El Norteno Mexican Restaurant

Great lunch specials. I like the chicken nachos or the chimichanga.
The staff has always been friendly.
This is one of the restaurants that make me love my neighborhood.

The best Mexican food. PERIOD… Great service!

Correction: Everything is not served family style here. When you walk in, there’s a poster to your left mentioning family style options and no menu above the cashier. Thus, I assumed that’s all you got. This is not the case. There actually is a full menu and it’s pretty good. Today, I had the chimichanga with chicken and it was delicious. Solid deal, too — a big chimichange, lots of rice or breans and a drink, all for $ 5.99.

Visited there for lunch two days ago. The salsa was from a jar, the chips were fresh. We ordered the shrimp fajita and taco salad. YUCK!!! The food from the meal was OLD, clearly left over from the night before. The shrimp was hard =, the veges were greasy and clearly had been heated multiple times, the rice had hardness of being in the refrigerator too long. I was nauseous when I left this place. I will not be returning.

Mal servicio cuando ordenas para llevar nunca tienen platos ni cubiertos para llevar, HORRRIBLE

This is close to my office and everything on the menu is out of this world. No frills décor, but always clean and the food and service are by far one of the best I have eaten around here. They are known for their grilled chicken which is really good, but I have eaten anything from tacos, burritos and authentic mexican dishes and everything is exceptional.

I was running late to take my lunch and needed someplace close so I could get back for a meeting. I’ve been passing this place on a daily basis & wanted to try it so today seemed as good as any. This place is located directly on Jimmy Carter Blvd. That usually means dicey parking but this place has a pretty big parking lot. Heading in there’s not a lot to look at décor wise, old tables & chairs & no frills anywhere. This seems like a local hangout and the regulars seem to love it.
With Univision blaring away tuned to the Spanish version of Maury [“usted no es le pardre!”] I checked out the menu & decided on the Chimichanga Beans and Rice with a drink. Since this was a lunch special I figured it would be a small plate. I was really surprised that they brought me a dinner sized portion. The food was fresh with lot’s of bite it’s the kind of authentic flavor you don’t get at Frontara or On the Border. The salsa bar it nice with six different types of salsa with onions, lime, cilantro, etc. So all of this for $ 5.29 to say that I was happy and full is an understatement and makes for a good way to start off my weekend.
Before I left Spanish Maury went off and a soap opera came on, these soaps are nuts with a woman seeing her dead husband everywhere & the bed is speaking to her in the voice of her dead husband. If all my children has more of that they’d still be on the air :)
With the price, location & taste this might be a definite stop for lunch.

My wife and I stopped by here one day for some lunch. We pass by it on our way to church and had always wanted to try it. The atmosphere is so so. But the first thing you notice is the taco bar in the middle of the restaurant. They have a a green salsa that may be a tomatillo salsa that is probably the best I ever had. We ordered some nachos that were big enough for two. Some really really good nachos and I think for around $ 8.

It’s been a long time since I’ve noshed as El Norteno, but it never lets me down. OK, I’ve never eaten at THIS location, but I spent many a lunch hour at its sister in Smyrna and the family resemblance is strong. After looking in vain for furniture in Norcross, I took the wife here. «This place?» she asked. «In an old Pizza Hut?» C’mon, baby, I know you know better than to judge a book by its cover; that’s how we ended up married and not with you, oh, walking away, shaking your head in disgust. It took years of me farting in bed for you to finally do that.
Ah, but it only takes one taste of their salsa bar to win over the skeptical. Six different salsas, chopped onions and all the cilantro you can handle are on that salsa bar. The chicken was smoky and juicy, its skin crisp. It truly tastes like someone just pulled it off of some MacGyvered oil drum rig split in half and topped with charcoal and smoldering wood. Believe me when I say that that’s a compliment, especially considering how many meat products I’ve consumed that were freshly pulled off of yon hypothetical oil drum rig.
My wife only ordered a taco and a quesadilla, but enjoyed them nonetheless. She was also surprised that they’d managed to transform the interior to resemble nothing like its Pizza Hut exterior. She was less surprised that everyone tried to speak Spanish to me since, what with my dark hair and swarthy skin, it happens to me all the time. No worries, though, with the simple response of «Uh.» everyone within easily switched to English (though I can read in their faces that they’re thinking, «I can’t believe this sell-​out doesn’t know any of his Mother tongue,» which in reality would be Tagalog, but they’d actually be right because I think I actually know more Spanish than I do Tagalog. Sell out.)

I’m really surprised this place didn’t have reviews for the Jimmy Carter location yet. This place was fantastic. Went there this week during a taco craving on the way home from lunch time errands. On the outside, it didn’t look open because we went in as lunch was just starting on a rainy day but when we got inside it was colorful and the staff was friendly.
Driving up we noticed that the old El Norteno sign had been replaced with a newer one, Pollo Norteno, so I’m not sure if it was just a name change or if it was bought out because the name has changed also at the Windy Hill and Buford Hwy locations.
We got chips from the salsa bar and tried out all the choices (including a delicious green cucumber one that cools off the spicy of the others) while looking over the menu. The lunch menu prices are great, around 4 or 5 dollars. Despite my taco craving, I decided on the chicken chimichanga because it sounded good and I try to get what a restaurant specializes in on my first visit there (i.e. chicken at a place with Pollo in the name). My lunch date had the same. He was facing the kitchen and was mumbling «that CAN’T be ours, there’s so much!» and then it came to the table. I couldn’t believe how full the plate was for $ 5…and the smell when I cut it open? Wow. That yummy grilled smell that takes you back to childhood summers.
When they brought out the bill, they gave us sopapillas. Free dessert? Thanks!
There was so much food that I took half of it home and had it for lunch the next day and it was just as great as leftovers.
They also do family style dinners which other people have mentioned for the other locations so I look forward to taking my kid/​family for that.
I can’t wait to go back. I think it may be one of my favorite mex places now. And as a sidenote, my companion was in love with it as much as I was.