Daniels Mexican Resturant

Wow used to be great. Now they are run down with the whoville people standing around the door smoking. Not open because they weren’t ready at noon.

I was very excited for a Daniels Mexican night tonight but showed up and they were closed! They said open 11 – 9 all days. Bummed just be warned —

I hadn’t been here since 2011, when my mother, her best friend, and I got lunch. It was really good, so I had high hopes when my best friend and I decided to get some food.
I should have checked the Unilocal reviews for more recent dates first.
When we got there, it was fairly empty. That wasn’t really a big deal, but I should have taken it as a sign when we waited for almost 10 minutes just to be seated. And that it only had one table filled on a Friday night. I was still optimistic, so we waited.
We got seated and got water, silverware, and salsa and chips (chips were good, salsa was just watery, spicy tomatoes) pretty fast. Then we ordered our drinks.
My friend’s Mt. Dew came out quickly, but they had to make a fresh batch of iced tea for me (I don’t really drink much soda). It was nice that it was fresh, but their ratios were really off — it was dark and extremely bitter. I was also very confused by the honey bear handed to me… for COLD tea. It doesn’t dissolve. Wasn’t entirely sure why there wasn’t any sugar on the table.
We got zero service after that, really. My friend waited almost a half hour for a refill on her drink, which she’d finished off the first glass almost 10 minutes before I got my tea. We ended up in a completely empty restaurant and it took almost 45 minutes for our food to arrive. Meanwhile, we were essentially ignored. Which I didn’t get since after 15 minutes we were the only people in the place. We even watched one couple look at the menu and leave during that time.
EVERYTHING was obscenely salty. And I mean everything. My friend’s pollo a la crema was ridiculously salty with dry chicken. I got a combo platter of a chalupa, chimichanga, and chile relleno with chicken myself… I wanted a tamale, but the waitress said she wasn’t sure if they had any. So, I told her if they didn’t to just do the chile relleno. She never bothered to tell me otherwise. And the chile was the ONLY decent thing on my plate. And even that was sub-​par. The beans were salty and grainy, and the rice tastes like it came from a box. I don’t usually like Spanish rice to begin with, but this was especially bad. Neither of us could finish our food, nor bothered to take it was us — which is a rarity.
Having the «chef» in our faces trying to fix a mistake on a meal that wasn’t even ours was awkward too. My friend had to tell him that table was already gone. He also didn’t seem to care much, as it took him that long to come out and ask. And he had no idea what table or problem there was to begin with.
All in all, it was pretty unpleasant. It crushed my former love of the place, and I won’t be back unless I have no choice in the matter. Even then, I will protest loudly.

Do. Not. Go. Here. I had the experience of having Daniel’s cater a major event I planned on campus. The restaurant was totally flaky with us about the paperwork and licensing, they seemed to not have everything that they should to run a business… when we finally showed up to get the food, they weren’t ready for us, and the event was minutes away. Everyone was scrambling around yelling. Finally they rolled out two orange Gatorade containers. I said, what’s in that? Thinking maybe it was water… nope. BEANS. They gave us ORANGE GATORADE containers to serve refried beans out of at a major event at the art museum. Needless to say I was shocked. The rest of the food came in chaffing dishes, as expected, but they didn’t have any serving utensils for us. Who does catering like that? Also we asked for a variety of enchiladas — they gave us 4 chicken enchiladas. They then brought out white plastic garbage buckets full of our chips and our salsa. I couldn’t even speak. I had to bring all these containers into the art museum and hide them behind a desk while I tried to pour the beans and rice and things into nicer dishes and scramble to serve it all. Horrifying.

I went to Daniels today for my birthday dinner. An acquaintance of mine recently became an owner so I was excited to give Daniels another shot (I had been there a few years ago and wasn’t impressed). I had heard that there was now Costa Rican food on the menu and add that to it being Cinco de Mayo today, I was expecting to get great food and have a good time. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
The waitress that seated us was polite but wasn’t very talkative. We looked through the menu and found no Costa Rican food on there so I asked to speak to the owner (who I knew). He showed us the pictures of the new Costa Rican food taped to the walls when you first walk in. Fair enough, but I was kind of hoping the waitress would’ve said something. I was also waiting to hear about any drink specials going on because of Cinco de Mayo… nothing. In fact, our waiter said very little to us. I had to flag her down quite a few times to get more chips and salsa. We didn’t even get water refills or a «how was your food» the entire time we were there. Our food took almost an hour to come out and I wasn’t very impressed. I ordered the two enchilada combo and I seriously got two rolled up tacos with filling inside. The enchilada sauce was almost non-​existent. I wanted to flag the waiter down to ask about how they make their enchiladas but she seemed to busy to talk to us. I was also a little bit upset because it was my birthday and I wanted to get a cool desert or something. Since our service was not very good, I decided against this. We ended up just getting up and getting our bill up at the front when someone showed up to help us.
I understand it was a busy night but I got basically no customer service. I don’t usually care all that much when I go to a restaurant and get treated like this but tonight was my birthday and Cinco de Mayo and I was hoping to get quite a bit more than I got. Hopefully this place gets better because I really don’t think I’ll be back.

