A Killer Guiso de Res and More at El Rincon Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar

Located in the heart of historic downtown Carrollton, El Rincon Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar has been serving up mouthwatering Mexican cuisine since 2016. This hidden gem is worth braving a drive to the suburbs and even an Interstate 35 traffic jam or two to get there. We stumbled upon it after detouring to avoid one such traffic jam, and we're glad we did.

The restaurant was busier than we anticipated. There wasn’t a wait, but because almost every table was occupied during the lunch rush, we opted for a seat at the bar. The restaurant itself is lively, with vibrantly painted walls and colorful tapestry-covered booths. In the bar, festive Mexican decorations dangle from the ceiling.

Chips and salsa with a nice amount of heat quickly arrived in front of us. The menu has your standard Tex-Mex fare with a few twists. Start with the queso cargado, a loaded bowl of melted cheese piled high with ground beef, sour cream, pico and guacamole. The lunch menu, served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the week, includes options like chimichangas, fajitas and chile rellenos.

If you happen to find yourself quite hungry, order the El Gigante — a 2.5-pound burrito with grilled steak, charro beans, bacon, grilled vegetables, Mexican rice, sour cream, guacamole and spicy serrano sauce, topped with queso and chile con carne. This behemoth is a gut-buster, no doubt about it. While we were hungry enough to tackle that beast, we managed to maintain some semblance of self-control.
We decided to start with caldo de camaron soup, a vegetable soup in a rich chipotle-tomato-based broth with several plump shrimp. Served piping hot, this flavorful and hearty soup is perfect for a cold day, or any day for that matter.

For our main course, we couldn’t resist trying the guiso de res, a succulent beef stew sautéed in guajillo (red chili) sauce, served with Mexican rice and avocado. The meat was tender but diced a bit smaller than typically found in a stew. The flavors were on point, with just the right amount of spice to tie it all together.
We also ordered the Mexi Fried Rice, and it was our favorite. This was a mix of beef and chicken fajita meat, shrimp and chorizo combined with corn, carrots and onions and topped with an over-easy egg and spicy serrano sauce. There's no skimping on the proteins in this dish. It’s easily sharable between two people, although it’s delicious enough that you might want to keep it all to yourself.

Specials include a rare Saturday night happy hour from 5 p.m. to close, with $5 house margaritas, sangria ritas, wine by the glass, $4 well drinks, $3 draft beers and $2 off appetizers. While we didn’t partake in a margarita during this visit, a few years ago we wrote about how the margaritas here were worth a round-trip Uber ride to Carrollton to indulge.

There is an El Rincon in Addison Circle, and another under construction in McKinney.

El Rincon Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar, 1114 S. Elm St., Carrollton. Monday – Thursday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Friday -– Saturday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.