Chapala Restaurant

It’s another dive in Burtonsville. I haven’t eaten at the place, and I don’t think I will, but their take out is pretty good. The food tastes good, and the staff is good. The 20 minutes I’ve spent waiting for my food the two times I was there were painful. The clientele is terrible. Mostly townies looking for a place where they can yell at the TV and be generally obnoxious and annoying.
If you’re looking for decent Mexican food, I wouldn’t stop you from ordering take out at Chapala. If you’re looking for a place to hang out and you’re not a BVill-​an, stay away.

Amazing. Never disappointed. My family goes every Christmas Eve and have for the past 10 years. Margaritas are always phenomenal and I’ve never had any Tex mex food taste this amazing. Tastes like family recipes.

Has really good corn tamales! The shrimp plate that I got was not the biggest size it is defiantly not really for sharing if your gonna get it to go. The place is open late compared to all the things around the area. It is not the best but I did enjoy it.

The food tastes authentic and fresh. Putting up with the environment is definitely worth waiting on the food (if ordering in the bar area).
The restaurant area is spacious, quiet, and relaxing. It is a world apart from the bar.
Overall, I would definitely go back and based on what I ordered, I am eager to try other selections on the menu.
They also have great drink specials to enjoy while you wait, or dine in.
The bar area also hosts a live D.J.
With full size servings, rich flavor, bold tastes, this local restaurant/​bar leaves a desire to want more Chapala.

Love this place! I’ve been coming here for over 10 years (since I was a kid). Staff is very friendly and attentive. The food is delicious and by far is better than your Uncle Julio’s and Guapo’s. Chapels deserves more than a five star rating!

My boyfriend and I were craving nachos so we came to the bar area to eat. We ordered the ground beef nachos and the sangrita margarita and the rum sangria combo. The drinks were delicious. The rum drink came with coconut rum which I wasn’t expecting but it was still good. The nachos came without the ground beef and when we asked for it we got a plate of grilled beef. It was still very good. We were expecting to just get charged for what we ordered even though they gave us the grilled beef, but we were up charged (only ~1−2 $ but still!). On Friday and Saturday nights there is a dj so the bar can get loud but the atmosphere was fun. It’s pretty much the only Mexican place in burtonsville and it serves it’s purpose. They have great specials and we will definitely be back

I recently celebrated my sister’s Baby Shower at Chapala and I just wanted to say Thank you Chapala! For such a great service, hospitality, for all the accommodations and great food. Everything was on point:)

Sunday special is always killer — you’ll never finish it!!!

My family and I have been coming here since 1998 celebrated lots of birthdays and graduations. My parents enjoy their time but as always the staff are rude and not attentive. Some are great just some aren’t. The owners are great. Love that it is a family fanily. The food is good not like OMG this is the best but not worst. La Casita is great food very authentic Hispanic food.
The bar is another story. Some nights are great lots of fun good crowd good staff. And other nights are wild bad staff, bar fights like wow! Be careful.
But I still return it’s fun and the owners remember and treat everyone well.

WOW a beautiful experience, the Live Mariachi was Great my fathers 61^st bday was amazing !!! the staff was helpful and polite the food was tasty and very good. would come back again and again !! Live music made it a Step above the rest .
Happy Full Customer

Great food and price with generous portions. Ordered the Mixed Fajitas they came with plenty of juicy meat. Will be back again! Thanks.

Service was not great; not very attentive staff. Took 10min to get water when we sat down, another 15min to get chips n salsa to munch on while waiting for our food, and another 25min to get our food (which shouldn’t take that long since it’s a cheese quesadilla and grilled chicken salad). And waiting for the bill took another 25min after our dishes had been cleared and we’re just sitting there. Luckily, I had good company.

