So yesterday we celebrated Cinco de Mayo!
A few ingredients are key with this celebration and they are and good friends, good food and good drinks. Dan and I had dinner with our friends Dana and Ben. Dan and I arrived first. The hostess sat us despite that the rest of our party had not arrived yet and their was a crowd of people waiting for a table. We had a reservation! Score!! Note to yourself, always have a reservation. We were instantly greeted with a special guest DJ. We did expect a bit more traditional music but we were pleasantly pleased with the popular 80’s tune Jesse’s Girl from Rick Springfield as we entered the restaurant. Later in the evening we heard most of the Grease soundtrack and we were entertained by another group who were happily (and loudly) singing along. But we didn’t mind. It was a party after all!!
The menu was a special Cinco de Mayo menu so it basically just cut their regular menu in half. I also believe some of the prices were increased by a buck or two. But it was fine. We were provided entertainment after all.
at $21I ordered chicken enchiladas with spicy green sauce at $21. Can you say YUM? Oh yeah it was so flavorful. The chicken inside was pulled and juicy. The sauce wasn’t overwhelmingly spicy but it was tasty. The refried black beans were no canned refried beans. They were creamy and beany 😂 The rice was lite with a touch of corn and just the perfect accompaniment to this dish. I would order it again.
Dan ordered chicken with mole sauce. He liked the mole sauce (was a bit sweet to me). However even though it had been doused in mole, he said the chicken breast was a bit dry. Presentation on his dish was also a little lackluster.
I had to take a pic of Dana’s dish for you all because it looked really nice and very unique. The sauce did not look appealing to me. (What does the sauce look like to you??? LOL). Well, despite its appearance, Dana said it was good! (I didn’t tell her what I thought of the sauce while she was eating. That would’ve been plain old rude 😉).
The restaurant’s atmosphere was AWESOME! It was very clean and the decor was spot on Mexican themed. It was busy and exciting. It had a happy go lucky feel as patrons danced and swayed to the music, really just having a good time.
No complaints here on the service. Food and drinks came out correct and just perfect. Our server never missed a beat. He was constantly checking on us and making sure we were okay even with their full house.
Oh wowI forgot to mention our apps and drinks! We shared house-made guac, salsa and chips. Chips were thick and crunchy. Guacamole was fresh and chunky. The salsa, however was just chunks of tomato, pepper and onion. It was difficult to get in the chip and really not very flavorful but it was fresh I’ll give ‘em that! I’m also partial to complimentary salsa and chips but here they charge you $5.
One thing special about El Sarape is its huge tequila menu. You have to go check it out if tequila is your thing. You can even order a sampler I believe. We had tradition margaritas that were made with fresh lime juice and other ingredients as opposed to just a mix. Really this is MUCH better. Their margaritas ranged in price from $10.50 to $16 with no pitcher options. Pitchers would be a great offering since their individual drinks are somewhat pricey. They offer a nice variety of different flavored margaritas.
El Sarape is more upscale than your nearest taqueria hence the increased prices. You have to take that into consideration as their environment alone is worth the extra bucks. I would go again if friends wanted to try it out. Now if all you are looking for is delicious, inexpensive Mexican fare, better options are out there and YES I will review them for you in the future!
In closing, I give El Sarape 3 out of 4 forks. Until next time my friends!!
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