El Cartel in Edinburgh, City of

I ordered chicken taco and papas fritas. Food was served within 10 minutes, and it was amazingly delicious. Top quality Mexican restaurant in Edinburgh.

Food was really good. Highly recommend getting a Tommy's margarita.

Great place. Service was very friendly and efficient. Margheritas were amazing 🤩 as were nachos, fish and chicken tacos. Delicious 😋. Quite noisy as busy but adds to the atmosphere.

Friendly staff. The tacos are very delicious. It's a really good value for money. The atmosphere is well designed.

Fantastic tasty and fresh Mexican food.

Really lovely Mexican food. The tacos were delish!

This place is a bit strange. I love tacos - and am pretty experienced eating them including in Mexico and California - but these were provided to the table, with no plates, just on these taco stands which leaked all over the table. There were two puddles of liquid forming all over the table. So weird - maybe some people are OK with that, we're lucky we had a big table for 2, otherwise it would've dripped all over us. We had to use 3 napkins to stop the spread. The tacos themselves were OK (we had the fish and pollo ones), but were tasteless and very greasy. I also had the chicken wings which came lukewarm, with a tasty but strangely chunky sauce (with big pieces of spring onion) - and so was difficult to eat without knife and fork. Was also super greasy - I couldn't finish 6 of them. The margarita was good but £10. I won't be back (Bodega on Leith Walk has far nicer tacos and the cocktails were excellent)

We had small plates to share, which were really tasty and good portions! The elote, bombers, and especially croquettes were really delicious! Pork taco was great and the cod was nice but didn’t taste of much. Got some frozen margs which were great. Staff were friendly and helpful and the place is really cosy and has a nice atmosphere

My favourite restaurant when visiting Edinburgh. Great food, great and accomodating staff that aim to make your experience the best it can be and an amazing night all around. I would highly recommend it.

Absolutely amazing food. I'd eat here even if the price doubled.

We were greeted like old friends! What an amazing atmosphere!!! The food and cocktails was super tasty and the cocktails were well balanced and perfectly refreshing!

Brilliant night, food was delicious as were cocktails. Staff were so friendly and extremely helpful

Food was good not great. Drinks were really nice. Service wasn’t the best but the atmosphere was good in the restaurant.

I’ve visited El Cartel many times and have never had a bad meal! This recent visit was the same with great service and really delicious food! The Baja cod tacos were fantastic as was the guacamole with plantain chips - a fantastic lunch or dinner spot for Mexican-style street food!

First time here on Sunday, and wow! Everything was amazing. The service was rapid, the atmosphere was lovely as were the staff and the food ....oh my! Easily the best tacos I've ever had , the pork and chicken specifically were tremendous.

First visit here as we were going to see Hamilton and wanted to eat somewhere close by. Food was really good (loved the Tacos), portion sizes were big, the service was friendly and it wasn't overpriced (5 courses and a bottle of wine came in just under £60). Would definitely go back.

Had seen great reviews for the food here, but it was underwhelming. The plantain guacamole was delicious but the nachos and tacos were disappointing.

Nice food, lovely frozen margaritas. Good service. Soft taco shells were too thick for my liking.

Nice selection of food and the spicy drinks were particularly good. Edit 2024 - why have a scannable QR code which takes you to a page which makes you download a pdf instead of just showing you the menu - incredibly annoying. Sadly the food quality had also declined since our last visit.

Great place, nice staff good food

Lovely staff, but the vegetarian options were disgusting.

Food and atmosphere were great. However, my friends all chose to go there due to the website saying there was a 5£ frozen marg special Monday - Wednesday. When we asked about it, they said the frozen marg machine was broken. When we asked if they would honor the 5£ special, then, with a regular marg, they said it would not be possible. We asked a second time, since we had come specifically for that, but they said no. It was disappointing and cast a shadow over our experience.

Maybe it was a once off but the food wasn’t as good as previous visit. Lacked flavour, lacked heat. Really need to improve . So many good restaurants in the area. Would avoid now

Fantastic food and fantastic service. Great cocktails too!

