A new restaurant on State Street focuses on Southwestern-style food. Señor Coyote’s is located where the Marketplace Grill used to be. While the atmosphere was fresh and new, the food and prices left a lot to be desired.
When I first walked into Señor Coyote’s, I was greeted by a very friendly server who took me to my table right away. I sat down and looked over the menu while she took my drink order. As I looked around the restaurant, I noticed the fresh decor that really made me think of the Southwest. From the cactuses to the color scheme, the atmosphere matched the kinds of food on the menu. I really enjoyed the decor and feel that Señor Coyote’s had to offer.
While looking over the menu, I noticed a variety. Many types of salads, fajitas, mexican dishes and desserts lined the menu. The options also all came with a salad brought before the meal. The main drawback to the menu was the high prices, more than most college students could afford. Most of the meals were close to $10 apiece. Overall, the menu at Señor Coyote’s offered much of diversity but also expensive prices.
The main thing that I came to Señor Coyote’s for was the food, and I was pretty disappointed. Each table gets a basket of chips and two different types of salsa. The chips had a barbecue-like seasoning on them that was pretty tasty. The two salsas, one mild and one a little spicier, were both pretty good to try. The first salsa was more of a traditional salsa and the other was a salsa made with cilantro.
The next thing I received was a salad. The salad was also pretty good, with homemade croutons and a good mix of vegetables. The main dish was the most disappointing part of the entire meal. The rice given to me was hard and didn’t taste fresh, and the enchiladas that I ended up getting were kind of cold in the middle and really greasy.
My friend who went with me also said that his meal just didn’t live up to his expectations.
“I really feel like this meal wasn’t worth what I paid for it,” said Jeff Slater, a junior chemistry major. “I really think that the food was overpriced and just not cooked very well. I didn’t enjoy the main reason that I came to Señor Coyote’s, which was the Mexican food.”
I also had a problem with the restaurant staff. After we were seated, it took a long time for our waitress to come over and take our drink order. We were also one of the only groups in the entire place. We also had to ask her multiple times for refills and to take our order, and the service was also very slow for the amount of people in the restaurant at the time.
Señor Coyote’s really disappointed overall. While it did hit some high points with the decor and menu offerings, it didn’t impress with the food and service.
I would recommend that if you’re really craving Southwestern-style food, look toward somewhere like El Canelo, where the food is good and the prices are even better.
