El Palenque, Wahiawa

I love this little whole in the wall! The food is great but the place is small. A lot of times I order our food to go but I do avoid the place when Manny is working. I tried to place a to go order a month or so ago. Manny said no problem give us about 35 to 40 minutes we are a little busy. I said ok that's cool. Got there to get the order 45 minutes later just to ensure that they had time to make it. The order was not ready. He asked if I could give him about 10 more minutes which was not a problem. The kids and I ended up waiting a total of an hour and a half for the order. When I confronted him about the wait time he told me that I would get my food when his cook grew two more hands. So I then asked him what the managers name was. He let me know real quick that it was a family owned business and complaining about my situation would get me now where. The rest of the family staff are extremely friendly but he is awful.

Food was above average and the corn tortilla was delicious. The salsa was crap though, homemade but tasted like it had cucumber blended into it, the chips were stale and cold AND I was charged $1.70 for asking for more chips, $1.70 for a small bowl of chips. Im from San Diego and have visited mexico multiple times where ive had legit mexican food and where I wasnt charged for an extra bowl of chips. For the price, it was a bit spendy, San Diego and Hawaii are about on par on costs so in comparison, El Palenque was a little more spendy. Also the waitress seemed to be in the bad mood, but heck I mustve caught her on abad day since no one else has complained. But seriously, the salsa, it ruined the experience for me, otherwise it wasnt too bad.

I LOVE El Palenque! I found this other review saying it's the best Mexican restaurant in Hawaii - I would agree! The review on Helium

The food is excelent but the service is not so good. Everytime I have tried to order on the phone they either keep me on hold forever or dont answer. I am calling right now for the second time and still no answer.

This place is AWESOME! By Far the BEST Mexican food on the Island. I have never been inside the restaurant, but have ordered them thru Quick Cuisine. I have no complaints at all about this place and will recommend it to anyone!

Grate food! The people are grate and the TORTILLAS!!! R hand made... El palenque, we will see you again. Familia Gandara

A real find. Having lived in California for most of my life, Mexican food is just part of my favorite eats. Oahu is very limited in this type cuisine, but El Palenque has my vote as the best we've found so far. This place is going to be a once a week stop for us.

all the food was home made, there was no food from the night before like other restaurants.

Really like the food at this place. It is a little small but the food is much better than some chain restaurant.