El Puente - Newport

I had the flautas. There were good. The chips and salsa were good. The beans and rice were bland. Customer service was great. The price was a little steep, but that's just kinda how it is these days. The place was spotless.

Ground beef lacked seasoning (I didn't even taste salt). The tacos from Taco Bell were better than the ones at this restaurant. It was hard shell, but I was expecting soft shell, so maybe that's my fault for assuming and NOT asking questions before ordering. I thought this was an authentic Mexican restaurant. I also bought the king's burrito, with ground beef. I couldn't even season it, because I got it to go, but was in a hotel at the time. If I was at my home, i would have doctored it up. So my experience was definitely a thumbs down. I asked for red salsa. I got 2 containers. One with salsa and the other tasted like marinara sauce. Who puts marinara sauce on their tacos, burritos, or chips? I believe my order was a total of $26 which is a lot of money for the food not to taste good. I won't be back for the food. The customer service was great, and I received my food in a timely manner. I didn't dine-in but I would ASSUME if I did, and brought to their attention about the lack of seasoning and having soft shell instead of hard, that they would rectify the situation.

The food was pretty good. The Tamales were a little heavy on the masa dough. The enchilada sauce was some of the worst I've ever had, tasted like tomatoe soup. True authentic enchilada sauce doesn't even have tomato sauce in it. Their hot salsa was pretty good. The lunch I had was very good. I think it's called chori pollo. Service was horrible. We had to get another waiter to help us. Everyone seemed to be standing around on their phone.

Great food! Nice, new restaurant with great service and huge portions at a good price. Support this local business!

Great food! The atmosphere was friendly and pleasant. The building was new, parking was ample and they had a drive thru. They must be consistent because people just kept coming. We definitely enjoyed our meal.