Taqueria La Parrilla

In 15 years of coming to Athens on business I’ve eaten lunch here no fewer than 100 times — and I’ve never had a bad experience. The food is fast, hot, and tasty. There may be trendier Hispanic restaurants in town, but you won’t find a better lunch spot than this.

Oh, La Parilla. There are so many tasty items on the menu. The fish tacos, enchiladas, veggie quesadilla, fajitas, and of course the rest of the usual Mexican fare. Everything I have tried is yummy.
I always get the fajita nachos with chicken. It’s an appetizer but it’s big enough for two people to eat as a meal. Or one person to eat when one is very hungry as I was tonight. I like to get a side of fresh jalapeños to spice things up.
One of the best things about La Parilla is that the service is extraordinarily fast. I often go during a lunch break. You can usually get in and out in under 30 minutes if you already know what you want to order.
If you want a drink, there are several flavors of margarita, but they also have a variety of other tropical drinks like piña colada and daiquiris. Pair that up with your meal and you’re all set.

It’s pretty good food. I’m not sure is necessarily unique, but the service is good and you’ll have a good experience!

The food here is pretty horrible. In fact, I think the only people who really love to eat here are white people who don’t know better. The salsa is basically tomato water (that looks as if it comes from a can). As for my meal, the enchilladas literally tasted like those I used to eat as a kid in TV dinners (not a good thing). Plus, the cooking technique on it was horrible (super loose). There was no flavor to the beans. The relleno I had was oily and soggy. As for the tamales I tried, it was rendered into a hard dough with no moisture. The service was wonderful, which is why I give it two stars, but the food here is pretty lousy. And, for the record, any place that calls it cheese dip (instead of queso) is basically going to give you… cheese dip-​quality food.

This place is definitely a crowd pleaser for the type of person looking for the best version of the mediocre Americanized Mexican restaurant they grew up eating at cause they didn’t know any better. Sometimes I fall into that category, and this place is just fine for that type of nostalgia. there are thousands of places just like it all over the southeast, and the food is pretty good for when you just want some form of meat on some form of tortilla with lots of cheese. The service is always outstanding., and the margaritas are good. The food is just pretty boring and bland. If you really like Mexican food, go to El Tlaloc.

La Parrilla is so far the most unimpressive Mexican restaurant I’ve been to in Athens. The food is bland and lacking severely in the herb and spice department. Their salsa is easily the worst I’ve ever had.
The rave reviews for this place kind of shocked me. If you’ve ever been to Sr. Sol or Tlaloc or even Calientitos this place will really, really let you down. This place is an embarrassment to the Mexican food scene in Athens.
Chipotle, Barberitos, and Moes all have better burritos and salsa than this place so the problem isn’t authenticity it is quality. I just don’t see how anyone could say this is good Mexican food if they’ve tried literally any of the other local Mexican, Mexican/​American joints in Athens.
«I wish I had four hands.»

One of the best Mexican restaurants in Athens. Their veggie quesadilla is delicious with huge pieces of identifiable vegetables! Who would have thought? The WOW Boot Camp healthy menu options are also really good. The fish tacos are really good too, just make sure you ask for the fish grilled and the mayo stuff on the side. The cheese dip is baller, as well. And it’s super cheap!

I have no idea why people would come here to eat Mexican food when you have places like Sr Sol or Agua Linda in Athens. Man, even Moe’s Southwest Grill is better than this (and I did NOT review that place well)!
The servers are very nice and the food comes out quickly but the quality of the food and the taste is just not comparable!
The house salsa is essentially canned tomatoes in a bowl with some salt. No acidity, no spice, no sweetness, no smokiness, no herbaceous notes, nada! Terrible. Their chips were stale when I went there on a Sunday night for dinner. No bueno! I asked them for their spicy salsa to dip my stale chips into and they brought me a spicy ketchup (or at least that’s what it tasted like). This just meant that I didn’t fill up on stuff before my meal, which would be good if the meal was worth it.
I ordered a burrito with marinated pork and subbed rice in there for the beans and lettuce. Well, there were hardly any bits of meat in there and those that were were pretty much charred beyond recognition! There were some gristly pieces formerly known as pork but overall, the burrito was a huge disappointment! The whole filling to tortilla ratio was off too so I ended up eating what I could from the inside and left about half the 12″ tortilla behind on my plate. The rice was greasy and not very flavorful but I was hungry so I ate it.
My friend enjoyed her fish tacos though. I don’t think I would go back there, especially since this location is really out of the way for me. I’m sure they have menu items that are better but my experience was enough of a deterrent to keep me away.

