El Chico

[FighttheGoodFight]

Not any more as of last Sunday... they've apparently closed with no plans to reopen in Quail Springs. The one in Norman is the closest open one now.

The funny thing is, the Norman location in the mall is always packed at lunch and dinner. Like a line waiting around the mall to get in.

[soonerguru]

Is El Chico yet another restaurant ruined by hedge fund ownership? It used to be very good Tex-Mex. Not surprised to hear about the Quail Springs closure; I finally visited that location a couple of months ago and it was not good. The Norman one has always been reliable.

[BoulderSooner]

Is El Chico yet another restaurant ruined by hedge fund ownership? It used to be very good Tex-Mex. Not surprised to hear about the Quail Springs closure; I finally visited that location a couple of months ago and it was not good. The Norman one has always been reliable.

el chico has never been "very good"

[soonerguru]

el chico has never been "very good"

Wrong. You're too young to remember when it was a family-owned regional chain. It was very good Tex-Mex at one time, before the family sold it.

[jerrywall]

Wrong. You're too young to remember when it was a family-owned regional chain. It was very good Tex-Mex at one time, before the family sold it.

Agreed. Until Pepe opened up his restaurant in Edmond, I grew up eating at El Chico weekly with my extended family. I'm not blind that there's some nostalgia, but I can say El Chico now is significantly different than it was then.

[Bullbear]

Agreed on the change.. it use to be great Tex-mex.. I miss that El chico.

[Rover]

I don't think it is that El Chico changed, but that it didn't change. When they first were popular there was very little commercial TexMex to compare it with. Now, there is all kinds of adapted and improved offerings here in OKC and elsewhere. Comparatively, El Chico is the same basic food with commercial ingredients it has always been.

[jn1780]

I don't about taste, but service wise, The El Chico at Quail always had bad service like a lot of other places along Memorial. Can't find good servers.

[BoulderSooner]

I don't think it is that El Chico changed, but that it didn't change. When they first were popular there was very little commercial TexMex to compare it with. Now, there is all kinds of adapted and improved offerings here in OKC and elsewhere. Comparatively, El Chico is the same basic food with commercial ingredients it has always been.

i think this is spot on

[jerrywall]

I disagree, and I think it's unfairly harsh. They may seem basic because they pretty much defined the space, and every one else has been building off El Chico's brand of tex mex. But in their heyday they were catering events for royalty and at the White House. They've changed hands half a dozen time, and I've seen their quality take wide swings in that time period (I can remember when the salsa suddenly was different). So yeah, there is nostalgia, but there are differences, and honestly, when you've got 75 years of history, and multiple ownership and management changes, to think they were the same through all that would be absurd.

Now, if someone's first experience with El Chico was at a mall in the late 80's or 90's, then yeah, that feels like forever ago, and that would definitely taint my impression downwards.

[Rover]

Here's a short history of the El Chico brand that was done by D magazine. https://www.dmagazine.com/publicatio...-and-el-chico/

They did pioneer the space, that much is true, but to say to ignore the last 50 or so years of a 75 year history is denying the reality is they are basically the same or worse food than they've been for half a century while the genre has passed them by. I doubt many here in OKC or outside of Dallas have ANY recollection of El Chico in the "good ole days" of the 40s and 50s. If you are an octogenarian, maybe. Otherwise, for our lifetime they have been serving the same basic menu without distinction. It has been known as a price alternative for quite awhile. Biggest draw was always $4 enchilada Thursdays.

[soonerguru]

I don't think it is that El Chico changed, but that it didn't change. When they first were popular there was very little commercial TexMex to compare it with. Now, there is all kinds of adapted and improved offerings here in OKC and elsewhere. Comparatively, El Chico is the same basic food with commercial ingredients it has always been.

The quality noticeably declined overall. The one in Sooner Mall in Norman is fairly decent.