Santiago’s V Mexican Restaurant

Santiago’s green chili is the best. I’m a woosey, I get mild. But the mix of flavors is complex. It’s a runny green chili, not full of starchy gelatinous thickeners. I recently bought it by the quart and relished every drop. The carnitas is not fatty and very tender. My go to choice is a deluxe carnitas burrito with beans and rice. Call ahead of time to order but if it’s not ready when you show up, chill… it’s gonna be killer. You might want to get a side of chips so you don’t miss a drop of chili.

Breakfast burritos with hot green chile & cheese inside, fabulous. Sometimes the wait is long 5 – 10 minutes, but its worth it. Burritos for lunch smothered/​deluxe I get once a week, all year long. No inside sitting, its a small, hole in the wall to go joint. Habla espanol.

Consistently yummy Mexican food for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Standard menu, friendly staff, quick turn-​around and cheaply priced food. Nowhere really to sit, so Santiago’s in Boulder is best for to-​go orders.

First pro: The salsa was very well made. Nice spice that dissipated quickly.
Second pro: The guacamole was very tasty and fresh.
First con: Not sure what the salsa they put on top of the burrito but it was certainly not expected or desired after trying it.
Second con: The meat had good flavor but the quality of the steak was not really too appetizing.
I may be back if I’m in the area and in dire need of a taco!

The ground beef was some of the worst quality I have ever seen. It was stringy and had a bunch of bizarre gray tissue in it. Absolutely disgusting that they would charge people for this garbage. I wouldn’t feed it to my dog. How do you fuck up ground beef? They serve roadkill grade meat.

I hardly ever have a bad experience here. Sure the workers don’t speak much English but I’ve always been able to successfully communicate with them.
They’re very willing to customize your order. Want rice in your carnitas and beans burrito? You got it! And they love their regulars. (Free chips and salsa!)
Just be patient and you get what you want.
Super affordable for college students!
I always get chicken burrito with beans, rice and lettuce. Medium chili on the side.
I’m satisfied every time!

Good food, horrible service. The green chile is seriously addicting and the breakfast burritos are delicious and cheap. But be prepared to repeat your order multiple times and always make sure your order is right before you leave. Never tip because they could care less and usually never notice when you do. Also, there have been a couple times I’ve seen them making burritos without gloves on so make sure they’re wearing gloves.

Been goin here for a few months now and have always enjoyed my breakfast burrito. The service was always good and fast, and the prices cant be beat. However, yesterday i went and got terrible food poisoning with it being the only thing i had eaten all day. Sad to say i will most likely not be going back now.

I have been going here for a few years and I have been very satisfied with the food and prices. My favorite item on the menu is the bean and cheese burrito with chili — the chili is so addicting! However, the customer service is horrible. Most of the time, it takes the employees a few minutes to even acknowledge customers when they come in the door, as there is often no one at the front counter.

Delicious food for a great price. The wait is another story.

Had breakfast burrito’s here this morning. Not bad, the chile seemed a little on the low end of the hot spectrum for being supposedly Hot. Wish they were a little bigger and would pay a lttle more if they were. About the same as other locations as far as quality goes. Overall pretty good but not out of this world or knock your lights out style.

The only reason I gave this place 2 stars is because I really do like the food. I have been going here for a while now, but have become really frustrated as of late. I call in for pick-​up and they tell me it will be ready in 10 minutes. I usually wait for 15 or so to give them some extra time. Of course, every time I get there the food hasn’t been made yet, and I end up waiting for 10 minutes anyway.
The girl at the register is dumb as a brick. I usually have to repeat my order 3 – 4 times before she gets it right, and it still comes out wrong half the time. I think the main problem is that she doesn’t seem to be listening when I order. She’s always looking around or listening to the conversation going on back in the kitchen. I give her my order, she repeats it back wrong — I correct her, she repeats it back wrong — and so on, until I want to rip my arm off, just so I have something heavy to throw at her. On top of that, when you correct her a couple of times, she becomes rude… eventhough she’s the one F’ing it up.
«No, no, you’re abslutely right. I just repeated 3 different orders to confuse you. I’m sorry I’m such a pain in your ass. You know what, just make me whatever you want. And spit in it, too — I deserve it.»
I have been here about 30 times over the last 2 years and about half the time I have to go back or ask them to fix it before I leave. Maybe the issue is that I am ordering for 3 people. Although, it is 3 of the exact same thing… every single time I go in there. You would think they would start to recognize me and learn my order after more than a year of being a frequent customer.
I promise you I am not exaggerrating, whatsoever.
You may say, «why do you keep going back then, dumb — dumb?! Answer: I have gone back over and over again because the people I order with LOVE the food, and I have come to really like it, too. But I have the car, so I have to pick it up and deal with the Shinannigan’s.
«I swear to God, I’ll pistol whip the next guy who says Shinannigans’!!»
I’m over Santiago’s. Good luck to you, though, pal!

