Serranos Cafe & Cantina

Average mexican food. Great service though.

Went on a Thursday night with 4 friends/​classmates to wind down after summer semester. 3 of them got there before me & T, and were seated even though our party was not complete (though I don’t know if they would do this on a Friday or Saturday).
The waitress was nice, and the service was prompt & attentive, even though the place was about ²⁄₃ to ¾ full. She was good with drink refills too.
Appetizer: Sampler-​type plate, which included beef fajita nachos, quesadillas, stuffed jalapenos, and chicken flaquitos. The nachos were good, and the beef on them was very tender. The quesadillas were… well, quesadillas– nothing special. The stuffed jalapenos were interesting. They were stuffed with monterey jack & cheddar (not cream cheese, like most jalapeño poppers), which made for a good flavor combo, but the breading on the outside was pretty thick & that presented a textural issue for me. The chicken flaquitos were not good. The chicken was on the dry side & bland, and the dough it was wrapped in was wet & chewy towards the middle. Blecch. It was served with ranch, which was ranch-​y, as well as with a chipotle sauce. The chipotle sauce was really good– smoky at the beginning, with an afterburn. I put it on every bite!
The chips & salsa were complimentary, as Lacey W. said. The chips were just chips, and the salsa was decent. It was not as spicy as a lot of places, and pretty watery, but I really liked that there were chunks of green onion in there.
Drinks: Good across the board. Kudos to the bartender for making a really good mojito, which is becoming increasingly hard to find. This one made me :) Frozen margaritas were pretty good too.
Entrees: I got the mixed fajitas (chicken & beef). When it came out, it was great. I tried a piece of the beef, and it was VERY tender. Not a lot of flavor (except beef), but was still nice. However, upon waiting for my condiments, the meat sat on the iron skillet thingie. So by the time I actually put my taco together & ate it, the beef was harder, and the ends were like charcoal. I actually couldn’t chew about ¹⁄₃ of it because it was so damn hard. I think they got the little skillet thingie a bit too hot… the rice that was touching it was dark brown/​black & like cement. The chicken also got pretty dry, but wasn’t inedible like a lot of the beef. I was not impressed by the onions (supposed to be grilled)… They didn’t cook them well. They were raw in some places, but black where they touched the skillet. I like onions, so this was a big deal for me. The guacamole was pretty blah. I don’t know what it tasted like, but it wasn’t good and it wasn’t guacamole. If I ever go back here, I will definitely skip it.
One friend ordered the parilla mixta, which was served on a skillet thingie too, and she had the same issue. Her meat was pretty good upon arrival, but quickly degraded to charcoal briquettes.
I also made the mistake of asking for extra cheese. They only give you about 1 tablespoon in a condiment cup next to the guacamole. Since it was touching the guacamole, which was gross, I couldn’t eat some of it. So I received a *small* condiment cup of cheese… which was $ 2. Seriously? I can buy a whole f-​ing bag of cheese at HEB for $ 2! That was nothing but ridiculous.
I haven’t written this place off completely yet… I would be happy to give it another try. Some of the food was very good, some was so-​so, and some was not good. I am hoping maybe this was an off night, and next time, it will all be very good.
But I will not order extra cheese. :-P

Nice ambiance. My food was good but not amazing. I would eat here again but I would just order something different.

Great Food. Try the Burrito Con Queso. Mmmmmmmm. Yummie.

Unimpressed. For lunch on a Saturday, we had to wait several minutes for a host to seat us. While the service was initially impressive (our drink orders were filled and meal orders taken quickly), it quickly fell off as my glass sat empty for quite a while before I could get the attention of the server.
The restaurant does serve complimentary chips and salsa, but the salsa does not have much kick and was a little watery. We ordered the chicken fajita nachos, which were pretty bland and overpriced. Most menu items seemed overpriced, although we did notice some specials for the beginning of the week (such as combo fajitas for two at half price) that might make this lackluster restaurant worth the trip.