El Rey

Just enjoyed a good meal at a local place. Reasonable prices, chimichanga and beef fajitas have good flavor. Queso is decent. Kids burger was actually good as well! Thanks El Rey we will be back

Service was extremely slow, it took 45 minutes plus to get out food, and it was cold when we did get it. Won’t be going back any time soon!

Had a some time to kill in dripping Springs. This place was close by so I stopped in. Service is very good. Food is good. Beer is cheap. I highly approve.

El Rey is your typical Tex Mex — cheese enchiladas, queso, etc. So I’d say overall the food is in the 3 star category. But, they have a few other things which gain them an extra star:
— oysters on the half shell, random for a Tex Mex joint but hubby loves them
— huge drinks with unlimited refills, they’ll even put together a to-​go drink for you when you leave
— Coke, unlike Flores who only serves Pepsi
— friendly service
— better breakfast tacos than Flores, just call in and they’ll have them ready, no crazy traffic situation like Flores
Just don’t come on Friday night when there is a football game — the place is jammed and the service can’t keep up.

The food has been good each time I’ve been, it’s the service that’s been questionable. I’ve had good service here, and pretty poor service here. Recently, my husband and I went for dinner. It was not crowded in the least, but it took serious effort on our part to be waited on, brought more chips and salsa, etc. We had to flag our waitress down each time and ask. No reason for that in a mostly empty restaurant! Prices are good, and like I said, the food has been good each time. We’ll continue to come occasionally, I think, but it won’t be a regular go-​to for us.

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant at first. But it was a surprise. The food was good, staff was on top of it, and the margaritas were strong. Prices were great too. If you’re in the area looking for a place to eat, I’d recommend it. I went on a late Saturday night, it was not busy.

El Rey is a staple in our town. Kind people, great chips and salsa and their specials are usually spot on! My husband loves their menudo and well, their queso and tacos are a huge hit for me! Once in a while they miss the mark with service or menu items but have always accommodated when brought to their attention. Totally recommend.

El Rey catered for our party and the quality was beyond our expectations. The food was delicious and not a morsel was left after the party. The condiments provided was also helpful, salt & pepper along with utensils and napkins. We will continue to used or future events! Thanks El Rey!

The food was delicious! The gorditas are a deal and consistently good, but when I saw I was charged $ 2.50 for a side of avocado (5 tiny slices, maybe a quarter of a small avocado, cost almost as much as the gordita itself!!) after being ignored by the wait staff (no refill on tea or salsa after asking) I don’t think we’ll be coming back for a little while…
Also it was unprofessional for the waitress to be bad mouthing a customer (in spanish) after she left…

Drinks and fatias were very good. Refried beans on the bland side. Bar is very warm in the summer afternoon.

First time to eat at El Rey. Really enjoyed it. Good texmex selections. We had the fish tacos, crispy tacos, sour cream chick enchiladas and queso. It was all really good. Good chips and salsa. Friendly wait staff. A bit on the slow side waiting for food, but not bad. Ambiance is ok but not great. I think it’s a bit better than Flores.

I think El Rey deserves 5 stars for many reasons. The number one reason– consistency. We can always count on friendly service, clean tables and great food. Every once in awhile we are surprised when the restaurant adds tables or new awnings. You can tell that owners have great pride in their establishment.

This is THE best delishishest LOL Mexican food.
Fresh, nothing left from taste buds. Wonderful wait staff.

We thought we would try this place again. Unfortunately, it has not improved. They used to have great homemade chips but not any more. To be fair, these chips were not bad, but the previous chips were awesome. I had a frozen margarita that tasted as if it had no tequila in it. My husband had a top shelf margarita, and it, frankly, tasted awful. My son had a cheeseburger with bacon on it and ended up pulling the bacon off because it tasted bad. The refried rice was not cooked well, as parts of it were tough. The cheese enchiladas and crispy beef taco were good, but you can get good cheese enchiladas and tacos at several places in town where everything else will also be good. Unfortunately, we are taking this restaurant off our list.

We eat at El Rey about once a week, often with a large group. Great marguerites, excellent service and good food. The owner is on site and is nice and makes things run smoothly. Wonderful and friendly staff. My favorite is the grilled fish tacos!

I went there yesterday for the last time. I was the only one in the dining room at around 4 pm. Although there were plenty of personnel walking around, I waited for close to three minutes before a waiter finally came over to take my order. He had been sitting by the cash register doing some kind of paperwork. I ordered my usual, the fried shrimp dinner. When it arrived, the shrimp were a lot smaller than usual and were a very dark color which indicates to me that the oil they were cooked in was old. I had to send the cold toast back twice because they couldn’t get it right. Toast??? I had to ask for butter. It was a completely mediocre dinner, but I was in a hurry to get to Austin so I didn’t bother complaining to the management (plus the fact that I don’t think the management would give a damn, judging from the past; service has always been lousy). I did leave a two dollar tip, although it should have been less.
I’ve decided that from now on, I’ll just cook my own fried shrimp at home. I’m sure it will be light years beyond the crap they serve at El Rey.

