Margaritas Mexican Restuarant

I always want to like the place more than they deserve. There is not much here downtown and the facility etc. are appealing in comparison. They just can’t seem to get beyond their limitations though. Came in after 9 and was advised limited bar menu. That was fine but when I asked about the burrito options was advised «you know, a burrito like you get at Chipotle.» My question was related to protein options and wasn’t exactly looking to pay a premium for something staff compared to fast food. Burrito delivered about 2 minutes later — obviously prepackaged and micro warmed. Again, if it were late night would be understandable but just after 9? Bar chips were plentiful but chips were stale and inedible without the spicy salsa that accompanied.
In the end, options in Keene are limited so if you compare to the pizza options this is probably a better choice. If you expect a good Mexican experience your sights are set too high. Prepare yourself for «meh» served in a nice bar setting.
That said, I do remember the food being better. But, in fairness, that may have been based on the full menu and not the «late night» option. Id like to think that anyways as I used to like this place for their surprisingly good Mexican food. Can’t really say if they’ve declined or limited after hours menu is something to be avoided.

As fans of Mexican (Tex-​mex, etc.) food, my wife and I decided to try this restaurant out while in the Keene area and we both agree that the food here is wildly mediocre. I will say that our service was very good and the atmosphere inside was very nice, but they could do so much better with the food.
For instance, the side of rice that came with our meals tasted like rice pilaf from a box with some added seasoning and the salsa for the chips tasted like it was a hybrid of Old El Paso Salsa & chili seasoning.
Next time, we will stick with our favorite place «Elm City Brewery» at The Colony Mill, which is just down the road from this place.

I ordered the fajita salad and was pleasantly surprised at how big it was! Very tasty and worth the $ 12! It even came with chips and salsa, will definitely be ordering again next week

Have only been here once so far, and we had a great experience. Loved the lunch time atmosphere, our food was good and plentiful, and our waiter very nice.

To the waitress who was clearly on something/​in a hurry to leave…
The kitchen want closing for an other hour, the vast for at least two more, so why were you so impatient with my party. Rolling your eyes, you cut my friend off in the middle of her order, had your service not improved ²⁄₃ through our visit I assure you I would have been speaking with your manager. Oh, and two out of our four drinks sucked.
I wouldn’t be nearly as upset if it wasn’t for normally the service is good and the food enjoyable.

My roommate and I enjoy coming here on Thursday nights because it is ladies night and they offer 40% off your bill (alcohol not included). We have always had a good experience, except for tonight. I ordered a beef burrito with fries and she ordered 3 tacos, 2 were the same and 1 was different. Both of our orders came out cold and completely wrong. The waiter apologized and got us our correct order but it was still room temperature at best. I’m sure we will be back again for the drink deals but we were very disappointed with the food tonight.

Crowded Saturday night. Attentive, very busy waitress. Best chicken enchilada I’ve ever had.

They put the «G» in generic. Want more traditional Mex? Go to Mi Jalisco. Want funky Mexican street food with a hipster twist? Go to Odelay. Want to throw good money away on boring Mexican-​esque that’s just a few steps above Taco Hell? This is the place for you. Waitstaff, however, is always very nice.

From the outside the place looked decent and we were both hungry for tacos. It was a Monday and we were sucked in when we saw their sign saying they had all you can eat tacos for $ 9.99. Big. Mistake.
We were seated right away and everything seemed fine. However, the table we were at had a very dingy feel to it. It was tiled like a 1970s men’s locker room bathroom and felt just about as sanitary. It felt damp and slightly sticky. We were both given waters, no straws, which didn’t make me feel much better.
We ordered the tacos and waited. And waited…
When the food finally did arrive it did not pass the eye test at all and looked like it had the potential to lead to a very rough afternoon. We, however, pressed on. I had ordered 2 beef tacos and 1 chicken. The beef tacos may have said on the menu that they were made of beef, but I would be willing to gamble that it had less «beef» in it than anything at Taco Bell. The chicken taco was better, but again, this isn’t saying much. It was a dried out piece of old chicken that was shoved into a taco shell. The rice and beans that came with it were also disgusting. The beans were bland and the rice did not taste good at all. I ate some of the beef taco as well as the chicken taco, but my wife and I quickly reached the conclusion that at this place it would be better to just suck it up, cut our losses and chalk it up to a bad restaurant decision instead of risking getting violently ill by feeling obligated to finish our meals.
The waitress came back and asked how everything was and as usual, being a couple of pushovers, we of course, lied and told her it was fine. Needless to say, we did not put in an order for more tacos. My wife and I while waiting on the check began to have that ominous feeling in the pits of our stomachs letting us know that we were on verge of something terrible. We paid the check and upon leaving the restaurant, immediately threw the leftovers into the closest trash bin we could find.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon curled up in bed with stomach aches, headaches, and absolutely no energy. It was not exactly how we had planned to spend our extended Labor Day weekend, but alas, we made the mistake of eating at Margaritas.
Please, please, please… If you are ever in the mood for tacos or any food of the Tex-​Mex variety, DO NOT eat here! You will have more luck at a Taco Bell or literally any other place, I am sure. I will never return or recommend this place to anyone. I really am surprised they haven’t been shut down for any health code violations, because God only knows what is going on in their kitchen.

