The Grasshopper Mexican Restaurant and Bar

My third time here! Every time my girlfriend and I in Sarasota area we stop in. Great prices, great chips, friendly service and the food is always tasty!!!

Great margaritas and they were on special too. Friendly staff and quick service were great too. That being said, the food was average at best. The chimichanga had a decent flavor but was pretty small, the rice and beans were fairly bland. My wife and daughter both had chicken nachos that were over cooked and not very flavorful. After having lived in Texas and Oklahoma for most of our lives we have had a lot of experience with all types of Mexican food and just can’t justify more than 3 stars and those come mostly from the service.

First time here and decided to try it based on Unilocal reviews. Food and service were terrific! I was a little nervous driving up as it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but it was muy Bueno!

I’ve been here several times since they opened, and it just keeps getting better and better! The staff has always been friendly and genuine, making me feel like an old friend. I’ve yet to have a single dish I didn’t love; the dishes are full of flavor and the protein of choice always cooked to perfection. The presentation is simple and clean– I’d take a picture, but my plate is already empty!

The grasshopper was phenomenal! We went here based off of the Unilocal ratings and it held true! The service was spectacular. We order the queso which was delicious and the mild, hot and extra hot sauces which were tasty as well. We order a shrimp taco plater, a chicken and beef taco plater and chimichangas. All were well above expectation, authentic and served with rice and beans. If we ever travel to this area again, we will definitely be back! Great atmosphere as well!

Food was good, but disappointed that the queso dip was full of peppers and our 4 year old couldn’t eat it (too spicy according to him). He liked the cheese quesadilla and we enjoyed our burrito and enchilada dishes. The chips were thick and reminded me of kettle chips. Salsa on the table was in ketchup-​style squirt bottles with a mild option (more like medium, which was fine). The margaritas were terrible, weak, too sweet, taste like limey flavored lemonade — nothing like a margarita.

Maybe I have high standards. I’m from TexMex country and just spent a week in Arizona, where I was awash in delicious Mexican food. The husband and I were craving TexMex on our vacation so we stopped here since it was around the corner from where we were staying.
The guac and the queso were so so (the guac the better of the two). The beans tasted like they came out of a can… The fajita season was bland as well. Dont get me wrong it was edible, and I was hungry so I ate it, but it’s not the best mexican food I’ve ever had… It is just so so. The salsa to be honest was the worst part — we ordered the mild and hot salsa. They were both bland and the hot salsa, barely a kick.
If I was tired and didn’t want to drive far, I would eat there again, but I wouldn’t go out of my way.

I haven’t updated my review in two years but we continue to be huge fans and regulars. We took our son and daughter in law here during their visit in October and they loved everything. Said it reminded them of their honeymoon in Mexico three years earlier. Every single thing we have ordered has been perfect and everyone we have brought here has become a fan as well. Easy access off Tamiami with lots of parking out back. Dino and his crew have this down to a science. So please give them a try.

Good food and reasonably priced! Although I do not like the chips they serve. We have been there quite a few times, and everyone we have brought agrees! Order the other chips off the menu, well worth the up charge!

The best place to ever work. Our food is to die for! I suggest the steak and shrimp fajitas or the wet burrito. Our chips and sauces is what you start off with which is on the house (: I always get our El Chaputizer to go with my chips. The El Chaputizer is going to come with our homemade quacamole and signature queso. We are all family so come on in and enjoy your experience at the grasshopper. Hope to see you soon!

The wife and I stopped here for lunch. We both had a combo plate. The meals were amazing. Good flavors and plenty of food. As well I had a margarita. It was very good. We will be back.

When I’m on vacation, I like to eat at places that are not chains. This place was interesting to say the least. Their chips tasted like straight up wheat, not corn chips.
I got the fajitas, the meat was really dry. The veggies were good.
My boyfriend got the fish tacos and said they were good. His beans and rice were dry, kinda gross.
But the dessert was good, we got the fried dough with cinnamon on them with honey. They were the closet thing to sopapillas from New Mexico.

