Cilantros Mexican Cuisine — Restaurant in Covington

Cilantros is a fairly new restaurant that opened in downtown Covington next to the Southern Hotel. I've tried it quite a few times now and figured it's time to write a review. The food is great. It's Tex-Mex style with your standard line up of enchiladas, tamales, chile relleno, burritos, taquitos, quesadillas, salads, and tacos. They also have fish tacos & shrimp dishes. What's not standard is the depth of flavor they manage to imbue into these common dishes. Very tasty and the ingredients are fresh and flavorful. My favorite dish so far is the fajita salad. I didn't expect such a symphony of flavors in such a simple dish - it's comprised of grilled onions, pepper, tomatoes, creamy guacamole, good cheeses, salsa, and very tender & juicy steak in a made-to-order bowl of flaky pastry. (they offer chicken, too) Even the bowl is good and that was an unexpected treat. The folks that own it and work there are all super-friendly, the service is very good, and they maintain good covid-hygiene and have tables available inside...

Meh And Mix

We got chips and salsa with guacamole as starters with margaritas on the rocks. All of it tasted like they were from a mix. Sadly the main courses didn’t get much better. The spouse got fish tacos, while I got chiles rellenos. The tacos were barely dressed - just fish and lettuce. I struggled to find the fried batter for my chile rellenos, which seemed to consist of charred chile and cheese for one and no batter and hardly any chile for the second one. Red sauce only - verde sauce was not even an option. Pretty dull overall. Not much better than microwaveable frozen food. Boring, boring boring. It doesn’t take much to make fresh, tasty or at least flavorful food. We will not be going back. I wish they’d taken more time and effort on our dinner than I did on my review....

5/23/22 Finally dined at the new location and it did not fail to impress. Service was good, food was great... and served timely during lunch. Had the mesquite chicken salad with ranch... which is not listed on the menu. Upped my rating to a 5 since they provided exactly what was expected. Great place. Previoisly....Met up with a few work colleagues for apps and drinks. Previously I have dined at the old location, but this new site has a much better atmosphere. This can clearly be seen from the increased volume of diners in the evening times. We sat outside and had adequate service. Tex-mex restaurants often have a different pace of service, so I'll just just describe it as friendly and as expected. Everyone in the party enjoyed their...