My friends give me slack because I always want to drag them here. No, it’s not authentic Mexican, and yes, their shtick is a bit gimmicky. But I’ve always had a good time here, and it’s a decent place for what it purports to be. I actually really enjoy their food, but no fifth star from me because Mexican food in general is so darn good, that I only award that to the places that are REALLY amazing. :)

This Margaritas is great. The food is unremarkable, typical chain restaurant-​style inauthentic Mexican, and is fairly overpriced. But Margaritas isn’t about that. Margaritas is about Monday and Tuesday evenings, where you can get all-​you-​can-​eat tacos for a smidgen over $ 8.
There are few higher pleasures than getting a seat at the bar, an hour or two before close (for two reasons: to avoid the usual clutter and din of patrons during earlier hours and to take advantage of the cheaper drink specials), and proceeding to devour as many tacos as possible, attempting to shatter the record (which, if you’re doing it right, was set by you the previous week) while watching college sports for teams you don’t recognize.
Alternatively, if traditional dining is something you are more interested in, this location has a single TV hanging from the central rafters in their main dining hall. Though they may have changed the programming since, the few times that I stopped to watch, the broadcast was of an informational program about the history and development of Margaritas restaurants. I took notes on the presentation and used them to write a brief essay, titled «Modernism and Margaritas: or, I can’t even get a burrito without thinking about Heart of Darkness.»
You can find an excerpt from the essay below:
«However, this film fails to develop one of the fundamental aspects of modernist literature, that of the hero’s journey. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad speaks of Marlow’s journey through the depths of the Congo in search of Kurtz; in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce writes of both a cultural and introspective journey, exploring the formation of Stephen Dedalus’ own künstlerroman; in Quicksand, Nella Larsen explores Helga Crane’s global travels in search of home and her own identity. But the Margaritas exposé portrays little in terms of what journey these Mexican artisans are making; indeed, the majority portrayed are seen working at home with the comfortable and reliable support of their own families. It is not until the history of Margaritas restaurants is explored more intensively that a connection can be made. Though originally founded in Concord, New Hampshire in the late 1970s, the Pelletier brothers continued to differentiate their business and expand their knowledge by travelling regularly to Mexico, studying the culture and developing further business connections and opportunities. If not for their genuine continued interest in expanding their cultural awareness and growth, simultaneously providing support for both the American and Mexican economies, the Margaritas business model would appear with drastic changes and would be far different from the chain seen today. Furthermore, the film acknowledges that every year, the company provides sponsor for their more talented artists to travel from Mexico to the United States to offer workshops and lessons into their crafts, supporting the notion that the original and genuine Mexican culture and artistic expression is valued by the Pelletier brothers.
Ultimately, the reader, or in this case the narrator, is tasked with recognizing that they too are the ones enveloped in a journey. Whereas numerous novels and repeated critical analysis may expand upon the reader’s awareness of modernist history and concepts, there is little substitute for first-​hand experience in the writing of one’s own bildungsroman. A night of modernism and margaritas is just another step deeper into the great unknown.»

Flavor and service gets four stars. Value gets one star. Nothing like leaving hungry !!! I would think a $ 16.00 salad would fill you up, nope, not at this place. If you don’t eat much you’ll be happy, if you want to be full look elsewhere.

Service is SLOW even though the place was empty. Bartender could have cared less about us/​table of 8 /​bar completely empty. Expensive $ 13.95 Chicken quesadilla? What!!! Not even good, on a positive note the beer was cold when we finally got one. Lots of other places in Keene will not be going back here or recommending to friends!

