Marita's Southwestern Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Stroudsburg

I've been going to Marita's on and off for easily over 25 years. For a while now it seems to be hit or miss with the food. A small group of 4 of us went last Friday night. While we waited for our table we had drinks at the bar.. the drinks were great. We were seated and we ordered. Our apps came quickly, nachos supreme and coconut shrimp. They were both very good. They're generous with the meat in the nachos and the shrimp were crispy and tasty. Our meals came. I had a fajita with shrimp and chicken. I wasn't told to be careful of the serving dish. Because the server set it down without a cooking mit or any protection it never occured to me not to touch it. The outer part of the serving plate is wood or some protective material that is not hot... however the inner part is a metal platter with the grilled food on it and it's scalding hot! I just went to push it forward a bit and pulled my hand away quickly when I felt the burn, but it still left a blister on my finger... ouch. We got a cup of ice and I dealt with it... only the one finger, I lived. I have gotten fajitas many times before at many different places and have never had a plate as scalding hot as this one. Even with the protective outer part of the platter I think people should be warned how seriously hot the inner part is. I didn't tell the server nor management. They had no chance to address this or apologize, which I'm sure they would have. The 3 stars had nothing to do with that incident though, it was that the chicken and shrimp for the fajita had NO flavor at all. It wasn't marinated or seasoned, just plain grilled chicken (and rather dry) and shrimp that had no grill marks or anything on it. It tasted like plain boiled shrimp with no seasoning. And, the flour tortillas weren't grilled nor warmed. They tasted just like someone took them out of a package. One of my table mates tasted it and totally agreed. I didn't eat it but I did take it home. The next day I seasoned the meat/shrimp,  put the tortillas on the stove's grill for a minute, and had some for lunch. The 3 other people at our table had burrito bowls. They were very happy with their meals, so that's good. The server was as attentive as she could have been considering the restaurant was full. I think they needed more servers that night. I might have given 3.5 stars if that was an option, but it definitely was not 4 stars, so it got a 3. Summary: The service was good. The atmosphere was nice. 3 of the 4 meals were good ... and...

We just moved here and have been trying local cuisines on our date nights out. This was by far the worst place we have tried yet! I ordered the mango shrimp wrap with high hopes it would be good. Nope! The shrimp inside barely looked cooked and had absolutely no seasoning on it. There was so much lettuce and cheese inside I had trouble chewing because of the dryness (there was absolutely no sauce or drizzle what do ever inside). I asked the waiter for some sort of sauce for me to put inside explaining that it was very dry. He came back exhaling that they didn’t have anything similar to what I was asking for and asked if there was anything else I could use. I suggested maybe a very small amount of queso to pour inside. He brought some out (a very tiny little condiment size bowl) and while it helped it still wasn’t great. My husbands food was bland and the salsa tasted funny but we ate it since it was better than our food. The waiter checked on me to see if the queso helped and I said it was just ok and would be taking the other half of my wrap home to doctor it up. He didn’t offer up any solutions or anything. My husband also ordered two alcoholic drinks (crown and cokes) and while they had plenty of alcohol in them they came out in wine glasses and my husband had to stir the drinks because the alcohol was all on top (it was mostly alcohol and ice) We asked for the bill and to our dismay I was charged just under $4 for the queso He brought me out. We tried to bring it to his attention but he was clueless and tried to argue with us about how it is the price for a small queso. We explained that it was only used to cover up a very dry wrap and was only used because they didn’t have any other suitable choices but he still argued. We paid, left and will NOT be back. Our bill was $70+ bucks and we left dissatisfied and...

I've eaten at Marita's 3 times now over the past 5 years, and it seems worse each time I go. The last time I went (before this visit), I literally had to race home to the bathroom (sorry for the TMI).

The only reason I went this time was because i had a gift certificate. I should've known it was going to be another bad experience........they had 3 customers (including my table) and 2 others at the bar on a Saturday at 6:30 p.m. It seems others are feeling this way about this place.

The food this time was dry, bland, and unexciting. It just looked like someone threw it together without a care. For the prices that they charge, the food should look better than that.........and taste better too.

The service wasn't much better. The staff needs more training. They had no knowledge of the menu, and when we had questions, we were left to figure out out for ourselves. We also had to wait forever for our bill despite our plates being empty and our waitress passing us several times.

I won't be back. La Tolteca is 5 minutes down the road and 100 times better.

Edit in response to owner's reply.....

Your reply was laughable. I wasn't there during a blizzard. It was 2 weeks ago. Nice try, though. If you actually looked at my previous Google reviews, you'd notice that I'm fair and honest......and I was with your establishment. The fact that you responded defensively instead of listening and learning says a lot about you and your business.

I'm sorry you didn't like what I had to say. Perhaps you can take it as constructive criticism and learn and grow from this. Or not. Either way, I wish...