Yay for yummy Mexican that doesn't taste laden with lard and that fried crap!
We did the guacamole tableside and it was 4 thumbs way thumbs up. the steak fajita was the bf fave (his second time) and I got a citrus chicken that was delicious to.
Our server was great, which always makes a meal good. We sat it the bar, which I would do again. The restaurant seemed full of families, not that there is anything wrong with that, but that can get annoying if you aren't in the mood.
We arrived to one poor, young woman running around feverishly. We over heard that 4 people had called out of work. We waited, with a room packed of others, for tables, too. We began to explain to others coming in and walking up to an empty podium how hard this girl was working and the staff shortage. What a hard worker and trooper she was! We were seated with an immediate basket of chips and salsa. Restaurant looks very nice, decorated nicely and clean. After a few minutes of no one arriving to the table, we began to think they are very overwhelmed with the crowds due to staff shortage. Hold on, though! Don't give up. A very pleasant waitress greeted us, took her time with us instead of treating us like a number, took our order and said it could be a little while longer than expected as the kitchen just got slammed all at once (in so many words). Well, if that's a long time for food, then I would love to know what a short time is, because everything came out so incredibly fast. From the moment we walked into the building along with our wait at the beginning through to the very end when we got up to leave, our total time was.....ONE HOUR!!! The bonus? The food and drinks were phenomenal!!! We've eaten at some of the best Mexican restaurants in the country, but this place takes the cake. The margarita took my breathe away. Our only problem is that we are merely passing through and do not have this place to ever go back to as we live 1600 miles away.
Review Source:In a word, gross. We thought based on the reviews we might have a chance for a good meal, being from out of town.. Â We were wrong. Â I will summarize quickly. Â Our meals sat under the heaters so long they actually dried out. Â And they were cold. How is that possible? Â Carnitas, cold and dry. Fajitas, cold and weird taste. Enchiladas had a funky taco seasoning in the ground beef. The spinach in the other enchiladas tasted like it was straight out of a can. The only thing that was worse than the food was the service. Our waitress had to be new, as she did not know the menu and did not offer to go find out answers for us. Â We finally hunted down a manager as we were walking out the door, and expressed our concerns. Â He offered a $25 gift card, which was a nice gesture, but the bill was $65 and we are from out of town. Â Very disappointed.
Review Source:Almost everyone I know raves about Santo Coyote, and I would be hesitant to rate one star had I not been here three separate times, my experiences ranging from barely memorable to absolutely horrible.
The first time was recently after they had opened, so I was willing to excuse the things that went wrong. Basically, the waiter constantly kept forgetting things then making excuses, blaming practically everybody else rather than owning up to his mistakes. It was also the first time I had seen guacamole prepared at the table, so I was impressed (now I feel like it's almost a cliche). The second time I barely remember anything, just that I ordered some tacos that were okay.
The third time, though. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was busy, so while we waited for a table I went to the bathroom. Not only was it messy, but there was actually dried blood in the stall - and it was pretty noticeable at that. After washing my hands very well and letting somebody know, I went to the table and we ordered some chips and guacamole, the only good part of the meal (and of course, made at the table). I was interested in the veggie fajitas, so I asked the waiter what exactly was in them and he named several different vegetables that I liked and I ordered that; my friend ordered chicken soup. When the food got there, the first thing I noticed was that half the vegetables the waiter had listed were not in the fajitas, and he didn't say anything about it until I asked. He was nice about it, though, and admitted he was mistaken and brought out a side of veggies to add to the dish free of charge. My friend said her soup was bland - just chicken and broth - and halfway through realized there was a ramekin on the side with the spices and vegetables that we both had assumed were already supposed to be in there.
So as we were leaving, I decided to order some churros from their dessert display. I inquired briefly as to how they were made, and was told there were options for the "filling" and I went with strawberry, expecting some kind of jam. When I got home, all that was inside was some white cream. Maybe there was some kind of miscommunication, but it definitely didn't look like any kind of strawberry anything I had ever seen.
That was longer than I had intended, so to summarize: I had three mostly unsatisfactory meals here, saw dried up blood in the women's bathroom, experienced a lot of miscommunication. Also their website has auto-play music in 2013.
Well, I want to love this place but I find it lacking still. The issue I have had is consistency. One thing will be good and another just awful...that said; my last visit was for an early cocktail and appetizers. The margaritas ( house) had a very medicinal taste. I couldn't put my finger on it, but not pleasant....however for $3 we decided to keep drinking and see if we got used to it. The smoothness of the frozen one is fantastic....I think I would go for those over "on the rocks". And next time I will definitely order a higher quality drink, not the house.
