El Molcajete Restaurant

We stopped here passing through town. The food was good decent mexican. The prices were great for what you get. We will stop again if we pass through town.

This place is awesome!!! Amazing food. Great service Decent price. This is our spot we go to all the time. If you haven’t tried it. You have to!

Great place for truly authentic Mexican food. I have been to Mexico several times and the food was virtually identical to the non-​toruist restaurants In Mexico. The food leans more toward street/​lunch/​casual fare. All items are cooked fresh, so it can take a little longer to get your food than other causal Mexican restaurants. Chips and salsa are excellent.
As others have noted the service leaves something to be desired. The servers don’t always clean the tables well and it can take quite long for them to take your order and/​or bring your check. I have been there by my self for lunch and on both occasions from the time I sat down to when I left was nearly an hour.

Holy cow that was good!
I travel and am not into southern food so felt Mexican would be in order.
First the clientele was most Spanish which is the first good sign.
Broken English with staff but well meaning folks that try their best to serve.
I enjoy wine which they don’t have but the Dos Eques fit the bill.
Very casual but authentic Spanish atmosphere, with almost take out feel but bright colored mural and Spanish big screen playing in the background.
Overall, food was fresh and yummy as hell. I had the chicken platter with bacon, cheese, tomatoes with rice and refrained beans. Most menu in Spanish on fish titles so please grow give my not knowing.
They serve salsa and hot sauce in little carafes so you don’t have to ask for more.
Price is right too.
5 stars.

El Molcajete does an excellent job of catering to the American crowd while remaining true to its Mexican roots. An excellent place to enjoy real Mexican food!!!

This is by far the best Mexican restaurant in Sanford, in my opinion. Every single dish I have had there is great. Don’t expect a cookie cutter kind of place. It’s very informal, family owned and very much like a place you would find in Mexico where workers go for lunch. So yes, you might find the occasional grain of rice left behind by the previous customer, or some non-​English speaking staff (as some reviewers have complained about), but seriously, food is great. Not for the snobbish, a must go for food lovers. Also they serve Corona in an iced mug, best refreshing Corona I’ve ever had.

What a welcoming love place!!! The salsa is great and the helpings are outstanding!

My review bumped down a star simply because of the tables not being cleaned right away for incoming guests, even though you are required to «seat yourself». However, an explanation for that was there was only one waitress (because this is a family owned restaurant), as well as one individual busing the tables.
Anyway– it didn’t make the food taste any less better! My husband and I sat in on Cinco de Mayo and enjoyed a meal with a nice crowd of customers. I ordered a la carte and the highlight of my meal was the pescado ceviche tostada and the horchata. I could have died right after I ate those two things and walked into heaven satisfied. It was amazing. The chicken sope was only okay because the chicken was not seasoned well (which is weird because their chicken burrito is amazing). The al pastor taco was delicious, but again, not nearly as magical as the first two I mentioned.
Overall, our sit in visit was great and the table situation will def not deter us from eating here again. Still a fan :)

Sanitation score 93
Food was not all that
Service was so-​so didn’t really speak English, which didn’t bother me. But the dirty dishes left on my table did.

Great food! Great service! This place is fantastic. Stop by if you are in Sanford, NC.

Good food and a nice server. The street tacos were very good. The red hot sauce was also taste.
The place seems clean. Several TVs on the walls so you can watch the soccer games.

If I had seen the 93.5 sanitation rating before ordering I would of left. I ordered two tacos, chicken and steak, and rice and beans. The chicken taco was good, the steak had an taste that was just off– I didn’t finish it, the rice and beans were very basic and tasted as such. We also ordered guacamole, I love guacamole– it’d be a part of my last meal I love it so much, it tasted really off — just bad. Even with my infinite love of guacamole I could not eat it here. In addition the bathroom was gross. I don’t recommend a meal here.

I’ve been here for an hour and have yet to see my food. This place is filled with Hispanics so I assume the food is really good. Too bad I have to leave and stay on schedule.
I will try again but they really need to work on their wait staff. There only 8 tables, 2 ladies running around while 2 guys watch. A pile of coat hangers is better organized than this.

How is the place rated ⁴¹⁄₂ stars? Food was horrible and they had no coffee at 1030 am. The salsa that is served with chips is nothing but tomato with no flavor what so ever, same goes for the food.

