El Zarape — Restaurant in Roswell

Friendly and quick service! Free chips! Lots of daily and lunch specials!

We have been passing this place for years but have never stepped foot inside. Finally, on a recent Tuesday evening, we gave it a try for the very first time, and they did not disappoint us!

They offer a decent amount of both indoor and outdoor seating. We went for outdoor and they let us pick our own table. They don’t have fancy tables; in fact, our table was one of the common plastic foldable tables, but we didn’t mind the casual setup.

They have (nearly) daily food and drink specials, and a lunch menu from Monday to Friday at $8.99 (soft drink included). Right after we sat down we were offered a good sized basket of chips with a small jar of salsa that was enough to pour into two ramekins. They offer a lot of menu options and many of them are priced very reasonably. We had to wonder, after seeing the portions of foods we received, with these price points, and giving out free chips, how much profit could they really make. Especially at this economically challenging time with everything being so expensive, they must not make much on the daily food specials, and rely on people ordering alcoholic drinks to recoup the profits.

We could choose between chicken or beef (ground) for our items. To upgrade the meat would cost $3 for each item (e.g. to steak). We also ordered the jumbo house margarita which was one of the specials on Tue ($7.99). It was indeed a jumbo sized glass! And we felt the alcohol was pretty strong too! That special is definitely a good deal worth ordering.

Our food was served on HOT plates! Even the server had to use hot plate silicone finger holders to hold onto the plates! Hot entrees on hot plates, this is definitely the way to go and we don’t see many Mexican restaurants following this practice. This was a big bonus for us! And indeed it kept our food remaining hot for a much longer time!

As we finished our basket of chips, we politely asked if we could get more chips. Oh boy~ we didn’t expect the server would bring us another round of chips and salsa. They could have just given us half of that amount and we would have been super happy and satisfied. Now we felt like if we didn’t finish it, we would just be wasting a lot of food (we ended up packing them to-go). They could have totally charged us $3 or $5 for the refill and I think that would still be very reasonable!

All in all, great dining experience, good food, great value, great outdoor seating. We will recommend this place and will...

It was our first time here, and I’d heard an ton of good things about the food. We walked in and didn’t see a ‘self seat’ sign, so we waited at the front for a hostess, and no one greeted us. We went to the bar, because sometimes places are busy and typically bar seats are first come first serve. Menus were given promptly by what I assume was one of the servers/hostess. The bartender didn’t acknowledge us for at least five minutes, but again, we shrugged it off as ‘busy’ even though there were only 6 tables in the restaurant. The bartender greeted us and we asked for waters while we looked at the drink options. Bartender came back a few minutes later with no waters and asked if we were ready to order, to which we replied no, but we did have a few questions. All of our questions were promptly answered, and we again browsed the menu and decided on drinks. We ordered drinks and waters, again, and received the margaritas. We selected our entrees and waited for the bartender to come back. 15 minutes later the bartender came back, we ordered and again asked for water. Another 15 min later food comes out and it looks great. Still no water. We kept waiting for the bartender to come back behind the bar to AGAIN ask for water with our food, but she didn’t come back. I flagged down a server and she gave us our water. The food was pretty good. Okay, so overall not a great experience but we’re both willing to come back until I went to the restroom and found an insect in the sink and another in the...

If I could give 0 stars I would. We are currently still waiting for our food and we ordered over an hour and a half ago. We have asked for the manager several times and have been told he is busy each time. Note that we have seen him throughout the restaurant but he is avoiding confrontation from the tables still waiting. The table next to us only waited 30 minutes and got their food. Our poor server is acting hostess and server, so it is clear that a manager should step in and assist. Yet he doesn't. When we arrived, the restaurant wasn't nearly as busy as is gotten. As someone from the hospitality industry, if you lose a ticket or are short staffed, etc; you speak to each table to soften the blows and/or send out guacamole or drinks or whatever works for your restaurants bottom line for customer satisfaction. That has not been done here. The management has sent out the servers to do all the work and receive all the frustration. Also, to give a rounded picture of our experience, we ordered ceviche and fajitas. So...