El Dorado

Sycamore Mall, Iowa City
February 2011

I have been to this Mexican restaurant once before, and I wasn't too impressed. But, we were going to a movie at Sycamore and I had a coupon to use, so we gave it another shot. One bonus is that you can choose to sit at tables in the middle of the mall, and people-watch while you eat! But we chose to eat in the restaurant.
The coupon was for 2 combination dinners for $10.99, a pretty good deal. The problem was that the cheese enchilada came with some kind of liquidy cheese, that I wouldn't really classify as "cheese". The bean burrito was just that, beans. Why don't they add some lettuce and tomato?! And the hard shell taco was the best thing on the plate, which is to say it was your typical hard shell taco. If I have to go back (after all, your dining choices in the mall are El Dorado, Pizza Ranch, Panera and Dairy Queen) I would just get hard shell tacos.
The margaritas are decent for $2.50. They don't pack the punch that Los Portales margaritas do, but they also seem to be better quality.
The atmosphere is colorful and fun, but the sports tvs take away from that.
With the free chips and salsa, this is a meal that will make you, possibly uncomfortably, full and with the ValuPak coupon, 2 meals + 1 margarita = $14!
You get what you pay for.