ATMOSPHERE

What can you say but ATMOSPHERE. This place is full of it. Not the kind you get with replicated memorabilia on the walls but the kind you get with someplace that has been around for a while.

The food is typical Mexican, but then again, who comes here for the food. (It is for the salsa in squeeze bottles)

Acapulco Joe's - pure garbage

ATMOSPHERE? Who goes to a restaurant just for the atmosphere? You've got to be kidding. This is the problem with Indy restaurants... nobody friggin' cares, the owners especially, or the customers. Try leaving Indy for a spell, and taste some real food... (Ft. Wayne, for example, beats the hell out of Indy with the number of quality restaurants, by far). At Acapulco Joe's, they use ketchup as the salsa base. Ketchup!! Un-friggn'-believable. Not to mention that the chips were stale, the cheese enchilada was bland. and the soggy, ground beef (? - I wish... some kind of mystery meat going on here) taco were not fit to feed a dog. I think I shelled out $10 for this crap, and that's a lunch price! I'm sorry... I've just had enough of getting ripped by the awful restaurants in this city.

Acapulco Joe's has ups and downs

In my opinion, Joe's has gone down in quality thru the years. I always go there when I return to Indiana, but since living in Texas for all these years, I have discovered TRUE Mex or Tex-Mex food. The salsa Joe's has is too sweet and it's stupid to squeeze it out of a ketchup bottle. I asked a waitress one time why their meat is so sticky and not crumbly. She said they don't drain the grease, they just add flour to it to soak it up. Their nachos are just broken-in-half taco shells, and way too thick. BUT - the one reason I love to go is the Tostada, with all the good cheese and tomatoes etc. and then you put that delicious sweet but spicy vinagarette on it. And if you're there at noon and you get to hear "God Bless America" I still get chills. It amazes me that people keep talking and laughing thru the song. Oh well.

Try the Queso Dip!

This queso dip is to die for! Just watch out, and make sure not to swallow too soon cause there is so much cheese in it that it could choke someone!

Acapulco Joe's - pure garbage II

This place is awful.

Ick!

Absolutely horrible experience. We sat for 15 minutes before anyone even brought chips, then it was another 10 minutes before our drink orders were taken. Our food actually ended up getting delivered before we ever got our drinks. Salsa was disgusting, food was bland, service was terrible. I do not recommend going here.

Decent

Just had this yesterday for the first time. It wasn't bad. I liked how they kept their salsa in squirt bottles. They put a lot of meat in their tacos. Not a fan of "authentic" Mexican food but this wasn't bad.

Downtown staple

Wow, you guys are being hard on one of the staples of Downtown dining. This place has been around forever. Personally, I'm not a fan of the queso (too stringy, I like my cheese runny) or the salsa in squeeze bottles (too runny, I like my salsa chunky).

The rest of the menu, however, is pretty good. I wouldn't consider this authentic Mexican food (although Indiana does have plenty of authentic Mexican considering our high Hispanic population these days). This is more Tex Mex than anything with a local flavor all its own. You do need an iron stomach to eat here, however, as this food is greasy. I love it but it doesn't love me.

Not so good anymore

I used to like this place when I first got into Mexican food. But now that I've grown to like Mexican food a lot more I'd rather go elsewhere. I'm a big queso fan and I hate their queso so that turns me off to start with. Going downtown I'd rather eat somewhere else.

Good food, good prices

Your basic mexican fare. It is tasty and cheap - and I really do like it. I can order almost anything off the menu and I am pleased with it - the service is face-paced and loud during lunch - a lot of people and harried wait staff, but our food was hot and the order was correct and we enjoyed reading the story of the place on the menu while we waited.

God Bless America

I'd forgotten how much I loved this place until a recent return trip. Helpings are large, the bill was low, the wait staff was attentive and friendly, and the place plays an old, obviously vinyl Edith-Piaf/Rosemary Clooney-esque version of God Bless America every day at spot-on Noon. Doesn't get much better than that in my book!

Caveat: Beware the Beets!

Probably won't go back

The food here was pretty good but I hated the Chips and Salsa. I'm not a big fan of squeezing salsa out of a tube onto each chip I eat. I love going to Mexican Restaurants to try their chips and salsa so this place was a let down for me. The whole atmosphere just felt kind of weird.

I guess i just dont know what to order

It seems every time I order its not that great. I mean ive had fun there and enjoy it when im with people, but i just get horrible food. The service is good and quick, but the food isnt my standard at all. Since im part bolivian, hispanic food is very tasty to me. But this is a world of its own, its like tex mex gone bad. I hope next time i go back i can get something that is good.

Founding family

Hell yah im an orriginal Rangel. FOUNDERS OF THIS PLACE. get off my sack. my great uncle and my grandfather went through hell to get to indy, and to start this restaraunt so hell yes!

thank you :)

LOVE ACAPULCO JOE"S

I have been going to Acapulco Joe's for 30 years now. I DO remember the the original Joe Rangel. He was there EVERY time the place was open...a decent, kind, HARD WORKING man. Personally, I love the food..even the salsa in squeeze bottles! By the way, when they play God Bless America every day at noon, its Kate Smith singing.

Tried my Best

I have tried my best to like this place. I agree with others that it seems to have gone downhill over the past couple years. Used to be pretty good. Have gone there twice with my wife (who is a Mexican food fanatic!) and both times had extremely poor service and poor food at best. Very dissapointing.

salsa in sqeeze bottles = gross

I am not very impressed with this place. The service wasn't very good, our server never even refilled our drinks.

The "salsa" in the sqeeze bottles just plain grosses me out. Why would I want to squirt that watery, too-sweet stuff onto my chips?? They need to offer regular salsa as well. The food is okay, I liked the nachos but the cheese enchiladas were WAY too greasy.

This is def not my first choice when it comes to mexican food.

uneven at best

I used to go there in the 90s but haven't been much at all lately. I always went with the tostadas--beet slice, hard boiled egg slice and olive on top---funky but filling.

Been going for over 28 years

My mom started taking me to Alcapulco Joe's when I was only 6 weeks old. I love this place... it just screams home to me. It is a bit dirty... the service is a bit slow... but the queso and tostados are to die for and there is real history there! I like that I can walk in and VERY little has changed since I was 4 years old! It was a really neat experience taking my own son there. I love a good 4 or 5 star meal, but the "dives" are a real asset too!!

Bad. Bad. And BAD.

I made a 25 person reservation for my birthday more than a week in advance for the outside deck. The reason I chose this place was b/c of the outside seating. A woman even called me from the restaurant the morning of to confirm my "outside reservation for 25 people". When I arrived, they had 2 tables set up INSIDE and ended up giving away one of my tables b/c not all of us were there at the same time. I asked the owner if we could sparatically sit outside once tables started opening and she said it wouldn't be a problem, well it was a problem b/c I never got to sit outside until the last 5 minutes. I was infuriated. Aren't reservations suppose to RESERVE your seat? They did absolutely nothing to accommodate their mistake. Their margaritas are straight mixer with a drop of cheap tequila, they played God Bless America every 20 minutes (horrific), no festive music was ever playing and someone kept obnoxiously yelling over their PA. It was a nightmare. I will NEVER EVER EVER go back.

Please avoid this place

Let me say this: I'll never go there again and I wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends. A dive has to deliver something - this place delivered a stomach ache to me.

Terrible Food

I do not know why people like this place. Maybe it is because everyone from Indy is use to processed pre-packaged Mexican food. We had one of these out in Brownsburg and it lasted all of 1 month. I had a few friends who worked there and they said many of their dishes were preassembled prepackaged meals. I guess it would be a good place to eat is you are used to prison food.