El Zarape

El Zarape (at 1301 W. Wyatt Earp Blvd) has quite a pedigree. The parent eatery was in Garden City Ks and was a local phenomenon in Garden City for many years. I believe that the menu has some sort "family history" story on it...and I think I read somewhere that they sell their salsa at various retail outlets. With this in mind, when Sarge called us together to try this place out, we jumped at the chance.

Well, most of us did. K-Dawg bailed on us, mumbling something about "cleaning his garage over the Lunch hour" so we grabbed up our newest alternate, Pioneer Woman.




We walked past a rather anemic looking buffet with not much on it. At first I blamed it on the gaggle of Ford County Sheriff's employees that were sitting near it...but we noticed that very little food was coming out of the kitchen to the buffet table-so we ordered off the menu.

We promptly received some chips and salsa but most of us were not impressed with the offering-especially considering the hype surrounding their salsa. Our consensus was that the chips were plain and the sauce was too-I think someone made the comment "El Charros light". Personally, every single homemade salsa I've ever had has been better than this. I was about to really ratchet up my whining about the salsa when Pioneer Woman suggested I ask for some spicier stuff. I did, and they brought out some green stuff that was noticeably better.


Sarge:
Chips and Salsa: 3 "Good but nothing to write home about".
Chicken Taco Platter: 2 "Bland, old El Paso type food. Reminds me of stuff you'd expect to eat at a Church youth group thing".




The Scotsman:
Chips and Salsa: 3. "I like the chips and mild sauce".
Beef Combo: 3.5 "I don't mind Americanized Mexican food".

The Scotsman also decided to try some of my fried jalapeno and agreed that it was pretty hot!




I had the Un Sabroso, which was a couple of layers of tortillas with spiced pork inside and veggies and cheese on top.
Chips and Salsa: 3 (I would give the regular red salsa a 2 but the hotter green earned a 3)
Un Sabroso: 3
It should be noted that I've eaten here about four times prior and this is the best meal I've gotten here.




Pioneer Woman:
Chips and Salsa: 3 "Very similar to El Charro".
Enchilada Supreme: 2.5 "Tastes good but not remarkable".

Overall, I think that the hype and the story behind Zarape's worked against it. It's good but there is a lot of competition in Dodge for good Mexican food.