Flagstaff lunch specials
By Angele Sionna
Back to school time is here. Time for meeting and greeting new classmates and colleagues… or getting to know the ones you have even better. A perfect way to do so is a nice lunch out on the town. So here's a few places with good grub and lunch specials to maximize your hard earned cash and enjoy friends and food.
El Charro
409 S San Francisco St
About as close to campus as you can get (about 2 short blocks north of the Wall Aquatic Center) is this little family run Mexican dive. It has been a part of Flag for decades. For $7.50 here you get a soda or iced tea, 2 choices of items from the a la carte menu (like a cheese enchilada and a guac tostada - my favs), rice, beans, and a sopapilla or tortilla. The service here is always friendly and attentive to boot.
Fratelli Pizza
119 West Phoenix
A great spot to relax and enjoy a friend or two or five is Fratelli. Fratelli's atmosphere prompts conversation and the staff always has a smile. The lunch special here is hard to beat and served up quick. For six bucks you get a soda, a slice and a side salad or a soda and two slices (I like to get a pesto slice and salad with ranch). You can upgrade to a beer instead of a soda for $1.65 more – tax included!
Hot Wok Express
1000 N Humphreys St (at the far west end of the shopping center)
For about $6, Hot Wok Express- just north of downtown and just south of the hospital- has a lunch special to satisfy and it’s even better if you’re in a hurry. You can call ahead and pick it up at their drive thru window. A total bonus! My favs here are the Moo Goo Gui Pan, Orange Chicken, and Chicken Lo Mein. Along with the entrée you also get soup, fried or steamed rice, an egg roll and crab puffs included in that lunch special price.
Swaddee Thai
115 E. Aspen Ave.
A little bit of paradise tucked inside an unassuming building downtown is how Swaddee Thai feels when you walk in. The lunch specials here are about $8 and include a salad, egg roll, steamed rice (except noodle dishes) and your choice of a chicken, beef, pork, or tofu entrée. Those include red, green, or yellow curry, pad thai and others. And you pick your level of spiciness to suit your palate. Go to swaddeethai.com to check out all the options.
Sakura
1175 West Route 66 (inside the Radisson Woodlands Hotel)
When you think lunch specials you may not think of Sakura, a place known more for date night or a special celebration, but their teppanyaki lunch specials are quite a good deal, considering. For $9 to $12 bucks for the single item entrees you get a mini-feast – consisting of your meat or noodle selection (I rec opting for the grilled hibachi chicken or steak), soup, steamed rice and hibachi veggies plus a little fire show and get to watch the chef make lunch right in front of you... And boy is it yummy! Now don't go there looking for a quick bite, as I’ve found it takes at least an hour - depending on the crowd and number of chefs working that day. You can check out their full lunch menu at sakuraflagstaffsushi.com.
Showing posts with label el charro flagstaff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label el charro flagstaff. Show all posts
August 31, 2009
June 30, 2008
El Charro
By Angele Sionna
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="409 S. San Francisco, Flagstaff, AZ"]
[/caption]
409 S. San Francisco St., Flagstaff
(no menu on line)
The Food (taste/flavor/quality of food & drinks)
>>>= good, but not great
The Atmosphere (environment, wait staff, comfortableness)
xxx= good but could be improved
Price (what to generally expect to pay per person per entree)
$= under $10
Value (what you get for your money)
*** = fair -you get what you pay for, not in a bad way
With El Charro, what you see is what you get. It’s a simple, family owned Mexican restaurant without any bells and whistles, but good service and food by people who care about making it. Inside a converted home in the midst of a Flagstaff Neighborhood, this isn’t the place you’re going to see many tourists. What you’ll find instead on most weekday afternoons are NAU employees who took a short walk from their office to grab lunch. That’s when I recommend going to El Charro because their great lunch special makes this place definitely worth trying.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="One of El Charro's lunch special combos"]
[/caption]
For $6.25 plus tax, you get any two items from the A La Carte menu, rice, beans, a tortilla or sopapilla, and soda or iced tea. Hard to find a deal like that in this town. The A La Carte menu includes tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, and burros. My personal recommendation is the guacamole tostada and a cheese enchilada with the sopapilla for dessert. My husband always gets one beef enchilada and one cheese enchilada. To note here, the beef enchiladas have not been Americanized. They are a cheese enchilada with cubes of beef and red sauce on top. It was a little surprising the first time my husband ordered it, as he’s used to ground beef mixed with cheese inside the enchilada. But he likes it enough to order it every time we come.
