El Chicos Mexican Cantina in Lambeth

As we got there for an early dinner, the restaurant was empty, but it started to fill up and the staff were friendly and welcoming. We asked for recommendations and the waitress knew the menu well, my friend had allergies and she was confident with managing her requests. The cocktails were lovely and there was special offer on cockatiels. We ordered the whole seabass, it was lovely and fresh and hot and cooked well. Was really impressed by the food and service and we would definitely go back. One other thing aswell, they didn’t add a service gratitude on the receipt, but there is a jar on the bar to leave tips, so I’m glad I had some cash to give them a tip, as they deserved it!

Terrible smell inside, toilette unclean, food with no taste and NOT MEXICAN AT ALL! Avoid! 110 £ (4 people) wasted and the worst work lunch ever. Belly pain for several hours.

Worst restaurant in Streatham. Waitress didn’t understand our order. Starters and mains all came out together and rather tried to blame it on computer Food ULTRA salty and tasteless. Manager or person in charge on the floor very rude, no customer service.

We came here for Mothers Day. The staff took over 10 minutes to bring out drinks mind you there was only 2 tables occupied. They didn’t have some of the items on the menu. I wish they would of said when we ordered as we had to wait even longer for food to come out as it took them at least 20-30 minutes to tell us they didn’t have item on stock. Starters came out with the main. I wouldn’t visit again. Very slow service.

Big fan of El Chicos, consistently good food, and a fun evening out in Streatham. The German host Litza was friendly, attentive and helpful! Thank you.

Sami and Alper, absolute gentlemen and stars. Thank you for your generosity and wonderful food. We were honoured for you to provide food and drink at Eric's funeral. Eric would have loved it !! Salute

We really enjoyed it and Marta was a great waiter - thanks for the great service! Only down size was the amount of sour cream and guacamole they give is quite small so you’ll probably have to ask/pay for more. Also the drinks are really strong - almost undrinkable lol but got us quite drunk so better than being weak!

Great evening at El Chicos! Recently moved to Streatham and asked a local friend for dinner recommendations - they suggested here, and it did not disappoint. Great cocktails, great customer service and delicious food! Martha was our fab server - giving great customer service - and Saul was mixing up the delicious cocktails on the bar - passion fruit marg is a must! Really fun evening, will be back!

Amazing food, beautiful flavours. The cocktails were tasty, the wine was zesty, and everything came in good time. Would go again in a heartbeat.

Restaurant is colourful and has typical Mexican vibe decor. The restaurant has a couple of tables on the street, they appear to be following guidelines on covid so staff wear masks, sanitiser and taking log of customer name and number. There is no plastic frames as in other restaurants but they have separated tables and I assume serve less customers now. It was a Friday night that was a girls night. The restaurant was full but it seemed to be that they where short of staff as the food and drinks took time to come. Even though we waited for food and drinks but when it came the food was so tasty but the cocktails was the best. We enjoyed all the cocktails. The bar where the cocktails was being made all the empty glasses was just piling up all night. Again I think due to minimal serving staff. Even though they appeared short staff the staff was still very friendly and welcoming, the last cocktails of the night was in plastic cups due to the 10pm closing time and they gave lids for the cups so easily able to take away the cocktails. Overall a good night.

I was helped by all members of staff who adds all kind and caring people. Drinks were also delicious!

I ordered fajitas and was delight with food size and taste. Staff was friendly and place clean and nice .

When I first moved to Streatham this place was a go-to for me. I loved the loaded nachos and it was pretty much a staple. I don’t know what’s happened this year though. The past 2 times I’ve had food there I’ve come home with a VERY upset stomach. The first time it happened I thought that it was just a one-off, that it was the funny tasting cherry I’d had in my dessert. But earlier today I had my trusty nachos again - nothing else except a mojito (which was very nice) - and halfway home I became desperate for the loo. Not a one-off, now. And didn’t help that my friend is also experiencing the same right now which is a shame because I told him it was lovely. Regret it. And regrettably, I won’t be returning...

We came here today for dinner, staff seemed rather busy and it took us about half an hour to actually order our food, but after that it was fairly quick. We had a few different dishes, one of which vegan. Special requests for spicy chipotle sauce were accepted but forgotten. A bit disappointing that they weren't able to give us a bit of chipotle sauce on the side. The iced tea we ordered wasn't cold at all. Other than that the food was tasty and the staff was friendly. Would consider coming again, perhaps at a less busy time.

