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Original Santa Fe Grill

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travellingdave
travellingdave
First Reviewer
5 out of 5
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1
Review
4
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Original Santa Fe Grill

Original Santa Fe Grill

This South Calgary institution is well-known to locals, and is perhaps the city's most popular TexMex restaurant. It's a local landmark as well, with its signature chili pepper an easy-to-spot sight on busy Macleod Trail.

We ended up going to the Santa Fe Grill at the last minute, an hour before closing. We were seated at a comfortable booth in the western-themed restaurant, with big screen televisions on each side of us. It's a great place to relax and catch the game with buddies, and the restaurant has some excellent appetizers and drink specials specifically for this purpose.

However, we weren't there to party - we were there to have the best Tex Mex meal this side of Texas. The menu is pretty straightforward and is limited to a few types of food. The restaurant's specialty is fajitas, which come in many varieties, including Portobello mushroom, chicken, steak, shrimp, and many others. The menu also offers a good variety of cheap eats such as burritos, enchiladas, and other Mexican staples. Entrées, which are pricey, include BBQ chicken, beef brisket, Aztec chicken, spicy dill chicken, and jambalaya. Other menu items include quesadillas, soups, and salads, all with a Tex-Mex flair.

I ordered the "single combo" ($16.95), which is a fajita platter of steak and chicken (6 oz. each), served hot on a skillet with sliced onions and peppers. The steak was melt-in-your-mouth soft, and the chicken was delicious. The fajitas were served with a variety of toppings, including Texas baked beans, homemade guacamole, fresh pico de gallo (salsa), crumbled Colby cheese, sour cream, and a tray of local hot sauces (try the Canadian Roadkill - a spicy-sweet tropical flavored hot sauce).

My dinner companion ordered the Aztec Chicken ($16.95), a very large chicken breast stuffed with chorizo sausage and topped with a spicy-red tomato sauce. The chicken was served atop a bed of southwestern rice, with fresh vegetables and garlic toast. Surprisingly, the meal reminded her of butter chicken at an Indian restaurant, and aside from the fresh peppers and onions, it would have tasted almost identical.

Bottomless Coke or other soda is $2.25 here, and water is of course free. For those who want something harder with their meal, there is an extensive margarita menu, along with tons of other southwestern-themed drink choices. Prices for drinks start at $5.

Desserts here are excellent, the most popular being the deep-fried Ice Cream, which is a ball of hard ice cream coated in a graham cracker batter, then deep fried to perfection. It's a sinfully delicious choice, and well worth the $5.95 price tag.

The Santa Fe Grill is open from late morning to 10pm on weekdays, and until 11pm on weeknights. This is perhaps one of their biggest faults, is not being open later on the weekends.

It's located on Macleod Trail, near Southland Drive. You can't miss it. It's on the east side of the road (left if heading south).

From journal Living in Cowtown

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