"So... let 's start off with my most RECENT visit (7/11/23). Entering the place, the atmosphere was pretty dead. Due to the lack of customers, the cooks weren 't really doing much. The smell of food was also lacking. 3 red flags already.Anyway, I was seriously hungry so I went ahead and ordered two ground beef taco plates with rice and beans. The person at the register was nice, but he seemed a bit uneasy. Another red flag. After paying for the food, I sat down and waited for my order. I noticed the cooks weren 't really cooking anything. Just conversating and reheating the beans ground beef. The only thing they cooked fresh were the tortillas. Don 't want to bore you with anything else so let 's move onto the food.When I arrived home and opened my plates, the only thing I was able to smell were the onions, cilantro, and the rice. The rice and the tortillas were the ONLY redeeming thing in this meal. The pinto beans were quite dark (a sign that the beans were old) with low viscosity. Almost like tomato soup with a slight soft beany grit. On top of that, they had very little smell/taste. The Spanish rice was standard. The ground beef? A mess. Overly seasoned with an excessive amount of smoked paprika added in. Never have I ever eaten a taco with that type of seasoning. My only guess is that the cooks wanted to imitate a smokey grill/char flavor which COULD have been achieved if they made the meat FRESH on a HOT flat table stove and use steam to add that extra UMPH to it. Tacos also fell apart upon grabbing it. Now, onto my final review/words.After eating the food, my stomach flipped out, losing my appetite and almost everything I just ate. It gave me a bloated, sour stomach for 2 whole days. Eating at this restaurant is pretty much a mystery wheel. Some days, you 'll have GOOD food, and most days, you 'll never know what you get. On two different occasions, they borrowed the same rice that was used at the Great Dragon Chinese restaurant which blew me. Sometimes the food is bland, sometimes it 's alright. The pandemic didn 't do it any justice either. The place gets worse and worse. Inconsistency at its finest.I wouldn 't recommend going here unless you want to play Russian roulette with your gut. Go to Los Ocampos. It 's literally a few blocks down. Sure you may spend a bit more money, but at least EVERYTHING will be made fresh. Plus they 're consistent each and every time. This is my first time leaving a ranting review but I 've just about had it with El Buen Gusto. I 'm sorry (sorta)."
