El Fandango

El Fandango, more like El Fan-don’t-go! The service and food were both very disappointing. We were in old town on a busy night and our normal spots had over an hour wait. This place had no wait which should have been our first clue. There are some great Mexican restaurants in Old Town, this is NOT one of them… again El Fan-don’t-go!

This place is now closed, and based on the other reviews, I’m surprised it took this long to do so! We’d had pleasant experiences here in the past, but like other people wrote; food was bland (added about a Tbs of salt to the beans to make them palatable) and service usually stunk. We used to come as more of an homage to my hubby’s past and being taken here by his parents, but aside from nostalgia reasons, this place offered nothing more than a nice patio and a cute local kitty that hung around.

This place has gone out of business. There is a sign in front stating that the owner has retired. It is in a good location, within the state historic park, so hopefully something new will open in this location.

While I agree with most of the reviews here for their afternoon and dinner menus, I still enjoyed this place for their early morning breakfast. .. HOWEVER. .. After over 25 plus years of service I showed up today for their breakfast by their fireplace and they are officially closed!!! Such and incredible location, in a great part of Old Town and they brought themselves to the ground. How sad. Hope something spectacular goes in there. Old Town needs it!

I’ll give my review in 2 sections but first I’ll say that I called this restaurant and the old woman who answered the telephone was so nasty when she answered the telephone that it was then I realized why this restaurant is the way it is. This woman who identified herself as «MRS MILLER, said, «What do you want» I asked if I could speak to the manager. She said, I’m the manager and owner, «what do you want» in a LOUD AND NASTY TONE. WOW!!! WHAT A SHAME. There, if you ever wondered why the crappy service and HORRIBLE food. Now you know why.
FOOD: tasted like they don’t have a cook in their kitchen — flavorless! The beans tasted right out of a can. Carne asada was cooked but no flavor at all for being a «authentic» restaurant in OLD TOWN. What a mess of a meal I tasted. Wow! even I can fix better tasting Mexican food.
SERVICE: We came by when it was not too busy. Our server was quick to come to our table after we were seated. We ordered drinks and that didn’t take long. Once we ordered food, that took an eternity then was the very last time we saw our server. He never checked on us or to see if the food was served OK. Sadly at the end, I had to ask the busboy for our check and the busboy found our server somewhere because quickly after that he showed up with our check and said not even a «thank you» or anything, WTF? I’ll never visit this restaurant again. I did like the cat that was wondering around because at least he was friendly.

They don’t honor they’re own coupons… don’t go to this place… horrible .i checkin didn’t honor check in because I was at the bar really??? wow …bad all away around… u should Advertise!!! then bait and switch.

I am not a fan of this Dango. Slow, disaffected server with an attitude waited on us or should I say did his level best to NOT wait on us. We were put in the back dining area because I have bad allergies in August for some reason and did not want to suffer outside any longer. No fans, no Air Conditioning and NO music. I have lived here for 32 years and used to love coming to Old Town to eat Mexican food no more thanks to this place. I have eaten here before last year and our food was just okay. The service is horrible for the price that you pay which is a shame because I actually think this place has a lot of potential. My husband had a salad that looked like it was bought from Costco. The chips, salsa and guacamole were all I wanted to eat and those were fine. My Margarita was good too.
I do want to thank the server who came on at 4:00 pm to replace the cranky glacially slow server we had before. Who knows, maybe he was sick and having a bad day. Not my problem.
We won’t be back.

We tried this place on a recommendation despite the overall review rating. The food was alright. Neither amazing nor poor. The outside dining area was quite pleasant. The real issue I had here was the service. The staff was slow and inattentive. We entered from the parking lot side, following a sign that said «come on in» and were faced with confusion with no host stand. No staff approached us so we had to seek out someone to find us a table and despite there being multiple clean tables, we were asked to stand and wait. Overall the food wasn’t bad and the Unilocal check in deal helped, but I would rather try a new restaurant next time with better service.

