On the corner of Victory Boulevard and Fallbrook Avenue, located in Woodland Hills, California, is where El Tapatio Mexican restaurant is.
When you walk in the door you are greeted with a big menu above the cash register and an employee waiting for a customer to come in and place an order.
The restaurant is decorated with Mexican paintings and Sombreros hanging from its four walls showing the Mexican culture and heritage. There are also 30 tables with four chairs to each table also decorated with Mexican style paintings. There is a salsa bar in the dining room that gives their customers choices of red or green salsa, limes, chopped fresh onion and cilantro, and grilled jalapenos and onions that they can take to eat with their meal.
The restaurant has about 25 different selections of Mexican dishes all of which comes with sides of beans, rice, sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo, and a small salad which is brought to you with the main course of the meal. They also have assorted Mexican drinks such as Tamarindo, Horchata, other fruit water, and sodas to choose from.
The price is different for each meal. The steak quesadilla meal was valued at $9.00 and it was burrito shaped. It was stuffed with cheddar cheese, steak, rice, and pinto beans.
The food was filling. The quesadilla was flavored with added salt along with all the other ingredients it had inside it. The side dishes were cooked perfectly, as the beans weren’t too soft which indicates it would have been overcooked, and the rice was well steamed with extra ingredients for the flavoring, but the rice was a little bit bland as it didn’t have enough salt, but in the end it balanced out with the main course of the meal.
The salsa from the salsa bar also didn’t have too much flavor or spice to it. A traditional Mexican salsa is usually made spicier, as they like to add extra jalapenos, garlic, and onion to the salsa to give it more flavor.
The experience at El Tapatio was a pleasant one as the employees there were friendly and catered to their customers in a timely manner. They were fast with the orders, and made the customers feel like they were at a traditional restaurant instead of a fast food type of place. They brought the food to the table, and made sure the customers had what was needed to enjoy their meal.
This small but decorated restaurant also caters for special events. They are family friendly, and make their customers feel welcome when they first enter the door. This place is recommended to anyone who is looking for a good authentic Mexican meal, whether it be for catering, take-out, or dine-in.
El Tapatio Restaurant is located at 22806 Victory Boulevard, Woodland Hills, California, 91367. They are open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The meals range from just under $6 to over $10.
For catering service call (818) 883-6142.
