Carlos O'Kelly's Mexican Cafe - Lincoln

I love this place and try to go there whenever we go to Lincoln. Their unique brand on Mexican is a welcome change from the typical. Staff were all wearing masks and there were hand sanitizing stations placed in several places and there was no issue with social distancing.

A couple of friends wanted to go out for dinner tonight. One of them suggested Carlos o Kelly's for dinner We arrived and the place is 10% full. There seemed to be some confusion as the hostess asked us to wait a couple of minutes. Must have been consulting as to which section to place us in as it was apparent that additional servers weren't necessary. We were seated and greeted graciously by our server. Bringing chips and a decent salsa. Immediately asking if we knew what we wanted. Two of the group responded immediately. I get it, cheap drinks.... The meals arrived. I ordered the chimichanga diablo. While my friends ordered combination plates. A few minutes later, our orders arrived. Out server told us to be careful as our dishes were hot. Smoking hot, I had to wait 10 minutes for my plate and food to get to tolerable levels. Speaking of tolerable. The house salsa was thick but lacked any spiceness or real flavor for that manner. I asked for a spicy salsa and it was outrageously hot. Perhaps grilled jalapeños and a tablespoon of house salsa. Too bad they don't have anything in between. The food was acceptable. Better than places with drive thru windows but not as good as restaurants were you can order in Spanish and know it's authentic. As one of the previous reviewers said. Its kinda like an Applebee's for Mexican food. It was alright and I would go back. If someone else insisted. We placed our order

Note: I already enjoy Carlos O Kelly 's restaurants, so I 'm comparing this location to other Carlos locations. If you 've never eaten Carlos, you should know that: A this is an inspired Mexican restaurant which means that they may not have all of the Mexican dishes you 're expecting, and B you can view their entire menu online to save you disappointment if you had a specific Mexican dish in mind that you wanted. I am a huge Carlos O Kelly 's fan, but I 've never been to this location before. It 's a gorgeous location. The interior is clearly modern and taken care of. There 's a gorgeous red/black theme to it, and it has a classy feeling to it. Unlike a lot of Carlos restaurants which seem to stick with a fiesta type of decor, this Carlos has an adult looking decor that is just gorgeous. The bar area is especially beautiful. Server was friendly, but he also seemed pretty busy. Didn 't stick around to talk all that much, but he was very prompt when it came to taking orders, bringing refills, or taking care of the bill. All business, but he did his business well. Can 't complain. Food itself was AMAZING! I 've never had my Chicken Fingers and Fries basket quite this delicious before. The chicken was perfectly cooked not overcooked or undercooked. The fries were perfectly seasoned, and all of the food was brought out when it was still extremely hot as in, I couldn 't touch it for a couple minutes Impressive! My friend was a bit surprised they didn 't have some of the standard Mexican options that he 's used to eating at other places, but he seemed to enjoy his meal here as well considering he ate all of it and seemed to enjoy it. They do offer some vegetarian options here. Be aware that Carlos O Kelly 's is an Inspired Mexican type of restaurant, so they may not have all of the authentic and super spicy Mexican dishes that you may be used to. I mean, c 'mon, I come here to get chicken strips. May is also their May garieta month or something like that . You can get super cheap alcoholic drinks $1.99 and up for some pretty huge drinks. Friend was surprised that the Jumbo was so huge but it wasn 't nearly as alcoholic as he was expecting either. Fantastic Carlos O Kelly 's location. If this is how they always prepare my meal seriously. it was perfect! , I 'll be back anytime I 'm in the area. As an extra note: Very quiet here, but we came mid day. They have three huge, modern TV screens playing games with subtitles on. Seems like a good place to watch the game if that 's what you like to do.

What a disappointment! In Wichita, KS this was one of my favorite places, mostly for their queso guac, salsa. For 4 months I've been ready for some of the afore mentioned goodies, but I will not return to Lincoln's Carlos. First of all, when we arrive, there were several ahead of us. For a good 10 min we waited with no host in sight. There were empty tables it wasn't very busy. I finally asked the people ahead of us if they had even seen a host, they said no. We finally got to our table, our waiter brought the usual chips salsa. The chips were WAY too salty. I tried to make them eatable by scraping off as much as I could (pic). We ordered queso guac right off the bat b/c it looked like things were gonna move slow. The queso comes, but no guacamole. By that time we were almost out of chips. So we sit there with warm queso, but no chips. When our drinks come, we inquire about the guac, find he didn't hear that part. We wait for that to come when it does we have to ASK for chips! We give our order, it comes in a reasonable time. My taco salad is bland unintresting. It was bag lettuce, thrown in a stale shell, tiny bit of cheese tomatoes with tasteless taco meat. Oh, by the way, since when do you get charged additional for regular taco meat on a taco salad? Yeah, they price all the meats on a taco salad separate!! Husband liked his dinner, which was something with fish in a tortilla cream sauce. We ended up paying over $40 for our dinner, med queso, sm guac, 2 Wed special drinks. And, I didn't get my queso fix. Never again!

The Applebee 's of Mexican cuisine. The food was no bueno-I had chicken tacos and the boy had a combination plate. His was greasy and there was nothing fresh about it, but I blame him for making a poor decision (I mean, if you order a combination of fried foods, don 't be surprised if they 're greasy). My chicken tacos though.....making a mediocre taco should not be a challenge for a Mexican restaurant. This taco 's tortilla (flour) was thick and grilled, and the ?chicken (I swear it looked felt and tasted like chopped up hot dogs) filling was doused in a queso sauce which I can 't imagine contained much actual cheese. The margarita was way too sweet for my taste. And I 'm not sure there was an ounce of tequila in it. And there was ice cold air aggressively blowing on me at the table we were seated at. HOWEVER I 'm giving this place 2 stars (I 'd give 2.5 if I could because a) the service was excellent B) the salsa was wonderful (not my favorite chips, but as long as there 's something good to dip them in I 'm happy C) I think if you 're trying to go out to eat with a group that 's not adventurous and picky eaters and are fans of very familiar and bland dishes (a la Applebee 's or ruby Tuesday or the like) that this would be a preferable alternative.... Although I think Applebee 's has a better margarita