El Pino Mexican Restaurant 4211 Plank Road, Fredericksburg, VA 22407

"El Pino Authentic Mexican Restaurant 12/8/2023 As relatively new residents of the Fredericksburg area, my wife and I have been trying out the plethora of restaurants and breweries in the area. A co-worker of my wife said we had to try El Pino, a Mexican restaurant in western Fredericksburg. so last night we had dinner at El Pino Authentic Mexican Restaurant, and the it did not disappoint. It is located on Route 3 just west of I95. When we walked in, we were greeted by a very friendly hostess, who showed us to our booth. It was a Friday night, so the place was doing a very brisk business. Our server brought us the obligatory chips and salsa. We were delighted to find out that the chips were warm. My wife started with a margarita, and I had a Modelo draft. The maragrita came to the table flaming, which was pretty cool. My wife reported that her drink was very good. As an appetizer, we ordered Ceviche. It came with saltine-type crackers, but we found using he chips was tastier. the Ceviche was full of shrimp and other seafood, and didn't taste too much of lime. Sometimes Ceviche can taste a bit too "limey". For our entree, we both ordered soft tacos. I ordered Al Pastor tacos, with pineapple. My wife had shredded pork. Both were served with beans and rice. The tacos were wonderful. The pork was cooked perfectly, and not overdone. Very enjoyable. Since it was our first time eating there and we wanted to test out the food, we also ordered an a la carte Chile Relleno and a Tamale. The  Tamale was good, but the Chile Relleno was excellent. I get that from my wife, who loves them. Our server was very friendly and the atmosphere in the restaurant was quite inviting. And though the menu had fairly standard Mexican dishes, they were all very tasty and we will certainly come back again."

"The food tastes like I’m back on the border, and you can’t beat the prices. True TexMex Mexican cuisine. The staff are willing to make whatever you want even if it’s not on the menu. The salsa is a little hot for my kids and wife but I love it. The sopapillas are however thin and more like a churro chip than a real one. The margarita came out on fire, it was delicious and only $6. Super impressed with this place."

"Great Mojitos, Authentic Mexican Food and reasonably priced. Quality and portions sizes are good. Mango Habanero chicken was the bomb."

"I stopped in for lunch on a weekday, getting there around 1PM, which I would assume was after the lunch rush, but this place was packed! The parking lot was packed and so was the inside. There were lots of servers working, so I didn’t have to wait long for service, but the food did take a little bit to prepare. Their salsa & chips (complimentary) are the typical from these “authentic Mexican” joints… thin and liquidy, with a little bit of flavor, but not much. The chips were thicker, I prefer not so thick and hard. I asked for their hotter salsa, which is a tomatillo style, but it literally tastes like they simply put El Yucateco Salsa Picante de Chile Habanero Green into a basic verde salsa that they made, so I wasn’t too impressed, but it was definitely spicy! My entrée arrived – it was a single taco and single enchilada on a platter with rice & beans… The rice and beans were decent. The taco and enchilada were boring and toooo “Americanized” for me, meaning they hardly had any spicy flavor to them (cumin, chili, etc). Service was decent and friendly though. Would I return? Nope, I’m good sticking with El Jimador in Stafford."

"We got here at like 230 on a Saturday and it was super busy! We took it as a good sign and we were not disappointed. I'm new to the area but El Pino had exactly the flavor of Mexican rice that I Search for. Pair the perfect rice with a bargain lunch menu even on the weekends- in love. We will be back!"