Emiliano's Mexican Restaurant & Bar

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  First time to the newer Cranberry Twp location. It was fantastic. The decor was awesome, they had a fountain midway back in the dining room that gave the place a real Al-fresco feeling.
  
  Food was delicious, they have a nice vegetarian section on the menu.
  
  Our server did disappear midway through our meal and only turned up to deliver our check, not to refill our drinks.
  
  Next time, I'd like to sit at their bar which looks real neat too.

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  Posted on 10.15.13 Amanda B.

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  I too like non-chain Mexican.  In Pittsburgh this is nearly nonexistent and I am still unsure of Emiliano's is a chain.  Best non-chain place in Pittsburgh for me, is Hector the taco vendor from Mexico City in the Strip District.
  
  Maybe we came on a bad day, but the salsa was bland.  It was 97% pureed tomatoes with a "hint" of cilantro, garlic and chilies and zero jalapeno.  For every Mexican restaurant, the salsa is critical and has to be right because it goes on everything.  
  
  Ordered Enchilada Suiza - Always good and highly recommended.  It comes with it's own green chili salsa.
  I ordered the Flautas.  I should have copied my wife and got the Suizas.
  
  If you want a good salsa recipe, message me and I will send you Marylin's Salsa recipe, the best salsa made.

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  Posted on 09.28.13 Steve A.

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  Up front disclosure: I really prefer mom & pop Mexican restaurants over chains.  If the hostess rolls her eyes when I say "Buenas tardes", it's not my type of place.  So right off the bat, Emilianos loses half a star.
  
  That said, there are several things to like about Emilianos.  First the décor is great, and the acoustics are good.  The guacamole made fresh at the table was a delight.  Service is good and our waitress was attentive to things like empty plates and refills.
  
  I don't usually comment on matters of taste because they are so individual, but the "huevos" I had were easily the worst I've ever had anywhere.  On the other hand, the chicken chimichanga that my wife had was sensational, and I'm glad she brought half of it home.  Apparently food quality is highly variable here, and that cost them another 1.5 stars.
  
  Overall, if I'm back in Cranberry and have a hankering for Mexican, I'll try Emilianos again, but I sure won't order anything with the word "huevos" in it.

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  Posted on 09.27.13 Tom A.

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  I really wanted to like Emiliano's.  They are located in the lower level of the Cranberry Mall, in the old CiCi's Pizza Buffet location.  Just a hop, skip and a jump from my house, it would be pretty nice to have a convenient restaurant to cure my Mexican food fix.
  
  We watched with hopeful optimism as they remodeled the location.  It took a lot of work to make this restaurant look so nice.  It's beautiful inside, with lots of quirky and cute decorating touches.
  
  We visited shortly after they opened.  Not a good visit.  BJ ordered steak fajitas, which were barely passable.  I got the build a combo plate with a ground beef taco and a chicken tamale with churro beans.  The churro beans that time were awesome.  My tamale was very small and mostly cornmeal with very little filling.  While I ate the tamale, my taco shell disintegrated and fell apart, so I ate the flavorless meat with a fork and left the limp shell.  I also had ordered a frozen Bahama Mama.  It tasted like pepto bismol, so I had to send it back.  I haven't had the nerve to order a drink other than water since.  We have tried burritos, enchildas, and chimichangas, etc.  Every time, we come to the same conclusion, this joint is not for us.  Also, service always starts out great, but by the end of our visit, we are having to track down our server to get our check.
  
  They do have great Happy Hour specials.  Drafts are half prices from 4 to 6 Monday thru Friday, and some half priced cocktails and appetizers.  I am thinking that if you are tanked up, the food probably does taste a bit better, so it's a win win for you.  I recommend that if you like Mexican food, you should give them a chance.  We have tried a few times now, but sorry to say, we are at the point of giving up for now.

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  Posted on 09.07.13 Julie D.

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  Really mixed emotions about this place.  I guess I just have to remember where I'm at.  The first bowl of salsa they brought out tasted like Italian marinara, so we ordered a bowl of something spicier.  Sort of.  Now the "bean" dip (white queso with their refried beans in it) was decent, mainly because of the white queso.  The wife ordered beef and chicken fajitas for her entree.  And man, they must have gotten a hell of a deal on green peppers and onions because that was about all that came on the platter!!  The beef and and chicken were cut up into such little pieces, it looked like something that came out of a can of soup.  I really don't think there was a 1/3 of a pound of meat on that platter, honest.  And the chicken had some sort of tasteless red coating on it.  What was that all about?
  