If you’re on a diet, you’ll want to skip El Charro. There’s probably nothing for you on the menu. It is very meat and cheese driven and loaded with carbs.
El Charro is also not the place to go if you’re looking for spicy or interesting flavor combinations. Instead the flavors are mild, bordering on boring. Growing up in Texas I’m accustomed to Tex-Mex style cooking that brings much more zing and spice in every bite, not to mention more vegetables in the entrée selections. You’re not going to get anything like that here. But I’ve yet to find any place like that anywhere in this town.
This is a Mexican restaurant in every sense of the word. The tone of the dishes are much more basic, yet solid and reliable. Every time I’ve come to El Charro the food tastes exactly the same. Also dependable is the service. The owners and their family run the restaurant hands-on. They greet you, serve the food, and make sure you’re drink glass is always full. I often see the owner’s family eating lunch here when they’re not working.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="180" caption="El Charro's sopapillas"]
[/caption]
The atmosphere is kid-friendly with colorful murals hand painted on the walls and piñatas hanging on the ceiling. My daughter particularly likes the animals depicted in the landscape, which she promptly begins naming as soon as we sit down. Also good to note, if you’re little ones don’t go for Mexican food, the menu has picky-kid friendly items like burgers and fries. Hands down my daughter’s favorite part about coming here are the sopapillas with honey that come with the lunch special. Truth be told, they’re my favorite part about coming here too.
See more photos of El Charro HERE.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="409 S. San Francisco, Flagstaff, AZ"]
[/caption]409 S. San Francisco St., Flagstaff
(no menu on line)
The Food (taste/flavor/quality of food & drinks)
>>>= good, but not great
The Atmosphere (environment, wait staff, comfortableness)
xxx= good but could be improved
Price (what to generally expect to pay per person per entree)
$= under $10
Value (what you get for your money)
*** = fair -you get what you pay for, not in a bad way
With El Charro, what you see is what you get. It’s a simple, family owned Mexican restaurant without any bells and whistles, but good service and food by people who care about making it. Inside a converted home in the midst of a Flagstaff Neighborhood, this isn’t the place you’re going to see many tourists. What you’ll find instead on most weekday afternoons are NAU employees who took a short walk from their office to grab lunch. That’s when I recommend going to El Charro because their great lunch special makes this place definitely worth trying.[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="One of El Charro's lunch special combos"]
[/caption]For $6.25 plus tax, you get any two items from the A La Carte menu, rice, beans, a tortilla or sopapilla, and soda or iced tea. Hard to find a deal like that in this town. The A La Carte menu includes tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, and burros. My personal recommendation is the guacamole tostada and a cheese enchilada with the sopapilla for dessert. My husband always gets one beef enchilada and one cheese enchilada. To note here, the beef enchiladas have not been Americanized. They are a cheese enchilada with cubes of beef and red sauce on top. It was a little surprising the first time my husband ordered it, as he’s used to ground beef mixed with cheese inside the enchilada. But he likes it enough to order it every time we come.
If you’re on a diet, you’ll want to skip El Charro. There’s probably nothing for you on the menu. It is very meat and cheese driven and loaded with carbs.
El Charro is also not the place to go if you’re looking for spicy or interesting flavor combinations. Instead the flavors are mild, bordering on boring. Growing up in Texas I’m accustomed to Tex-Mex style cooking that brings much more zing and spice in every bite, not to mention more vegetables in the entrée selections. You’re not going to get anything like that here. But I’ve yet to find any place like that anywhere in this town.
This is a Mexican restaurant in every sense of the word. The tone of the dishes are much more basic, yet solid and reliable. Every time I’ve come to El Charro the food tastes exactly the same. Also dependable is the service. The owners and their family run the restaurant hands-on. They greet you, serve the food, and make sure you’re drink glass is always full. I often see the owner’s family eating lunch here when they’re not working.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="180" caption="El Charro's sopapillas"]
[/caption]The atmosphere is kid-friendly with colorful murals hand painted on the walls and piñatas hanging on the ceiling. My daughter particularly likes the animals depicted in the landscape, which she promptly begins naming as soon as we sit down. Also good to note, if you’re little ones don’t go for Mexican food, the menu has picky-kid friendly items like burgers and fries. Hands down my daughter’s favorite part about coming here are the sopapillas with honey that come with the lunch special. Truth be told, they’re my favorite part about coming here too.
See more photos of El Charro HERE.
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