SALSITA drinks & tacos — Restaurant in San Antonio

I mourn the loss of Tiagos. I had high hopes for Salsitas when I saw their menu after Tiagos closed, thinking it looked like slimmed down menu. When I first entered, I was interested in the new look. My son did point out the Jaritos wall over the bar was gone, but with any remodel, it was to be expected. The atmosphere was decent. The music was more Hispanic than Tiagos ever was, and the tables were made up to look a little more upscale. The use of older design straw holders for the silverware was interesting. We ordered our appetizers first, loaded chili con queso with chips, and esquites. The cheese dip was little more than Velveeta cheese, melted with "stuff" thrown in. And the chips seemed pretty stale. The esquites we're a huge disappointment. The most interesting thing was the "dish" was served in a ceramic cup that looks like one of the cheap plastic cups you might make cup of corn in, in the microwave at home. They get points for creativity, but they should not be used in place of flavor. You could see the chili, cotija cheese, mayo and butter. I tried mixing it, which was hard in the little cup, and when I took a bite... Nothing. Nada. Zero flavor. I don't even think it was salted butter. I squeezed in a couple slices of lime, but that BARELY helped. And, when the chips ran out with the queso, we asked for more, and we're charged more. The queso bowl was still half full. I would think that would be included. Between the three of us who went, I ordered the birria enchiladas, my spouse ordered the carnitas tacos, and my son ordered the birria tacos. My enchiladas we're okay. Most of the flavor did come from the birria and the verde sauce, so it was decent. But there was no replacing the black beans or Mexican rice for the sides. The black beans tasted like they were stewed without even using salt. The were bland and dull. The Mexican rice was plasticy in texture, and still had zero flavor. There was no salt or pepper on the table to help, but at this point, I felt I needed the whole spice cabinet. My spouses carnitas tacos were just bad. The carnitas was just dry and greasy at the same time. I think lard on packing peanuts would have been tastier. Again, no seasoning. They asked for salsita... You'd think a restaurant named Salsitas would have salsas nearby. But we were only brought two little plastic squeeze bottles. The red one we were told was the regular and the green one we were warned was the spicy one. I'm going to be like the old Wendy's commercial and shout "WHERE'S THE HEAT!" The green was like green water. Thinking the waiter screwed up, we tried the red one, watered down ketchup would have been more flavorful. Even my son, who barely tolerates spice was "this is like nothing. Did they even try?" Last, my poor son's queso birria tacos. I will say that the birria is not the worst I've ever had, but the queso in the tacos, if it wasn't pulled apart mozzarella string cheese, I'd be surprised. And I'd make a comment on the consume, if there was any. The server kept 'disappearing' for a while to check on us, even though we could see him essentially just flirting or talking with other coworkers. My spouses tamarind aqua fresca was little more than brown sugar water, we couldn't taste that tamarind. My son got a regular Coke, and I had water with lime. I think they need to invest in a new water filter though, the flavor was not quite right. I mourn the closing of Tiagos, and Salsitas is a VERY poor substitute. With this menu, I'd honestly be surprised if Salsitas would be here a year from now, unless they fix themselves quickly. This review has more spice and flavor...

*UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM!!! After coming back from Cabo, I was craving some good Mexican food and I found this place. I have gone there now three times. I have gotten the Baja shrimp tacos, the birria tacos and now I got the vendor beef tacos. The Baja shrimp tacos amazing ,the street tacos were good. The Birria tacos were all right. I’ve had better. The chips and salsa that they give you in the beginning are great but, when I really go here for is the cake at the end, it is the most moist delectable chocolate cake with what taste like churro ice cream on the side. it is so good and they make it fresh and it’s warm, everything here is decently priced today. We just so happened to be there during happy hour and my margarita was only five dollars. Happy hour does have good prices. I believe it was four dollars for domestic beers five dollars for import margaritas or five dollars but if you wanted a flavor, it was a dollar extra. Our server whom we’ve had before was amazing I unfortunately do not remember his name. I thoroughly enjoyed going here and haven’t been disappointed with anything. I’ve had. My boyfriend has gotten the lunch portion fajitas which he said would good and he’s also had the meat trio thing. It has skewers of different meats on it and that is really good.

