Picoso's Mexican Kitchen — Restaurant in Lubbock

I had never heard of this place and just saw it driving by. So I whipped a U-turn and pulled in for lunch. I love trying new places. I know it is a gamble, but life is too short not to take risks.

Well, I got bit on this gamble. Picoso's is just one more cheap Southwest cuisine restaurant made up to look like a fancy dining joint. They do not serve authentic Mexican food here that I could see. Certainly nothing that would resemble anything you would get at a traditional restaurant in Mexico. Don't get me wrong, Southwest cuisine done right is amazing, and I love it as much as the next person but it is not Mexican cuisine. It just frustrates me that I go in a place called a "Mexican Kitchen" and they don't serve Mexican cuisine.

So let me rate the feed we did have here.

Chips and Salsa These were actually not that bad. I have certainly had worse. However, they were not that great either. The salsa had a little more bite to it than other texmex joints, but it was pretty much just tomatoes with no other detectable elements. It was too salty as well. The chips are house-fried tortillas, which were pretty decent compared to other places that serve chips out of the bag. So that is one good thing.

Chicken Tortilla Soup: I love soup, so when I saw they were serving Chicken Tortilla soup, I got excited and ordered it. When it came out, it was tiny (see the picture); about as much soup as you could fit in a regular coffee cup, or the dish the salsa came in. They gave me a literal tiny ice-tea spoon to eat it with (so they know it is not that much), and it is only nine bucks! I dipped my spoon in, picked it up to take a bit, and the cheese stretched from the bowl to my mouth! OMG! It was so salty I almost spit it out. It was a bowl of melted cheese with some tortilla strips, that was it. I dug through the whole bowl, trying to find a single piece of chicken, and there was none. I would call this CHEESE soup, because it certainly was not Tortilla Soup! I told the server to take it away because I could not eat it. It was beyond edible over salted.

Message to the cooks. Salt is a flavor enhancer, not a spice. Its purpose in cooking is to bring out the flavors of the spices, not overwhelm them.

Chili Relleno My wife had the Chile Relleno, and it was a little better. It was nothing special but at least it had a proper balance of salt and was edible. For 15 dollars, my wife got one medium and one small chili with small amount of cheese in them and about a tablespoon of fajita beef on the side (look at the picture I posted and see if you can find the beef on the plate). I believe that the refried beans came right out of a can, and the Spanish rice tasted to me as if it came out of a TV diner.

When you go to a fancy restaurant and pay high prices, you should get quality food. Unfortunately, that is not the case at Picoso's. This is budget TV dinner cuisine at best. This restaurant deserves a real chef, if they are going to charge an average fifteen dollars a plate.

The Bottom Line: This is a fancy, way overpriced, southwestern cuisine restaurant that serves low quality, over-salted food. You are paying for the décor and nothing else here. Our server was friendly, and she is the only reason I gave this place two stars...

I wanted to give 5 stars but we had two different experiences during our two visits. For the first time (5/5/2021) on weekday, my wife and I went to try this place on a weekend. Even though we called the restaurant to reserve the table, they asked us to walk-in anytime. Our server Chris took care of us very well and the food was really good. One of our food Cilantro lime chicken thigh was so dry and when reported, Aisha was able to take care of it acknowledging that the chicken was so dry! For dessert, we tried fried ice cream and it was really good. Overall, we had a good experience.

Second time, we decided to go with our kids on weekend and reserved the table (by 11am itself) for 5 at 1:30pm on 5/8/2021. We were given a table immediately after we checked in at the front desk. We ordered food at 1:30 and the food didn’t arrive till 2:30. Our kids started to feel hungry and one of my boy stared to cry. We then requested the server to bring the kids food first if it’s ready. They messed up the order and gave beans tacos instead of beef tacos! Out of hungry and frustration our 10yrs boy started crying and wanted to leave. We decide to cancel all our food and leave to fast food to get something for our kids immediately. By that time, we thought to inform the manager and leave but he apologised for what happened and took care of our food. Meantime they refilled our chips for the third time. Almost 2:45, we got all our food and finally ordered cakes. We ordered Desserts, Chocolate eruption and Tres leches. We were told by our friend that they have the best desert to try!!!! Our Tres leches were so bad that they poured cinnamon powder on whole portion of it and really ruined it even though the menu says it will be topped up with fresh strawberries!! Upon asking, our server apologised that they were out of strawberries and so poured cinnamon powder on the cake!!! They didn’t even ask us if we like cinnamon or not! We didn’t like it and just left it on the table since we don’t want to again complain and make our kids feel bad of what happened.

We hope we won’t be visiting it again after our second bad experience and definitely our kids will not be willing to visit again either.

For others, I would recommend visiting on week days and not on weekends especially if you...

I was highly disappointed with Picoso’s tonight. It has been one of my favorite Tex-mex restaurants in Lubbock, but unfortunately, they have completely changed their menu. And not for the better. I’m not sure if they are under new management or what’s happening but it’s not good. A lot of the favorites that my family would order are gone, and some of the plates that we would order that were historically like $13 for a plate (reasonable compared to other prices of similar plates in town) that had a taco and two enchiladas with rice and beans is now $21 or $22. That’s the price of a steak at some steakhouses. I understand that we have a strained economy, but that price for that is bonkers. The food is delicious, but not worth that. They aren’t allowing anybody besides children order kids meals, even though they don’t really offer smaller meals anymore if you don’t want an entire meal. And if you order à la carte to have a smaller plate, as was recommended by the waitress, it ends up being more expensive than some of the actual plates on the menu. Which makes it seem like their goal is to make money and not take care of people. And the look of the menu is cheap and crappy. I know I may be being nitpicky, but it used to look really classy and well thought out and well put together and now it just looks messy and it’s hard to read and like It was just printed on a piece of paper and shoved in the menu holder. Again, I like the food and it was actually decent tonight… But I had to order something I didn’t want because I’m not paying $22 for a couple of enchiladas and a taco. Probably won’t be back because what I order has gotten ridiculous and I’m not loving the direction they’re heading. All it seems is they are wanting money and not caring what the product looks like or caring about the customers that come to their...