el cortez mexican kitchen + tequila bar

came for a friend's birthday, we had the entire basement to accommodate our large group. it's quite a large space that you can reserve until 9pm when it opens to the public. the décor is pretty cool, dawn of the dead theme, neon signs, and graffiti like artwork. the chairs might have added to the theme but were very uncomfortable. the service wasgoodconsidering everyone was ordering food and drinks sporadically.

the food: we had 3 or 4 orders of guacamole, it's $12 per but you get quite a lot of it. chips that came with were good, crispy not greasy. unfortunately the guac was as quite acidic so i wouldn't reccomend unless you really like lime.
most everyone oredered tacos afterwards, i had the chance to try the cinnamon braised pork and the coconut pescado. the pork was tender and had alot of cinnamon flavour but that's all you could taste, the corn salsa was lost. the fish tacos were better but very messy, they loaded the sauce on thick which made the tortillas quite soggy. the fish was cooked well but the portion sizes were horrendously varried between the two tacos. one could hardly fit in the tortilla where as the other was hardly the size of a fish stick.

the drinks: they have a large selection of tequila to which the servers are very familiar with (they can tell you all about the agave and how long each is aged etc.)
margarita's were basically just tequila and whole lot of lime juice, definitely not worth the $12. i'd suggest trying some tequilas and washing down with a mexican beer, avoid the cocktails.

if you're looking for authentic mexican this is not the place to be, honestly i wouldn't return unless it was for a group event again and just grab some food from a nearby restaurant before hand.

el cortez, a mexican restaurant just off of whyte ave, has invited me to join their cinco de mayo celebrations on may 5. it was quite a coincidence actually, as i had just dined there the week before. at the time, i did notice the food was a bit different. it turns out the restaurant has just released a new food menu, as well as a reinvented craft cocktail menu (based on tequilas of course, since el cortez is a tequila bar). and this cinco de mayo event was the perfect chance to showcase the new offerings. it was a bit cold that evening, and as the event was held outside in the patio, i was pleased to find that the heat was on and blankets had been thoughtfully laid out for guests. on one side of the patio, staff from calgary's rodney's oyster house were busy shucking away for agoodportion of the evening. the el cortez folk really know how to throw a party. all-you-can-eat raw oysters? i'm in. i didn't realize how much i missed rodney's , or anygoodoyster place really. there is definitely a shortage of oyster bars in edmonton. west coast - smaller but sweet, the more popular choice east coast - fat and juicy, but more brine in addition to raw oysters, there were also free cigars. my friend convinced me to try it, but can't say i'm hooked. as the early comers sat and indulged in oysters and cigars, the appetizers started making their rounds. the first was ceviche, with a choice of tuna or swordfish. i found the tuna too mushy, but the swordfish was nice and firm withgoodflavour and a complementing accompaniment of avocado and tomatoes. next up were spicy chorizo meatballs and pork tenderloin served with salsa. el cortez did agoodjob with the sauces and seasoning. flavours were intense, but not overwhelmingly so. tacos are usually the main focus of a mexican restaurant, and el cortez serves up a variety of different fillings. i tried the beef and fish, and as previously mentioned, the meat was seasoned perfectly with just the right amount of sauce and garnishe

a couple of weeks ago, i went to el cortez for the first time and was really impressed! i had heard reallygoodthings about el cortez from a few of my friends, and when i was lucky enough to be invited to their cinco de mayo party, i was definitely interested!. el cortez is small building right off whyte. it offers a mexican kitchen and tequila bar. they specialize in modern latin food and tequila. chef lindsay porter has created a menu which encompasses everything from tapas, to latin entrées, to gourmet street foods & tacos, to nuevo latino fusion dishes. interesting fact : they are one of only 9 establishments in the world certified by the consejo regulador del tequila (the tequila regulatory council)!

great service, enjoyable atmosphere and flavorful food. a bit cold in the booth by the back door in winter, and kitchen ran a bit long for our mains after the appieswere served, but we had agoodtime and enjoyed our experience. again, great service!

first time dining here. we chose this place because of their dog friendly patio - we had just attended the art walk and decided to go for a bite.