As to the foods....chips and salsa very very good. Cheese dip so so....the small for $3.95 was tiny. Will order large if a next time. The pork appetizer that is under tacos was odd and off tasting. I cannot remember the name of the item, sorry, but our waiter recommended it strongly over the tacos, so I went with his rec. but my first bite had a strange taste too. It was the pork for sure....again, I felt if I kept eating it, I would get used to it....very very bad decision. I was up all night sick. There are times when I throw caution to the wind and eat or drink things I don't think good because I get so tired of sending food back. Stupid of me. Folks, any time things don't taste "right" don't eat or drink! In my defense, it wasn't to the point of tasting moldy or such so I wasn't sure.
So, will we return? Not likely.
I would like to say that the bartender was very nice and seems to enjoy his job....such a great thing to see. For him alone, we might go and order beers or straight top shelf tequila.
The best kept secret in Arkansas.
I have spent most of my life living in Texas and even spent some time down on the border. Â I laughed when I read multiple reviews exclaiming that SC's food is "good, but not real Mexican". Â Although I agree with that statement, I have to point out that SC is as close to real Mexican you can make Tex-Mex without it getting disgusting. Â I've eaten enough "real" Mexican in my life and am now in a place where tripe just doesn't sound appetizing anymore. Â For a tex-mex joint, SC does a great job blending the flavor influences of Baja and Jalisco while sticking with the good cuts of protein.
This place initially seems wrong when you show up. Â Usually very busy, large groups of "ample" diners, and overall loudness. Â You'll see plenty of people who look like they can't even afford their check and the typical Arkansans drinking domestic beer from the bottle at a tequila bar and searching for that next bowl of "cheese dip". Â
...Then the food comes...and those disturbing images fade...
- Incredible street tacos that taste like you got them from a cart in Tijuana.
- Limitless selection of delicious tequilas and mezcals (put the Jose down and live a little)
- Margaritas glasses that hold more liquid than a VW's gas tank.
- A Molcajete that is not to be missed. Â Served boiling in a volcanic rock bowl just like down in Puerto Vallarta. Â I fell in love with this dish there and SC is the closed equivalent I have found. Â Truly epic!
Tips:
- The service can be crappy. Â But that's the fault of the diners and not the staff. Â Locals routinely show up without reservations during the dinner rush in groups of ten and larger.
- The salsa is delicious, but not hot in any form. Â They serve their salsa in very small ramekins and you'll run out almost immediately. Â Ask for extra cups at the waiter's first visit.
If you try this place and don't like it, maybe Taco Bueno is more down your alley.
Great food. Be sure to have guacamole made tableside and I love seviche with fish. The pozole soup is really good with green sauce. Food is fresh not greasy. The vegetable sopa is great as a small plate and Margaritas can be made with your choice of tequilas. Service is really good and Miguel is our favorite.
Review Source:We had to wait 15 minutes to be seated even though they had 7 tables open. Â The food was just OK. Â The tomato sauce on my burrito tasted like an Italian sauce out of the can. Â Service was slow and our food came out before the Margaritas arrived. Â The margaritas had more ice than drink in them too. Â The food nor the service was good enough for us to come back.
Review Source:Best. Service. Ever.
Although it looks like a chain, it's not. The service is exceptional, and the food isn't half bad to boot. They serve the best guacamole in the central Arkansas area. It's made fresh at the table, so it's not like the runny, blended crap you might get at other restaurants. And it beats Cantina Laredo's overpriced tableside guacamole hands down.
The tacos are delicious as well. I believe they're $2.50 or $2.99 per taco; order the individual ones listed on the left-hand side of the menu and not the less expensive ground beef ones. The al carbon, fish, and pastor are my favorite. I didn't care too much for the shrimp, but everything else has been delicious.
This place is GOOD! And I don't even care for Mexican food much. However, in reality, Santo Coyote is more Tex-Mex or American.
My family and I met for an early Saturday lunch. We started with the guacamole- freshly made at your table. Tasty, indeed.
My husband ordered the Creme dePoblano soup- a corn and cheese mixture- so good! Most of our table ordered tacos- including the Al Carbon, Pastor, Chorizo, and Brisket. I found the brisket to be a little too greasy, yet the Pastor was JUST right- the combination of pork, pineapple, cilantro, onions, and tomatillo sauce was excellent! The Dad had a seafood dish which he enjoyed.
