Tuesday, February 22, 2005

3rd restaurant review - Salsa Cafe

Alright, time to get Salsafied. The Salsa Cafe has been around about a year or two. Smack dab in the middle of Woodsdale - probably the hippest section of Wheeling (if you're willing to make the assumption that anything in Wheeling is hip, other than Christian Karaoke night at the Church of God).
When you enter the Salsa Cafe, the first thing you might notice is a ton of religious crap. Paintings of the Virgin Mary, numerous angels, Passion of the Christ, some kind of tribute to Ezekial; hell, I think there's even a visual representation of the immacualte conception. Anyway, if you can get beyond the artistry and born-again pamphlets, you'll discover that they also serve food. The food is decent but often overpriced. The burritos are unusually strong, but it may take them up to 10 minutes to make one, even if nobody is in the place. I attribute this to the meticulous handcrafting burrito making process.
One of the workers has some highly unusual sideburns. My friend Eric and I refer to this man as "MuttonChops". If you see him outside the workplace, I encourage you to yell, "Hey, MC"! He may, or may not respond.
Everyone who works there is quite friendly. The place is very informal. I don't think there's a dress code. In fact, the pseudo grunge neo-alternative hippie youth are often seen frequenting the place.
One thing to defintiely avoid is the lobster bisque. Why on earth a burrito place would try to sell lobster bisque or any kind of seafood is beyong me. Trust me, it's really gross. However, their tomato florentine is very good. They also have plenty of overpriced salsa, chips, tacos, etc. Their spinach salad isn't bad either although it did get a horrific condemnation from a friend of mine. Ironically, she never ate a bite.
Anyway, the precious rating.... All things considered, Salsa Cafe gets a 6.7. The food is good yet overpriced and the service is somewhat slow although I'm sure some would call the service "methodical".

1 comment:

Ren said...

They need to add a "Thai" or Thay as I believe I've heard it pronounced, flavor to their list of sauces. They used to have a Peach Vadalia onion salsa that was really good. Homemade I believe.