Amazing food and service, Jeezy was very professional and made our experience unforgettable!!🫶

Went with friend for something to eat before gig, food was nice, service OK. At no point were we told that they did not take cash payments, good job one of us had a card with us. We were told only take cash tips, also when we asked for the bill and the waitress brought said bill she hovered for us to pay, no time to check, was a bit off putting. We checked on way out tonsee if any signs for card only payment but nothing. Yes most people have card, but on this occasion one of our party only had cash.

Not much to say but it was awful . Waiters all friendly but the food was such a let down ! It was tapas style which is fine but there was no flavour to the food apart from the tacos and not in a good way ! The wraps that they came on were absolutely vile and had a strange taste . We did tell the waitress who said she would pass it on to the chef . The meal came to £55 and we had 5 tapas dishes and 1 soft drink and a Diet Coke. We left very hungry and felt very ripped off at £55 . never again .

I’ve been here twice now when visiting Edinburgh. I came back the second time for the street corn! It’s the best street corn I’ve ever had and one of the most delicious things I’ve ever had in general. The rest of the food is also really really tasty. My favourites are the cod tacos. The spicy margaritas are addictive. It’s got a jalapeño and coriander syrup in it, I don’t even like coriander but there’s something about these cocktails that are just divine. They also catered really well to my sister in law who eats halal. The service is fabulous and I’ll definitely be back next time I’m in Edinburgh!

Food was excellent and brought very quickly. Spicy Marguerita was very good.

The food is delicious but we booked a table, weren’t told upon booking it was a 90 min slot, and were asked to leave before we had finished eating as they needed the table for someone else. Service wasn’t fast so a 90 min slot was definitely unreasonable!

Small but cozy restaurant, rustic and street food in style. Make sure you get a table away from the door on cold days. Food was great, although a little disappointed there were no desert options, which would have finished the meal nicely.

Can’t fault - great food, really friendly staff. Went for an easy dinner and was mega impressed, good tunes / atmosphere

Great place to eat and not out of this world for price. Cocktails are worth checking out too.

Really poor Mexican food. Not nice fresh or tasty. Over salted mushed together meat in an over cooked taco. Rude male waiting staff who was at the door when we arrived slightly early. Basically told us to go away. When we came back on time for our table not one person acknowledged us for ten minutes. Food is very very poor for “Mexican” food. I honestly cannot see where the good reviews come from!!??

Tacos were great and people were really nice

Everything about our visit was great! The food was delicious, the recommendations from the servers were spot on and the atmosphere was fun. We visited for lunch so I’d like to go back and try this place in the evening. I’m not a huge tequila fan, but it was nice to try some as part of the experience. The drinks were on the expensive side but probably typical prices of any restaurant in Edinburgh. I’d definitely recommend El Cartel!

The food and drinks here were phenomenal. Tacos, in particular, were so fresh and mouth watering. The La Passionada cocktail was genuinely one of the nicest cocktails I've ever had and I'd go back just to get another one.

Awful experience! Staff were rude and the food was cold. They automatically add service when actually they do not deserve it. All our meat tacos were cold and just no flavour. Very disappointed unfortunately

Spent NYE dinner here with friends from outside the city and everyone was raving about the food, drink and atmosphere 🙌

healthy, delicious, fairly authentic Mexican cuisine taste (my guess), with upbeat background music to start our afternoons (opens at 12:00 noon, as of 2024 Jan)

We managed to get a table without booking as we decided to dine there on the spur of the moment. And what a fortuitous find it was. Amazing cocktails (the spicy margarita is lush) and fantastic tapas style small dishes to share. Of the 12 or so items we had, every one was great, I'd happily have several helpings of any one of them. The service was excellent and the place had a great vibe. Highly recommend.

Food wasn't as good as previous visits

We had three types of tacos and the bombas and everything was 10/10. Would come back in a heartbeat.

We love this place quick and delicious

I am from California. I know what good Mexican food is supposed to taste like. Who knew that I would find such wonderful Mexican food in Edinburgh? Alas, I found El Cartel on the last day of my trip or I would have gone back multiple times.

Excellent service, excellent food, superb tequila! Usually very busy but absolutely worth the wait

Brilliant food, got to try something new with every dish!

