La Margarita Restaurant and Grill — Restaurant in Salem

Neat little place within walking distance of several hotels, decent reviews and frankly it’s how I ended up here.

I tend to leave fairly detailed reviews, helpful for visitors and management should they review them. Cliff Notes first, details below

Tapatia margarita was fantastic - 5 stars

Steak “sizzling fajitas” - 2 stars at best, see below

Atmosphere - no bar seating but a decent 3 stars

Service - 1 star Had to ask twice for a straw twice, minor detail but frustrating none the less.

Ordered the fajitas without bell peppers, tomatoes, or sour cream, and with flour tortillas.

Fajitas arrived with a very faint “sizzle” and the fajita platter was luke warm/able to touch it with bare hands. The set up plate had a large serving of sour cream and of course it was touching the rice, beans and guacamole.

Asked for a new set up without sour cream. After several minutes the plate returned and “most” of the sour cream was removed. You could clearly see they had scooped the sour cream off and attempted to cover up the remnants with a huge serving of additional guacamole. I’m lactose intolerant and explained that to them during the initial order and the “remake” however, it didn’t seem to matter and I was pretty hungry at this point. Took some lactose meds and proceeded cautiously.

Open up the tortillas and…they’re corn not flour. Quick easy fix, so I thought. Flagged the waitress down and asked for flour tortillas again. After several more minutes of waiting, I began eating the fajitas with a fork straight off the platter. They were room temperature or less by this point. The flour tortillas did eventually arrive.

Personally I am not a fan of the mushrooms in the fajitas (possibly different had they been hot/warm) but, I had not ask for them to be removed and they didn’t affect my ability to eat the steak and onions. Obviously can’t comment on the bell peppers or tomatoes.

Steak and onions were flavored well, probably much better hot/warm. The steak was extremely thin, sliced extremely thin and a little salty.

If it’s the closest open restaurant and/or you’re craving Mexican food…it’ll fill your belly. Can’t recommend the place or say I’ll be back but, not the worst meal...

We ate at La Margarita Restaurant and Grill for the first time recently. We have tried three other Mexican restaurants in Salem and, while the food was good at most of them, we thought their prices were very high. We were pleasantly surprised to find the menu at La Margarita Restaurant and Grill to be surprisingly less expensive than any of the other Mexican restaurants we have tried, and the food was excellent. We had the Enchiladas Carnitas ($15.00) and the Gerry Lewin's Combination ($16.00). They were both very good, served hot with rice and refried pinto beans. They also offer black beans as an option. We also each had a 16oz house margaritas ($10.50 each) which was pretty good (having lived in Mexico, we are pretty picky about margaritas). The total bill was $52.00 before the tip). We went on a Friday night and arrived at about 5:45pm (they open at 5). The restaurant was already on a wait list. We were quickly greeted and told there would be a wait of approximately 15 - 20 minutes for a table. We were seated in less than 10 minutes. The restaurant is comfortable and not overly decorated like many Mexican restaurants tend to be. The only improvement would be a larger area to wait for your table. The parking lot adjacent to the restaurant was full and we didn't want to pay for on-street parking, so we drove two blocks to the Liberty Square Parkade and parked. I highly recommend trying La Margarita...

I’ve eaten in many Mexican restaurants, but I find this one unique. Why? 1) Food quality is not bland like many others. It’s tasty 2) Service is quick and food arrives very hot and very fast. 3) Margarita’s are wonderful. And their flight of Marg’s is a superb idea. I’ve had the best taco salad in a very long time. The Fajita burrito, shrimp dishes, and carne asada. That was also interesting. It was served whole and sizzling on a hot rectangular cooker with food sides. [PIX] I would recommend this place every time. And even though it can look crowded, I’ve always seemed to be taken right in. Suggestions? I wished they’d offer a shrimp or a shrimp & octopus cocktail. It would also seem that they could increase proportion of the beans which has been a recurrent observation. It’s more like a smear than a side. I will say, some of the Bus Boy staff are not very observant. We were served our initial basket of chips which looked like he had eaten half of them before he set it down on our table. We could literally see a large amount of the bottom of the basket. I made a comment about it. He ignored it. Not good customer service from bus staff although the wait staff...