Oh, Chapala… I used to love you. But, not so much anymore.
I will say that deep down, I knew that dining at Chapala on Cinco de Mayo would probably be a bad idea. But, this is the third year in a row that my family and I have dined at Chapala on Cinco de Mayo and this is the first time we have ever had such a horrible experience.
Our server was rude. She didn’t seem to care about our table at all — she catered to all of the tables around us — all of which were ordering a lot of alcohol. It was so obvious that our table didn’t matter as much, because our bill wouldn’t be as high. Our drinks rarely got refilled, we asked for more chips and salsa several times and never received it. She rarely checked on us and when she did, she was condescending.
We waited more than an hour for our food and this is what we ordered:
Mango mojito (good, but super duper sweet and very little alcohol)
Diet coke (my son never received a refill)
Unsweet ice tea (waitress forgot my daughter ordered this and it took forever for her to get it — never got any refills)
Water (I asked for a water refill many times — never got it)
My husband ordered fish (pescado frito and he said it was good).
My daughter ordered a bean burrito. It was not hot, but it served its purpose. As I said, we waited a long time for our food and by the time it arrived we were all hungry.
My son ordered a beef taco. He was served a beef burrito. Since we waited more than an hour for our food, he was willing to just take the burrito. We told the server he would eat it, but she took the plate right out of his hands and walked away. Several minutes later, he received his taco but the rest of us were finished eating (those of us who could eat… see below).
I ordered nachos. How hard is it to screw up nachos?! Well, the cheese wasn’t even melted. THE CHEESE WAS STILL SHREDDED ON TOP OF THE TORTILLAS. After waiting over an hour, you’d think the cheese would at least be melted? When I pointed this out, the server took my plate back to the kitchen and had them reheat everything (after I told her not to — we just wanted to check at this point). How can you reheat nachos when there is sour cream and guacamole on top?! She re-​served me the original, reheated nachos, which at this point were nice and hot, but goopy and gross. Ain’t no way I was eating it.
I ordered my 18 month old son a cheese papusa. The papusa was so covered in grease, I could not even pick it up. It completely fell apart all over the plate and slid around in it’s own greasy, slimy mess. Nope — not eating that either.
The mariachi music was fantastic. The singers sang to our older children and our baby and even invited him to try and play the guitar. Our little guy got up and danced along while the musicians played and this was literally the highlight to our evening. Who wouldn’t smile at an 18 month old dancing to mariachi music?! :-)
The manager visited our table. He was gracious and apologetic. He removed some of the items from the bill — not nearly enough in my opinion considering every one of us was affected by the poor, inattentive service, but whatever… He gave us a gift certificate to return, and while I appreciate the gesture, I doubt we will go back to Chapala. We have been dedicated fans of Chapala for many years, but we’ve seen a steady decline in food quality and service over the years and I think it is time to move on.
By the time we left, it was almost 9 p.m. (we arrived just after 6), and everyone was still hungry. I literally had to stop at Roy Rogers on the way home to feed everyone!

Yesterday was my first time at Chapala and my visit was not so pleasant. There was no wait so I was pretty happy about that and when I got in they had a band playing so the atmosphere was pretty cool. After being seated no one came to the table for about 15 minutes. Which I thought was weird considering the place was pretty empty. Our waitress than came over and asked us what we wanted to drink and she took our order and left us with some chips and salsa. The waitress didn’t seem friendly at all. It seemed as though she had a little attitude or like she was irritable about something. The warm salsa and chips were nice, but she hadn’t brought us glasses of water. Then another 15 minutes rolled around and she came with drinks. The menu was so overwhelming, they have so many options, if I were you I’d look at the menu before going. I am an American, and I don’t speak any Spanish. So while ordering she was laughing at the pronunciation of the dishes we ordered. Which was very disrespectful. I ended up ordering a sampler. The wings reminded me of McDonalds mighty wings and I got a flour tortilla with cheese inside. The sampler also came with jalapeño poppers stuffed with chicken and the little burrito things were the joy of my night. Nevertheless, I will not becoming back to Chapala’s.

Great food, however after bringing meal never come back. Can’t get more to drink and can’t get salad dressing. Dropping off lunch and not coming back for an hour is not good service for people who tip well and are on their lunch hour. My coworkers and I have decided, after this has happened ¾ times not to return.

This location has great food– offers some great deals via online services like Unilocal.Highly recommended. Excellent chips and salsa, drinks, and steak burrito.
Delicious. Good find in an area without many restaurants to offer.

1. Plato El Paso… wow…Lobster mix Chicken and Steak… Fahita all the traditional trimmings.
2. Camarones Brochette… hello Shrimp and Bacon… setup is delicious…
3. Jalapeño Stuffed with Chicken… yummy…let me tell you they ran out. I got the last two.
4. Drinks… hello
Please go to the bar area. It’s awsome.

This place is one of my favorite restaurants! I have been coming here for a few years and have never been disappointed. Very family friendly but also has a bar section in the back. Extensive menu with everything you’d expect. fajitas, burritos, pupusas, etc. Good happy hour deals for appetizers and margaritas! Chips and salsa when you sit down. As Melissa said. parking can be awful because it is a small lot.
I definitely reccomend a cheese pupusa to start and steak fajitas! Yum.

Great food and service as always:) Missing Chapala as a regular :(lol

This review is based on my experience on the bar side of Chapala. I went there with two friends to see some local bands. We sat at one of the tables, and the waitress came over and gave us one menu to share. She asked if we wanted drinks, but couldn’t tell us what beers were on tap. I asked for waters for the table (which never came), and ordered the Sangria. My friends ordered a Coke & a beer. Anything resembling good service ended there.
For dinner I ordered the Carnitas Enchiladas. 45 minutes passed before I asked the waitress if the food was coming out soon. She rolled her eyes and said it was coming. When it came to the table, it was obvious that the waitress forgot about my order, and the food had been sitting under a heat lamp for a while. The food itself was ok, not a lot of flavor. My friend who ordered the beer had to constantly flag down our server to get another one. She refused to check on us, and even though I wanted another drink it became too much of a hassle to get one, so I gave up.
When I was ready to close out, I asked for my check. She returned with the table’s tab. I didn’t think it was a big deal, and simply asked if she could separate it (my friend who ordered the beer wasn’t done). She said no. When my friend asked for another beer, the waitress took the check from me and stormed off. I caught up with her asked again if she could split, seeing as how she had to run it again to add the beer and she told me, «no, it’s impossible.»
Maybe the service in the restaurant part is better, but I’m not in any hurry to find out.