Original Mexican Restaurant

So I started off with the salsa, spicy and tomato based. My margarita was good. I had the strawberry margarita, the strawberries helped take away some of the bite from the actual margarita. I had the bacon wrapped chicken. I forget what the name of it was, but the chicken was tender and it was stuffed with something nice. For dessert, I had the sopapillas. They were light and fluffy, and perfect when you have them with honey. So i recommend this place if you want to have a nice relaxing dinner by the river. more

Everything was excellent. Will definitely come back. We are from Houston. Thank you. more

food #1, Waiter #2 more

The service was excellent from start to finish! Great food more

the good service and size of platter more

It was surprisingly awesome!!! more

The service and server were very good more

the portions were huge and I liked the band. Pros: I liked the band. Cons: . more

Really appreciated the fan. Enjoyed the Mariachi. more

Negative Stars_The quality of the food is terrible. The refried beans were cold and looked like they were plopped on the plate straight from the can; no flavor whatsoever. The enchiladas were filled with ground beef (only) that had no flavoring except from the grease from a big pile of cheddar cheese melted over the soggy tortillas. The mexican rice was swimming in orange grease. We were very hungry but left most of our food on our plate and just ate the chips. What a waste of money. They should be embarrassed to serve this crap! Worst mexican food ever!! Pros: none Cons: horrible food more

The wait was long. The mariachi band asked my friend's toddler daughter if she wanted to hear the chicken dance and then charged my friend $8 for the song. We were seated at the very back room of the restaurant, we called it the dungeon. The chips were hard as rock. The food was NOT good at all. The service was horrible. The tortillas were in all different shapes and sizes. Everything was horrible!!! How did this restaurant end up on the Riverwalk of all places?!?!? We expected the "Original" restaurant to have good Mexican food. Never AGAIN!!! Pros: good pina colada and fajitas Cons: everything else SUCKED!!!! more

stupid gringos eat here. Pros: there is a sucker born every minute Cons: keeps gringos women out of visibility more

I'm not sure how in San Antonio TX of all places, I managed to pick the worst Mexican restaurant I've ever been to, but I did it. We'd been tubing on the river all day so I was dehydrated and hungry. We get sitting at this place and wait for about 5 minutes for someone to take our drink order. All we did was order 2 waters, but 10 minutes later we still had nothing. I'm so thirsty by this point I grab another waiter and ask him to bring some water, he does, and then about 3-4 minutes later, our waiter finally shows up with water. I knew right then this was not going to go well. We then order food, I got beef fajitas and my wife got some enchiladas. We had drained our water already so we asked for more. The guy comes back with a pitcher and refilled her glass, and it was empty, we're so thirsty that I tell him 'Hey, you could leave a pitcher here with us' so he obliges us - he leaves the EMPTY PITCHER ON THE TABLE. Honestly, did he really think I meant that I was so thirsty, he could just leave the empty pitcher on the table? WTF? I caught him again and was a little more specific this time, and got a pitcher of water. The food was terrible. Literally, BY FAR the worst Mexican food I have EVER eaten, ANYWHERE. I've had better Mexican food in Ohio. If we weren't both starving, we would have just left. Not only was it bad, but everything was way overpriced for the quality. My wife's margarita was $16? are you kidding? The drinks weren't even any good, as we did not even finish those. Just a terrible experience, please avoid this place at all costs, there are plenty of good places around there to go to instead. Pros: On the Riverwalk Cons: Terrible food, terrible service, way overpriced more

One might think that since this restaurant has been here since the 60s, it must have something to offer. My first experience eating there was in the 70s. I didn't realize how bad it was. I returned 20 or more times in the eighties...cuz that's where tourists wanted to go. Each time I would warn them...each time they would end up trusting me from then on. I tried twice in the 90s, hoping that they had made some changes to keep profitable. Was I ever wrong. Even went in the new millenium to please the in-laws. Today, I have our best friends from Canada in and they wanted to go. I am making a stand. Friends don't let friends eat garbage served by rude people. Pros: Great Propaganda Cons: Food, Service, Price more

