El Nopal

Often reviews do not reflect the quality of the food. We go to restaurants to eat.

I've eating here a few times. To their credit, they have homemade sauces and try to strike a somewhat skewed  balance between Mexican and norteamericano Mexican food.

It's a chain restaurant. They serve what Columbus people want to eat. If the people wanted great authentic Mexican food, no problem, but that formula does not work in town.  

Service is the least important part of any review.

Really!? Service?

We're all out here desperately trying to find a restaurant that serves freshly prepared foods in a restaurant culture proliferated with boxed, factory produced un-foods.

In Columbus, other than fresh hamburgers downtown, Mexican restaurants (by the nature of the food) offer up your best bet of finding unprocessed food - Simple Carne Asada with cilantro and onions.  

Anytime a meal, actually prepared from scratch, comes out of a restaurant kitchen we're thinking it's a great start. We'll work on the wait staff later.  

If you're eating and don't like the service, get up from your fat behind, grab a waiter, go to the kitchen, talk to a manager. Do it with a wide smile, but get 'er done.

The wait staff is in an impossible no win position. Serving food they have zero control over, hurried by management to, "Do more!" and in the customer's eyes, responsible for everything.

And guess who pays their salary?

Service is the easiest thing to fix in a restaurant so quit frowning and picking on the wait staff.

Also.. learn about empathy: <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefreedictionary.com%2Fempathy&s=6c14a5b94cf89bb8c394f948d4bc312ad008bd62c8106bef30da078214471147" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.thefreedictio…</a>

Excellent Mexican food in the middle of the heartland. authentic steaks and fajitas with especially fresh salsa. Their "green salsa" made of green tomatios and Jalapenos was out of this world.  Very affordable pricing and good service. We were concerned that some of the previous patrons had not rated them so high but  they must have improved a lot. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Excellent food and a great value!  I had the special plate which had a chalupa, taco, burrito, chile relleno, and also included beans and rice.  I couldn't believe when it came out. It was so much food that it took three plates.  This is for serious eaters only.  I easily split it in to 2 meals. I highly recommend El Nopal.