Salsa Cocina Mexicana — Restaurant in Memphis

WARNING: language My husband and I had the WORST experience recently at Salsa (restaurant at Regalia in Memphis, TN). Salsa used to be our “go-to” Mexican restaurant. The owner, Cesar Parra, was always a friendly, gracious host and both the food and service were excellent. Having found a preferred restaurant closer to home, this was our first visit in years. To preface, my husband and I are retired and my husband is not young or physically threatening. We met some friends for dinner on Thursday, 7/14/22. Cesar’s son, David Parra, who has taken over management, stopped by our table to check in and was welcoming. The food was mediocre and the service was spotty at best. We had an issue with the check which the server did not rectify and my husband stopped David to discuss it with him, as David had told us earlier if he could do anything for us to let him know. Within a minute, David became very irate and loudly accused my husband of being rude (he was not). My husband stood up and asked David to step over to the “lobby” area a few feet away to talk, as they were standing in a high traffic area. He refused and started screaming and pointing at the door, telling us to get out of the restaurant and never come back. We were caught off guard and shocked and appalled at his behavior to say the least! My husband reacted and called David a “dck” (not loudly, as I did not hear it) and David screamed loudly “mf’er”! At that point, we had exited and were standing outside the door, and David, who was standing in the doorway, screamed at my husband again saying, “you limp dck mf’er”! This behavior was in front of a restaurant full of people as well as people outside the restaurant, including children. We have NEVER seen a manager or employee of a business treat customers like this! Instead of handling the issue in a professional manner, David verbally assaulted and embarrassed us. Apparently, he is rude to customers often as I found a number of negative reviews concerning his behavior, although NONE compared to how we were treated. We are so saddened to see Cesar’s legacy ruined. David’s behavior is totally UNACCEPTABLE and he need not worry - we will NEVER go to Salsa again, and...

We were in the immediate area and googled "Mexican food near me". It took us to Salsa in east memphis. My husband and I love Mexican food for the same reasons as every other American: tasty, fast, cheap. When you eliminate any one of these three trademarks and attempt to compensate in another, you better bring it, and Salsa just does not. The same lunch plate you get at Salsa for $11 is $6 at most Mexican restaurants, and the pricier isn't better in taste or quality. I don't want a $5 tuna tartare any more than I want a $10 shredded chicken taco. It's like some enterprizing restauranteur thought, "how can we convince people to pay twice as much as normal for cheese (cheez) dip? Let's add roughly a teaspoon and a half chopped, frozen spinach!" And if that's not enough convincing: dim the lights even though it's barely noon: check! Turn off that Mexican salsa music most people will only tolerate in the presence of free chips and salsa, replace with elevator jazz: check! Provide a totally unnecessary full bar: check! If you're ordering alcohol at a Mexican restaurant that is not a: margarita, draft beer, or other tequila based drink, it's time to think about life. So, ignoring all the things that are annoying but not necessarily of critical value, here it goes. Food: good. Great. Fine. No better or worse than most places. And even though I threw shade at their cheese dip, it was actually really good. And their salsa is good. Service: fine. I noticed our server/the bartender had a busboy at 3? I worked in several restaurants from high school thru grad, and I swear I never had a busboy at 3pm on a Tuesday. Hell, I was lucky to have a bartender or manager that knew how to make drinks. Anyway, server was nice and accommodating, and that's all we expect. Bathroom: appeared clean, smelled fine. Location: random. This place is in a small outlet mall that's demographic is pregnant women and the preppiest, most ugly clothes loving people since Cher Horowitz. Conclusion: go. Or don't. Whatever....

This is one of those stylish and anglicized "Mexican" restaurants where one goes to enjoy the atmosphere and drinks, both of which are good. The food and service are not so top-notch. I've been there about 3 times. On my second trip, the server dropped an entire skillet of fajitas onto our table. It quite ruined the experience, as one might imagine. Yet, we were still charged for our meal. Even the fajitas themselves were not removed from the check. On the most recent visit, a frozen margarita was ordered yet an on-the-rocks one was served. It was sent back. When the replacement margarita arrived, it was frozen, but it had bits of lime all in it. It was not drinkable. They had simply dumped the on-the-rocks one into the blender - lime and all - and voila! Well, at least it was taken off of the bill this time. Arrive early for dinner, because this place fills up quickly. i'm giving it 3 stars instead of 2 due to the atmosphere - and because hope...