venue: interesting venue. interior is very nice. the back patio is eclectic with loads of space andgoodshade.

staff: ok, this is where they lost points. when we arrived at the front there was a family or 3 waiting ahead of us and they said they had been waiting a long while and no one came to greet them. we all continued to wait a while before anyone came. both parties requested to be seated in the back patio so the waitress said we had to go around to the back. so back out and around the building we went where we waited. and waited. and waited. and waited... the hostess never came to meet us to let us in like she said. several servers saw us, made eye contact but didn’t come over. finally a customer seated close to the door popped the gate open because he saw us waiting and waiting and felt sorry of us. we seated ourselves and a waitress came over to finally serve us

food: seriously one of the most delicious meals i’ve had in yeg. because it was our first time we decided to order a variety of appetizers to share and they were all delicious. so many flavours and not the tired, reused and abused dishes you see at the big chains. eat here.

went for taco tuesday and loved it! the pork carnitas were delicious and the tres leches was sogoodi’m still thinking about it. i honestly can’t wait to go back

my dinner club went here at the end of october for our day of the dead themed meeting. the decor was perfect...skulls and creepy stairway to bathrooms.

our server was friendly and helpful...got the first to arrive early into the happy hour treats (drinks and chips etc.). strange collage of movie clips played on the wall throughout the night...not sure what that was about.

food was delicious but perhaps a bit overpriced for the sizes. also, it’s too bad you can’t mix and match taco flavours. fortunately i shared with a friend so we ordered two different tacos and swapped to be able to try more than one.

first appetizers: the homemade chips (both corn and potato) were delicious. my friends wished there were a bit more potato ones thrown in the mix. the guacamole wasgoodas was the pico de gallo.

drinks: i had an original margarita which was lovely. not in the standard large rimmed glass though. then i opted for a beer for a cheaper price tag (i can’t recall the name). one friend bought tequila shots for the non drivers. fortunately i still had my margarita glass and used that lime and salt from my rim...i don’t like tequila shots with the standard salt lime which wasn’t given.

starters: the mexicali poutine wasgoodbut not really poutine as it was basically just potato chunks. the valentina’s fried cauliflower with aji aioli dip was fantastic...my kids might even eat vegetables if served this way.

tacos: my friend and i shared the arrachera steak taco and the bulgogi steak. both were tasty but my favourite was the bulgogi, with lovely tangy picked cabbage, a subtle sesame flavour and excellent bbq aioli.

dessert: not many wanted dessert but enough did (including me) to order one serving of churros with warm caramel sauce. i’ve actually never had churros before so i can’t compare to other places but these were warm, doughy and sugary...yum!

very disappointed. had heardgoodthings and thought it was worth trying, but we were not at all impressed.  the music in the restaurant (more like a bar as another reviewer pointed out) was loud enough to make conversation difficult so we sat on the patio. the service was excellent, but the food was sub par. i had the pork enchilada. the mole sauce was lacking flavor, as was the pork itself. the bean side was very dry, as though it had been made a day or two before and rewarmed and the rice was almost tasteless. my wife had the grilled pescado tacos. our guest had the grilled baked vegetable quesadillas. our server highly recommended the house made tacos so both went with those. the tacos were undercooked and tasteless. our guest, while too polite to say anything, barely touched her tacos and only had the filling. my wife advised the taco fillings were average at best. 

we have had far better at many other mexican restaurants and will not be back.

we stopped in for fathers day afternoon, décor very nice, service wasgoodmenu was disappointing. my wife had the taco salad lots of stuff but little lettuce. i had the pork enchilados nice flavor  for the price the portions as on the small side  again this is not a traditional mexican eatery thus i was a bit disappointed - if you wish to drink the bar looks very nice and stocked !  the red light in the men's bathroom was odd - i believe there are better choices in edmonton for mexican food. if you looking for a "cool" place to hang out off of whyte this is your place to drink.