UPDATE* We went on Saturday, June 29, 2024 to Tiago’s for dinner with our friend. I got the skewers plate as well as my boyfriend it came with two chicken skewers, shrimp skewer and a steak skewer and the chicken skewers had one had mango sauce and the other had a green sauce I ate the shrimp, I ate the steak, and I was eating the chicken and the first piece of chicken tasted all right, but I thought it tasted a little chewy. I pull off the second piece of chicken and I noticed it’s completely RAW!!! I Spit It Out pulled off the next piece and again completely raw in the middle. It was like they barely seared it on each side and gave it to me and I showed my friend and my boyfriend and the server just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things or overreacting. I wish I had gotten a picture, but the server snatched it away so quickly I couldn’t grab a picture. I was very sick to my stomach after that. I have eaten some borderline expired things in my life, but I have never in my life eaten raw chicken. The manager came over, offered to get me a different dish, but at that point I had lost my appetite as well as my boyfriend because at this time, my boyfriend had already eaten his chicken skewers And who knows if his was raw or not she offered a dish declined. She offered a free dessert. I said yes and got the cake which is why we went there, but she said it was because they had new people in the kitchen and that wasn’t an excuse, but she was sorry. and took care of my meal and the cake only at first I was like OK that’s fine but then I got to thinking my boyfriend got the exact same dish I did and who knows if his was raw or not because they slather the sauce on the chicken, which is great, but, if you don’t look down at what you’re eating, maybe you’ll miss it and he thought the chicken was a little chewy and she didn’t take his off either and I was just a little confused that we got the same thing. It just kind of seemed like she was just shutting us up and moving us out but I’m so disappointed in this restaurant. I rant and rave how great this restaurant is and I hate to say this, but my boyfriend and I probably will not be back unless it’s just...

I don't write reviews....ever. However, this time, I feel it is necessary. My wife and I have been coming to Tiago's since the day they opened. We have always loved our experience there. The staff was great, the food was great and we enjoyed the laid back atmosphere it had. We would always take our out of town family and friends to eat there for the experience. We loved Tiago's. Until today. We hadn't been to Tiago's in a few months, so we wanted to go for Father's Day. My kids, wife and I were excited to go. Once we arrived, we immediately noticed a difference. Instead of bringing over the chips and salsa and getting our drink order, the staff is forced to upsell the alcohol drink menu first and then bring our the chips and salsa. Even going through the menu, you could tell the server hated it, but he had to try and upsell every aspect of our order. I felt bad for him and we could immediately tell that there were new owners of the place before we even asked the server. Our meal consisted of their beef fajitas for our first kiddo, a plain cheeseburger for our other kiddo, my wife got just plain enchiladas with beef and I order my favorite cilantro lime chicken with veggies. First, the cilantro lime chicken was barely edible. It was dry with barely any cilantro lime sauce on it. Before it would come out with a full chicken breast, recently grilled with a good amount of that cilantro lime sauce smother on it. The "vegetables" were some barely roasted potatoes and baby carrots that were barely even cooked. My wife's enchilada's are her favorite meal. The beef used in the enchiladas tasted as if they used too much flour or something to thicken it up, but it just tasted like mashed meat. My kiddo's fajita's tasted like pure cumin and was only given small tortillas for this huge plate of beef fajitas he had. My other kiddo's burger was sad at best. It looked like a frozen patty with those fake grill marks on it that you used to get from Schwann's. The fries tasted like they were frozen. I had order the guacamole for an appetizer, which they are now forced to make in the kitchen instead of table side like they used to. All our meals and sides lacked any type of seasoning. The rice and beans were completely flavorless. My family and I are extremely disappointed to what has happened to Tiago's. I will no longer recommend this restaurant to out of town friends or family nor will we be coming back. We're sorry the staff and management have to endure these new changes by the new owners. We only hope that they either find somewhere better to work or Tiago's finds its way back the way it used to be. The menu might fool tourists coming to Six Flags, but it doesn't fool the locals. To the staff and management, thank you for the great years we got to experience there. We...