A chain of mediocrity! I have been here a few times. Food is not amazing. Drinks are okay I went to the one Manchester too, and it is just a weird chain. They have uneven tiles on the bar and I knocked over my beverage. The bartender treated me like I was drunk, it was my first drink. I am not sure about the Keene location, but why would you have and uneven surface bar= just poor planning and dumb. I ate here after I had to go to the ER the last time. It tasted pretty good after all the hospital smell, and lancing. This sets the bar kind of low.

So my review is specifically about our recent waiter, not about the food. It’s a chain, it’s what you expect, it’s fine.
We were in town for a wedding, with a group of friends, ravenous late night on a Sunday (not a lot of options in this downtown late night– hence the trip here).
While the food was average, our waiter Stephen (Steven — unsure of spelling) was awesome. Fantastic service, so friendly and fun, really accommodating, funny, personable and really everything you’d want in a server, or all around great person to spend a few hours with on a Sunday night. We were fairly rowdy (a few drinks had already been had), and he was great. We talked books, philosophy, guacamole, tequila, religion and more. Who would have thunk it? He was great. We were all big fans of his! He took care of us all night. Fans I say! Powers that be– let him know he was great. We were the Miss Havisham group– he’ll know who we were (ravenous, thankful, rowdy party of 7) thanks for a great night. Keep reading!

I’m calling the health department… Ordered vegetarian enchiladas with my daughter. Half way through eating she noticed a ½ in piece of undercooked bacon (likely cross contamination of the mango salsa). What kind of problems are happening to allow this (since bacon isn’t an ingredient in their mango salsa)? Yikes. Save your money, save your health… it’s not worth it to eat at Margarita’s.

Meh. There’s alcohol in the margaritas, probably the only thing worth going there for.
I ordered a particular burrito there, and it came without two of the best ingredients listed.
Their salsa tastes a little like ketchup.
Drink a few margs first, then you may not care.

Yes, this is not «authentic Mexican» and yet I find it closer to the real thing than my experiences with Pedraza’s and Mi Jalisco.
I’m surprised I had not written a review before. Maybe because every time I go I overdo the whole Margarita (with Hornitos, please) thing but hey, better late than never.
Anyway… For years ;I would go and sit at the restaurant part. I enjoyed the food but most of the music made me want to shove pencils into my ears. Don’t get me wrong… I’m Latina and like our music as much as the next chica but some of the norteñas, pasitos duranguenses and corridos are a bit overwhelming. On occasion they would play Salsa and that’s more acceptable. Particularly stuff from the 80’s… But I digress… One day someone suggested I go to the bar and I never looked back. In addition to a pretty well stocked juke box (if you hear the Bee Gees chances are I’m there), the servers are wicked friendly and it’s a great spot for people watching.
As far as the food, if you are a vegetarian, I recommend you do not order anything with beans or rice. I might be wrong but I tried them a couple of times and they tasted wrong to me and I got sick so I think they have chicken stock or something. The Sunburst Salad’s vegetables are cooked in the same grill as the meat but when I asked our waitress about it she was nice enough to not just find out for me but also as to suggest that they could cook them separately in the oven instead. There are several vegetarian apps and the guac is pretty good especially with jalapeños and/​or corn added. Very good.
Margarita’s has become my go to spot. I confess I have not gone as much since opening my own bar (Piedra Fina, in Marlborough) but still love the place and will continue going.

A chain is a chain, same menu and same service expectations. It’s not always a bad thing when you know what to expect!
Whether school is in session or its break, this place is usually a pretty lively spot. Plenty of bar stools, booths, pub table seating and regular seating. The free chips and salsa are pretty delicious. warm and just the right amount of salt on the chips and heat in the salsa.
The entrée items are also good — nothing that will knock your socks off, but its yummy! The margarita’s are the star of the show at this place… ice cold, and refreshing and you can get both on the rocks or frozen.
A great place to grab a drink with a friend and indulge on decent Mexican food at a reasonable price.

Don’t get the fish tacos. It looked like they flattened the fillets before pan frying them to a blackened death. Grilled corn salsa is good.
Margaritas are Ok, but I asked for no salt… and got a heavily salted rim. When I mentioned that to the waitress, she offered to wipe the salt off.