really cool atmosphere.gooddrinks. food was tasty and fresh but portion could have been a bit bigger. i will definitely be back to try more food and more margarita

service was great, but food was either awful and ridiculously overpriced or decent but still priced its weight in gold. if you're happy to spend a lot on a semi decent whyte ave mexican meal, the decor and atmosphere are awesome and happy hour beers are agoodvalue. its definitely a better experience than it's even worse counterpart, julios. if you'd rather something higher quality, opt for one of the city's more authentic mexican/latin american places further off the beaten track..

between rave reviews from the foodie community, line ups down the street to get in, their t certification from the tequila regulatory council, and their infamous chef lindsay porter (one of only a handful of women executive chefs in the city), i've been dying to try el cortez for quite some time. i finally made it there for my birthday with craig and somegoodfriends: aaron, amber, rob, and stacey.

this place is amazing. the cocktail menu is delicious and always does the job. the food is always reallygoodand very visually pleasing. you always leave more than satiated. one downside is that it is a bit pricey, but to be fair they are using high end ingredients and top shelf liquor. we always take family and friends to this place when we have visitors.

this place has a lot of improvements. my girlfriend and i went on a monday which is margarita day and had no slush. the food was ok, we had the queso dip which was alright. the dip wasgoodbut the bbq chips werent that great. we had all the add ons with the chicken tacos and steak tacos. steak tacos were awesome, well balanced flavor and very tasty. the chicken on the other hand was very very bland. no seasoning or marinade. needs a lot of improvement. the drinks are very pricey for what you get, i do like that they squeeze their own juice for the drinks but still could be cheaper or add more alcohol. the decor seems very random and looks like something you would see in the slums of mexico. very random graffiti and the bar stools were so uncomfortable specially for my girlfriend who couldn't even reach the bar on the stool for her feet. i really thought they would have had killer food and drinks considering they are up against julios barrio whose food is alwaysgoodand have a variety of drinks. on another note, the hostess was using her cell phone while up front. this to me seems very unprofessional and rude to guests. i really hope they work out these little problems cause it is a trendy place and would be awesome to go chill out with friends for drinks and food, but for now i wouldn't go back again.

extremely disappointed. i really wanted to love this place. my fiancé and i are huge foodies. i would rate our experience a -5 on here if i could. after hearing all the hype and our love for mexican we decided to stop in on a saturday. it was fairly busy in there but we only waited roughly 10 minutes for a table. our server seemed sweet but it went down hill from there.
i would like to note i worked in the service industry for 6 years, so i am very easy on servers.
1. it took 10 minutes to even be greeted by our server.
2. once we ordered our drinks (2 lime margaritas) it took 15 minutes to get them. once she brought them she only brought one lime and some pink drink. obviously i sent it back because i ordered a lime margarita. we also placed an order for our second round of drinks because we were hesitant it would take a long time to get them again.
3. we ordered our food. our food came... and yet my lime margarita no where in site....
4. we had no utensils for our food we had to wait another 5 minutes for those.
5. half way through our meals. she informs me my lime margarita is on its way... so at this point we are 40 minutes into our dinner and i still don't have a drink. my fiancé has been done his for about 10 minutes.
6. finish our meals and still no drink. we stop her as she's rushing around and tell her to cancel my drink and the additional two other drinks. and to get us our bill.
7. took her 15 minutes to get us our bill.
8. all together we spent just over an hour in there waiting for a lime margarita.(not even blended)

worst experience i have ever had in my life. i've had better service at mcdonald's. i will say the food wasgoodbut the portions are extremely small for their price point considering this is more of a bar style restaurant than high end.

either the management needs to bite the bullet and hire more staff or have a better training system intact. anything longer than a 10 minute wait for a drink is a sign of poor bartending or lack of time management.

also as a server when you royally s*** the bed be apologetic to your customers. and send over a manager to explain the situation or anything of that matter. maybe if someone that worked there cared i would have given this place a second chance.

i would rather spend my money else where and i will be sure to make sure i tell everyone to do the same.

update*** i decided to give this place a second chance during a girls night out. the bartenders were awesome this time around and i enjoyed my time there. i have increased the review because i think this place is better suited for drinking with friends verses having dinner.