Macado's

We stopped in Salem to eat at Macado's while on a long road trip.  We were greeted promptly by a friendly waitress (Sandra) who knew the menu well.  She advised us to wait a few minutes until after 4pm to get the half price Hindenburg - one of our party of three wants to eat the whole thing even though it is ostensibly for four!  

We told Sandra that we were hesitant coming here because of the two bad recent reviews - but in the end the overall good reviews prevailed.  She apologized for the bad reviews, was glad we came anyhow and said that she would pass that along to the manager - the infamous Amber from the earlier review.  Sandra said she has worked here 5 years and loves the restaurant, menu, food and customers.  

Our appetizer - the pretzels - came out promptly, were hot and delicious!

Just after we finished our appetizers Amber stopped by.  She was very nice and glad we chose to come to Macado's.  All she would say about the incident referred to by the previous reviewer was that they made a decision not to serve more alcohol based on the bar tenders observation of behavior.  I find that bar tenders usually get that right.

In addition to the Hindenburg, we ordered the Chicken Fajita's and the Titanic.  They were all fantastic!  The only thing unexpected was that the Fajita's were not prepared the way I think of Fajita's - meat, onions, peppers served on a sizzling skillet with tortilla or other flat bread served on the side to put the sizzling mixture of goodness on.  Their version is basically a pizza.  My wife pointed out that it was listed under the category Flatbread Fajita's and flatbread these days is shorthand for a small pizza.  Fair enough - my fault.  Although it was unexpected, it was excellent - I would order it on purpose again!

We ordered the Cinnamon Sensation (cinnamon roll with icing and ice cream) and the Macawich (a cookie based ice cream sandwich) for dessert.  Huge portions.  My wife commented that the cinnamon roll was the first she has had in a while that has strong and good of a cinnamon flavor as this one.

At under $50 for three people it was a great value.  The bottom line is that the staff did a great job and the food was fantastic.  We would definitely come back to this and other Macado's.  It also teaches us a lesson about relying only on the most recent reviews.  We did the right thing basing our decision on the totality of reviews and will do so again.

I don't know what happend to the Salem location, food here has really gone downhill. Waited 25 min for food that was made wrong and with brown wilted lettuce. The manager was very nice and fixed our bill but I still think this will be our last trip to this Macado's. Such a shame.

Great place - went to restaurant on a busy Sat night after spending day at Roanoke College for a Lacrosse Recruitment Camp.  Got a happy hour Fish Bowl size draft beer for around $4.00. Had to use 2 hands to drink it. Food was awesome - had Wings and a Burger and who knows what else, can't remember after my 2nd bowl of beer.