Yes, sir!
Initially, I was quite pleased with the service at Si Señor. It’s prompt, friendly and unobtrusive. But then I noticed that my girlfriend, Danielle, would nearly swoon every time our waiter would ask, “How is everything, amigos?”
“So, what do you think of the service?” I asked as our waiter walked away.
In a daze, she mumbled something about “smooth” and “suave,” and then I think she said, “He’s tall, dark and handsome, and I’d like to jump his bones.” (Though, in retrospect, I think I might have misheard her.)
So, out of jealous spite, I’d like to go on record here and say the service at Si Señor is awful. Sloppy, rude and ugly.
Everything else is great though. Si Señor is a “family Mexican restaurant and cantina” located in the South Virginia Street location that used to be Mama’s Cantina. Inside, it’s brightly colored and festive—there are painted chairs with big yellow suns, bright red and green fish—but the atmosphere is still exceptionally relaxed.
And the food is really good. If “authenticity” is your most important criterion for Mexican fare, Si Señor might not top the list. But if you’re looking for huge plates of good food that goes well with margaritas, well, then that’s a sombrero that fits—and the food’s certainly more “authentic” than anything in a mall or casino.
In addition to the requisite chips and salsa, there was a tasty (and addictive), zesty bean dip. The salsa was pretty good too—spicy-hot but with a well-balanced flavor.
Danielle, one of those goddamn vegetarians, had the Garden Fresco Burrito ($7.95), a big ol’ burrito with sauteed veggies, rice, black beans and hot sauce. She was happy. Danielle is usually a frugal eater, and I expected her to only eat half of her walloping burrito. But it was good enough that she chowed the whole thing down without a second thought.
It was a lot more work for me to make it through the vast quantity of food on my plate. I had the Si Señor Special ($13.95): three big hunks of carne asada, rice, beans, guacamole, tortillas, prawns and mushrooms marinated in garlic butter. It was a lot of food, but I got the job done. Even our waiter, a big hunk of carne asada himself, was impressed.
I had been to the location only once during its previous incarnation as Mama’s. I drank a few margaritas too many and behaved embarrassingly. But, at Si Señor, there are plenty of margarita specials and karaoke every Wednesday night, so there are still opportunities for ample embarrassing behavior. Danielle and I split a strawberry-banana margarita ($6.75), sweet, flavorful and refreshing.
Our meal was quite good but was marred by an annoying coincidence. The day after our visit, four Si Señor coupons offering a buy-one-entrée-and-two-drinks-and-get-the-second- entrée-of-equal-or-lesser-value-free deal arrived in the mail. I was totally irked by the timing, but Danielle just shrugged and said, “Oh well,” and then added, no doubt thinking about the handsome waiter, “I sure wouldn’t mind going there again.”