If there was one type of food I could eat for the rest of my life it would be Mexican. While I grew up on the chain-restaurant style dishes, almost always covered in cheese with sides of rice and beans, I’ve tried to expand my palate a bit more trying dishes I’m not familiar with. But sometimes you just have a craving for what you remember and El Charro hit the spot.

Aesthetically, El Charro is modern with their bar serving as their main focal point, but somewhat lacking in character. There are booths on the left and right walls and a fair amount of table seating between them with the bar also able to seat six. Even with a decent amount of tables the space feels too open and not very intimate.

With any Mexican restaurant, what will often make or break them is the chips and salsa. I’m the type of person that sometimes just wants to go and order something small so I don’t feel guilty about how much free chips and salsa I want to eat. The tortilla chips here had a nice crunch and were fried well but the salsa could have been better. A bit too liquidy and had a taste of either too much oregano or cumin. I will say though that I did finish my basket of chips and salsa (5/10).

I hadn’t planned on getting anything to drink but when I was being led to my table I noticed another customer had ordered a margarita flight and knew I had to try one ($15.00). I have no clue if they shared with the other person at their table but for its price and how much drink you get I would recommend doing just that. From left to right the flavors are Cucumber-Jalapeño, Mango, Watermelon, and Pineapple. The flight also comes with a shot of tequila with a slice of orange and lime and salt and tajin.

The cucumber-jalapeño, which ended up being my favorite, balanced the heat from the pepper with the cool freshness from the cucumber. I could see myself ordering a regular-sized one of these. The mango was a bit too sweet and didn’t taste much like fresh mango. The watermelon flavor wasn’t very strong but was nice. Finally, the pineapple had some of the freshness as the cucumber but a bit of the acidity that you’d normally get from pineapple. For the price, I wouldn’t get it again unless I was with someone but I enjoyed it (6.5/10).

I decided to also get an order of queso while I waited on my lunch. Luckily they have small and regular sizes so I went with the small for $3.99. You can’t ever go wrong with queso. A little runny when hot but thickens as it cools down. A small amount of kick from peppers but not too spicy (5/10).

For my main meal, I went with the Enchiladas Rancheras which are two cheese enchiladas topped in ranchera sauce, shredded pork, and cheese with a side of lettuce, guacamole, and rice ($11.99). The pork was tender, falling apart with a fork, the ranchera sauce had a nice smokey flavor from what I assume was chipotle pepper and the enchiladas were decent but the tortillas were a bit chewy. With the sides, the guacamole was nice and creamy with some crunch from the onion and peppers, the lettuce really didn’t serve much of a point other than an optional bit of crunch to go with a bite of enchilada, and finally, the rice was fluffy though not much of a tomato flavor to it. Overall, the dish was filling with the pork being the best part (5.5/10).

Trying to explain places like this is difficult. Will it be the best Mexican meal you’ll ever have? No. But it’s a good place to get a drink, eat some chips and salsa, and have some good comfort food. I’m happy that I live pretty close to El Charro because it’ll probably be the place that I go to when I’m wanting to just enjoy a meal.