NASTIEST FOOD IN OLD TOWN!!!
Whoever wrote that 5 star positive review is either someone associated with this dump or has been eating baby poop since birth.
Service BLOWS…
Food is DISGUSTING…
Outside chairs and tables are a uncomfortable and old. An elderly man actually fell backwards while sitting on these broken down chairs…
Just do yourself a favor… Walk away fast, there is a reason this place is empty, a good reason…

I should of known better and trusted my gut feeling that this place was not going to be good. No wait on a weekend night and no music should have been my first warning sign! I have never been to restaurant and had to request silverware after receiving my order.
The Good Part:
— Nice outdoor seating area and that’s about it!
The Downfalls/​Turnoffs:
— We were seated immediately, however, it took the waitress 30 minutes to show up and take our drink order.
— I had to request 2 different sets of silverware due both sets being dirty.
— I had to ask the waiter to clean our table after she seated us (looks like it had not been cleaned in weeks.)
— I ordered three carne asada tacos. My food was cold. The Meat was dry and flavorsome. Probably the worst tacos I’ve ever had.
— Customer service was very poor. The waitress that took our order didn’t even greet us or introduce herself before taking our order. She took our order and that’s the only time we heard anything from her for the rest of the night.
— This place is very overpriced for bad quality food.
— The bathroom was disgusting! (Makes me wonder what the kitchen looks like).
— Horrible ambience, (No music playing). I could seldom hear the music from the restaurant across the way.
— Flies everywhere!
Do yourself a favor and DO NOT EAT HERE!

Really, I want to give them 1 ½ stars. I hadn’t been down to Old Town for a while and we had some friends come down to SD. So we’re on a time crunch and go to El Fandango because… it was pretty empty.
Why don’t I learn that if a place doesn’t have anyone in it it’s either new or bad? The hostess was very sweet but that’s where the compliments end.
Service was a little slow, but we should have stayed waiting. The food was just not good. I had the avocado enchiladas. Just guacamole rolled up into tortillas and served lukewarm. Yuck. No side dishes like beans or rice. Simply two goopy messes on my plate. My one poor friend ordered a seafood plate (I forget which one). She barely touched it. She was too polite to say it sucked, but you could tell from the look on her face that she was disappointed.
I felt bad for suggesting it, but that’s not a mistake I will be repeating.

Nice terrace. Food is just ok… And pricey for a Mexican restaurant. But I guess they are all same price in old town.
I wouldn’t go back !

I guess I should have known that if there is no wait at a restaurant in old town on a Friday night that something is wrong.
Aside from the poor service, pushy mariachi guy, lack of refills, cold patio, dry meat, and watery margaritas, they had no corn tortillas. What Mexican place in San Diego doesn’t have corn tortillas?
Do yourself a favor, if fiesta del Reyes is a long wait… don’t go next door to fandango.

My boyfriend and I vacationed in San Diego summer 2010, so he could visit where he was stationed in the military. We stopped by this little place, as he thought he had been here years back and the food was amazing (it turns out this was not the place he had thought it was).
We walked in on a Friday afternoon — a day that you’d normally think would be busy — and there was only 1 other couple there. We chose to eat inside by the bar. The food took FOREVER getting to us, and when it did, it was cold. I ordered the cheese and chicken enchilada, and it was filled with only cheese (it looked like they just cut a chunk off a block) and no sauce on top.
There was a man playing a guitar, which was a nice touch, however he came and sat at the table with us while he played, giving my boyfriend and I no chance to talk or anything. He then asked for a tip when he was done with the song — I was completely shocked!
After we received our food, it was another 30 minutes before the waiter came back to ask how things were (we had been done eating for about 20 minutes because of the quality — or lack thereof — of the food).
From the time we walked in to the time we left, was absolutely miserable. We will never eat here again. The next day, we chose another restaurant in old town, just down the road, and loved it so much we ate there twice.
Don’t let looks be deceiving! This place looks like a cutesy little authentic mexi restaurant, but it was one big fail.