The tacos were average and could definately benefit from the addition of hot sauce. Margaritas are a deal at only $ 3.75 each however they barely contained any alcohol. The biggest problem with the frozen margarita was that it was not completely blended. There were large chunks of ice, making it difficult to drink. My friend ordered a margaritas on the rocks and it was a bit too much lime.
We also ordered nachos to share. Yes, you get a generous portion, but they were oddly lacking cheese. Half the nachos had no cheese at all :(
I would agree that service is definately one of their strong suits and prices are el cheapo.

You know a Mexican meal is going downhill fast when even the salsa is not edible. I am half Latina so I am used to spice, but the salsas were so hot and the drinks so blah, we decided against ordering a full meal and left.
The complimentary salsa comes from two bottles on the table. Kinda odd but I get wanting to limit waste. The two bottles had mild and hot, but it was more like hot and tongue-​numbing. Plus, these salsas were so runny.
We decided to order the pico salsa as an appetizer– bad idea. 95% of the pico was peppers and jalapeño! The tomatoes were like an accent color. It was too hot for me.
We also ordered the grasshopper margarita ($ 10) which was the only drink that didn’t have some horrible sour mix. It was okay, but not strong or tastes at all. Not happy with the drink at all.
So we picked this place because of the menu variety. It has a vegetarian section which is great. The various entrée options indicated that the burrito/​taco was filled with «vegetables.» I asked our very awesome waitress about the vegetarian menu and she said the vegetables were just peppers and onions. That’s it. I know– I know: peppers and onions are vegetables, but no mushroom, no zucchini, no squash AND no beans! I asked if I could add beans and — bless her honest heart– she admitted that the beans are cooked with pig lard. Ugh. In fact, she confessed, all of the sauces had meat or meat broth! So I could not even order queso sauce! That was it. I wasn’t going to pay $$ for peppers and onions wrapped in a tortilla. Between the freakishly hot water salsa and this We decided to have dinner elsewhere.

A high middle.
Service: Prompt and kind
Atmosphere: Great décor and ambiance
Tables: Large seating our party of 7 with ease
Food: (here is where I get super descriptive)
like most tex mex and Mexican places you start with chips. Here they give you a sauce rather than a salsa. I enjoyed it whilst others in my party did not.
The guacamole was very fresh with whole ingredients. The Barbacoa was not as flavorful as I expected it to be. Although it was tender and meaty, it lacked savory flavor sand spice. I would compare it to my Jewish grandmother’s pot roast. The shrimp was cooked well and seasoned to perfection. The fajita plate was rather bland. It was under salted and lacked the adobo season flavor I am accustomed to. The tortillas we a little on the dry side but perfect for tacos.
I enjoyed my visit but will give the few other tex mex places a try before coming back to the Grasshopper.
This restaurant is perfect for families with smaller children.

Good service, great good, terrible house margarita.
I would eat here again. And again. And anther time after that.

Back again! Just love this place and Dino is the best! Thank you for another great night! Great Jalapeño poppers!

All reviews about the cleanliness and high level of service are 100% accurate. Moved from Texas and have searched Sarasota for Tex mex and this is as good as you will find. The owner Dino introduced himself and was genuinely interested in our experience. Food was good had beef fajitas and my wife had chicken enchiladas. The salsa and queso are the couple of things that need some work and we will avoid queso next time. Guacamole was a much better appetizer choice! 100% chance we will be back again and again. Let’s hope for some queso improvements. Btw margaritas are prepared perfectly always important

The service was excellent! Drinks were great too! Had house margarita and sangria. Salsa was like a brown sauce (not red) tasted great but texture and color didn’t feel quite right? I had a fish taco and barbacoa taco both excellent! Only complaint guacamole was served on a bed of shredded lettuce??? Why couldn’t scrape the bottom of dish because you ended up with lettuce. Table side fresh guacamole would be so much better… just a thought. Would of probably done 3 ½ stars if I could.

Overall: Very typical American/​Mexican restaurant. Not bad, but not great.
The good: Huge portions and plenty of options. The service was very friendly and helpful and our food came out at a reasonable time.
The bad: The food was very typical. Americanized, bland, and not very authentic. The music was loud and not ethnic either.
Atmosphere: ⁷⁄₁₀
Service: ⁸⁄₁₀
Food: ⁶⁄₁₀