I had a Groupon to Daniel’s. I wish I would have check the Unilocal Reviews first. This was the worst Mexican food I have ever tasted. The salsa tasted like tomato sauce, not hot but sweet. We asked for a hotter sauce. We were given the same sauce with some chopped jalapenos & tomato. It was hotter but did not taste better! My husband had the Fajita salad ($ 7.95 lunch). It was made with the white part of iceberg lettuce & the chicken was dry & tasteless. I had the Taquitos ($ 7.45 lunch). The inside chicken part tasted good, but they were greasy & for some reason cut in half? The beans were watery & the rice dry & tasteless. Although our server/​cashier was friendly service was very slow. We had to wait a long time for our food & there was only one other table with 2 customers. I’m from California & I’m used to Mexican food in Oregon not being the same caliber but this was really, really bad.

This is one of the worst restaurants I have EVER been to. Rice was funky tasting, service was AWFUL. We went there, there were maybe 3 other customers. We waited about 20 minutes to get someone to take our orders and another 20 minutes for our food. The food was just not edible. Salty, gummy, and plain gross. My friend ordered cheese enchiladas and a beef chimichanga, and the completely wrong thing came. She asked nicely to please have her cheese enchiladas; it took another request and 10 more minutes for it to arrive. At this point, we were so fed up with everything, we left. I will never go back.

On my way to Daniels I said to my girlfriend, «I don’t think it’s possible to screw up Mexican food.» I think I jinxed myself. This wasn’t just the worst Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been to, it was the worst RESTAURANT I’ve ever been too. I should have guessed it wasn’t going to be good because we were the only ones in the place at 6:00pm. Where to start? The service was awful. Kind of a surprise because WE WERE THE ONLY ONES IN THE RESTAURANT! I ordered the carne asada. When it came out it was all decorated with grilled onions and a pepper. Which was nice until I tried to find the meat. I asked the waitress if this was how big the carne asada was supposed to be and she said yes. My girlfriend ordered a margarita. Have you had a bad margarita before? I didn’t think it was possible either, but it is at Daniels. Her tacos al carbon weren’t good enough to take home to feed to my dog. You may think I’m being extreme, but I’m honest. Go to Daniels and see for yourself. I’ve convinced myself now that I paid for a story. I can tell this story the next time someone says, «Mexican food is always good.» My response will be, «Have you ever been to Daniels?» I couldn’t even get myself to leave a tip. This is the first time I’ve ever done this, but you know what, I don’t feel guilty about it in the least. I’d be surprised if this place stays in business much longer. Oh, and it took around 20 minutes to get our food. Also a little bit of a surprise because WE WERE THE ONLY ONES IN THE RESTAURANT. I’ve gone to other Mexican restaurants where every booth was taken and it seems like I just placed my order and my food was already on the table. Like they’d say in Mexico, Que horrible es el restaurante de Daniel! To top it all off this place isn’t cheap. $ 35 for two dinners and two drinks. I wouldn’t have paid 35 pesos for this junk. Okay, I’ve spent too much time writing this. I just still can’t believe this place.

Definitely one of the more authentic Mexican restaurants in town. Delicious too! I feel very fortunate to have Daniels. Without Daniels it would feel like that there wasn’t a «real» Mexican restaurant in town.
Damn good fajitas. Go for the corn tortillas, I am pretty sure they make them from scratch.

I felt obligated to make a review, after I saw it was a sub-​3 restaurant on here. I have been trying to find some good Mexican food since I left southern California. Chips and salsa right when you sit down. I am still surprised how many Mexican food places charge you for that… so that was a good start. The salsa was tasty– a little watered down and lacked a little heaat though. I had the carne asada y mas plate. Flavorful and well cooked flank steak (Not just charred meat with pepper on it). The beans and rice here are easily my favorite in the area. I wish the rice lived up to the picture it has on Groupon though… that showed peas and corn mixed in. What I had was just rice. I almost bumped this down to a 3 for false corn/​pea rice advertising! I also had a tamal, pretty good. It was not super dry like I had become accustom to (unfortunately). They also loaded you up with tortillas, I think they gave me about 8… I only used two, but I kept the rest anyways heh.
Inside was about what I’d expect from a Mexican restaurant. I saw the people below complaining that it looks bad and they would never take a date there. It looked clean and It gave me the feeling that I was about to partake in some good Mexican food. That being said; I probably wouldn’t date a girl that would let her taste buds be affected by something like that, and I am used to going to small hole in the wall places in San Diego and the food (somehow) still being excellent. So what do I know. They did have their family in there, but that didn’t hurt the service and they weren’t loud.