Instead of a traditional review, here are some quotes from the evening: "These are the best chicken wings I've ever tasted" "mmmmm" "If anyone visits me I'm going to take them here first chance I get" "Oh my that's good" "This taco is proof there is a God"

Been wanting to try for a while so while we through this way we decided to book. Not disappointed at all, the food was amazing! Wanted to try everything, it all sounded so good. The pork carnitas were delicious. Service was great, very friendly and a nice chilled atmosphere. Will def be back to try some other items on the menu.

The food was an absolute delight. We had pork ribs platter, tacos and some starters to share and it was plenty to feed the four of us. Every single meal was delicious and perfectly seasoned. Some of the flavours were complex with an initial mild taste followed by a deeper meat feel at the back of your mouth. Probably some of the best soft tacos I have had! The pork especially I was worried about being meat uninterrupted by any kind of veg to help it sit well but was pleasantly surprised to see it came with chips and some light complementary sides. The waiter took our order and everything came out correctly. It is worth noting that each meal came out as it was ready. This fashion worked perfectly for us as it meant we could eat our way round each dish.

Resto très sympa et cuisine dépaysante. Plutôt bon sans que ce soit extraordinaire non plus. Le service a été très chaleureux et nous avons été bien reçus.

One of the best restaurants we went to in Edinburgh! The pork ribs and duck carnitas were delicious with all the food tasting fresh. The servers were friendly and very accommodating too. We'll definitely be coming back on our next visit to Edinburgh!

Really disappointing experience overall, I had ordered champecano tacos and croquets. The croquets had raw potato within them, when the tacos came the chorizo was burned to a crisp. Unfortunately I had to leave the vast majority of my food. Having heard so many good things about the restaurant I was extremely disappointed in the quality of the food. We had to find another venue after we had left.

After hearing a lot of hype around the restaurant was really excited to try it! However really disappointed with the overall experience and won’t be returning. The food - we ordered a few planted arrived at different times (10 minutes apart) my tacos tasted burnt. The waitress was very rude/ abrupt in her approach in telling us we only had 20 mins left even though we had waited a while for our food. Really unpleasant experience and actually ruined a nice night I had a planned for my friend. It has been the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had from the food to the service.

Worse place to eat out, they serve horrendous meals. The Ribs are dry, the burgers are dry and the tacos are dry. I don’t recommend it for someone who enjoys good.

Incredibly authentic great tasting food. Delicious flavours, great atmosphere and incredible frozen margaritas.

Unfortunately we didn’t enjoy our meal here. The taco shells have a really odd taste which we didn’t like. And if you’ve ordered quite a few, your whole meal isn’t going to be great, which was a shame. We definitely won’t be back and wouldn’t recommend. There’s plenty great Mexican restaurants to choose from. This isn’t one of them. Staff and service were great though.

Yummy dishes and respectful service. We loved the spicy margarita, not to mention tacos, baby back ribs..

We came here as a party of 8 for a team lunch. The taco Tuesday deal was definitely worthwhile and our group really enjoyed the food overall as we got a selection of tacos as well as some sides. The portions were decent and we all enjoyed the special chimichurri steak taco. My only gripes about the meal were the corn tortillas and lack of tortilla chips. The tortillas were way too thick and many of them were cracked down the middle with craggily edges. I suspect the dough was underhydrated and not properly steamed. As a self-proclaimed "authentic" Mexican spot I'm a bit disappointed in the quality of such a central piece to Mexican cuisine

Great mexican food and a cozy vibe!

Honestly best tacos in Edinburgh

Great food, lovely service and the atmosphere really good too. I am a coeliac and need my food gluten free, this was no trouble and I was informed what I could have on the menu

We were so excited to try this place after being to the original Thistle Street location - but our experience was less than satisfactory. On arrival we were told there was no draft beer, this was fine. We then began ordering to be told that 3 of the dishes we’d ordered were unavailable because this was a “new menu”. Why bring a new menu out when you’re completely unprepared for it? We then ordered the salmon ceviche, to be told that it was a prawn ceviche instead. Again we said this was fine, five minutes later our server comes back to tell us that there was no prawns as they’d “forgotten to turn the fridges on” I’ve worked in hospitality for years and I would never say this to a customer. At this stage disappointed but our food had started arriving, we said we’d need a minute to decide on something else as pretty much everything else we had wanted was unavailable - the server never returned. no one came over to check on us or make sure the food was ok - it wasn’t. The fish was mushy and everything tasted a little stale and flavourless. The corn tortillas tasted off and nothing was particularly hot or cold. We asked for the bill to be presented it with a service charge which we thought was very cheeky given our experience. In the past working in various restaurants l I’ve always been taught to take the service charge off If there was any issues. It wasn’t even busy when we were here, 4 other tables and the staff stood around talking most of the time we were there.

