El Norte Lounge

Appearances can be deceiving.

I had passed by El Norte several times on LCW and thought it just looked creepy. It does look shabby and like a total dive from the street. Nothing wrong with that but there was nothing that compelled me to stop in either.

I was a bit surprised to see the 4 1/2 star average on Yelp and thought it was worth checking out.

The lovely Necia and I decided to give it a try and we were very pleased and impressed!

They have a nice patio set up out back and our server/bartender was charming. We really liked him and he obviously took pride in delivering excellent drinks and good service.

The drinks are very tasty, well made, and cheap.

The house margarita was $4.54 (weird price) made with Sauza Gold and it was good!

I tried the Chambord margarita ($6) which the bartender warned me may be too sweet. Turned out he was right. He was very nice and let me pick a different drink. He made me a concoction of juices, orange bitters, gin, and sprigs of mint and it was very tasty!

The drinks were sufficiently boozy.

We ordered the carnitas quesadilla  per our server's recommendation. It came with 3 quesadillas, a side of black beans, and salsa. I thought it was quite good and I wouldn't hesitate to order it again. It looks like they have a nice menu of Mexican dishes here.

Crowd was more towards the middle aged crowd but it could be different on weekends. A live band started up later on in the evening.

I was really feeling this place! Can't wait to go back and try more drinks. It was $25 for 3 cocktails and the appetizer before tip. Not bad at all! I plan to be back very soon.

The atmosphere is weird. I'm all about dive bars and cheap food, but this place is dirty and kind of expensive. Plus, NO HAPPY HOUR! I ordered a fresh mint mojito, which was weak and the mint was dirty. Like rub the mud off onto your finger from the mint leaf, dirty. We were a party of 4, the only people in there, and the service was SLOW. The food was ok. We were told to try the crab stuffed avocado and the queso fondito. The crab dish was okay, but the fondito was just a bowl of cheese with a nice thick layer of grease and some "chorizo?"  Not much in the way of beer. There was a guy setting up for music. He acted like he really didn't want to be there and was slamming the equipment down, talking loudly on his phone, and looking at us like we should leave. The waiter was nice.  There are way better mexican food places in this city.

Do not be alarmed by the appearance!  The first time I came here with a friend (a bunch of us were meeting here), we stopped at the sight of this place, hesitated to go in. What a dive! (just the outside appearance!!) step in for a pleasant surprise. A nice bar, lounge is a nice wood floor dance space. Live music is always nice. Because of the wood floor and all, the live music sound isn't exactly warm, but, hey, it's a bar after all.  I hear that the place us owned by the sane folks who operate Mr. Villa restaurant, evident once you taste their food. I had a nice plate of seviche. Also, my favorite is a dish with halved avocado stuffed with shrimp, tomato and cheese and baked. Yum.  Very good, and the price was reasonable. Fun atmosphere, friendly crowd and staff. A fine neighborhood hangout!