I ordered the two enchilada combo, and they actually came out dry with a bit of melted cheese on top – no sauce! The last time I saw an enchilada without any enchilada sauce was when I was in Malaysia. The enchiladas were tiny, and the chicken was pretty dry. I wouldn’t say it tasted bad, but it wasn’t very good either. On the plus side, the salsa was good, but I noticed on the menu that they actually charge a buck for refills on chips & salsa – weak…
I’d have to say I was pretty underwhelmed by the meal. I may give it another chance, but I won’t be ordering the dry enchiladas again.

The floor and restrooms were dirty. Toilet flush was not working.
The seats were worn out. There was a wrench hanging on the music system.
The food was nothing special. Service was not good at all.
We could have had a much better food in a taqueria for the half price.

I’m reviewing the Daniels cart parked in front of the establishment. I drive along Broadway/​Franklin all the time and see that cart. Sometimes at night I see people hovering around. Food carts/​trucks usually spark my interest, but seeing people actually at this place continued my desire to check it out. So one early afternoon I gave it a shot. I was unimpressed and well– left hanging! I was not impressed because the meat tasted like it was processed meat, rather than actual shreds of fresh or even frozen meat. The chicken was like chicken scrapings, like the same type as chicken nuggets, except formed to look like chunks of chicken. The seasoning was not good, but not bad. My other taco wasn’t any good either. Though the meat did taste healthy and unfatty.
Worst part about this place is that I had to put the non-​meat fillings in myself! OUTRAGEOUS. I’m paying for someone else to make my taco, not for me to finish it off with cilantro, onions, lettce, etc. Call me lazy, if I’m paying for someone to make my food, please make it all for me. I’m curious, what if someone ordered a veggie taco, would they just give the customer a heated tortilla?

The food was alright. I’ve definitely had better. I liked the re-​fried beans and the Spanish rice was good too. The inside of the restaurant isn’t to fancy but they are clean. I wouldn’t take a date there, but I would go with a friend or relative for a low priced lunch.
Their service is pretty good. The salsa is mild, so I didn’t like it, but my dinning partner really enjoyed it. They seem to do pretty well because the restaurants lobby was pretty busy, so if you’re in Eugene you can chance it and give them a try. I would suggest trying another place. I heard the mission is pretty good but haven’t tried it LOL!

What is going on here? Took an account there about a month ago for lunch. «No beef, sorry, we are out but we have chicken». No shredded beef. No ground beef. At a Mexican restaurant? The men’s bathroom appeared as though the ICBM’s had done their job. Used to go there somewhat often, but will think twice before going back. Never had this problem when it was Cancun years ago.

Food was less than great, staff’s family hanging around and kids running around while we got ignored, only two tables in restaurant and food took over 20 minutes to be served. Both me and partner felt sick after eating dinner.
One excellent thing was the corn tortillas – tasted homemade.
Always willing to go a second try if owners improve tho!

Having come from Yreka, CA through Coos Bay to my friends place in Lakeside only to find his place was in a plumbing anti place my bro and I decided to go to Reedsport or Florence, find a joint to sleep and eat seafood, mmm nirvana, right?
On a dead Sunday night the towns were dead (Fathers Day?) And no hotel deals, wow, we needed Shatner!
Well, let them sit on empty properties and drove to Eugene (I know, I know) and found a new Sleep Inn and very reasonable without Shatner and to the point of this rant… this restaurant.
Aside form a wife in the next booth complaining about everything in life especially hers, we found our food quite good, simple but good, with a cold Tecate, quite good.
We also had a cute mommie to be waitress who enjoyed our kidding.
My Unilocaling daughter who lives in Eugene may have other thoughts, but I’ll leave that to her.

total disappointment. i felt like i was in a «mexican» restaurant in middle america that was run by white people. my husband ordered the arroz con pollo and seriously, it was like chinese food– pieces of chicken (not on the bone) swimming in a sauce with celery, mushrooms, & carrots! it was just surprising. and expensive too.
our waitress was really sweet so i feel bad writing such a negative review. but there are much better (authentic) mexican restaurants in eugene.

Liked more before the name change. Always good food.

‘Amigos, how you doing?’
‘Here, you go. Chips with salsa.‘
You get served with chips and salsa the moment you step in while you figure your order. For the food and service, easily a 4 stars…