First time last Sunday for brunch — moderately busy. Good omelet and taters– toast was dry and very overdone… had to ask for jelly. Wife had the bacon and egg and cheese scramble — and flour tortillas. All was very good except that damn toast. Oh the OJ was not good, coffee was strong and took two creamers to mute.
Yesterday– we both changed up — she got a omelet and I had one too, but with different fillings.
The sausage was eh — not enough cheese — and again with the toast, except this time zero jelly in the house. Who does breakfast all day, every day, and does not have little tubs of Welchs grape??? I mean come on folks… I got the sausage gravy and biscuit this time which was pretty good — not great and not crappy… somewhere in the middle.
Overall service is pleasant and ok — and the location is a little out of the way, but with such limited breakfast options in this part of the Hill Country there isn’t a lot of choices.

I was advised to go visit El Rey by a local group. I had my experience and I’m questioning Drip’s taste buds even more when they give Thyme and Dough excellent reviews for their farm fresh and bakery goods but then at the same time will say El Rey is excellent. While T&D does have excellent food, their prices are insane for a basic sandwich and no side but a thin slice of orange. Then you have El Rey with its boring and drab décor and lack of taste in food. As much as the locals of Drip don’t want it, perhaps we need more restaurants with better food.
I went in during a slow time which should have no excuse for laziness for the cooks in back. I ordered the Tampaquena which is a New York steak, cheese enchilada, guacamole salad with pico, rice and beans. I had ordered this at Flores and wanted to compare. My typical meal at a Tex Mex place is some form of enchiladas just to see if they use a typical gravy or make their own. I got wild with this decision. My plate was to also come with a choice of gravy sauce or verde sauce. I wasn’t given one. Upon my plate’s arrival, I immediately noticed my steak was cooked in a pan, looked slimy and under seasoned. I also noticed my guac was brown. So that’s nice. They could have added some lemon juice to revive it but that was too much of a task I guess. Looked disgusting and it was bland. I took a bite of the steak and was immediately disgusted. No flavor except for this very strong meat flavor of it just about to go bad or they butchered the animal recently and it contained an overpowering taste. Done with that. I moved to the cheese enchilada which didn’t have a gravy sauce nor verde sauce. It was a red sauce. ??? It was extremely bare of cheese, very flat. Cheese wasn’t even oozing out of it to make it flat in the oven. It hardly had any at all. So, I decided maybe I’ll just mix the little bit of red sauce I got with the pico and guac and make my own dish. The refried beans were also boring along with the rice.
Comparing to Flores, they prepare a tenderloin and create perfect grill marks. The meat was so tender, it hardly needed a knife. It was also a thick piece whereas El Rey gave me something the thickness of a #2 pencil. Flores’ enchilada was thick in cheese, typical gravy, pico was excellent but they had forgotten my guac. Fine with that. I’ve had it before and it’s never brown. I swallowed that meal down.
The positive of El Rey is their chips are hot and tasty. Their prices are pretty easy on the wallet but if you want a cheap meal, be prepared to get what you pay for. Some were saying El Rey has excellent breakfast tacos. That’s TBD. Flores always has a line at their taco stand nearby whereas ER hardly had any cars out. They are busy in the evenings though. Not sure if it’s because of live music and karaōke or their drinks.
1 star for cheap prices
1 star for… hmm… at least there was no hair in my food.

Two years in and El Rey has enjoyed more than the average tenure in Drippin’. And as expected denoted by the two star review (which is generous), things have fallen off the taco truck. You have to give them chances because the alternative is the awful and overpriced food over at Flores.
Some overcooked fried shrimp a year or so ago; fine I’ll just avoid that dish on the three page menu. A lousy chili relleno; when can this town get big enough to attract a Chuy’s? Raw oysters served in DS? Ummm, no thanks. I thought I had seen it all until a visit last week with a coworker.
Lets get the service out of the way first; I don’t know if this is her first waitress job but we had to beg for everything. Drink refills, salsa, and chips weren’t abundant by any means. Next, the kitchen seemed to be out of my regular staples. No mole till tomorrow? I realize I’m probably in the DS minority; but El Rey’s recipe is quite flavorfull.
Then, the nail in the piñata. I asked my wife what was the dumbest meat substitution you could ever think of and use it to flavor the charro beans? If you guessed hot dogs, you win the golden tamale award. Friggin’ wieners in the beans FTW; or an imminent sign this place is about to go belly up.
Off to Austin for future Tex-​Mex dining!

Ate at El Rey on Saturday night. The restaurant was clean, the staff was friendly and we were seated very quickly. Well this was because the place was nearly empty. This fact would normally make me very nervous but I wasn’t going to pass judgement without giving them a fair shake. The wait staff was quick and friendly. The chips were a little tough but not terrible. The salsas were good. I got a taco salad and it was really good. I had chicken fajita meat in it and it well seasoned. We were a good size group of 7 and the food was served quickly and correctly. I give them an A-​OK rating.