Is it me? Another bad taco lunch in Colorado.

Santiago's - Denver

 

I've been going to Santiago's for years. Only a few bucks in the car console?  That equals a chicken, rice and green chili burrito including a drink.  Need breakfast burritos for the drive up to Folsom Field for a CU Game?  Our car always pulls in to Santiago's. 

Guess what?  Never in all my visits have I had a taco from Santiago's.  In fact I wasn't sure if tacos were on the menu.  Also this was my first time actually eating there.  They have several locations in the city and most, I believe, are to-go only.  The one on this visit was Santiago's on Leetsdale where they offer dine-in. 

The place was a nightmare.  It wasn't overly busy, but I had to ask customers what to do as nobody who worked there was welcoming.  Do you seat yourself? Is there a waitress or do you order at the counter?  I'm sure the 3 tables I asked these questions to were happy to have some stranger interrupt their lunch.  Finally after 7 minutes I got up to get myself my own menu.  Eventually the waiter came over and it was basically what do want?  How hard is it to be friendly these days? 

Placed my order for the Tacos Al Carbon, and wishing instead for my usual chicken and rice burrito.  The price tag was $8.95 for the taco plate and my burrito is always $2.50.  I'm just so over these places charging almost $9 for 3 tacos.  Nobody wants the beans or rice.  Charge me $6 for 3 tacos! 

The food finally arrives.  3 soft corn tortillas (greasy as all heck), filled with grilled steak that was so rubbery that I couldn't get through two bites. Some pico, beans.... Check please.  I mean that's it.  I couldn't stomach 2 bites of this stuff.

So what do I say?  What do I tell people to do when deciding on Santiago's?  I'm not sure if it was this particular location and that if I go to Santa Fe or Broadway I'm going to get the best tacos in the city, or if it's the wrong item to order at any of the locations.  If I order my standard breakfast burrito from this Leetsdale location next time, is it going to totally suck?  What's a person to think?  This is where consistency comes in with these chain restaurants.  You can't have the best people with smiling happy faces working at your S. Broadway store and then the unhappy bunch at Leetsdale.  Same for food!

More than likely I will NEVER order tacos ever again at Santiago's.  I will never go to the Leetsdale location either.  So what can I say?  If you want a breakfast burrito, Santiago's in Englewood and over on Santa Fe is excellent.  Need tacos?  I would not send you here. Sorry management at Santiago's.  It was that bad. 

So my September rut continues.  I haven't had this many bad experiences in bad tacos since spending some time in Florida.  I think I need to take a break from exploring for the rest of the month and regroup for October.  I'm only going to visit places where I know I'll get great service, good food and decent prices.

Santiago's website:

http://www.eatatsantiagos.com/

Jack-n-Grill should be called Bland-n-Not Good

Jack-n-Grill
Denver, Colorado


You know how you get all excited to go to one of your favorite places to eat? 

That was me the other day.  We decided to go to Tamales by La Casita in the Denver Highland neighborhood.  It was the perfect plan.  I was definitely getting a shredded beef burrito this time. My pal, I'm sure, would order the green chili.  The plan would have been great if we didn't take a detour to a local bar to do 2 rounds of cocktails. 

After cocktailing it, we walked over to La Casita.  On approach, the people we could see in the windows eating dinner, made us that much more hungry for one of our favorite places.  So when I pulled door number one and it was locked, I just figured, that's odd, then door number two.  Locked as well.  My friend then saw the sign.  Closed at 7pm.  It was 7:07pm.  Arrrrgh!  I didn't even think to call or check their website to make sure they were open.  Who closes at 7 these days?  Isn't everyone in the city open until 10 making tacos and burritos?  I guess not.  In the past I have only been here for lunch, so it just never registered with me to inquire about their hours for dinner.  Drat.  What do we do now?

After a few, let's go here, or let's go there, my partner in crime suggested Jack-n-Grill on Federal.  OK.  I had been there once before.  I couldn't remember if I liked it or not.  It was ages ago.  I'll try it again and it's pretty close by too.

The sign on the wall at Jack-n-Grill is promising. The sign says that they were on the Travel Channel's "Man vs. Food".  That's cool, right?  Well maybe.  Doing "research" on this place, I think the award was presented back 4-5 years ago, and, well,  things change.  Things change a lot.

 



It was pretty divey inside and that's fine.  We were seated in the bar and pretty much everyone is seated in the bar, as the bar is weirdly in the center of this establishment.  Menus were presented and both my friend and I at the same time commented on the high prices.  Burritos, tacos all listed with numbers like $12.95 or $14.85.  If we were at La Casita our bill would be total $15 for the both of us.  This is not looking good. 

As the place is just not doing it for me, I go the safe route and order a Pacifico and two chicken tacos. My friend orders a bowl of green chili.  After enjoying my warm beer for 5 minutes the waiter returns with our order.  Oh, here we go.  Should I even bother?  OK, the green chili that I tasted, was very familiar to me.  I'm a Progresso Soup person too (it's great for a cheap meal at home, but not something I'm looking for at dinner out on the town).  That's what it tasted like.  Someone opened a can of veggie broth/soup and dumped some canned green chilies into it?  And the pork?  It was ground pork!  In green chili?  Who does that.  Oh gross.  The tacos.  Well the boiled shredded chicken (or maybe it was canned as well) was flavorless. The pico de gallo, just tasted like tomatoes.  Bland, bland, bland.  It's not even worth my time to describe.

 

 

The bill came and of course with 2 beers and two dinners it was about $30 with tip.  What a waste.  I didn't even have the energy to complain.  What am I going to say?  We were on our way to La Casita and settled on this place?  We were so disappointed that really nothing could be done to save the night.  But you know what sometimes you have this exact type of situation and you DO GO SOMEWHERE ELSE and you know what?  You find another gem. I love those nights!  This wasn't the case.  It was so draining to be there (hence my crappy food pics).  All I wanted to do was go home.

 

So here's what I learned.  Don't go to places that have an old banner waving in the wind from 2009 saying they were on the Travel Channel. It doesn't mean anything, and that if I want to go to Las Casitas I need to skip the 6 o'clock happy hour and get my buns to that place by 6:58PM.  Lesson learned.  Damn you that second 6:45PM margarita cocktail.  You totally screwed up my evening.

 

Jack-n-Grill info (not sure if you need it!)

Address: 2524 Federal, Denver, CO 

http://www.jackngrill.com

http://www.travelchannel.com/video/adam-battles-7-lb-breakfast-burrito-12284