CHICO'S — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

BEST MEXICAN FOOD! If you are passing through Santa Rosa (or live there), you absolutely must stop to eat at CHICO’S….you will not be disappointed!

My wife and and I were passing through Santa Rosa, NM for a night and looking for a good Mexican restaurant for dinner. We chose Chico’s and we’re thoroughly impressed with the service, the atmosphere and the food. When we arrived, we were happily greeted by a young man, Naheim (who we eventually found out was one of the sons of the family owned business) and shown to our seat. Naheim was polite and engaging and made us feel welcomed. We asked for a few recommendations, which he provided with candid honesty, which we really appreciated. Specifically, we asked whether we should get the guacamole or cheese dip and he stated the guacamole because of its freshness and that the cheese dip was one of the only things they didn’t make themselves.

The food was out of this world delicious. We had chips with salsa and guacamole plus a few street tacos. Everything was fresh, the chips, salsa, guacamole, all of it and it was incredible delicious. The taco sauces were homemade and it was hard to choose between all three of them because they were each delicious in their own way (my wife wanted to bottle up the mild and take some with us). We wanted to keep trying food but after 3 tacos each, we were stuffed.

This family owned business is definitely doing everything right. The kindness and happiness of our waiter and the quality and tastiness of the food made our experience truly remarkable. I don’t know when we will be passing through Santa Rosa, NM again, but we will be sure to make a special stop at Chico’s! If I could give it more stars, I...

So the poor town is struggggggling. And I mean it is really not doing well, from what I could see. If it wasn't for Chicos being open, I would have had to resort to the only other restaurant opened, and that was gross McDonald's.

Chicos is an authentic Mexican restaurant. Beautiful bright colors, art everywhere, and the service was outstanding! The food was really yummy too. The salsa was spicy but cooled down very easily as you consumed more of it. I had Tacos Dorados and 2 beef street tacos. Tacos Dorados was amazing! I destroyed those bad boys. Beans were ok. Rice was a little undercooked and crunchy, but had nice flavor. Beef in my street Tacos was slightly dry. But, who can blame them? It's kind of hard to not have dry beef when your town is falling apart, the tourist aren't coming and business is slow. Literally every authentic Mom n Pop shop was either closed or out of business. Hotels and restaurants were all chain places except Chicos. When every restaurant in town doesn't open until 4pm, that tells you something about the town. They are struggling. They need to develop more attractions somehow other than the lakes Waterpark. Nothing to do here.

But anyway...

One of the most delightful and lovely young ladies works here. Her name is Brianda. She was very kind, courteous, and has a smile that could light up any room.

If you are in town, or a local, please go support this restaurant before it falls to the fatally mismanaged economy that the government has allowed it to become. BTW, I noticed all the police vehicles seemed to be brand new. I wonder where the funding in this...

Read the reviews and was very excited to try this joint. Even the hotel receptionist said it was authentic and delicious but let us know they don't serve alcohol. Cool! We arrived and was warn that it would be 45 mins for food to be prepared. No problem, willing to wait for good food. It wasn't worth the hour wait. The food was bland and had zero flavor. The beans had a sour taste and probably came from a pouch you heat in the microwave. I was told the fish and shrimp taco were the most popular. I got 2 fish tacos and they quality was poor to say the least. The tortillas weren't fresh, the cabbage tasted old and the only thing fresh was the chopped jalapeños. My kids did t even want the fries and quesadillas! The absolute worse thing was the pastor tacos with pineapple. They arrived barely warm, the texture was super soft and crumbly, with no flavor and the pineapple were soggy... I don't know how you achieve this and I probably don't want to know. I have yet to find anything decent in New Mexico when passing through. I think I'll save my money and fast when driving through this state. I can't believe the ratings for Chicos was above a 2. Also, the property has a bunch of trash and broken appliances that need to go to the dump! If you're too lazy to throw away your trash you probably are too lazy to make a really good taco! Like how hard is it to...