My experienced here was positive from the time I walked in to when I left. I first noticed the wonderful décor outside in the patio seating area. It was full of greenery and I felt that I was in some fancy Mexican restaurant in Cancun. The service was good and our food came out quick. We had a large group in the morning so the mimosas on the house was a nice gesture. I ordered a dish with chorizo mixed with chopped bell peppers and scrambled eggs. I forgot the name of it but it was delicious.
Note — Beware of the tables outside behind the bar. They got a tree that attracts a lot of bees!

The good: Nice outdoor setting on the patio, good drinks, and our Apps and dinner were OK. not great
The bad: Service, it appeared that one person was serving the entire patio. Had to ask, twice, for plates for our Apps, geting the bill was a chore. The servers were pleasant enough but they were streached too thin.
The ugly: General appearance and restrooms were pretty tough. My dining companion walked in/​out of the ladies room. said it was pretty bad.
Our cerviche and Guac Apps were very good. My red snapper entrée with, a spicy tomato sauce was very good as well. My companion had the seafood enchaladas and prolaimed happiness.
As others have noted clean up your restaurant and make sure you are staffed properly.

Margaritas are wonderful!!!

True, I’ve only been here on a few extended family celebrations, one even in the Parkview Room, but I’m baffled as to why so many other reviewers are not kind to this place. The experience I always get is one that’s welcoming and spirited. The food is always very good — usually not spectacular, but always delicious.
In fact, I crave another piña colada from them this very moment…

Service was terrible and food wasn’t great. Simple as that.
When we first walked in, they seated us in a table under the sun so we asked if we can sit in the shade. We figured there shouldn’t be a problem because it wasn t busy at all. They told us there were no other tables available at the moment. We were about to get up and leave because we didn’t want sit in the sun, that’s when they decided to clean up a new table for us.
Once we sat down, we had to wait at least 30 minutes for them to take our order. We had to ask three times for our drinks, and they never refilled our water. It was a hot day outside. Food took forever to come, we also ordered sopapillas and we has to ask for them to bring it to us too because they forgot. The food was bland and didn’t have flavor.
The one time I didn’t use Unilocal to find a restaurant, thoroughly disappointed.

After doing some shopping a friend and I stopped in after receiving a %15 percent off coupon. We sat outside which I think was cuter then the inside. The prices were high compared to all the other restaurants in the area. My meal:
Seafood Enchiladas$ 16.50
Two corn tortillas filled with sauteed shrimp. Served with rice and beans.
Although the food was yum I could of easily paid at least a few bucks cheaper down the road for just as good of food. The waiter did refill our waters as needed but brought out the chips halfway through our meal then in the beginning (minus one star automatically). We were never asked if we needed anything else at the end (minus a star) and they even forgot to give me my card back when my friend and I paid half and half. We had to go inside and ask for my card back, again minus a star! Not on the top of my list but at least I can say been there done that!

We went here tonight and got indoor seating. The waiters and busboys were all very friendly.
The ambience is typical Old Town: Spanish tiles and stucco. They had an indoor and outdoor fireplace going, cloth tablecloths. The tables are quite close together, and we actually scooted our table away from the other table because there was no way the chairs wouldn’t touch.
Service was super-​duper quick– I mean, I thought he must be bringing food out for another table, not ours. They were on top of all the tables and refilled Cadillac’s water very quickly (he was drinking a LOT of water because of the salsa).
I got the carnitas platter, which is pulled pork with two flour tortillas, guac, beans, and rice. It seemed kind of pricey for $ 17.50 but it was good. It didn’t have a lot of extra stuff (i.e. oils, butters, cheeses, salts) added on, and everything tasted very fresh. The flour tortillas were lightly grilled.
My husband had the carne asada taco plate. In total, our bill (we didn’t get any alcohol) was $ 28.
Another thing: if our waiter was busy, someone else was always helping us out, asking if we wanted dessert, bringing extra sour cream, etc.
Next time I will try the mole. I always forget I want to try mole. Somebody needs to write that on my hand or something.
Also, a man in a tux walked around and sold red long-​stemmed roses, and hubby got me one. Point for him.