El Vaquero Authentic Mexican - Joplin

This place has closed down. Looks emptied and no lights on grass is unkept

Food was terrible and the staff was bad at their job and very pushy.

They have a sign saying they are shorted staffed (and to be nice to the wait staff) when you walk in and that should have been my first clue. I didn’t realize that was for the kitchen too. Went for lunch today, took 40 minutes to get our food (just 2 of us) I asked for beans instead of rice and got neither, my friend ask for no green sauce but it had green sauce. Won’t be back, especially since we don’t have these problems at the other Mexican restaurants in town!

It has been about 18 months since I last visited, so upon hearing the food tasted better and the menu prices were more reasonable, I tried El Vaquero one more time. It was 6 PM. on a Friday night and not crowded at all. Upon entering, my attention was immediately drawn to an outlet, protruding from the wall. As well as the outdated decor and the darkness of the foyer. We opted for a booth. As we were guided to our booth, we passed a different booth with torn seat cushions, a laptop and what appeared to be financial documents just laying there. We were seated, drinks ordered, we waited about 10 minutes before a lady took our order. It looked like she was the only waitress working. 10 minutes later, she took our food order. The food arrived, approximately 13-15 min later. Our party of three did enjoy our entrees, but lacked in getting drink refills. No go boxes, as the portions were satisfying. As we got up to leave, we noticed there was a closet with no door, and in it was a little boy playing video games. He actually startled us, as we did not see him when we arrived. The women 's restroom had a leaking toilet, water was all over the floor, no toilet paper in one stall and no water pressure to wash our hands, and very dirty. We had to walk by the bar to exit. The bar was unoccupied, with empty liquor bottles scattered everywhere. All across the bar, in the sink, was a mess. Although the food was decent, I would like to experience a cleaner atmosphere.

I had the shrimp cocktail. It was truly the best shrimp cocktail I've ever had anywhere.