Desierto Rojo — Restaurant in Fruita

Decided to give this place a shot since they’re new, but we were highly disappointed. WAY overpriced, especially for the quality of food!! We just got a few things to test out, and we’re definitely not full after spending $35.

We were really excited for the chicarrone with guacamole but for $15, it was a major let down! First off, NOT enough guacamole for the amount of chicharrone. The strips were SO big and had no seasoning. Usually I’ve had it in smaller manageable sizes, think the size of a chip or smaller, so that you can dip them easily. Not worth $15!!

The elote in a cup made me nauseous. 3x more cheese than corn. No flavor other than cotija. I had to dig through the cheese to find bits of corn. Terrible.

The horchata was mediocre at best. Fine for $3.50.

The quesabirria was good. The only good thing we had but I’ve never had bad quesabirria. It just wasn’t worth $6 for its size.

After spending $30+ I feel sick. Safe to say we’re never...

When we walked in it felt like they were closing (shortly after 8pm) but they said they were open and the sign said so too. After a little confusion getting our order across eventually we got it worked out. The closing feeling continued after we ordered so we moved outside cause it felt like we were in the way.

Food was good but to quote my friend visiting from Florida it was "crap darn expensive" $42 for 4 street tacos, 2 drinks and a cup of elote we split before tip. Basically $21 each for a small dinner. I guess inflation is here but yeesh.

Would love to see some complimentary chips and a salsa bar or something to help fill everything (me) out. My understanding is they're new so probably working some kinks out.

*edit Apparently there was an emergency with an employee that we were unaware of so that was the cause of the closing vibes. Updated stars. Will...

Food was fine, but bad value proposition. For just a little more you can dine at Taco Party or Fidel’s and have noticeably elevated food & experience, or for less money you can have similar style and better variety by just going to Jalepenos or Armando’s or any street stand that pops up. I would recommend this place elevate the food a bit - have more creative and fresher salsas, swap the canned corn for fresh local corn - at least when it’s in season, elevate the super basic guac to be freshly made. serve fresh chips with every order. Serve a cup of stew with the birra tacos as is standard every taco joint I’ve ever been to except this one. Make drinks self refillable if you’re not going to have wait staff. And last but not least, elevate the human experience. Was generally not that enjoyable to be in there. Give me a reason to come here vs any...