Salsa Grille

This place is as close to authentic as you may get around Fort Wayne. Their ingredients are fresh and are always trying something new. The staff is always friendly and welcoming. It is quick and accurate. The verde chicken is my favorite but I also love every salsa on the salsa bar! OH AND the tomatillo ranch why are you still reading? Go get a taco… Or 5!

Not impressed with the food and I found a bone and I mean a big bone, in my burrito. I would not suggest salsa grill.

I love Salsa Grille. Especially on Mondays for the 6 dolla holla… HOLLER! I can get a heaping bowl full of all the goodies for six bucks! Plus one free scoop of guacamole. FREE GUAC– this is the two words every Mexican food lover wants to hear. FREE SALSA BAR. Yes. There is a free salsa bar. FREE CHIPS with purchase. It keeps getting better guys. All the ingredients are fresh to death. My favorite is the verde chicken chimichurri. I always go for a bowl. Load it up with cheese, queso, black beans, rice, cilantro, onion, jalopenos, tomatoes, and guac. Top it off with sour cream and you have the ultimate bowl.
Even on non Monday dollar holler– I usually spend around $ 7.50 for a bowl with chips and salsa. This is about $ 3 less than going to a similar national chain… and for a recent college grad– every dollar counts!
Salsa Grille also features burritos, quesadillas, fiesta taco salad, and tacos. As a local chain associated with George’s International Market you can expect exceptional food quality.

If I could eat at this place everyday then I would! Their fresh ingredients totally blow Chipotle and Qdoba out of the water! And it’s cheaper which is even better. Chips and unlimited salsa come free with your order (literally I’ve seen people grabbing salsa by the tupperware full!) which doesn’t surprise me because their house made salsas are THE. BEST. Try the pineapple salsa, you’ll never look back! Love their tacos because they are the «authentic» style with corn tortillas. When I can get real ingredient tacos for me and my two boys for under $ 10, that’s a steal! Customer for life right here.

If you love Mexican food, then Salsa grille is the place for you. It is like a lot of the better than fast food type Mexican places like Chipotle, but I personally prefer this place. They have a great Monday special and their Salsa choices are really tasty! They have some outside seating and a good amount of space inside, but watch out around lunch time! They can get busy!

Pretty good. I’ll take it over any of the larger chain burrito joints. The produce tastes significantly more fresh. Portions are generally smaller than other short-​order burrito places but that’s not really a bad thing. I’d highly recommend getting the bowl. It’s quite good. Big ups on the salsa bar though, way better than Moe’s. Staff is also very friendly.

Not even close to Chipotle. Chicken tastes as if it was defrosted and nuked. Very small spoonfuls of ingredients. Futuristic soda dispenser looks cool– soda is FLAT.
On the plus side, you are given a bowl of tortilla chips with your meal. A salsa bar with many options included. Wish I would have went to Chipotle instead.

Get the Nachos, enough to share. Exceptional quality! Great Kids meals and new Pepsi Machine! Clean throughout and nice employees, bravo for the area!

Very good food with an authentic flair. They serve Mexican cola and a good selection of beer. The salsa bar has all the trimmings and it is self serve. It must be good because of all the Spanish speaking patrons. Ola.

Salsa grill is good and authentic mexican fare according to my Texan fiancé they do «real» tacos which is quite the complement but it could have use a bit more oomph to the Pico de gallo but that could have been the winter tomatoes. Overall it was very good!

Good food and very affordable. Love the chips and dips. They even sell gluten free chips. The staff is friendly and the place is very clean. Good job!

Food is amazing. The environment is very authentic and the people are very personable. I love that they sell items from the international grocery too!