AVOID AVOID AVOID. truly the most overpriced and disgusting food I have ever seen and tasted. This not, and I repeat not, Mexican food. We may as well set fire to £40.

Got the £20 BBQ family bundle and a chicken burrito. It arrived incredibly quickly. The ‘bundle’ - a half-rack of ribs, three chicken wings and nachos - were actually really nice and flavoursome but not enough for two people as described. There was supposed to...

We ordered the 4 person fiesta bundle and were missing the fajitas, quesadillas and drinks. We got one extra burrito which was maybe meant to replace the forgotten fajitas? So between 4 people we had 2 burritos, 2 tacos and some flatbread. Absolutely not enough...

Not overly impressed. Food just ok. Warmed up rather than freshly cooked.Price quite high.Nice cocktail but overall not great value or quality of food.

O melhor restaurante de Streatham, muitas opções de pratos para entradas e principais. As fajitas e buritos pra mim são...

Great little find, small enough to be cosy yet able to accommodate large groups too! This is due to El Chico's effective approach dividing the space 2 thirds one area main dining area and the other third a pop up party area. Great staff, delicious...

AMAZING! I have just hosted my sister’s birthday meal, for our friends and family, at El Chicos. It was perfect. The food was great and the staff were fantastic. Thanks for helping to make her birthday such a special occasion.

We went to El Chicos to celebrate my brother's birthday. It's a nice family friendly restaurant and the food is ok. I would say the prawns that my Dad ordered was better than the BBQ ribs and wings, they had more flavour, so I'd recommend...

Mi pareja y yo fuimos aquí un jueves por la noche después de haber visto su oferta anunciada de Date Night de 2 platos principales y 2 cócteles por 30. ¡Excelente! O eso pensamos. Llegamos allí, con un gran cartel en la puerta anunciando la oferta nuevamente "Noche de citas - 2 platos principales, 2 cócteles - 30" con la letra pequeña en la parte inferior que decía "Excluye los platos de carne y langostinos" Genial. Nos llevaron a una mesa y nos dieron 2 menús: 1 para bebidas y 1 para comida. Ninguna mención de la oferta suponía tan comprensiblemente que cubriera todos los platos principales del menú, excepto el filete y el langostino, como se indica claramente en el cartel. Cada uno de nosotros elegimos enchiladas. En el menú de cócteles, todos tenían un precio similar, aparte de una sección Ejecutiva, que era más costosa, por lo que asumimos que no estaban incluidos en la oferta, ya que cuando estuvimos en la hora feliz tampoco formaban parte de ese acuerdo. Aún genial También pedimos nachos clásicos, como extra.La comida era deliciosa como siempre, no me puedo quejar en absoluto, y los cócteles estaban bien hechos también. El problema era la factura. Teniendo en cuenta que habíamos ido allí específicamente para una cita nocturna y solo habíamos anticipado un billete de 36 (incluidos los nachos que pedimos extra) ¡imaginen nuestra sorpresa cuando se nos presenta un 55! ! WTF! ! Cuando consultamos esto, en relación con la oferta bien anunciada de Date Night, se nos presentó un menú fijo aparentemente secreto y nunca antes visto que necesitábamos saber para pedir para obtener esta oferta. No se mencionó este menú fijo en ninguna parte de la publicidad, ninguna mención del personal y, de hecho, cuando nos sentamos nos dieron lo que obviamente presumiríamos que eran los menús correctos para la noche, que eran los menús estándar. No es genial Y no solo eso, a pesar del hecho de que nuestras opciones de menú tenían un precio similar a las opciones limitadas en el menú fijo, no ofrecieron igualar la oferta de Date Night en esta ocasión, ya que no es culpa nuestra. no había ordenado desde el aparentemente oculto menú separado.A pesar de haber sido una velada muy agradable hasta entonces, nos fuimos decepcionados y con un sabor muy amargo en la boca. Y billeteras considerablemente más ligeras.

Well, we kinda cheated on this one seeing as El translates to 'The' but anyway..! As usual we visited on a Friday evening just in time for happy hour. Really nice staff although they weren't all familiar with the menu but they were attentive and...