In one of my earliest Unilocal reviews (below), I slapped five stars on Taqueria La Parrilla. That was being overly generous, and it reflected not only a need to recalibrate my Unilocal ratings but also hometown nostalgia for this place and a state of annoyance over the absence of good Mexican food in the town where I live now.
That said, La Parrilla remains a solid combo-​plate Mexican option with a decent list of authentic Mexican items thrown in. The food might actually have slipped a notch in the past few years, and it looks like the prices have gone up a bit.
Anyway, Taqueria La Parrilla is still a decent, crowd-​pleasing choice.

I have tried almost every Mexican restaurant in Athens and there is only one that I frequented on a weekly basis — La Parrilla. After two years of bad taco after poor service, I finally found this gem and I’m not cheese-​dip-​happy when I say that it made my Athens experience all the better. The service is wonderful, with the exception of the ladies who stand behind the registers, but that is reasonable considering their position. Every waiter I had welcomed me without overwhelming me, cracked jokes or casually commented on the football (American or European) games, allowing me to enjoy the excellent food offered (at equally amazing prices). I never left unsatisfied. It is the best Mexican restaurant I’ve ever experienced. I always ordered Combo #18. I love La Parrilla, obviously.

The quality of the food at La Parrilla is generally a big step up from most of the cheap junk that’s served at any number of fancy-​logo Mexican restaurants that might even have a more recognized name.
Their Mexican Tacos with carnitas (made with soft corn tortillas) are some of the best tacos I have ever tasted, and their tamales are excellent, as well. The cheese dip is very good, and certainly a step above what you’ll get anywhere else in Athens.
The Enchiladas Mexicanas are very good, but can be a little heavy if you’re in the mood for something light.
Overall, I’m not a big fan of Mexican food, mostly because the stuff you get in any number of Mexican restaurants is of poor quality, designed to be cheap sustenance to chase a margarita. La Parrilla is a restaurant that actually cares about its food, however, and it shows. I’m sure it’s not «Authentic Mexican,» whatever that means (there are lots of types of regional Mexican cuisines), but as far as American-​Mexican food goes, it’s some of the best I’ve ever had.

It really shocks me that anyone would have a bad experience with the service here. Yes, the food is good. Yes, the food is cheap. But, in my opinion, what makes La Parilla so great is the people who work there.
I can’t even remember a time when I had average service (considering I have been going there pretty much every week since it was the tiny place on the end, that’s pretty good service). Everyone is incredibly friendly and overly helpful. If you’re a regular, you’ll find yourself friends with everyone before long.

Day 13 without Aveeno Intense Relief Medicated Therapy lip balm:
I’ve been to La Parilla twice now, convinced to stray from my usual Mexican favorites by two seemingly trustworthy friends. The first time I ordered a chicken taco with Mexican sauce and a shrimp burrito sans jalapenos. Both were bland, and the only thing that salvaged the experience was the cheese dip, the ubiquitous staple of Tex-​Mex establishments.
The last time I went to La Parilla, I ordered the Vegetarian plate #3, which came with a bean burrito, cheese quesadilla, and bean taco. The taco never arrived, and neither did a refill for my water. Again, the food was bland, and only the cheese dip saved the day.
Maybe my experiences at La Parilla are atypical. Regardless, I don’t think I’ll ever go back… even if my friends begged me. Or if my own mother begged me. Or if Jared Leto begged me. And that’s pretty serious, people.

The Taqueria La Parrilla profile on Unilocal is exactly why you just can’t always trust these websites… I went there on several local’s recommendations (which were confirmed by Unilocal) and found it to be a complete waste of time. It was typical american style mexican food. Greasy, canned, frozen, and mostly gross. The service was okay. We had to send back a couple glasses because of dirtiness. We waited a looong time on a Friday night for a table.
I realize that this is a small town and there won’t be many great choices in ethnic food. However, I found this place to be worse than I had imagined and totally not worth the money we paid. The only thing I have to compare to in Athens is Agua Linda which, while not fantastic, had better seasoning, service and fresher food.

