Vaqueros Mexican Restaurant 3 — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

We stopped in for dinner while on vacation with my family. We were seated promptly and our order was taken quickly but it went downhill from there. The menu states and you are limited to two baskets of chips per party of four and anymore have an excess charge….this was interesting given I’d never experienced that at a Mexican restaurant. I understand if you have a group eating a ton of chips or drinking water but when you are ordering bar drinks, appetizers and entrees it’s a different story…base your limit on a minimum order total. We did receive three baskets of chips and salsa for the five of us without any additional charge.

Our waitress was new and was definitely struggling with getting our orders written down. My kiddo ordered a beef and cheese soft taco with just beef and cheese he is picky. We ordered ceviche as an appetizer and the rest of our entrees. We also ordered three margaritas one of which was a jalapeño margarita. The jalapeño margarita came out and it had jalapeño slices and tons of jalapeño seeds it in. I’ve never seen a jalapeño margarita with seeds…makes it tricky to try and drink.

The ceviche came out with our meal instead of as an appetizer. The plates were hot when they came out and they were handed to us even though they were still quite hot, rather than being sat in front of us. The beef and cheese soft shell taco managed to come out as chicken enchiladas piled high with lettuce, tomatoes and all the other things my kid hates so we had send it back. When they returned with his beef and cheese taco it was still wrong. One taco was just beef and another was just cheese inside and lettuce was piled on top. We gave up and just picked off the lettuce.

They did kindly remove the charge from our bill since it was wrong. Overall atmosphere is amazing. The building is beautiful and the interior is beautiful. I hope they are able to make some changes to improve because it’s a...

Normally I love coming here, but today it seemed like the full moon was out, and there was a shift in the space time continuum. After being seated  and given out chips and salsa, we gave the waiter our very complicated drink order of 3 waters.

After several servers walked by our table to pause a moment to look at our lonely bowl of chips and salsa, I turned to my husband and asked, "Shall we play a Game?".  Lets see if we get our waters before we finish these chips and salsa, if no water, game over and we walk.

We muched away, and watched our new neighbors move into the table next to us.  They were very bougie with their chips and salsa paired with their glasses filled with the finest tap water available.

After almost finishing our chips and salsa, one gal took noticed and asked us if we wanted another. I think by the less than happy looks and parched dry response from my husband, she understood the situation and went to get someone.

I assume this person was of some authority, as she took charge, apologized for the delay and wait we experienced.

She promptly got our waters and took our orders.

Food came out quickly, and the service we received afterward was back on par to what we have normally experienced here.  We were even given free queso to make up.

I know this place was very busy, but I do want to give kudos and shout out to the one gal who noticed we were not getting service and took action. To the other servers who were in observation mode only,  this gal was just as busy as all of you, but she went that extra mile. I am sorry I didn't get her name, but it looked like she was one who buses and...

Formerly a C.B. & Potts, this Vaqueros delivers reasonably good TexMex at decent prices. The staff is friendly and helpful (which is the only reason this review gets a 4th star from me), though management sometimes struggles w/maintaining staff levels at busy times. Don't be surprised if you have to wait for a table in the afternoon/evening.

The food, itself, is pretty good, as are portion sizes. If you're a Native Texan, you'll probably rate it as "competent": it'll remind you of home, but also remind you that you aren't in Texas. Most of the basics are covered, and reasonably well.

But the devil is in the details: salsa is served cold, rather than steaming, so you know it's probably not fresh (or worse, delivered in gallon cans by Sysco). Tortilla chips, also, aren't served warm, nor are they sprinkled with paprika (and if this last confused you, you may have never had good TexMex). The chile con queso congeals, and quickly, revealing its origins as white Velveta with (likely) cans of Ro-tel diced chiles and tomatoes mixed in. TexMex restaurants live and die on their chile con queso, and this is a clean miss.

Little things like this will catch your attention. The food is "good", but not "great", and doesn't stand out from, say, what you'd get at On the Border. It's like driving the "one-level-above-base" model of a car: you won't be disappointed, exactly, but you'll notice all the blank switch spaces on the dashboard and wonder what...