Armadillo Grill

Buried deep in the Bryan Center is Armadillo Grill’s one Durham location. It has seating for about 150, with a full service bar and several flat-​screen TV’s showing various sports channels.
Like the Triangle’s other Armadillo locations, you order via pencil and paper, provide your name and pay. A few minutes later, your tray is ready. The menu doesn’t appear to differ for other Armadillos — tacos, burritos, frozen margaritas, chips and queso, plus a fresh salsa bar. What does differ is the quality of the food. It’s not nearly as good as the locations in Raleigh and Chapel Hill. It’s basically fresh Tex-​Mex at a reasonable price, not unlike Chipotle, but unlike what I’ve come to expect from Armadillo grill in that the food disappoints.
They do a few things right. The chicken and steak used for the tacos is delicious. They make their own tortillias. Their queso hits the spot when I’m looking for a processed cheese fix. Their ingredients are fresh (though fresh tomatoes in March aren’t anything to write home about). Where this location stumbles is that fresh doesn’t always mean good. Lack of seasoning is a constant issue with the salsa — grab a salt packet and a spoon so that you can overcome the blandness of out-​of season tomatoes. The frozen corn used in their salsa is watery and the quesadillas should just be avoided.
There can be a crowd or this place can be empty depending on what is going on that evening on campus. Be prepared to change to a take order if throngs of students don’t excite you. You can also expect to pay for parking, but given that I’m giving this location a poor review, my recommendation would be to skip it unless you are at the Bryan Center for some other reason and need a place to have dinner. Given the other dining options in the Bryan Center, Armadillo becomes a viable option.
The service is friendly, and you can get decent food here, just order carefully (steak taco w/​guac and lettuce works for me) and lower your expectations if you are a fan of Armadillo’s other outposts.