Recommends

gigipri

Joined 4 years ago

finally a real Mexican restaurant. I really like their food! This is an unpretentious (yet real) Mexican restaurant. Almost a must for lunch (or dinner) for friends. We need more places like this and less fake burrito chains like Chipotle!

Recommends

wildfl0wer

Joined 4 years ago

EXCELLENT place for lunch!. I go here for lunch sometimes with fellow co-workers. It has the best Mexican food in the area and is very reasonably priced as well. The portions are large and you usually can't finish everything. The shrimp quesadilla is AMAZING and their lunch specials are great too! Come here for lunch if you want a change of pace from the usual fast food, lunch truck etc. Eat in or take out, you can't go wrong! They recently got a liquor lisense and serve some Mexican and domestic beers too!

Recommends

Saucylatina

Joined 5 years ago

Choose the right time of day.. I have been going to Azteca for over 8 years or so and maybe its because I'm friendly to the waiters/waitresses but I have never had an issue with either. After our first few visits we stopped ordering appetizers because our entrees would come out so fast. So 8 years later we still just enjoy the warm chips and spicy salsa while we wait for our food. The portions have been reduced recently and at first I was miffed, but its still more than enough to satisfy my hunger. The atmosphere has changed as well for the worse because people don't know how to hold their liquor....maybe the waiters/waitresses have preconceived notions of their clientele and assume that anyone under 30 will be obnoxious. Is this a wrong assumption to have when you run a business.... but I will admit that I won't set foot into Azteca after 7 on any given day because I worry it will be overrun with college kids that think its cool to have 6 bottles of Tequila on their table.

My endnote is that it may not be the best Mexican restaurant out there, but its certainly pretty authentic, friendly and consistent. I recommend you visit them earlier in the day so that you can have their undivided attention and really evaluate the place when its not hectic like on a Saturday at 9PM. I'd love to heasr if your experience is any different under these circumstances.

Recommends

sonrisa35

Joined 5 years ago

Truly authentic Mexican food. I have been going to this restaurant for years and thoroughly enjoy it. It has the best Mexican food around and the service is always great with friendly waiters and waitresses who make you feel at home. I used to bring my Spanish students there year after year for an end of the year party. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who loves authentic Mexican food. It is very flavorful, lots of it and reasonably priced. We always are seated promptly and served quickly. It is one of my favorite places to go.

Recommends

ajt141

Joined 9 years ago

One of the best Mexican restaurants in Philadelphia. I'm a regular at El Azteca. I've eaten there far too many times to count, and everyone I've brought with me has enjoyed it immensely. I honestly have no idea where some of these bad reviews are coming from. I have never had a bad experience. Everytime I go there, my expectations are exceeded. The food is great, the service is speedy and efficiant. Oh well, to each his own.

Doesn't Recommend

dtc125

Joined 5 years ago

An hour and $50 down the tubes. This experience was absolutely a joke from start to finish and I would not feed this food to my dog! It was the most disgusting pile of neauseating mush I have ever seen in my life when the plates arrived. Now when you add rude waiters and horrible service to all this, you can see why when I walked out I felt like I had just been robbed!! What a horrible experience. And if thats not enough we were both sick all night once we got home. Please avoid this restaurant, It needs to be shut down. And I would like to agree with the person who said the owner must be writing GOOD reviews himselp to mix in with all the bad ones.

Recommends

cvfilter

Joined 10 years ago

real mexican. I love that this place is what I've always known a Mexican restaurant to be: great food; casual atmosphere, and cheap. Their chips area nice & hot, the salsa has the right amount of kick to it, and their fried chicken chimichangas are fantastic... I always go for the lime margarita mix, too - the others are nice, but this is what tequila was made to be mixed with. It's like a Mexican restaurant in the South is like - good.

Recommends

tjrad01

Joined 5 years ago

Decent food, ok service rather loud. While the food is always decent to good the atmosphere has gone down. It?s loud and uncomfortable to be in. Prices are good and food seems fairly fresh but the service is sketchy and unpredictable.

Doesn't Recommend

beechnut

Joined 5 years ago

A Nightmare, literally.. El Azteca used to be great. the food was awesome and fast and cheap. But then college aged kids realized they could drink there underaged and the restaurant got busted. it was great that it finally got busted because nothing was more annoying then sitting next to a bunch of drunk kids who think its ok to scream and get dangerously drunk. Not to mention, they made it hard for anyone else to get a table because they would take up the entire place and eat the free chips and salsa and drink margarita's all night long. Since then, the restaurant has changed its food and prices to avoid the college kids who take over on the weekends. The food is plain awful, now. We ordered a meat and cheese appetizer and were served melted American cheese with manwich mixed in! Also, and this might just be a coincidence, but everyone who i went with me to el Azteca last time, all had very vivid nightmares that night, could it have been the food? I don't know what worse though, getting nightmares from horrible food, or putting up with drunk, annoying college kids while eating great food....... Long story short, not worth it. Try El Vez, El Fuego or El Jarocha (in south philly).

Recommends

dafoodcritic

Joined 5 years ago

top mexican food restaurant on my book!!. i highly recommend this place, you are looking for great ,tasty, and cheap, mexican food on center city philadelphia, el azteca its the right place,before i went to this restaurant i read reviews about this place, a lil concern about the reviews i took my chances, but i came out totally satisfied,the service was great,i have gone to some other mexican restaurants, and i highly consider this place as one of the top mexican food restaurants in philadelphia,the best part it is that my fiance loved the food,and i told her i knew this place for years ; )