Mmmmm… I’m surprised they call this Mexican food, because for my money, this is New Mexican food (and yes, there is a definite difference). I was in Colorado for work and found myself hungry in Boulder. I hopped on Unilocal for some recommendations and found Santiago’s. OH MY… the reviewers were right! The green chile enchiladas were amazing. Hot enough (meaning spice as well as temperature), great price, and generally just hit the spot. As others have mentioned, there is really no dining room; I believe it was just one table in the tiny front room where you order. But who cares? It’s the food that really matters. Luckily for me, I found another Santiago’s a couple of days later in Denver. Apparently they are all over the area. And yup, the quality was the same. Try it!

The wait is ridiculous, but the breakfast burritos are simply divine.

Another five… Not fine dining. Hell, there’s not even a real dining room! The burritos are great and the green chili has a great flavor. Did I mention you can get a breakfast burrito for $ 2? They may not over «the healthiest» selections, but it is a great treat.
«Stay thirsty my friends!»

Absolutely love this place. They have the best and cheapest breakfast burritos I have ever tasted. Whenever I’m sick there’s only one thing i need to clear myself up and get a fire burnin in my bones and its a burrito smothered in chili from Santiagos. I was introduced to these delicious burritos by a friend and keep taking more of my friends there all the time.

This place is definitely a hole in the wall, but the food is delicious! Not to mention cheap. The green chile is to die for! Just get a big cup of it and take it home. It will make everything taste better. Just make sure you know of somewhere to sit and eat your food because there’s only one table in there. And you’re gonna want to eat it as soon as you can because its sooo good.

As my last Boulder-​area review before I move, I have to upgrade Santiago’s, a place I’ve probably been to fifty times since my last review.
Only got $ 3.25 and want the absolute tastiest thing in town that you can get for that price (or possibly at all)? Nine words: bean and carnitas, cheese and hot green chile inside. It never ever fails to be a pitch-​perfect blend. I’ve scarfed it down in the car, in the library, on the way to class, surreptitiously IN class, at my house, on the bus, on the quad… the list goes on.
As I mourn the fact that I’m moving away from Colorado, also known as Green Chile Central, the green chile I’ll picture as I cry will be the green chile that is stuffed in Santiago’s burritos.

FYI: Z is gluten-​free (which means she can’t eat wheat, rye, or barley) so our reviews are all from the gluten-​free perspective. We care about how many gluten-​free options the restaurant has and how helpful the staff is in dealing with our concerns.
When restaurants don’t have very many gluten-​free options or if the staff isn’t helpful or knowledgeable, eating out can be difficult and frustrating when you are gluten-​free. We’ve developed two categories for 1 Star restaurants: Gluten Gluttons and Hardly Helpfuls! If you are hungry and gluten-​free, we recommend you try someplace else!
Santiago’s — HARDLY HELPFUL!
Santiago’s claims to have the best Mexican food in Colorado, which certainly appeals to us! Mexican food is generally gluten-​free so long as you stick with corn tortillas and check for gluten in the seasonings. But when we went to Santiago’s the staff was totally unable to tell us if there was gluten or wheat in the sauces. They seemed to have a hard time figuring out what we were talking about and they didn’t have a list of ingredients on hand for us to check ourselves. So, unfortunately, we had to leave without eating anything at all.
— — — — — –
GLUTEN GLUTTON!
A restaurant receives the title of Gluten Glutton when, in our experience, the menu has extremely limited or zero gluten-​free options and they can’t or won’t make alterations.
HARDLY HELPFUL!
A restaurant receives the title of Hardly Helpful when, in our experience, the staff has no idea what «gluten-​free» means and they are either unable or unwilling to help you order.

We were looking for a new breakfast burrito spot, and this place did the trick!
A breakfast burrito with 2 meats for only $ 2.50?!? Awesome!
The burrito included eggs and potatoes etc., there’s supposedly a choice of meats included w/​the burrito, but they only make one of the breakfast types (chorizo, bacon, sausage, or German sausage) a day that you combo with a «regular» meat (chicken, steak, carnitas, etc.).
Regardless, for the price (2 $ 2.50 burritos is much larger than 1 regular burrito at big city), this is an awesome deal and delicious. The options for salsa/​sauce with the burrito are medium/​hot, and going with the hot won’t dissapoint!
I can’t wait to come back for another 10 am meal!