November 16, 2011: Guest Post Restaurant Review Sal and Teresa’s

Here’s another review from my secret restaurant reviewer, Sherry. This time she ate at Sal and Teresa’s Mexican food restaurant in Show Low.

Review of Sal and Teresa’s, November 11, 2011

When it comes to Mexican food on the Mountain that is both authentic and reasonably priced, you really can’t beat Sal and Teresa’s. The restaurant moved from a dinky little location off the main drag to their new digs, where Addi J’s used to be, and it’s given them much more room to serve many more diners. Along with the move, Sal and Teresa bought a liquor license so they now serve everything from margaritas to beer.

I’ve eaten some really, really good Mexican food in my time, everywhere from Old Mexico to New Mexico. Comparatively, Sal and Teresa’s ranks somewhere on the middle according to that scale. Let me translate for you: that means the food is still very good.

Just like most Mexican restaurants, the chips and salsa are a free appetizer with your meal. Sal and Teresa’s serves a combination of corn and flour tortilla chips along with two different kinds of salsa, one a mild, fresh pico de gallo and the other a spicier taco sauce in a squeeze bottle. I love them both but tend toward the taco sauce because the spicier the better when it comes to my taste buds! All of it is made there in the restaurant, no cheating here!

Now on to the main dishes. On this visit, I ordered the red cheese enchiladas, a favorite dish of mine. For some reason, these enchiladas were covered in a red chile sauce with chunks of meat…it wasn’t a problem for me but if you’re a vegetarian, you’d better ask about what’s in the sauce before ordering the “cheese” enchiladas. The rice and beans, as always, were very good although the salad on the side was pretty skimpy – a few strands of lettuce and maybe 3 or 4 small chunks of tomatoes.

My husband had a chimichanga, which is his usual order, and according to him it was just as good as usual.

One thing I really enjoy about Sal and Teresa’s is that they serve stuffed sopapillas. Outside of New Mexico, this is a hard-to-find dish.

The service at Sal and Teresa’s is always very good. I’ve never encountered a server who was any less than very friendly and attentive.

As a bonus, on Friday nights the restaurant features live entertainment. Usually it’s the Mountain Saddle Band, which I really love, but this night it was a lone guitar player. It’s not a romantic atmosphere, but it’s a lot of fun for families and small groups.

For the money, it’s hard to beat what you get at Sal and Teresa’s: good food, great service, and live entertainment.

The scores for Sal and Teresa’s are as follows (on a scale from * to *****):

Food: ****

Service: *****

Ambience: ****