Puiki aplinka. Geras aptarnavimas. Labai skanus maistas. Tiek užkandžiai, tiek pagrindiniai patiekalai. Didelė porcija.

Die Kellner sind alle sehr freundlich und fix. Die Drinks schmecken sehr gut. Die Küche ist offen, Kartenzahlung ist möglich.

The original El Cartel on Thistle Street was amazing - 10/10 good. While the Teviot restaurant is much better than the Roxburgh restaurant and they waiting staff were great… the quality of food has completely dropped off a cliff. Complacency perhaps? Regardless, the quality needs to be upped if they want to recapture their glory days.

Opción de comida mexicana muy recomendable. Los tacos de carnitas mis preferidos. Los topos del guacamole eran caseros. Las croquetas de patata rellena de queso también nos gustaron mucho. Muy recomendable!

Good and tasty food but found the menu a bit lacking for choice. It was saved by the jalapeño chicken wings which were on a daily special but they won’t be there everyday.

Great food. Excellent service. Tacos were amazing. They are very large and delicious.

Food was extremely bland- I don’t know how it was possible to make fish tacos taste like nothing, but they managed to! Everything just tasted like mush/blended into one flavour. Textures were also off, extremely stodgy, dense and dry. Squeezed the life out of the limes to save the food but still came to no avail. The dishes were quite literally a black hole for flavour. I’m genuinely astounded at the talent to make food so tasteless and lifeless. This truly felt like a waste of ingredients. I raised this with the waitress and she couldn’t have tried to be more unhelpful. She would have been more helpful if she were a brick wall. I found the atmosphere to be unwelcoming and very standoffish. This place is really offensive to Mexican food. It was like consuming drywall. Please avoid and save your money.

Terrible, if I could give less than 1 star I would! Its all hype don't waste your money. Had dinner with a colleague service was atrocious, 2 members of staff working on a quiet weekday only 5 other guests in the venue yet we struggled to get either to acknowledge us. The kitchen is open, and when our order was eventually placed there wasn't a chef there to make when they both re apeared 15mins later. The food was definitely not worth the wait bland, some items were not cooked correctly overall, disappointing. Wouldn't return or recommend.

The vibes were great and so was the food and drinks. Staff were very friendly and also added to the great vibe. Are the ribs and they were really good. Only kinda bad thing was that the toilet seat on the men’s toilet was broken but it was okay, still usable. Definitely recommend eating here !

Sadly very disappointing food. Tortilla chips and pico de gallo - chips tasteless, dip was a tiny sad portion of thin sauce. Obviously not freshly made and didn't resemble pico de gallo. Ordered bean tacos and the filling was bland. 1 hour 15 minute limit on table strange as the place was dead on a week night. It used to be impossible to get a table here, so I think that alone speaks volumes.

Two points reduction because of this: 1. Tortillas are absolutely tasteless. They are dry and because of this tacos fall apart as soon as you grab it. So this is impossible to eat tacos with hands. 2. Strange policies about dining. You have only 1 hour and 15 minutes for eating which is absolutely fine if you have a business lunch but not if you have dinner with your friends and you have a nice chat with them. We thought it was just a formality but in an hour we got a message that we have to leave this place in 10 minutes. 3. Prices. Tacos with tasteless tortillas and margaritas in a small glass - it is a little bit overpriced for this quality of food.

Very disappointed in my third visit. The food was great the last couple of times I had been. Sadly, everything changed! The tortilla quality was very bad. The carnitas and campechano tacos (which could be traditional Mexican tacos) are in fact coleslaw tacos with a bit of the main ingredient. We would never ever add coleslaw to those tacos except for the fish tacos and not in those amounts (yes, I’m Mexican). The cochinita and lengua tacos are no longer in the menu which were very good (and without coleslaw!). The salsa and refried beans used on chilaquiles were good but the tortilla chips were super thick and weren’t well fried so the texture was unpleasant. The house habanero and orange sauce was very good. I brought friends that hadn’t eaten here before, and I was very ashamed. This was the only Mexican place I recommended to local friends and colleagues, but I’ll stop doing it because the quality completely dropped.