Been here twice this week and will continue to come here for sure. There are few places that offer quality authentic Mexican at a wallet friendly price. I explored the lunch specials last week with the chicken fondido (highly recommend) which was plenty of food and really tasty. I love that they serve 3 salsa’s (if requested) so you may achieve your desired heat level and flavor to accent your meal or enjoy with just the chips.
Today the chips were on the cold side but still «fresh» so that got the job done. However we ran into a snag with the server mistaking our order. The first plate arrived which we thought was the chicken burrito but when a second burrito arrived we knew there had been a mix up. Our correct order was chicken burrito and a carne asada taco. We received a carne asada burrito and a chicken burrito 5 mins later. When we made them aware of the mistake she brought our server over to straighten out to confirm his mistake. They took back the asada burrito and advised the asada taco would be right out. It seemed to take awhile to get the taco but it was worth the wait. Great carne asada. Overall a great meal. A little blip on the order error but we’re very forgiving considering it was lunch time and busy enough. (And nobody’s perfect) however still gave a 4 star review because after all was said and done they were going to charge an extra $ 4 because the same waiter forgot we ordered soda and not waters. Idk if this is just a NC thing because were form Ca but have experienced this at several places in Nc since we been here the past two weeks where they overcharge for our order. We will continue to inspect for accuracy. But all that aside this place is worth it.

I didn’t enjoy at all. The food was mediocre, the beer was warm, and the chips were stale. It’s not that it was too Mexican, because I lived in Mexico for a bit.
The service was understaffed, but the kitchen seemed to be getting orders out fast enough. I don’t think I’d be missing anything if I never returned.

We tried this based on recommendations seen on Unilocal.I’ve been disappointed by some of the other Mexican restaurants in town, but this one definitely delivers! Per others’ recommendations, we asked to try all three of the salsas with our chips. We liked them all and appreciated the variety. We ordered the tacos al pastor, tacos asada, and the asada torta. All were good but the tacos al pastor were the most flavorful.
The menu is extensive and has a lot of dishes that I haven’t seen at other places (I’m dying to try the soup with seven types of seafood) so we will be back!

El Molcajete is a true hidden gem. We frequent this place and have for years. You can not go wrong with anything you order here. Their specials are always on point. The tacos and tortas are the best i have ever tried. The burritos are the size of a man’s calf. Any of their shrimp dishes are winners, always cooked to perfection. Their soups are awesome. When you read reviews of authentic Mexican joints this place is what those people assume they are talking about. If you are from or near Sanford do not pass this place up. One minor flaw is the ever friendly but sometimes over burdened service which is not their fault when they are stretched thin in a packed restaurant. Ask them about juice drinks not on the menu.

Cheap, authentic and delicious! Thank you Unilocal for uncovering this hidden gem. This place is the real deal — authentic Mexican food. My table was the only one speaking English, and our server’s was limited but we got by. We ordered guacamole, which they make fresh when you order it. So good! They also bring out chips and 3 — yes 3 — kinds of salsa. The 1^st one was orange in color and smokey hot, 2^nd was tomato based with cilantro, and 3^rd was made with tomatillos. I enjoyed all 3 of them.
For my meal, I played it safe and ordered from the lunch menu: Enchilades Verdes o Rojas. Two chicken enchiladas topped with green or red sauce (i got both). It was served with sour cream, rice and salad. It was very good, but i had food envy when I saw other tables getting served huge steaming bowls of seafood stew. I found out it was Caldo de Mariscos «7 Mares». A mixed seafood stew with octopus, mussels, shrimp, squid, scalops, crab and cuttlefish. It looked fantastic! I’ll be back on my next visit to the Aloha Safari Zoo.

My wife brought me to El Molcajete as the first stop in a surprise birthday weekend roadtrip. After all, you can’t start a successful roadtrip with an empty belly. Fortunately for me, this wouldn’t be an issue as El Molcajete is rumored to have the best guacamole in Sanford if not in the whole state.
At this point, visions of deliciously chunky and expertly seasoned guacamole danced through my mind. While waiting for our guac and entrees (huevos rancheros for me and green chicken enchiladas for my dining companion), we sampled the chips and three kinds of salsa. Finally, like a gift from the Mayan gods, our guacamole arrived. Chunky, a little sweet, and very fresh. It definitely lived up the hype.
That isn’t to say that my eggs weren’t awesome. Maybe not as awesome as the same dish at Los Comales in Durham but when you’re hungry and an hour away, these’ll make a pretty good substitute.

La comida es excelente con platillos que no encuentras en ningún restaurante típico mexicano, Uno de mis favoritos son las Huilotas en salsa roja con tortillas recién hechas. El servicio fantástico con un ambiente familiar