los cucos mexican cafe

wow - pleasantly surprised. we chose this place on a whim, because we were stuck in sandy and starving. it was late for dinner after 9:00, but when we walked in, we didn't get that dreaded late night scowl; instead we were greeted with smiles, open seats and delicious cocktails soon thereafter. they provide a delicious, roasted salsa and a very light and tasty, cilantro, tomatillo guacamole with chips for every table. the menu is very extensive and loaded with unique and delicous entrees. they have stuffed, deep fried avocados! (didn't try them, but they sound good!) they have chile rellenos stuffed with meat andcheese(another unique offering for most mexican restaurants in the area), but i didn't try them either. we ordered chalupas, with ranchero chicken. these are generously topped with purple cabbage, avocado, cotija, tomatoes and crema fresca served with this fresh, garlicky salsa on the side. we also ordered a mixed platter, el sabroso with fourcheese(uber decadant) enchilada, a steak burrito, carnitas, and homemade corn tortillas. all the meat was perfectly seasoned, cooked to tender perfection and pretty amazing overall. the homemade corn tortillas were fantastic, even the beans and rice were very well done. this is a great addition to the mexican restaurant scene in the salt lake valley. i will go there again. there is something on the menu for any diner.

horrible. i have never ever left a restaurant after ordering. last night i did. service was horrible but the food was worse. we ordered queso dip. when it came it was the neon orange "cheese" that comes in a can. my daughters quesadilla had the same neon cheese. my chimichanga came out dry. nothing on top. when i said something to the manager about thecheesehe guaranteed me it wasn't from a can and thinking about it, he may be right. it may have come from a bag. save your money. quick trip or the local gas station carries the same food. cheaper and quicker i'm sure. we didn't eat any of the food after tasting the disgusting nacho cheese.

had velvetacheesefor enchiladas. the chips and salsa were good, and the tamales were alright. it was ok.


-----25 jul, 2012-----

looks good, but.... the place looks good, however they have slow service....and the food doesn't taste very good. my chilicheeseenchilada's were made with velveeta cheese, which should never happen in any mexican restaurant. the chips and salsa was okay, and didn't really have any negative about them. the tamales i tried weren't terrible, and the chicken taco i tried didn't taste good at all. you are better off spending your money at los glorias, red iguana or even la frontera across the street. i wasn't impressed.

service: a / food: f. the title says it all, but just to add a little more detail (because it's required): the service here was top-notch. we never had to wait for a refill; the staff was always on top of everything. that said, the food was disgusting. i should have heeded the advice of fellow urbanspooners who said this place makes their queso andcheesesauce with velveeta. gross. com'on, los cucos! of course we noticed. if people wanted that kind of fake food, we'd just fake make it ourselves at home. good restaurants don't use processed ingredients from the local wal-mart, they make original dishes from scratch. putting aside that unpardonable offense, however, everything else on the menu was equally s#i++y. there's lots of fried stuff available here, which i know some people hate for health reasons, but i'm not opposed to it at all. unfortunately, even the los chefs at los cucos couldn't fry the dump taste out of this stuff. i could go on and on about how implausibly bad it was, but you get the picture. they have good service, but what does it matter when all they serve is melted velveeta sticks and fried monkey balls?

crap. i should have acknowledged the warning signs...morbidly obese people exiting and entering, seated quickly with literally no wait. the service was great but that's about it. the food was not fresh and it was highly processed trash (stuff that fat people enjoy). i was very disappointed with the food and will never return. thecheeseused on my wife's enchilada was basically velveeta with chopped peppers in it. my shrimp taco, horrid! the shrimp was disgusting and not fresh at all...the sauce in the taco literally made me gag and i couldn't finish it. we ate a quarter of our meal and asked for our check. the topic of conversation for the next 30 minutes was revolved around how terrible the food was. again, the service was excellent but that's about it. avoid at all costs. even beto's is better.

blah!!!!. the service was the only good thing. that's it! don't waste your money! all of our items were horrible and i am not picky, the mexico enchiladas were disgusting there attempt at mole wasn't worth their time. it was gritty and hard to eat. my son who is 11 and needing to watch his weight and cholesterol tries to order healthy when possible or at least when i encourage him, ordered the healthy choice grilled chicken and vegetable tacos, yuck he took one bite all he ate was the white rice as the other stuff had an unusual flavor, it did i tasted it and tried to pretend otherwise. the kidscheeseenchilada also not so good, son barely touched the fries or rice. both my boys had just goten done swimming for almost 4 hours, were famished and tired, eat virtually nothing, that bad!!!

tried a variety. they bring salsa and guacamole with chips to every table. the salsa is hot. hot as in temperature. and also spicy hot. the guacamole was also too spicy for us. we ended up ordering queso to go with the chips and it was ok.

the tortilla soup was also ok. full of veggies like squash, zucchini, carrots, etc.

the "puffed tortilla" was a disappointment, small and plain.

the stuffed avacado was delicious! it's an avacado stuffed with beef andcheeseand deep fried with a crunch crust.

we also tried the enchilada and chicken taco and both were good. very tasty.

the chalupa was unimpressive. a small amount of chicken with some cabbage and tomatoes.

overall it's an ok place but definitely need to know what to order and what to avoid.