Chapalas Mexican Restaurant

We have been customers of chap alas since they first opened at the oak way location, however it seems that it is time to move on. I love chips and salsa and their chips are light but they seem to have changed their salsa recipe which now has something black in it, has as our taste to it and now starts fighting back within minutes of eating it. The last time we ordered nachos with ground beef it looked and tasted like they did not remove the fat from the cooked meat after it came from the grill and just slopped it on. Way too greasy. So now we are looking for a new place to eat Mexican.

Chapala is definitely one of those "typical" big Mexican restaurants you find.  A lot of seating, standard chips and salsa, standard HUGE menu with tons of options.

That being said, Chapala is one of the best Mexican restaurants I have been to within that "category".  While I cannot reasonably compare Chapala to some of the fancier, artistic Mexican restaurants I experienced in Southern California....Chapala is good and satisfies that craving we are all aware of.

I was introduced to the restaurant last year.  I was happy to find tofu on the menu, and the marinade was awesome!  My second experience? At a March of Dimes chef's auction event.  Chapala prepared their seafood taquitos with some kind of excellent cream sauce.

My most recent experience was a few days ago, when I had the seafood (fish, shrimp and scallop melody with veggies) enchiladas with an awesome, flavorful cheese sauce.  The refried beans & Mexican rice were typical.  The guacamole was very good.  The chips & salsa were very good, nothing special, but tasty.

The service was awesome.  They were very quick, and extremely polite/friendly.  They even came after us with the boxed food we left behind.

Yay! I am a FAN.

Huge portions make up for the slight lack in flavor.  I usually get the tostada, which is average for Mexican food, but above average for Eugene.  Being from the OK/TX area, it's hard to find really good Mexican food.  The salsa is average as well.  They do make excellent piña coladas.