Critic's Review
I stopped into Salsa Fiesta when they first opened and I got a bowl that didn't float my boat; pressed for time today, I thought I'd grab some tacos.
Dead empty at 3pm, the guy at the counter seemed excited to have a customer. I ordered 2 tacos and his enthusiasm soon waned as I passed on the chips and the drink. They gave me a beeper, which seemed like overkill with no other customers, and I wandered back to the salsa bar. It's funny that you read about how great these things are; this one had pickled jalapenos, fresh jalapenos, 2 completely liquid red salsas and a green salsa and another I couldn't identify.
Nothing very different here. I took a seat but the tacos were already ready.
I got a steak Mero Macho and a chicken Spicy Tangy, both on flour shells. The steak was by far the best; one of the better tacos I've had with lots of black beans and a mexican chimichurri.
The Spicy Tangy is billed as having Pablano rajas, corn. lettuce, crushed chile salsa and cheese, but it wasn't spicy or tangy at all. It exploded on first bite, which is always annoying, as eating tacos with a fork seems to miss the point. There were onions also; it was more sweet than tangy. Not terrible, but not really what I wanted.
The tacos were better than the bowl. But I probably won't be in here again. There's nothing out of the ordinary going on here.
Review 6/18/13
I have to admit that I wasn't very excited about yet-another "fresh" Mexican restaurant opening; in the past 3 years we've seem 3 Chipotles, Lime, another Whole Enchilada. I prefer the gooey, cheese kind of Mexican Food, but there place is nearby and I didn't have much time today, so I stopped in.
If you remember the sleek, modern look of Energy Kitchen, this place is the opposite. It seems to mimic Chipotle's forced casual feel, without the exposed plywood.
They have a pretty big menu with about 4 variations of each item; then you can choose your kind of tortilla and your meat. The menu at the restaurant is slightly different than the one on their website; I opted for the Classic bowl with an iced tea. The "reviews" I read of other locations seemed to indicate that there was table service (they mentioned tipping), but this is your typical order at the counter and wait for the beeper kind of place.
The place is small; I didn't really like the "dining room". It's almost as if they want out of their way to use uncomfortable furniture. At the front counter they had some of their "hot tamale" salsa, which wasnt' bad; not at hot as you'd think. But in the back the salsa bar was uninspiring, and they didn't have any hot tamale salsa there. They have sweetened and unsweetened tea; no lemon so I had to settle for some limes from the salsa bar.
While I was getting the tea my beeper must have went off because when I got back the food was there and the beeper wasn't.
Very pretty. Pushing the lettuce and salsa out of the way, I got a better idea of what was in the bowl.
A lotta rice and lettuce, a little meat and a little of this and that. The meat was very good for Mexican. The bowl was pretty good. The rice wasn't just a lump. Not a bad bowl of stuff.
I didn't care for the music too much. I suppose it's an ok place to grab some lunch if you work nearby, but it's a lot like Chicken Kitchen which didn't do very well. I prefer Chipotle because for the same price, you get twice as much food and you can get exactly what you want. Lots of beans and veggies instead of rice. Here the fixed recipes are too limiting.
They're a "Yelp Sponsor", so they spend a lot of money to try to convince people to write good reviews, so keep that in mind.
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