Pleasantly surprised! Nice decor as well.
Well, I loved seeing the tequila menu, and even the house margarita was prepared well (on tap - classy). However, in a party of twenty, we were pushed away even trying to make reservations (told they don't take reservations on Saturday) and when we showed up early to get a party of twenty sat, they informed us that the wait was an hour and a half, and that we should probably go somewhere else. Who says that?! Either way, the menu looks good, but the servicing sucks, even for a Mexican restaurant.
Review Source:I went there to make a friend in Kansas jealous, and I'm really glad I did. I was seated immediately and my waitress promptly took my drink order. I ordered the Al Tequila Agave Shrimp and it was fantastic! The portion of shrimp was huge! The creamy agave mushroom sauce was the bomb. I am a little upset it's so far from home and it will be awhile until I get back!
Review Source:This is one of the first restaurants my husband and I visited when we moved to Little Rock and we ended up going back twice the first week! Â So far, we've always sat at the bar but the service has been great and the bartenders are very attentive. Â The fajita mix with chorizo, chicken, beef and shrimp is delicious (the chorizo gives it such a flavor boost, it's hard to stop eating). Â The beef queso is really tasty but needs a bit of spice so I usually order a side of pickled jalapenos, which they charge a little extra for. Â
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone coming through the area, have an awesome margarita and be ready to leave happy and full!!!
This is our favorite Mexican restaurant in Little Rock. It's a go-to spot...so much so that I'm a little embarrassed by how often we eat here.
Great margaritas, table-side guac, PERFECT chips and salsa, super-fast service, and very reasonable prices.
We usually order the fajitas, and with chips and salsa, two of us can split one order of fajitas and be very full - and sometimes we even have leftovers for the next day.
This place is popular, so it's usually crowded at dinnertime, but the bar is a nice place to have a drink (and chips and salsa) and wait for your table.
It's also featured on LivingSocial pretty often, so keep an eye out for a good deal.
For being what appears to be a corporate replica Mexican restaurant, this is pretty darn good. Â A fleet of middle-class white people jammed the place when I went, stuffing themselves with cheese-dip and draft beer and "fajitas" - I expected the worst. Â
It was really pretty tasty. Â We had a shrimp ceviche that was entirely edible. Â FRESH avocado (as opposed to the brown veiny junk I am regularly served at Bonefish Grille). Â It was served with soup-crackers in plastic for some reason (?) but we had the chips from our chips and salsa so it worked out find. Â
We had the molcajete of beef and chicken and chorizo. Â It came in a big impressive-ish container and bubbled. Â It was pretty good too - not mind-blowing orgasmic, but pretty good. Â
After sitting there satisfied for a few minutes, I looked around and stared at the face-stuffing white-people. Â They were happy and looked happy, not like the face-stuffing depression you see at a Waffle House or Cracker Barrel, these people really enjoyed their meal.
This is, as is repeatedly mentioned below, in no way authentic Mexican food. Â This is the spaghetti and meatballs of border cuisine, but, despite it's lack of regional specificity, is worth your money.
One of my go-to places. The best fresh gaucamole in the city by far. The service and food are top notch! The restaurant  definitely has a party atmosphere at times...it is a tequila bar! But, I have taken my family and friends here, and it never disappoints! I have tried several menu selections and found them to all be yummy. My favorite is the skirt steak and a Paloma!
Review Source:Deliciously unauthentic! That's not a bad thing in this case.
The atmosphere here isn't disappointing, but let's just say that it's a white collar Chili's. None of that matters though, because the food is pretty damn good.
I'f you're looking for authentic Mexican food sans stmosphere (bistec tacos, menudo, caldo de res and Bandamax on t.v.) go to Las Delicias on Pike. If you're looking for the typical Mexican food factory that churns out the same four ingredients in 3,000+ different combinations, go to any other Mexican restaurant in town/region/state (you too, Mississippi). If you want great flavor and an above average meal, go to Santo Coyote.
Right off the bat, you'd be a damn fool not to order the Guacamole, freshly prepared in front of you to specifications. If that's not your thing, the house salsa has a nice kick. The spicy green salsa, the one that's not on the menu, the one that you have to ask for in a hushed tone, has more of a prison shank than a "kick."
