El Potrero

Their rice is the BEST and the chicken enchiladas are good too! The drinks aren’t weak and the service is always quick and friendly. Yummo!

Not sure how this place has stayed in business so long. Very sub-​par. Great location though.

The tamales had the consistency (and flavor) of tire tread. Apparently, they were made then refrigerated (or maybe even frozen), then heated up (or thawed out) in a microwave.
The chile rellenos were, likewise, inedible, They were obviously not fresh either and, to make matters worse, the seeds were left in. (They are always supposed to be taken out.) The rellenos were way too hot to eat.
Also, tomato sauce is for Italian pasta not a relleno. How about looking up a recipe for relleno sauce?
The rice and beans had no flavor at all.
The waiter must have called me «amigo» thirty times. It got kind of irritating after a while. He should have called me the Spanish word for «fool.» As a Mexican, he must know what the food is supposed to be like, so I assume he knew what awful food he was serving. Ergo, I felt like I was being treated like a ‘dumb gringo” who didn’t know any better.
The 100% absolutely worse Mexican food I’ve ever had.
This place makes one long for Taco Bell.

No good. No blending of the margaritas. Their cheese was gross! It was pretty milky, not your standard chihuahua. Chips tasted funky but were fresh. Lacked salt and the salsa had no kick. They wouldn’t split our check or accept more than one form of payment. The waiter made rounds never; but when I did manage to flag him down they did bring what was asked for. They were accommodating with our large group on the patio but other than that I have nothing good to say about the place!

The food here is excellent! The customer service, however, doesn’t match the food. We sat on the lovely patio area that over looks the Haymarket and we had several waiters ask us for both our Drink order and our food order. It seemed that they had no system on who was waiting the tables. The food is terrific though, definitely worth it.

I give it 5 stars because my husband and I have gone here for lunch regularly for about 6 years. Their lunch menu is good and their service at lunch is fast. We like the tamale, caldo de cameron, and the beef fajita.

My daughter and I love to eat at Mexican restaurants and we have pretty high standards for what is considered «good» El Potrero is «okay».
The chips were warm and arrived well before the drinks, which was weird because eating them made us thirsty. The salsa was mediocre; I thought it was okay, my daughter didn’t like it.
Our server seemed either confused, unhappy, resentful, or a combination of all three. He kept backing away from us when we were ordering… what’s up with that? Turns out he wanted nothing to do with us and we only saw him one other time when he actually brought refills for the completely dry/​empty drinks. I had to get up and go inside to find someone to get our bill.
The saving grace for the visit was the fajitas — they were good! I got chicken and my daughter got steak. We each had some of the other’s and they were hot and tasty and the vegetables were nice. The patio is a lovely place to eat but this restaurant REALLY needs to address the problem with their service before they lose all of their customers.

The food was good.
Margarita is so big.
I drank the drink gone.
Arroz con Pollo.
Also, did I mention the
big margarita?
Haiku.

Worst service EVER! I had to get up twice to ask our waitress for service. I do NOT recommend, nor will I ever return. The food and drinks were not worth it at all

Don’t go here place sucks. Food wasn’t to bad. Services was horrible. Waited for ever to get drinks and food, ask for something never got it. Order 2^nd drink got it the wrong thing. Waitress act like she was half a sleep. Never going back.

First time here and I wish I lived closer. great service and great food. hot fresh chips and fresh home salsa!!! I had the chiminchunga supreme with shrimp and mushrooms, simply awesome!

This place used to be one of favorites, but the food is awful now. They use THE ENTIRE chicken… I won’t get any more graphic but that pretty much explains it. I hope some new ownership takes over and turns it back into a wonderful place to enjoy Lincoln’s Haymarket District.

Ew yuck gross gag. Such a lovely location wasted on such crap food.
I tried to eat the enchiladas, each flavor was worse than the last. Cheese tasted like rubber bands, refried beans were gray mushy matter with no sign of ever existing in bean form. The chicken had cartilage or something else unidentifiable and hard in it and the ground beef was over seasoned. All in all under huge wet slabs of lettuce, it sat, in a puddle of watery sludge. I wish I could tell you the trip was at least worth the margarita, but sadly it wasn’t. Jalapeño margarita has actual chunks pickled jalapeños blended in, not the best texture.
Never again El Potrero!

Ordered a grilled chicken salad and a side of steamed veggies to go. The salad was a good mix of spinach and other greens, tons on flavorful chicken, and tortilla strips. The side of veggies was a whole dinner plate of veggies, good deal for a couple bucks. Came with fresh & warm chips and salsa. Yum.

The evening was beautiful
The food was OK
The service made my birthday last a decade,
I only wanted dessert
I thought it worth the wait
So ordered a dinner and appetizers in anticipate
When the food came
The water did not, and I found myself choking on beans, rice and the lot
Finally awaiting my sopapilla
I needed only to order
But the waitress apparently headed for the border.
I never received a dessert
Nor the candles on my cake
But I did get a bill to finish my wake.
Not having my special birthday dessert
I feel hurt, cheated and robbed
And knowing my age without candles, I just sobbed.
As for El Potrero
I will never go back
And will recommend that you keep their menu out of your stack.
Yuck!

Location/​space are both good. Food is bad, cheese is plasticky and menu is unimaginative. I have a hard time understanding why this place is still in business, but clearly my opinions on this place are in the minority.

My friends and I love going here for dinner. Service can be sub-​par, but we love the food and drinks. I could live off of the cheese dip and I’ve never had anything I didn’t like off the menu. They just added a few new menu items and they were delicious! And if you go for your birthday, you get a free shot of top shelf tequila :)

My burrito was pretty good and I would be willing to go back, but the service was not great. When we asked for specific things it was quick but we waited for a while to get drinks refilled and the queso dip took so long that we ended up cancelling it. We also waited ages for the waiter to come by so we could ask for the check.

Another Lincoln review I forgot to write… this place gets the job done when you’re craving Mexican food! It probably won’t blow you away but I’m generally A-​OK with a solid margarita, rice and beans, and a cheese enchilada. That’s what I ordered here (plus a beef taco) and it all tasted great! The margarita was standard but I was happy with it, and the food overall was excellent. My friend adored the shrimp tacos, for you seafood lovers.
Environment and service is only so-​so, but if it’s nice, sit outside! The patio is so nice and overlooks the busy Haymarket and it definitely beats the atmosphere of inside the place, where it’s pretty quiet.
Cheap Mexican food, good margaritas, a kick-​ass patio… what else do you want from a casual dinner? Go try it out and end up in a food coma like I did. It’ll be worth it!

If you like canned crushed tomatoes, you’ll love the salsa, and chile colorado. Service was okay, beer was fairly cheap, but the food was horrible.
Sauce for the chile colorado was canned tomatoes and hot sauce, which wasn’t cooked very long, still tasted like the can. The meat in most decent restaurants would be fairly large chunks of beef, there’s was grilled round steak (with plenty of gristle) that was just thrown into the sauce, not simmered in it as it should be and the menu claimed.
There are a lot of places to eat in Haymarket, this won’t be one I return to on the next trip to town.