La Botana — Restaurant in Troy

Decent American-Mexican, aka Tex-Mex, place. Though, I suspect those that call this "authentic Mexican" food never stepped a foot in Mexico.

Unfortunately at ~$16 per plate, the cost to value simply isn't there for what you end up getting. Will not be making it even an occasional "treat" for us as the quality/flavor is something easily done at home.

EDIT: To elaborate what makes this restaurant fall under the Tex-Mex outside of the no black olives and taco seasoning - The over-reliance on shredded cheese, sour cream, lettuce and pico for just about all dishes. First 3 ingredients feature almost no role in dishes found in Mexico with tomato Pico being just one of many salsas rather than the salsa. But they are prominent in Tex-Mex. Lack of any mole and charred fresh chiles, onions, etc (picked jalapenos only) would be surprising at any "authentic" Mexican restaurant.

EDIT2: I think you are proving my original point. You can strive to be "authentic" or you can strive to give people what they want by default (lettuce, cheese, sour cream, tomato). But what ~90% of Americans know as "Mexican" is Tex-Mex so by giving them what they want you are creating Tex-Mex. Now that's nothing wrong with Tex-Mex, it's delicious in it's own right, but it should not be confused with authentic regional Mexican cuisine. I had the Gorditas, she has the Enchiladas Rojas both in chicken. I'm not saying stop offering cheese, sour cream, lettuce, etc, just don't make it a default combo on almost everything. Afterall, TacoBell, Qdoba and Chipotle is all just 3 miles away so you can afford to be more true to real/indigenous cuisine found in Mexico. Some potato & chicharron dishes...

The small restaurant reminds me of a Subway. It's decorated festively, but there is very limited seating. We ordered several menu items and were shocked by the price compared to the portion sizes/quality. I wouldn't say the food was bad, but it wasn't something we would ever get again. The quality of food was so so and combined with the portion sizes and how expensive everything was, there was just very little value. You're definitely not going home with any leftovers. Some places you go to for the ambiance, or for the amazing food, or for their big portion sizes, or because of all of those things, but this place had none of them. I don't know how they even justify their prices. The beans were watery, the "fresh" chips seemed stale and we're not salted/had zero flavor, and the meat seemed like they did everything to it to make it stretch as far as they possibly could. I would say it could be an all right little neighborhood place, but the prices were just astronomical for what you receive. I know everything has gotten expensive these days, but it was just not adding up. Very little value. We will not be returning. First and...

DONT GO HERE!!!! Manager denied everything below and told us he will do nothing about it. He has an horrible attitude and did not apologize for anything. He hung up on us. No joke this is the worst Mexican food available in the area!

Ordered the GRANDE Quesadilla dinner, enchiladas Verde, and the large botana and tres leges. $58 dollars for this. The enchiladas are sweet and not spicy and nothing is fresh. The beans are watered down and rice is old. Botana is LITERALLY MISSING THE CHIPS AND THE CHEESE- look at the photo! 15.99 for a "grande" quesadilla plus 3.50 for the half scoop of beans and rice. After taxes $20 bucks for this photo. GRANDE? THIS IS GRANDE? This quesadilla is smaller than a taco bell quesadilla. Rice and beans are not fresh and cold by the time I got home from the 4 min drive. We came here because the good review. I'm glad those people got good food but our food was literally left overs. Do yourself a favor and stick to El Patio. El Patio is cheaper and larger portions and fresh every time. Really disappointed with...