Review by Mexicans and a Peruvian. Best coleslaw tacos we've ever tried (sarcasm). We heard that cochinita, lengua (tongue) and pastor tacos were quite good (maybe bring them back?). We were disappointed those are no longer part of the menu and we decided to try pork carnitas, campechano, fish tacos and chilaquiles. All the tacos were characterized by the overuse of coleslaw (which is only used in fish tacos in Mexico), which was solved by removing the coleslaw and adding salsa (the salsa was actually quite good). While the chilaquiles were not crunchy, the salsa and fried beans were quite good. My peruvian friend has not been to Mexico (yet), so he actually enjoyed the food.

Delicious Mexican food - spicy as it should be !! Nice cocktails !!

They serve delicious hamburgers but do not forget to have reservation!

Food was excellent. I recommend the chicken Tacos delicious. Staff really friendly and helpful too.

Food was absolutely delicious, get the pulled pork tacos. Definitely order 2 or 3 dishes like they suggest to feel full.

Very good Mexican in a lively area of Edinburgh. Food was great, and served quickly by friendly staff. Lots of bars around for a drink before or after.

What has happened to El Cartel? Granted, we visited last just under a year ago, but the food quality has plummeted. The sweet corn on cob is now canned corn in a bowl (mixed to a relative good flavour) the tacos themselves feel more like thin potato scones, but nothing tastes super fresh, garnished in coriander and spring onions in the hope that it will mask the fast cooking… it was disappointing at the least. I loved this place. LOVED, this place… I still dream of being able to make sweet corn on the cob the way they used to, the plantain chips with the guacamole were a total winner.. now they make their own corn chips, yeah, they’re good, but there’s something missing. They used to have amazingly tasty pomegranates and feta all the way… all of this is now gone.. food came out so quick… too quick.. perhaps it was waiting under a heat lamp ready to go, who knows, but it didn’t taste fresh or like quality ingredients because of this. We were hungry so we did eat. But the intention of our evening to spend some time together to hang out and chat was quashed by us just being shocked by the change in the quality of food. And yet the prices are the same, if not more pricey. We expect the prices increasing, it has been a year since our last visit after all, but not the downgrade in the quality. Service was great, the staff are lovely, however when we tried to ask and discuss the difference the response was something around the line of “the Edinburgh festival”… but it’s mid September now, it wasn’t too busy and I don’t know that even during the festival that that’s a reason for the impact on the change in the menu and food quality being so downgraded. We were left really disappointed and felt quite sad as this was a favourite restaurant of ours in Edinburgh for years… I will miss that sweet corn on the cob and those plantain chips forever. I do hope that it really is a temporary thing as El Cartel used to be a wonderful place to eat and drink.

Came in for an early dinner as we heard good things about the food. Prices were reasonable and the food was decent. The service, however, was appalling. Our server “John” was exceptionally rude. We haven’t experienced anything quite like that. Won’t be returning.

Lovely food and choice. Just be aware they don't take cash. Friendly staff and willing to help navigate the menu. The steak tacos were so tasty!!

We were after something light and delicious during our time in Edinburgh and El Cartel provided exactly that. Tom seated us straight away and was an amazing server the whole evening. The food came out very quick and every single meal was beyond delicious. We will be returning as soon as we are back in Edinburgh and will be recommending El Cartel to everyone! P.S The music choice was the cherry on top!

Visited today and will not come back. High prizes for small portions. Mocktail was a lot of water, Little Taste and in the End they tried to charge 3£ more. Food and Drink not at all authentic. We love mexican food But this was the worst experience.

Regulars at el cartel and the new menu is unreal the best food we’ve had in so long! Unreal! Our waitress as well Lizzie was lovely and friendly she was really welcoming and helpful!

So dissapointed with the food! Maybe they had an off day, but we had chicken wings, chicken tacos and fish tacos. I think they forgot to add seasoning. Really lacked any flavour, and some was just unpleasant. I had high hope for this place but nope, I don't get it. We went to another mexican place in town recently which completely blew this one away.

