Abuelo's - Knoxville

I had lunch with a friend who loves Mexican food and desserts. Our waiter was very pleasant and made some great suggestions. I really enjoyed my meal.

We had a very enjoyable meal at Fit by Knoxville. After reading the reviews, we decided to give it a try. As fans of Mexican cuisine, we were pleased to find that the restaurant had a rustic atmosphere and served delicious food.

I really enjoyed this restaurant. We ordered the chile rellenos and pork medallions through DoorDash. However, it took an hour and a half for the food to arrive.

I 'll readily admit I 'm a TexMex/Southwest/Mexican food snob. I come from the southwest and know good and authentic food of this genre. I 've lived in the D.C. area for the last 17 years (unfortunately and recently returned from the southwestern sojourn where I ate my weight in Mexican food because I knew that when I returned to the east coast I would be unable to get the same quality. It would most likely be American/Mexican Fusion or imitation cooking to appease the American uninitiated or uniformed palate. However, this is one of those times when I am VERY happy to be wrong. Abuelo 's was an extraordinarily pleasant surprise! Their salsa tasted fresh and was appropriately spiced; when served, the plates are VERY hot as is the food! I ordered the Laredo Hand rolled beef enchilada, cheese enchilada and a crispy beef taco and half way through the meal I ordered the The Grande Three enchiladas one beef, one cheese and one chicken a cheese chile relleno, tamale, crispy beef taco and our handmade guacamole to go. I have several days of unpacking when the movers were going leave the following day and what better way to round out the day than with a Grande from Abuelo 's and a margarita over the two following days (its a lot of food! I 'm currently plotting my return to restock but this time I 'll bring my daughter with me so she can wipe away the tears of jealousy and exchange them for tears of happiness. . .

Abuelos is a chain Mexican Tex Mex restaurant with 38 locations. It has been in Knoxville for many years now and is located right in the middle of Turkey Creek. In past years, I 've been to this particular Abuelos and it wasn 't good. It was the type of meal that you forget after a few years like eating at a random Applebees. Nonetheless, I thought I 'd give them a second chance. After all, they somehow maintain a prime location in Turkey Creek and people seem to go there. If it was bad, wouldn 't the free market economy deliver a swift death blow? Alas, apparently there is room for mediocre and even bad restaurants to survive. Abuelos illustrates this perfectly. I ordered the pork tenderloin with sweet chile glaze (a so called House Specialty). It was accompanied by mashed potatoes and beans. We also ordered the guacamole appetizer. While I wouldn 't usually order mashed potatoes in a Mexican restaurant, Abuelos saw fit to include it on their house specialty. So, I falsely assumed the side would be decent and, at a minimum, edible. But, when it came out, it looked like pretty gruesome. Like a sloppy, homogenized mixture of cheese and potato mix that had been microwaved 2 minutes too long. For goodness sake, just look at the picture below. I felt that eating the potatoes would be a food A bomb for my gut. The beans were a little better. At least, they resembled beans. But, the beans were so flavorless it was hard to eat more than a few bites. Now, the pork. It tasted fair. But, it wasn 't very good. Certainly nothing special or unique about it. Strangely enough, the pork tasted an awful lot like the teriyaki chicken over at Panda Express. In fact, it was cut up the same way and had a similar (yet less appealing) flavor. For the money, I 'd much prefer the Panda Express teriyaki chicken. At least the sides would be better and I 'd even get a fortune cookie! My wife ordered tamales. Her food also was pretty bad. Probably some of the least appealing tamales I have ever consumed. Overall: Avoid Abuelos. It 's name is strangely appropriate. If you had put my grandfather into a kitchen, I suspect the food would have tasted like this. That 's because, when he was alive, all he could do was open cans and use a microwave.