Salsa's is a quick and easy Mexican franchise that has been around for some time now. I've eaten at their Glenelg restaurant and Westfield Marion food court a couple of times. Today I tried out the newish Salsa's in Rundle Place, and it was probably the best experience I have had so far.
While Salsa's is a chain restaurant, I've found that the quality of both the food and service can really differ depending on the location. The Glenelg store has always had inattentive staff with bad attitudes, and the servings in the tacos are really small. The Marion location has better staff, but the food seems to sit around for a while (cold chips, cold meat in burritos etc). I assumed this was because, in a food court environment where you're competing against McDonald's/KFC/Hungry Jack's etc., you need to equal their speed in order to retain customers. After my experience today, I know that this is not the case.
Despite being in a food court setting, Salsa's had my meal ready in less than 3 minutes. The chicken in my Mex bowl was hot and had a great chargrill flavour. The rice was also warm, as were the cooked veggies. The tomato salsa and guacamole were both refreshingly cold.
The service was great. The staff were friendly and helpful, even when I changed things in the order. They offered me extra guacamole for $2 (seriously, do people actually ever say 'no' to that question?!) and asked if I wanted my Mex bowl in a meal (which I didn't, but appreciated anyway). From working in customer service previously myself, I get that this is targeted upselling, but it is pretty helpful when you've never been to a place before.
My food arrived quickly all ready for me to take back to work. I discovered once I got back that they'd even stuck some corn chips in there. I did have to zap the Mex bowl for 30 seconds once I got back to the office, however I'm pretty picky with the temperature of my food, and the 10 minute walk obviously would have given my meal some time to cool down.
Overall this Salsa's has reminded me of the good things about the restaurant chain. I'd definitely come back. read more