Great food. Very authentic. Much like the food I've actually had in Mexico.

Probably the worst meal out we have ever had. The tacos were gross, the tortilla was thick and stodgy, we ordered the steak tacos which were some weird meat blend of steak and chorizo it tasted like mush. We also got the jalapeño balls which were again like blended stodge. Both me and my husband agreed this is probably the worst meal out we have ever had possibly the worst meal ever. Would never go back here, there is way nicer restaurants in Edinburgh for Mexican food. Also expensive for what you get.

So sorry to say but I was hugely disappointed on my second visit to El Cartel. On our previous visit the food was varied, fresh, tasty and original. We especially fell in love with the delicious corn on the cob... that they used to do.. this year we were served canned corn in a spicy sauce... Really that's NOT the same. The chicken tacos I had were served with overly creamy coleslaw (when did coleslaw become a Mexican thing?!) and the chicken looked like omelette... The chicken wings were greasy and the sauce on them was sweet.. My husband didn't even eat one as he thought they smelled so off putting. We did tell our server that we didn't enjoy the food. At no point did someone come to talk to use about this. All in all I'm gutted. Adiós El Cartel. 😩

Waitress was a credit to company, Everything we needed she catered” lizzie “ , was so kind and educated about cocktails and tequila, I must say we will surely be back.

What a difference a year makes. Last year my starter was a delicious corn on the cob drizzled in salsa and crumbled goats cheese. This year it was half a tin of Jolly Green Giant in a red paste which smelled of feet. Last year the tacos were fresh and filled with zingy spice and stringy juicy chicken. This year it looked like wallpaper paste on a beer mat. However the beer was cold. But unfortunately so was the server. No discount for unhappy eaters. Go Somewhere Else

Empezamos hablando de los camareros porque son muy muy agradables. Una de las camareras nos ha estado explicando algunas zonas para visitar en la zona. También es de destacar la música, muy buena elección. Hablan inglés lógicamente y español e italiano perfectamente. Aunque nos dijeron que tardaríamos algo en entrar, fueron muy rápidos. También fueron muy rápidos en servirnos. La comida está muy buena. Las croquetas de queso tienen un sabor espectacular. La hamburguesa está riqquísima también. Los tacos muy buenos. Los jarritos son refrescos aptos para los niños y están muy buenos. ¡Muy recomendable! Te agradezco que pulses en "Útil" si te ha venido bien esta reseña y que sigas mis reseñas (pulsando en "seguir") si te parecen interesantes.

Always the best. All of it - awesome. Thank you for being amazing.

Two tacos for 8 pounds is criminal. No wonder it's named after a crime organisation

Great place to experience a different type of meal for Edinburgh with good drinks. Aaron was super nice and can make a wonderful margarita to order. Tacos and guacamole were good but I’m comparing them to Los Angeles so I can’t go full 5 stars.

Definitely deserves a 3.5 + . Much better that average but not a 4* “very good” (trip advisor definitely needs a middle option ) We all work in venues / bars / hotels and restaurants and this had been recommended by other hospitality pals . We couldn’t book so ventured between fringe shows . When I advised we wanted a table of 6 , we were met with “not a chance “ . If you can’t book and you don’t want bigger tables , maybe that needs to be advertised on the website ? We persisted and we’re happy to wait but when i asked if they’d rather us come back , we were told our table would be given away 🤷🏼‍♀️. It was merely a question as we were trying to ascertain what exactly they were asking us to do . We asked if we could order some drinks whilst we waited and this was organised (although they forgot one ) . We were sat super speedily and I have to say , the welcome , hospitality and service improved massively . I appreciate they’re super busy this time of year and it must be stressful . Once we were sat , we were told a wealth of the veggie options were sold out . We had two in our party and it would have been helpful to know in the queue whilst we were waiting . Food was delicious not not overly seasoned and we were charged for any additional sauces . I’d defo go again but with more managed expectations

Best Latino food in Edinburgh! 💯💯

Ça faisait longtemps que je cherchais un restaurant mexicain où on pouvait y manger des vrais tacos !! Les nachos sont maison 😍