The food here was amazing the staff was very friendly and helpful my children also loved the food we absolutely loved visiting here

Terrible service Tasteless food Not a good place to go out to Very disappointed we were Asked to see someone from the management and no one came and obviously got the bill to pay for something that was very bad

I went to this restaraunt with my friend and asked for a vegan menu. I ordered vegan nachos and my friend ordered beef tacos. she received tacos with cheese and veg, no meat, and i believed i was eating jackfruit. However when i received the...

Staff were really welcoming and friendly, the ribs were amazing and extremely tender. Chicken wings were also extremely nice.

This is our third visit in the last few months. The food was delicious & the service was perfect. Our server was constantly on the look out around the restaurant for low drinks etc. The manager brought us over some complimentary shots. We had a...

Randomly stumbled upon this place and the reviews were quite good so gave it a try. We ordered 2 burritos which tasted nice but everything other than the meat was outside the actual burrito which I have never had before and found quite strange. So...

Went back by chance last week having moved out from Streatham years ago. It is still as good as I remember. Good sized portions and very tasty. They didn’t have some ingredients which shows the food is fresh and made to order. Very accommodating with...

Fantastic food, amazing service everyone always happy and smiling. I had a Baby chicken and was delicious with a couple of drinks (long beach ice tea and tequila sunset) really good was the best drinks i ever had ✨

Had a really great evening here as part of a group. Food was really great. Definitely go for the combo fajita and ribs. Cocktails were plentiful anddelicious. The service prompt and professional. Will be back.

Makanan semua enak dan lezat, koktailnya enak segar berasa nikmat. Suasana romantis cocok bersama pasangan.

Food tastes like its been reheated in a microwave. Music played at ear-splitting levels even on a week night. Awful.

Great selection of Mexican dishes to choose from. When the food arrived it was delicious and well presented. The perfect amount for both of us. The service was friendly and attentive with a great salsa soundtrack playing in the background to give the place a great ambience despite being fairly quiet mid week.

To find a good quality Mexican in London is something of a rarity, whether its because of the chains slopping out frozen pre cooked dishes made in factories or independents that just don't "get it". How surprised was i then that a friends recommendation took me to this quite excellent Mexican in the concrete bliss that is Streatham High Road! It is a deceptively big restaurant/bar as its divided into two large dining areas and a sofa lounge, apparently so you can choose from the louder party section or the cosier, quieter section. When we arrived with my friend, it was extremely busy but also the atmosphere was electric, so we didn't mind waiting in the lounge with a few (exceptionally made) mojitos. One thing I noticed and loved was the fact that the place was full of a varied demography of people, all happy and smiling - good to see that the media hype of south London being moody was up in the air! We ordered the BBQ Chicken Nachos to share which was so yummy with blue cheese that we had to remind ourselves not to order another as we had our mains coming! We both ordered fajitas and they arrived delightfully sizzling (well more like an inferno) to our table - a small factor but a big one, if you come to a Mexican you need flavours and drama and the rest. This did not disappoint one bit, meat perfectly seasoned with al dente onions and peppers underneath - so often oily, burnt and revolting in other places i have tried fajitas. One very small thing i should point out, which for me was a BIGGIE was that the guacamole and salsa were homemade, the only other mexican that does this is Wahaca in central London. It probably costs them more to make it but the devil really is in the detail.We rounded off our night with a couple of sumptuously decorated dessert cocktails at the bar, watching the world go by whilst occasionally having a chat with the friendly staff. Even at 1am, there was still a lot of people in, but alas at my age i thought I best leave it to those that can cope with hangovers!All in all, an exceptional experience and one I'm going to go back to very soon. Keep up the good work guys and I'm looking forward to discovering more gems in the Streatham area if this is anything to go by!

-the pork was overcooked and hard. the barbeque sauce was sickening. salad was just plain without taste. the menu was sticky. water was straight from the tap. tables are tiny. it got so dark I could barely see my food. the waitress could not understand us. -cocktail and chips were good. girl on the table next to us only tried the fajitas and discarded. check your bill! ours was a tenner over. I don't know what kind of people enjoy this place, unless the other reviews are written by the owner. disaster.