Those looking for a good way to spend time with their children this summer can bring the whole family to Las Margaritas Mexican Restaurant and Cantina for delicious Mexican-style cuisine without breaking the bank.
"We're not really high in the prices, so a whole family can eat here and it won't be too expensive," says manager Jesus Covarrubias. "Normally the kids eat tacos, but every once in a while they ask for chicken tenders and fries."
One of the perks of dining at Las Margaritas with a hungry family is that each table is served salsa and chips immediately. Hungry children can start eating even before everyone browses through the menu and orders entrées.
The menu features many traditional Tex-Mex recipes as well as some authentic Mexican-style entrées.
For lunch specials, diners can enjoy the half-chicken margarita prepared with half a chicken breast smothered in a mushroom sauce with garlic and red wine and served with Mexican rice and refried beans. The margarita dip is always a delicious appetizer choice served with ground beef covered with refried beans and layered with cheese dip and pico de gallo.
The sopa de pollo is a chicken broth-based soup served with rice, slices of avocado, chopped onions and cilantro on the side. Flautas Mexicanas are corn tortillas stuffed with chicken and topped with lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream.
Fish tacos come in an order of three. Each taco is prepared with one soft shell inside a hard shell piled high with grilled tilapia diced and cooked with pico de gallo. A grilled tilapia filet can also be eaten on its own, seasoned to perfection and served with steamed vegetables with spices and rice with a special sauce.
Steak Acapulco is rib-eye steak topped with cooked onions, tomatoes, red wine and bell peppers topped with cheese and served with Mexican rice and refried beans.
"Customers are enjoying the patio with the shade from the tree," Covarrubias says. "We have a server for the patio, so service is quick. Our servers are really, really nice people; friendly. We have many repeat customers, so we already know basically everybody."
Las Margaritas continues to celebrate its 12th anniversary by offering regular hard shell beef tacos all day Monday through Thursday for 99 cents (dine-in only). Other specials include 32-ounce domestic drafts all day, every day for $2.75 as well as two-for-one margaritas (10- ounce) Monday through Thursday all day long.
"We have TVs and are going through all the seasons with every kind of sports," Covarrubias says. The bar is the best place to see and hear the game, but throughout the restaurant there are monitors that keep diners up to date playby-play.
LOCATION: 4604 Sky View Drive off Highway 58.
PHONE: 892-3065.
HOURS: Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
NICE TO KNOW: For dessert a popular selection is the fresh fried ice cream rolled in crispy fl akes and deep-fried, served in a cinnamon-sugared tortilla shell and topped with hot fudge.