The best kept secret, it seems, is the taco menu. They have a great selection of brisket, asada, carnitas, tilapia , chorizo and more. All come with some sort of slaw or salsa that round them out nicely. Better yet, they're so generous with the fillings that the tacos come with two overlapping tortillas that essentially allow you to split the filling and make two tacos. What's the catch? There's no catch! They're $2.50 apiece, so you can spend $7.50 and walk out of there feeling both sickeningly full and frugal at the same time. America!
The entrees are also good from what I've tried. They have one dish that essentially combines every meat they have in a hot stone bowl with queso. It's ok though, because they sprinkle some green onions on top. My wife, who's a vegetarian was able to overcome her initial disappointment in me and enjoy her stuffed poblano and black beans. (there are several meat-free and seafood dishes that are available for folks that make terrible choices on a regular basis).
If you want to get rid of your sobriety, they offer an impressive tequila and margarita menu. They also have a pretty good macro and craft beer selection that come in the sizes of small and igloo cooler.
Give this place a try, you'll find it worthwhile.
Enjoy!
Looking for good Mexican food follow a long drive from New Orleans to Little Rock. Â Read about Santo Coyote on Yelp and decided to give it a try. Â I was seated quickly. Â The restaurant was very nice and my waited arrived quickly to take my order. Â The chips and salsa was very good. Â My waiter kept calling me "mi amigo", kind of annoying. Â I get that he was being friendly, but, "mi amigo" everytime he stopped at my table?
I was in the mood for mole'. Â Not a good choice. Â The sauce was bland and came on the side. Â The meat (chicken breast) was flavorless as was the rest of the dish. Â Dumping the bowl of mole' and salsa on the entire dish did not help. Â Went away disapointed. Â Not recommended.
Frozen beer mugs and cold Dos Equis Amber on tap. So far, so good.
Ate in the bar, where the service was good. Warm, fresh chips and better than average salsa were a nice start. I had the tilapia Veracruz and a friend had a la carte tacos (chicken, al pastor, and fish). My grilled tilapia was tasty and the sauce was good (although it could have used more green olives and/or capers). The sides of rice and vegetables were excellent. My friend's tacos looked really good.
Well above average Tex-Mex and a really good tequila selection make this a must-try in NLR.
Went to Santo Coyote on a friday night with a large group (13), they didn't really seem well equipped to serve a large party since it did take 45 minutes to seat us, but honestly we really didn't mind because we were at the bar drinking their HUMONGOUS margaritas. The Margarita is referred to as "grande" but I would call it something more, 30 oz of deliciousness and the house margarita on the rocks only ran me $8. Not bad. They made sure we had plenty of chips & salsa at the bar and kept is informed on the table situation. The bartender was very informative, he told us about their 132 different kinds of tequila and their specially made hand-blown margarita glasses from Mexico. A very cool bar to have drinks at with friends!
When we were seated it was a little cramped but we're all good friends so we aren't really that picky. Started off with a order of queso dip, it was okay nothing super special. The real winner was as others mentioned the guacamole! Our server made it tableside and it was so tasty! The only problem was we didn't have enough, we downed that guac! We got our entree orders in a timely fashion which is always impressive with a large party. I got the chicken fajita quesadilla and hubby got the beef fajita quesadille. Both were very tasty, I did feel the $9.99 price tag was a bit much though as the quesadilla wasn't very big. Everyone enjoyed their food and we all decided we would be back ASAP.
I would definitely recommend trying Santo Coyote, if for nothing else than the guacamole and the margaritas it's worth it!
After reading the reviews, I decided to give it a whirl while in Little Rock this past weekend. I give the guacamole 5 stars! Made tableside, it was the best thing I had. The salsa had a little bite, no much but just enough and was good. The lunch fajitas was a decent portion for lunch-not too much. I was a little disappointed in the seasoning. The service was ok, not stellar, we seemed to have to wait awhile to order and get our drinks initially and for the check. The service in-between was not bad. They were not super busy on a Saturday afternoon.
Review Source:A friend & I decided to try this restaurant a few day ago while shopping in the North Little Rock area. It is in the same location as Fire Fall Grill once was, and after stepping inside, was also lavishly decorated. The staff was extremely attentive. Although the decor led us to believe the prices might be a little steep, we were pleasantly surprised to find very reasonable fare and large portions. Their sliced steak is also cooked to order, and is amazing. We were both pleased with our meals and agreed to come back soon, especially to try their large tequila/margarita selection!
Review Source:
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