But after looking at my food, I could see why it was so quick. The onions and peppers were barely cooked and lacked any kind of seasoning. They also tossed broccoli into the fajita blend, which isn't exactly my idea of Mexican food. On top of that, the accompanying plate of beans and rice was supposed to include guacamole. But there was only about two teaspoons of guac, which was enough for one fajita. I paid $11.99 for an order of severely lacking veggie fajitas. This same order runs $9.99 at Cancun, another Mexican restaurant in town, which uses lots of quality veggies and seasoning and makes delicious fajitas. The chips and salsa at El Patio are also not very good. I love chips and salsa, but wasn't too interested in eating these. The waitstaff was so-so. We had two servers. The female server was very nice and friendly. The male server was impatient and kept coming back to our table every few minutes to advance us along and get us out the door when the place wasn't busy. I wanted to give the new location a try, but I won't be going back. I love that they are downtown, but it's not worth it. There are a lot of Mexican restaurants in Eau Claire and all have better food.