Los Jimadores Tex-Mex Tequila Factory ~ North Richland Hills, Texas

Los Jimadores now has 3 locations: Fort Worth, North Richland Hills, and Bedford

First visit: Jul 2016 (North Richland Hills)

We've driven by Los Jimadores a number of times, curious what had taken over the old Antonio's spot, that at one time we enjoyed immensely. When my wife first pronounced it to me, I thought she said something along the lines of "Humidor".  I thought it was some sort of vape place! Or an extension of the cigar bar next door at the very least. Well, apparently not. So finally the day arrived for us to try it. Let's venture in and see what we find...

Can I start with a pet peeve? You know we don't talk about service at the RJG much, because we realize that workers in this industry tend to be transient, and on "any given day" you might get great service or terrible. But what drives us nuts are these waiters who don't write the order down. What is the problem? Are they lazy? Are they trying to be some sort of 5 star restaurant waiter? Are they working on their memory skills? Write it down for crying out loud! Inevitably, as the waiter purposely heads to the kitchen with the full order in their heads, another table will flag them down for a refill on a drink, or something similar. And out of their cabeza goes the change details of our order. The point is to make the customer happy, not to impress us with your cognizant learning ability! OK, I feel better now. The food. Ah yes, chips come out. Decent, but ordinary. Two salsas are brought forth, both hot temperature (plus), One is a red, tangy and slightly spicy. Very good. The other is a black bean dip, similar to Lupe's, that is also very good. With our order, we asked if they had a spicier option? "You mean the green?" he asks. Uhhh... I guess so, if that's the hot one? But bonehead didn't write it down and we had to remind him as our meal was being served. A little late there bubba. Can I just state we were there for lunch and there were only 3 other tables with patrons, so it wasn't like some crazy busy Friday night. Sigh. Food, RJG. Food. I had the grilled chicken with chipotle sauce. It came out on a regular plate, and was warm. This is a dish that needs to be sizzling hot, preferably in an iron tray. The chicken was a little too perfect, as if it came from a Tyson's bag, and warmed over, not grilled. The sauce was a bit dull. Rice and beans were good (only warm though). Mrs. RJG tried the Poblano Enchiladas. They came out with a lime green sauce, as if it were an avocado type sauce. She wasn't too pleased. Her rice and beans were warm too. Needs to be hot fellas. It was good, but it wasn't near the quality of Antonio's in our opinion.

Drink: Had a frozen marg. You can tell they turned the machine on too late, as it was just barely frozen. Had we got there at open, we would have been out of luck. The flavor was excellent, though, so I was happy with the drink. Mrs. had it on the rocks, and she said it was the highlight of the meal. Not a good sign. Los Jimadores has a full bar if so desired.

Location: To find Los Jimadores, I'll copy in exactly what I wrote for Antonio's: On Bedford-Euless Rd. along a "nightmare's row" of boring chain eateries (with a couple of exceptions) that dot I-820 near Davis and Hwy 26. As the crow flies, it's right across the "street" from Northeast Mall in Hurst. That street is the Interstate. To note as an addendum, many of those chain restaurants have closed down, with only Red Lobster and Olive Garden still doing a land office business. The location itself is condemned I'm afraid. Our biggest gripe about Antonio's was the constant smell of smoke. It comes from the cigar bar next door. I think Los Jimadores did a better job than Antonio's in masking the scent, but not enough for either of us. It smells of stale smoke, like an old bowling alley.

Notes: This is Los Jimadores second location, the first being in Bedford. The Bedford location was a former restaurant with "tequila factory" in the name (can't recall it off the top), that we went to once years ago and were not impressed. In any case, Los Jimadores adopted the name for that location, but not the NRH one.

Rating: 3.0. OK, perhaps even a bit generous here. I'm seeing a lot of folks are high on this restaurant, and we even received a positive tip on the blog. Perhaps it was a bad day? It happens. Certainly the food was good, but not exceptional in the slightest, and we saw no hint of it. We'll give it a couple of years, and if the reviews keep piling in at a high level, we'll try it again. Fair?

7/2/16 (new entry)