First impressions are important, and yesterday I made my first visit to the new Coventry location… and I was really impressed! Now to be fair, I am a regular at Moe’s and the difference is clearly in quality and atmosphere. Slightly less ingredient selection than Moe’s, but Moe’s can be waaaay to complicated when you visit the first time — so I’ll give that a nice compromise. What is not a compromise is the food quality. I had a steak burrito that had more meat, better toppings and excellent flavor Here slightly fewer toppings made for a better burrito! I like the selection of salsa at the salsa bar and liked seeing the pineapple salsa that is seasonal at Moe’s.
All said, done and stuffed — I could not finish all the food, and the price was very reasonable. I like the free unlimited nachos, which is a turn off I have with Qdoba and Chipolte where they are extra. I would have preferred hot chips, but am not making that a deal breaker at all.
I look forward to future visits, and in Fort Wayne, that’s quite a compliment!

I have been to this place perhaps 20 or more times because I really enjoy supporting locally owned places when possible. As many reviewers have pointed out it is very much like Chipotle, Qdoba, or Moes, but tries really hard to incorporate the best of all of them in one place. It has a really fresh salsa bar (in fact several times one of the salsas is still slightly warm from cooking in the kitchen.) They do not charge for chips, generally are priced less than the competitors, and overall give bigger portions of the ingredients in your meal. Lastly, the fresh avocado & pineapple salsas are very, very good.
The biggest issues that I have include the following:
–Inconsistency with what is included in the menu items. Sometimes an employee will include rice with the salad bowl, other times a different employee will not. This has happened several times with different items which creates confusion.
–Problems with the chips. On two separate occasions there has been a piece of hair in the small basket of chips that come with the meal — although this has not happened recently so perhaps they have fixed the problem.
–When the place is busy the staff is slow to clean and wipe the tables in between customers. This is particularly problematic on Sundays when quite a few families eat there after church.
–The mixed veggies are almost always just onions — nothing else. No green peppers, no jalapenos, just onions.
Overall this is an economical place to grab a quick meal while at the same time supporting the local restaurant community. It is certainly not great Mexican food, but as long as your expectations are not too high it is worth a trip to Salsa Grille instead of one of the many similar chains.

Salsa Grille was ok. I got a barbacoa bowl, which is my go to at Chipotle. Honestly everything about the bowl flavor wise was comparable to Chipotle, except for it was barely warm. Where the downfall in this meal came was with the chips and salsa. The chips were once again cold, and they were the tricolor chips (yellow, and the dyed bright red, green). Why is this necessary? I don’t understand the point of adding dyes, that have been proven unhealthy to food. Salsa Grill has a salsa bar, which was a nice touch, but the salsas weren’t that great. We tried about 5 different kinds and were that not impressed by any. Also, the women’s restroom was completely out of toilet paper. The staff was friendly and the restaurant was clean. If given the choice between Chipotle or Salsa Grille, I’d pick Chipotle mainly for warm unicolored chips with flavorful Guacamole and Salsa.

It would have been better but I ordered the veggie bowl, which ended up being a giant pile of onions for the veggies. Why don’t they call it the onion bowl? I may be partially influenced by my disappointment in finding The Loving Hut next door closed for the holiday weekend. We were driving through from Michigan to Indianapolis and had hoped to finally try the Loving Hut since it was a Saturday and they are always closed on Sunday’s when we typically drive this way. But back to the Salsa Grille… it did have a nice salsa bar and unlimited chips.

If you’ve ever needed an example of how much fresh ingredients make a difference in the food you eat, GO TO SALSA GRILLE! Everything they make there is fresh and it puts it far above it’s competitors Chipotle and Qdoba.
Food and Choices: AWESOME
Salsa: FREGGIN’ AWESOME
I usually get the Chorizo or Carne Asada but trust me, everything is good!

This place is a combination of Moe’s Southwest grill and Chipolte. But its better than both. The food is very good, all be it kind of expencive. I went with another person and our bill was over $ 14 that was for two bowls and no drinks. One plus is this place gives you some chips to eat with your meal, un-​like Chipolte which charges for them. The Avacado Salsa at the salsa bar was FANTASTIC!

