The Dinner Club: 'Tequila's Family Mexican Restaurants'

May 9, 5:36 AMDenver Dining ExaminerStan Dyer

Previous Next

5 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Denver Dining Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

It may be small, but people don't seem to mind.

Friday night, the Dinner Club got together at “Tequila’s” in Arvada.  I wanted to try this restaurant, but I don’t like waiting in lines, and it seems this place is always busy enough to have a line.  I was especially concerned since we would be in a large group, and large groups take longer to seat.  Well, Joni and I got there just a little bit early, reserved a table, and started in on a couple of margaritas.  

The "Jumbo" margarita - one is plenty.

The margaritas come in three sizes, small, jumbo and “Chiquitaboom”.  Pitchers are also available.  The regular house margarita features Sauza tequila for $6.00 in the small and $12.00 in jumbo.  I did not see anyone nursing the Chiquitaboom, and did not even inquire about the price, but I am guessing it is around $24 and something you will not want to drink alone, at least not if you are driving.  Tequila’s claims to have 150 varieties of tequila in the back room, there are over 90 listed “by the shot” on the menu, and they offer 13 tequila upgrades for the house margarita at varying prices.  Some people like to put the expensive reposados and anejos in their margaritas, and it might improve the flavor a bit, but, for me, I would rather drink the finer tequilas slowly out of a caballito and not in a margarita.  Just for comparison, I noticed that the Don Julio 1942 that was $20 a shot at Hacienda Colorado is only $15 at Tequila’s.  As for the house margarita itself, the flavor is pretty good, but not the best I have had.  I liked the flavor of the margaritas we had at El Senor Sol a few weeks back better, but I feel this margarita was stronger

Plenty of menu variety

For a small restaurant, Tequila’s sure has a big menu with a lot of variety.  They offer 11 chicken dinners, seven pork dinners, 20 seafood dinners and 14 beef dinners.  There are also two choices of “Dinner for Two”, individual dinner combinations, and all of your favorite ala carte items.  Vegetarians can choose cholesterol-free beans, which are just whole beans and not refried.  The table salsa is good and is served with a small bowl of slaw in addition to the chips as an appetizer on each table for a nice start.  

Check out the daily specials. 

The group ordered a good menu sampling and everything was good with nice presentation served on attractive plates.  I, for one, liked the décor of the restaurant and felt it contributed well to the overall experience.  I can see why people like this place so much, and I will certainly keep it on my list.  The only problem we had on this visit was the crowd, but that is a good problem to have in the restaurant business.  The restaurant is kind of small and only has limited seating space.  Things will ease up a bit now that the warmer days are here and the patio is open, but it is still a good idea to get there early.  We were there at 5:30 p.m. for a 6:00 p.m. dinner and had to wait 10 minutes.  By the time we left, the line was already out the door, and you can bet it will be like that all evening.  As always, a person can only say so much about food, and, since much of the tasting is done with the eyes anyway, take a look at the images I captured and see what they say to you.