If there were a way to give this place a half star or no star, I would. We experienced awful service (our waitress insisted that we had to pay for salsa and chips though it was clear we didn't, and she was absent despite the restaurant having only a couple tables-came by pretty quickly for the check though.) I'm not one of those "seating snobs", but when the restaurant is mostly empty and you seat people waaay in the back literally a table away from where the busboys and waitstaff are folding napkins and silverware....well, that's not good. My family would be able to overlook these things (especially the relatively minor seating issue) if the food was good. It wasn't. It was mediocre-My flautas were stale and it was clear they've been left out for a while for whatever reason. Other items ordered were just bad. We would not go there again. Please, there are literally dozens of other places to eat on the Riverwalk do *not* go here. It's a waste of your hard-earned money. more

What an AWFUL service!!!!! Forget that, what a waste of time and money!!! First of all, those people don't know how to treat a customer, perhaps the lack of experience. What caught my attention of this place is the appearance, but then again apperances can be decieving. I had two waiters, because the first one was extremely rude, as far as taking my order, I requested to speak to the manager to replace my waiter (what an airhead). The new waiter was not much of a difference. . The food arrived 35 MINUTES LATER!!! My tea, tasted like the water was taken from the river itself the beans were dry and the rice was tasteless...DON'T GO THERE ITS A DISGRACE TO MY TEX-MEX FOOD!! more

If you eat here you will love it. I think anyone who ate here will come back again and again...I think the bad reviews are from people who must have eaten at RIO RIO next door and saw the Original sign on the way out.. The food is always damn good and the service is amazing considering how busy the place is. the charro beans are killer. Pros: delicious and quick Cons: can be a little crowded more

If I were taken to this restaurant by a guest, I would actually pay money not to eat here. This has to be the worst restaurant in the entire world. The chips taste like cardboard and the salsa tastes like grocery store version bought in a five gallon jug. The quesadillas looked like they were made 3 weeks ago. They were served cold, and soggy. The only thing good about the chicken burrito was that you can't see what's inside (just close your eyes and take a bite). Overall, the food isn't worth $0.01. Stay away at all costs. Pros: Nothing Cons: Everything more

A few girlfriends and I arrived around 5pm on a Saturday evening. We were surprised to see that there was no wait. We were seated promptly upon asking for a table. Drinks did not arrive for about 8-9 minutes (tea, which tasted like it had been sitting all day). The chips were cold and the salsa tasted like a generic version of a popular picante sauce sold in grocery stores. I ordered a taco salad, two friends had a combination type dinner of enchiladas, and one ordered quesadillas. The shell of my taco salad reeked of fish, and the meat was very fatty. My friend's cheese enchiladas were rubbery and far from fresh. The cheese inside them was not melted at all, in fact it was cold. The "guacamole" was not even edible. My friend that had the cold, rubber cheese enchilada sent her meal back. The waiter did not ask what was wrong, apologize, or seem the slightest bit concerned. No manager stopped by our table to apologize about the food, or to attemp to even remedy the situation. Needless to say, we all left hungry, and unimpressed. Pros: Ambience, location Cons: food, service more

Having read the terrible reviews on this site, we were naturally scared to death at having been forced to schedule a very important group of company VIPs one recent evening. A fact-finding lunch visit calmed our nerves. We found both the food and the service to be excellent. Our hostess was not shy about confirming the fact that various problems in the past had plagued the restaurant, from harried staff to mediocre food. It's obvious that a lot of hard work has been done. From our lunch to the evening dinner for our group of 30, the food was fantastic - I especially loved the over-stuffed chicken and beef quesadillas. We had a choice of either the "Fiesta" sampler dinner plate or the fajita sampler (which contained both beef and chicken fajitas). The food was great and very plentiful. This is a place that has overcome some serious past problems and deserves another chance. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Pros: Food, Riverwalk location more