I’ve been to Salsa Grille three times last week. It’s very good, and I’d rate it above Chipotle and Qdoba Restaurants, which are all similar in format.
Salsa Grille has several more choices that the other places do not, such as chorizo sausage and two preparations of chicken, no extra charge for guacamole, chips and salsa (nice salsa bar offering «George’s Mild», «George’s Hot», avocado salsa, habanero & roasted tomato, grilled pineapple & chipotle, pico de gallo, salsa verde, salsa ranchero).
You start off by choosing the format you want (bowl, burritio, taco, taco salad, quesadilla) your meat (that’s how they charge you), rice (spanish or with beans & corn), other veggies, cheese, and other toppings such as guacamole or sour cream. If I recall correctly, it’s $ 6.55 for the barbacoa (chuck roast cooked in a tasty sauce) or the pork carnitas (shredded pork), $ 6.25 for the chorizo, or Carne asada (grilled skirt steak), and $ 5.95 for the ‘veggie’. There are two chicken choices also: Ancho chili chicken (grilled chicked marinated in ancho chili adobo sauce) for $ 6.25, or Verde chicken chimichurri (shredded chicken tossed with fresh herbs/​vinegar/​olive oil) for $ 6.55.
You get a rectangular paper tray of three color corn chips (red, green, and white… Mexican Flag colors?) along with your entrée and drink cup, so you can proceed, after paying, to the drink machine and the salsa bar to help yourself there. The chip tray is re-​fillable (no charge!!)…just ask the cashier for more.
I personally like the bowl format the best, since it allows me to mix up the ingredients and eat it with a fork, unlike the burritio.
This place is generally quieter than Chipotle’s «echo» chamber, and it’s easier to sit and eat/​talk.
Oh, we met Chris, the owner, and he confirms ‘Fred M.” review’s statement that they get all of their produce from local growers in Chicago. (So far, you can only see his review in the ‘filtered review’ section, where many other positive reviews were stuck.) Salsa Grille is run by the same people who run «George’s International Market» here in Fort Wayne.
One more thing… the vehicle access & parking is easier than their competitors’ on this side of town (Northwest).

Ok, so here’s what everyone wants to know about Salsa Grille: How does it compare to Chipotle?
The fairest way I can think of to review this place is to do a multi-​category one-​on-​one comparison to Chipotle Mexican Grill. So here goes, the epic, full scale battle of Fort Wayne burriterias (think I made that word up.)
1. Chicken Burrito — Chipotle OWNS the chicken burrito category. It’s not that any of the individual components is better, but Chipotle’s whole package together is unbeatable. (I need to try SG’s ancho chicken next time, it may come closer.)
2. Choices — Salsa Grille, hands down. Way more options on meat, salsa, etc
3. Chips — SG wins this one, because theirs are FREE.
4. Salsa — Chipotle’s may be slightly better, but SG offers a FREE chips and salsa bar, so they win this category.
5. Locally owned? — I’m a sucker for great local places, so a point for SG here.
6. Cleanliness — Both are impressively clean. A draw.
7. Speed — Chipotle is faster, but SG is new. Give them time, and I’m sure they’ll speed up. Nonetheless, a point for Chipotle.
8. — Guacamole — Salsa Grille wins. The guac is FREE.
9. Cool Owner — Chris @ Salsa Grille is awesome. Very personable, and he remembers his customers. I’d probably return if the food he was cooking was mediocre. (Good news, it’s not!)
10. Price — I didn’t pay attention to the prices at SG, but my wife, son, and I ate there for $ 19 (drank water) That’s on par with Chipotle, which is right where they should be.
Score: Salsa Grille 6, Chipotle 2
It’s probably not that much of a landslide, but all in all, I’d say SG beats Chipotle by a nose, and that’s something to brag about. Q’doba, in my opinion, isn’t in the league of either of them. Salsa Grille is owned by the folks that run George’s International Grocery downtown, so they should know a thing or two about ethnic foods, and it shows. Chris said all their produce comes direct from the markets in Chicago. Again it shows. If there’s one adjective that I could use to describe SG, it would probably be FRESH. Everything tasted fresh. I’ll definitely be back, as Chris has a bunch more options I need to try.
You should try them too. This place is awesome, and hopefully, it’s here to stay.