Rosa's Mexican Food Restaurant — Restaurant in Tucson

This is lengthy because I feel people need an honest review before spending their hard earned money here. My family and I ordered take out from here, it was our first time. We were told our order would be ready for pickup in 20-25 minutes. We were there on time to pick it up, mind you we live 5 minutes away from Rosa’s. When we got home, my mom’s entree of cheese enchiladas with a side of rice and beans, and green chili enchilada sauce, was cold, the cheese wasn’t even melted, no sauce on top and cold sides. My green chili, potato soup which was a large, was super salty, Luke warm at best, and had 5 potatoes in it. My shredded beef taco was soggy and cold. It was bad enough to call and let the restaurant know. I asked to speak with a manager, a nice man named Brian helped me. He asked for pictures of the food and said he would make it right and to come in for a refund. I called before coming in to give a heads up, the woman I spoke with with extremely rude, condescending and combative about what Brian and I had discussed, like she didn’t believe us or it was our fault if the food was cold, she said “maybe it was sitting there for a while” and she also said “you can’t expect the same food as you would get if you sat in the restaurant” with a very nasty attitude. I told her ma’am picking up a to go order shouldn’t compromise the quality of your food, I order pick up from restaurants all the time and those places manage to hold the integrity of their food for people who choose to eat at home, that’s not an excuse. I’ll be in to pick up my refund. I go in, I do not remember her name but she was an old short woman, dark hair and black framed glasses, the same woman I had spoken with, proceeded to tell me I should’ve brought my food in the night we complained and that we shouldn’t expect to keep the food and get a refund. I told her had Brian told us that, we would’ve taken the food back, we couldn’t even eat it, he asked for pictures which I sent. She continued to be argumentative and I told her that’s not the way you handle business, I told her why would we want a credit at restaurant whos food wasn’t a good first impression and how rudely we are being treated for giving feed back about the food, would you rather have bad reviews? The exchange because heated and she only offered to give me cash back when people started noticing the argument, she tossed my money at me and said don’t come back here, we don’t want your business and flashed a quick condescending smile. She is horrible and not a good representation of how front of business should be ran. I would not recommend spending your money at a place who cannot take accountability and provide respectful customer service because they are being called out on their food and service. I’d give zero...

I lived in Tucson for most of my life and we came to Rosa's many times. But over the years I think my taste has changed. We only come here now because other family members getting nostalgic coming here.

Rosa's is very Tex-Mex. People say it's authentic but I'm not really sure why. I guess maybe it's authentic to them and The foods they ate growing up?

Service: not great. Not rude, but also not polite. Slow and they forgot multiple things we ordered.

Food: we had chimichangas (bean and cheese, carne seca, and something else). They were ok. They were all ordered enchilada style which is not an authentic chili sauce but One of those orange tomatoey sauces and then covered with a mountain of cheese and lettuce.

We also had shredded beef tacos and flautas. Again, they were ok.

I think the best dishes were the shredded beef tacos. Also, there are beans and rice are pretty good. And their salsa is pretty awesome too. Actually, their salsa is probably better than most places.

In all honesty, I think a lot of this has to do with the food that I like. I like chimichangas and I just don't like the soggy chimichanga covered with orange sauce anymore. I like that deep red chili sauce and where the edges of the chimichanga are still coming out a little bit so they're still crunchy. My favorite place to get them in Tucson, or anywhere really, is it place called La Olla up in Marana. Check out my other review and compare the picture to the picture of the...

I love Rosa’s. I’ve been coming here for years. It’s yummers!

The cheese crisps are perfectly cheesy and crunchy, the chimichangas are perfectly chimichanga-y, and the salsa….. a mouthwatering explosion of garlicky, zesty, cilantroy, spice-o-lisciousness. Super yum! Be warned, the salsa is not for babies. There can be problems the next day if you eat as much salsa as I do. But that’s life in the Old Pueblo. And, like Bruno, we don’t talk about it.

The main reason I’ve come to Rosa’s over and over over the years. I can’t get over the #9. The chile rellenos. Ka-bam! It’s over the top. This is one of the few places that makes their rellenos in an ortega and not a ranchero sauce. I can’t quit it. Like Brokeback Mountain.

One criticism. The guacamole. It’s about as mediocre as it could be without being just plain bad. Boooo!

Whatever, I don’t come here for the guac. I come here to frighten my cardiologist and regret life after my first cup of coffee the next morning.

And for the #9: two chile rellenos, rice and beans. Yummmm!

Edit: years after I wrote this original review, Rosa’s #9 is still the BEST rellenos you’ll get...