Salsa Fresca Mexican Grill

I have never been to the restaurant, but they did cater a luncheon meeting for us and they were fantastic. We had a taco salad bar. Salsa Fresca brought these large taco bowls, chicken, beef, lots of lettuce, and all the fixings you could imagine. There were red onions, pico de gallo, guacamole, salsa, green chili sauce, cheese, black beans, and two giant trays of corn chips as well. They brought the sterno and tray setups to keep the beans and meat warm too. I cannot tell you how happy our attendees were to see such a fantastic and delicious set up. We fed close to 50 people and still had some stuff leftover. All of this was for about $ 300. The organizers and I thought it was completely worth it. The food was fantastic and the spread is so impressive. We have had a variety of options for doing the catering for these monthly luncheons, but this has been one of the best so far. We had had the idea of doing a «Taco Tuesday» in some form for a while, but a lot of the other places (Chipotle, Moe’s, etc.) seemed a little too expensive for what it sounded like you got. We do not normally budget this much for lunch (it is usually more around the $ 200 range), but we figured once for something this good was worth it.

I saw the bad reviews but still wanted to give this place a try. I had a good experience. Food was good to me. Compare to Chipotle there were a few things different like they have tortilla bowls and I think this place has more toppings than Chipotle to but I might be wrong. Your order also comes with tortilla chips which I always love. This place is a lot cleaner than Chipotle. Also there’s no long lines. Give this place a try trust me I had worst Mexican food.

Maybe I went on a bad day, but I was severely disappointed. We went here in lieu of Chipotle because of the parking situation, but I would much rather have paid for garage parking than go back here.
The food was overly salty. I had a burrito bowl with the pulled beef. The bbq sauce was pure salt, and the rice did not do any work in trying to smooth out the sharpness of the taste, and was quite salty itself. The other ingredients tasted average. The guacamole didn’t taste fresh and I was not impressed.
The worst part about this place was the cleanliness. Everywhere I looked there were signs of lazy cleaning. Spots on the tables and the glass in front of the food. Crumbs everywhere. A cleaning bucket right next to the soda fountain. There are definitely better options around and I see no reason to come to this place.

Coming from Southern California, I am a big Mexican food snob. Generally, east coast Mexican food sucks (sorry, but true). But I don’t bother to go around and rate low grades for all because it’s too much work. But I do write places that are EXCEPTIONALLY BAD, such as this one.
The mexican food chains do belong to their own category (e.g., Chipotle) and can’t be directly compared to Souther Cali Mexican or Tex Mex places. However, even among the chain Mexican food, this place has the WORST mexican food chain I’ve ever had. Their stuff is on the fresher side, but it just tastes awful awful. Salsa is one of the most important things in Mexican food, and their salsa tastes really really really bad. It’s actually quite insulting to chop some tomatoes and onions and put chips and calling it Mexican food.
I would like to leave a constructive criticism for the owners: please at least make salsa taste better. FYI your rice also sucks.
I highly recommend Tomatillo across the street, which actually tastes really good (I would say one of the best Mexican food chain in east coast).

New Haven has a tendency to open the same type of restaurants in close proximity (re: froyo) – therefore the repeat of the Chipotle model seems to be a standard choice.
It was extremely difficult to give my order over the music, and I had to awkwardly repeat myself multiple times. Ingredients are pretty standard – choice of meat, topping, and salsa. I found the salsa to be too sweet, but everything else was fairly average. As another Unilocaler pointed out, I had issues with consistent temperature. Parts of my burrito were clearly warmer than other cool patches. Lettuce tends to be a normal culprit, but it seemed to extend beyond this. I was hungry enough not to get picky, but I doubt I’ll return, even if they do give free chips.
If given the choice, I’d pick Chipotle or Tomatillo over Salsa Fresca. There’s nothing offensively bad about it, but there is nothing convincing me to return.

It’s hard to tell the difference between this place and Chipotle. It shares the same process where customers order a burrito, bowl, salad, etc and then select their own ingredients. Prices are the same too, approximately $ 7 — $ 8 for all items.
I can spot two differences: 1) they serve free tortilla chips and 2) they serve Boylan Bottling soda which is actually good stuff.
Oh, and their tables seem very clean. The same can’t be said of Chipotle.
I did enjoy my food. I did notice it tasted fresh and maybe, just maybe, it tasted better than Chipotle. I might have to revisit a second or third time to reconfirm.
PS. According to their website they’re a franchise/​chain with other locations in New York state.