When it first opened, it started a great restaurant with flair on a side of town that was lacking good food. Â There is one server that works there that keeps the place going--and if she wasn't there--I would walk back out. Â On our last visit, I decided that I would celebrate our going away party at Sur Este to keep it local instead of supporting a chain restaurant. Â It was a slow night, we had coupons for free cheese dip from smallcakes next door which the owner of Sur Este chose to not honor. Â While explaining it was our going away party and we chose to support a local business, his response was "I am not going back on my decision". Â The food was just average as usual and after our experience and carelessness for our business--the entire group of friends have now decided that they will NOT be returning again. Â I feel sorry for the poor lady who works so hard and does a great job! Â If you dint think business isn't dwindling down--then look at them allowing another business to move in and take over part of the restaurant!
Review Source:I don't enjoy sharing my recent experience, but feel like I should. Â My husband and I both had confirmed food poisoning from the steak burrito they serve and both ended up in the emergency room. Â The owner was not very helpful about the situation and didn't even offer free drinks, chips and salsa, etc. Â I was disappointed in how the situation was handled and won't be returning to this restaurant. Â Additionally, the service is EXTREMELY slow and the staff never acts happy to be there.
Review Source:I just made my third and final visit to SurEste today. I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich, which is $8.95, and got a sandwich that looked like it was something from a dollar menu from a fast restaurant. If your going to offer a $9 sandwich then it better look like a $9 sandwich. The piece of chicken I got was smaller than the cheap grocery store bun it came on. Â The buffalo sauce, that this dried out chicken was covered in, was so bland it had just a hint of flavor and really could not be called buffalo sauce. Â Overall this was a very disappointing meal. Â I take that back this sandwich was an insult to buffalo chicken sandwiches. Â
Since this was my third visit yes I have eaten from their "Southwestern" side of the menu. Â On my previous two visits I ordered nachos. Â Basic nachos meat and cheese with some simple toppings. Â I'm assuming they fried their own chips for the nachos since they chips were basically grease sponges. Â Again this was bland city, I had to smother the nachos in hot sauce just to get any kind of flavor. Â
There was about 4 years between my first and second visit and honestly the food hasn't gotten better. Â I like to eat at local places but whats the point if the food is terrible.
A friendly note to out of town visiting Foodie Snooties.
Smaller town restaurants have less volume and higher price sensitivity from the locals. For this reason, many dishes on the menu will have shortcuts to get around the large wastage of fresh vegetables. Without this regrettable, but necessary, compromise many dishes would not be available to us locals. Twenty years ago the highlight of eating out was Holiday Inn so we appreciate our local restauranteurs for figuring out ways to bring us a greater variety of food.
The freshest ingredients will most likely be in the daily special as they will have planned to sell out of most of it.
To offset the low scores from the Carpetbaggers, I'm bumping this up to a five.
***
Other locals have raved about the food here, I'll say amen and leave it at that.. Â We appreciate the Coleman's for bringing us this restaurant.
Underwhelmed. That describes my basic experience with Taqueria del SurEste.
The atmosphere felt like an HGTV special where someone takes a mediocre interior and builds it out with some bargain-basement accessories. Â I'm not sure what they were trying to do here -- the outside of the building is inviting and hints of luxury and refinement. Â The inside is ... a Moe's with a full bar and some granite.
The food, unfortunately, followed suit.  I appreciated their effort by having an à la carte taco section -- I love choosing random tacos -- but the effort fell short with mediocre grocery-store aisle food.  There is no excuse to not make your own tortillas at a place like this -- that should be something that is first on the list for creating your own taqueria.
Oh, and the cheese dip. Â Just about the blandest, plainest stuff I've ever encountered. Â We asked the server about it (one of my party had a question about the ingredients) - the server said, "I don't know. Â It's just the block cheese we pick up on at the store. Â We shred it and melt it in the microwave."
SO not appealing.
The margarita -- okay. Â Sorry. Â I had to hold in my laughter there for a second. Â If you look at their menu under margaritas it's something like "lime, watermelon, orange, blue". Â Seriously. Â I asked if they could make a texas margarita (standard fare any bartender should be able to handle) and she asked me if I wanted a green or blue one. Â I chose "green" to be safe -- not sure there was any alcohol in it. Â My wife ordered some other alcoholic drink off their menu and after twenty minutes the server came by and said they were having problems figuring it out.
This place was just a big miss. Â I appreciated the effort and was hoping it would live up to the hype but it fell short.
Every once in a while you find a good taqueria outside of the southwest.  This isn't one of them.  I had three  tacos on $1 taco Sunday.  Each one was a little more disappointing than the last.  The rice and beans were also pretty bad.  The rice was overcooked and mushy and the refried beans came out of a can I am pretty sure. I'd say the best thing i had there was the scoop of ice cream on top of the cinnamon laden piece of cardboard they call a sopapilla.
The service was good and everyone was very friendly.
Sunday is a day for worship...at the altar of $1 tacos at SurEste. Â
The fish taco is my favorite, with shrimp coming in at a close second. Â Steak and mushroom, carnitas, and vegetarian are all very good, also.
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they sprinkle crack in the Shrimp Corn Chowder. Â OMG. Â Calgon, take me away.
Very good tacos. Â They have fajitas, enchiladas, etc. too, but I didn't make it past the tacos. Â I had a Corona-battered fish w/mango salsa, a shrimp, and a carnitas taco: Â all fantastic. Â It was "free salsa bar night" and that was kind of bothersome. Â I guess they typically charge for salsa if it's not Tuesday night!?!? Â I do have to say the three salsas were very good though. Â Also, either Sunday or Wednesday night (I can't remember which) are $1 margarita night, so that could definitely be worthwhile. Â A lady came in for take-out and raved about the corn-shrimp chowder, so that's probably a sure thing. Â All in all, good food. Â 3 tacos + 1 side + 2 beers for about $12. Â Not too shabby. Â I sat at the bar and there are two big flat-screens. Â The bartender was attentive and good to chat with. Â Good place.
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