  I ordered the pork carnitas.  The meat was tender with a bit of Mexican flavor to it, but the portion was very small.  The refried beans were so runny theyhad to be eaten with a spoon, and the rice was very bland (but then, what's not bland around here?).  
  
  Now on the positive side, the margaritas were very good, not short on Tequila (Tekillya).  And I ordered jalapenos on the side, and got some tasty chilpotles.  Ummm Ummm.  But overall, disappointed on this last trip.  Three stars is a stretch but again, I have to remember where I'm at.

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  Posted on 07.15.13 Robert S.

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  I really enjoy Emiliano's Mexican Restaurant.  They make their guacamole tableside, fresh and it absolutely delicious.  I have only eaten here once and the food was amazing.  We ordered a bunch of items and shared them among the table, sort of tapas style.  Regardless of what we ate, everyone felt their food was delicious.
  
  The real reason for my review however, is the wonderful happy hour specials and drinks on the menu.  If you are looking for a good happy hour, this is place.  They serve you complimentary chips and salsa and their drink specials are wonderful.  Each day they have a new special.  I went on a Friday after work and they had $4.00 fishbowl margaritas.  I could tell this wasn't just some mix they used to turn a lot out in short period of time.  I ordered lime (which really isn't one of my favorite flavors) and it was one of the best margaritas I ever had.  Two or three of these bad boys and you might have to order some extra food to soak up the alcohol.  In addition, I also tried their red sangria.  Absolutely awesome!  I love sangria and try it at most places that serves it.  Emiliano's has some of the best sangria I've ever had as well.  
  
  If you are looking for authentic Mexican cuisine, great drinks and a good atmosphere, give Emiliano's a try.

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  Posted on 06.27.13 Kris K.

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  Stopped in to Emiliano's tonight for the first time. I will first day that I am not big Into Mexican food, so please take whatever I write with a grain of salt. The place was very busy but we were able to e seated right away.  It was around 6:30 so the dinner crowd was just starting to heat up. Our server was very prompt and our drink orders were taken And served very quickly. The server was very knowledgable about the menu and was able to answer my numerous questions about what I should order. I ended up ordering the enchilada supreme and my wife ordered something very similar ( an enchilada suizas). There were four if us for dinner and I must say the turn around time on our meal was only about 10 - 15 minutes. It was awesome. The food was excellent. Our meals were very good and the other couple we had dinner with lives their meals as well. The food was not very spicy which was fine by me. I didn't order anything that had a lot of spice to it anyway. Overall, I rate this place very highly. As I said, I'm not really into Mexican food, but this was really good and I would recommend this place. The atmosphere isn't great, but I didn't expect much when I went I there anyway. If you like Mexican, I would definitely recommend Emiliano's.

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  Posted on 06.21.13 Dan O.

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  Emiliano's just opened where Bar Louie once sat in Cranberry.  I swear this location is cursed being no business ever stays after two years.  Hopefully this is not the case with Emiliano's.
  
  We stopped during lunch.  The place is nicely remodeled and features several booths, tables, a bar (which is a bit small), as well as a pretty cool fountain in the middle of the dining area.
  
  We were presented our complimentary chips and salsa and then the menus arrived.  I just about passed out when I saw the pricing.  Seven dollars for lunch fajitas?!!  One dollar bowls of soup?!  Unheard of in Cranberry.  I got the chicken fajitas and my husband got the chimichangas.  The pricing was great as well as the food.  The portions were large and I couldn't imagine getting the dinner menu where the fajitas were 13 dollars for larger portion.  
  
  They also feature many drink specials throughout the week too.  Fishbowl margaritas, pitchers of beer, and house margaritas.

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  Posted on 06.13.13 Rikki M.

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  This place is a MUST if you have a craving for Mexican food. They've always impressed me with amazing food, even when they were at they're old location.

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  Posted on 06.06.13 Robert C.

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