This has quickly become my favorite Mexican Restaurant in a city with lots of good choices. There are three reasons: the food is delicious, the service is great and the prices can’t be beat.
The menu at La Parilla is larger than other Athens Mexican restaurants and they seem to offer a more diverse menu. I’ve had their nachos, burritos, fajita’s and a few of the combinations since it opened and have never once been disappointed.
The service here is remarkable. They do a great job of keeping your drink glasses full, chips and salsa flowing and get the food out very quickly.
Everything on the Menu is around $ 10 and the combination plates run around $ 7. My friends swear by the cheap and strong frozen margarita’s too.
This is now the Go-​To spot for Mexican in Athens.

Second time at Taqueria La Parrilla was just as good as the first, so I’m raising my review by a star. The tamales (pork) are the best and are worth the visit by themselves. Definitely consistent with my first experience, which makes me likely to come back!

I promised I would re-​evaluate after making some memories at Taqueria La Parilla, and nearly a year after my first visit, here I am giving them a well deserved five stars. In the past 10 months, Taqueria has:
–Hosted many birthdays and always sang to the birthday celebrator and made them wear the goofy sombrero.
–Provided untold hangovers from their potent and downright cheap margaritas.
–Accommodated my big extended family for lunch after my graduation from UGA.
–And most importantly, kept the huge diet cokes and baskets of perfectly warmed chips flowing.
5 stars, Taqueria La Parilla. I will miss you indeed.

Oh taqueria *heart*
Wherever I’m living, I NEED to have a nearby dirt cheap Mexican place. And I mean the kind that shamelessly serves those taco-​burrito-​rice-​and-​beans lunch combinations and frozen margaritas from a slushie machine and doesn’t care if your pretentious ass thinks their not authentic enough!!! Oh yes, and taqueria was it for Athens.
Come to think of it, Taqueria is probably the only place I’ve ever patronized both drunk and hung over. And in case you were wondering, the best way to cure a hangover is DEFINITELY cheese dip.
How I miss you taqueria :(Please open up a location in Atlanta…

I wish I had known about this place sooner.
Life in Athens without Taqueria La Parilla was empty. This place made me complete. My life has improved drastically since I started dining regularly at La Parilla. I drive about a twice a week all the way around Athens past multiple Mexican restaurants to visit La Parilla. It is literally one of the best restaurants I have ever been to.
Where to start? They simply do not do anything wrong. La Parilla is exactly what it is supposed to be. It is the perfect Mexican Restaurant. There are millions of places like this around the nation, but I highly doubt any are as good as this place.
The prices are so low it is comical. My girlfriend and I go in, get chip, salsa, water, and ala carte items and escape paying under $ 6 for dinner. I almost feel guilty and always leave a disproportionately large tip. If you want Margaritas it is obviously more expensive, but they are some of the best Margaritas I have ever had.
The service is incredible. I regularly order my food and am almost offended when it arrives at my table three minutes later. It is almost like they know I am coming and start cooking for me before I am even seated. The staff seem to all be professionally trained. I have been dozens of times and have literally never had a bad experience. They are all extremely friendly and remember us by name.
It is a popular Athens destination for a diverse crowd. Everybody seems to agree that La Parilla is a great place. It is always crowded but they do an amazing job of finding everybody a table and the crowds never affect the service.
I cannot say enough about La Parilla. Go for yourself, you will find yourself going back again and again.
My only complaint is that the parking lot out front is ALWAYS mysteriously full. It is one of the strangest things I have ever seen.
La Parilla! Ariba!

As a loyal Taqueria customer I would be shocked and offended if I weren’t the first to review such a staple part of my everyday Athens life.
How many times has Taqueria rescued me from a shaky, hungover stupor? Can I even count? Was mankind ever meant to know? Probably more times than any one man should ever be in a shaky, hungover stupor to begin with.
Spend like 3 – 7 bucks on a couple a la carte items, and you wont be left hungry. Especially after bowl after bowl of crispy chips and salsa.
Sure, its like Mexican food staple, but when these chips come out warm, your mouth melts upon contact. Jaw muscles lose control. Food literally falls back out sometimes.
P. S. thats not exaggeration.