Santa Rosa Taqueria — Restaurant in Washington

"For the sweetest things, turn sourest by their deeds. Lilies that fester, smell far worse than weeds." Shakespeare

This is a tough review to write as Santa Rosa has been near and dear to my heart for some time. In its previous incarnation--a few doors down from its current location--Santa Rosa was a godsend for those of us on Capitol Hill searching for decent nachos and solid margaritas. During the earlier part of the pandemic, the nachos were a weekly comfort. One could order them with confidence, knowing that they would be well-layered with the appropriate portions of chips, queso, guac, etc. It pains me to say that those halcyon days are gone.

These days, you never know what you're going to get. On paper, the menu is not much different than it was before. In practice, there is no consistency to their product anymore. I've tried to give them many months to get their act together before writing this review, hoping that they would eventually find their stride once more. I am sorry to say that hasn't happened.

Three of the last four times I've gotten nachos from Santa Rosa, they barely added any queso at all. At least once, I got an order that consisted mainly of chips and onions with nary a drop of queso to be found. This is a problem. The two main ingredients to any decent plate of nachos are chips and queso. If you leave one of those ingredients out, or radically diminish its just portion, that plate is a failure. At this point, I've been burned too many times and won't be going back until I hear some solid reports that improvements have been made.

In conclusion, the nachos at Santa Rosa were once a cause for celebration. Now they make me sad, and...

My sister and I visited in the evening of Halloween 2024 and it was fairly busy. However, we were able to find seating out on the patio after ordering our meal at the register. The tables could have benefit from more regular cleaning, but as I mentioned, it was fairly busy and there were lots of groups with young children leaving as we arrived. We ordered a couple of different tacos, and a steak quesadilla. We ordered short rib barbocoa, steak asada, fried fish, diablo shrimp, and crispy fried spicy shrimp taco. Each of the tacos came with some kind of coleslaw and sauce. I appreciate the combinations but overall, I think the tacos had too many toppings. The flavor of the proteins was solid, but not amazing. The toppings didn't add much to the overall taste and made the tacos super messy. However the steak quesadilla really good. We also got two rounds of the happy hour margaritas (which came with chips and salsa). My sister's first margarita was skinny but she didn't like it much since the sweetener tasted very artificial. The regular classic margaritas were good though. Overall, this was a nice casual spot to grab some food quickly. Being in Capitol Hill, the parking is always going to be a slight challenge but we ended up finding parking right out front after just one lap around the block. With so many good options for food in DC and the surrounding areas, I probably won't...

This Restaurant Seemed Good At First But For A Real Mexican Like Me It Doesn't Qualify As Good. You Order Your Food Before Sitting Down Like A Fast Food Place, All The Stuff You Put On It You Get It Yourself, So There Is No Waiters. The Tacos Were Very Expensive, $4 For Each Taco and They Were Very Small. The Food Looks Picture Good But The Meat Didn't Even Taste Good, I Didn't Get That "Street Taco" Taste That They Heavily Advertise Everywhere On Their Website. The Salsas Didn't Have Any Taste Or Spicyness At All So My Food Didn't Taste Like Anything Besides Tortilla and Dry Meat. We Also Ordered Some Nachos and For The Price They Have Been The Smallest Most Expensive Nachos I Have Ever Gotten Anywhere. The Bottom Was Completely Drenched In Cheese and The Top Of All The Tortilla Nachos Was Dry. The Meat Was Super Salty and Even The Guacamole Didn't Have Any Taste. The People Here Are Very Nice and They Are Fast With Helping You Right When You Walk In, But For Future Reference If You Have Someone In Training, It Would Be Best for Them To Shadow Someone And Not Be Put Into The Ocean To Drown. The Cashier Didn't Speak Spanish Very Well, She Was Very Relieved When She Found Out I Spoke English and Got Our Order Wrong Three Times. Not A Place I'll Come...