Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina

Location was here a week ago. Is gone now, bits of wire and paper all over the sidewalk like they emptied it in a hurry… used to be a great place to eat, delish salsas!

A new favorite. No. Better than Chipotle? Yes.
With a selection three times that of Chipotle, Chipotle enthusiasts can get the same experience here for half the time, half the hassle, and a comparable price tag. And they won’t have to wait till an hour before closing to avoid the ridiculously long lines at Chipotle.
First impressions: Chipotle on steroids and a bit overwhelming. This restaurant works in the same assembly line fashion. Person number one takes your order and grabs the appropriate dish or tortilla, persons two through three fill your tortilla, the next individual puts on finishing touches/​toasts your meal, and finally, the last person rings you up and gives you your cup.
Half the time — no long lines of people trying to make up their minds, and quick servers pushing your food down the line to get it to you.
Half the hassle — communication was easy, English speaking workers had no difficulty hearing or understanding orders being placed.
Comparable price tag — my meal ended up being about $ 8 with a drink (and was much more filling for the price, I ended up eating half of my meal and taking the rest with me)
The selection? Tacos, quesadillas, burritos, salads, bowls, taco salads (with chip bowl), crispy tortilla pizzas, and smothered burritos. They have a toasting machine for melting the cheese. The filling choices are comparable, but serving sizes are generous. Their burritos are no less full than those of Chipotle (as others have suggested). They do have two sizes, a small and a large. From what I could see from the people ordering ahead of me, they fill both sizes up.
This is a clean restaurant with friendly servers. It seems as if each worker has more than one job here, as the first individual I ordered from was later in the dining area picking up trays and dishes. The guys behind the line were more than happy to share their favorite items off the menu, and even made suggestions as to what to add. I got a Chicken Fajita Cantizza, and the guys behind the line said add cheese and sour cream. It was pretty darn tasty. The peppers and onions had been sauteed and caramelized, with a little crunch left in them. The chicken was tender and juicy. The salsa used was a standard tomato salsa that did not do much for me other than bring all of the flavors back together.
Ordered chips and cheese sauce. The chips were light and crispy, but were lacking salt. There was no staleness to note. The cheese sauce was warm, and gooey with little bits of pepper in it. It was reminiscent of the new cheese sauce put out by Tostitos.
The surrounding businesses are kept up, and there is plenty of parking to be found. This was definitely worth the visit, and I’d be happy to go back.

This place is terrible. They give you inferior product at greater cost compared to every single Mexican food place in Manassas. Also they try to nickle and dime you with add-​ons and guilt you into tipping with a receipt tip line on it.
I don’t understand how this place stays in business, who are the dolts that continue to patronize this place?
EDIT– You want a better place to go that serves similar food? Try Café’ Rio or Chipotle.

We were actually supposed to go to Rio’s after stopping @ TJ Maxx but while walking into the store I saw the sign for Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina. I googled the menu and figured I’d save the gas and give it a try. Wish I didn’t.
I should have know it wasn’t that great of a choice when @ lunch time on a Friday there was only 2 people there. As opposed to the Phở Soup place next door and Chick-​fil-​A which were very crowded. Despite being the only customers in line we waited for quite some time for someone to help us. I even went to the bathroom and came back and my friend still hadn’t been helped :(. I asked the girl for suggestions as to what I should try and she said it’s up to you, (like really smmfh). I know it’s up to me but YOU work here and could at least make recommendations!
I ordered the burrito with grilled steak and was very dissatisfied. Unlike Chipotle, Rio’s or Moes the portion was VERY small. I’m used to getting a burrito and smiling as the preparer tries to fold it b/​c it’s stuffed but here it was the opposite. It looked like she put 1 teaspoon of every item on my burrito. I had to ask if I could have a little more rice, more beans, cheese finally I gave up asking and just smh again.
The nachos were ok but like really how can you mess that up lol. The burrito was just a burrito nothing special to say about it kinda unforgettable. I had a better frozen burrito from the grocery store. The only thing I enjoyed were the little donuts. Waste of time and money should have not been lazy and just went to Rio’s. I wouldn’t suggest this place, average service and subpar food.

Nice alternative to chipotle and qdoba. They have shrimp which is nice and one of those fancy million in one drink machines. I suggest the chopped salad.

Decent prices, but chicken always seems to be overcooked and dry. Good service and very fast!

If you check in somewhere and Unilocal gives you the Maverick badge, you run, you run like the wind out of there. I was not so lucky. We popped in for lunch after shopping at Super Target and they completely ruined the rest of my weekend by giving me food poisoning. Know when a super fun time to get sick is? When you’re on a date night with your husband in DC and have to pay for a Über car to take you back because you’re too sick to get on the Metro. I didn’t get to sample anything at dinner that night because I went from «hmmmm I wonder if I got motion sickness» to «oh no get me home now». I compared notes with my friend and the 3 ingredients that I had that she didn’t was romaine, cilantro, and black beans so I’d put my money on the beans. The food wasn’t great going down the first time and it certainly didn’t improve the other way up.
I’d like to add based on the manager’s comment that per:
«Symptoms from the most common types of food poisoning usually start within 2 — 6 hours of eating the food. That time may be longer or shorter, depending on the cause of the food poisoning»
I didn’t realize being a fast food manager also came with an MD title attached.
However doubtful that I am that I got a GI bug at the same time as eating at this place (considering everyone in my family who didn’t eat here is just fine), it doesn’t change the fact that the food here is bland at best (I didn’t even bother to finish my salad) and is served with a steaming side of sarcasm. The chicken was overcooked to the point that it was chewy and crunchy, the guac tasteless, and there was only one lone bottle of Cholula for the entire place and that was empty.

Love the steak pizza.

I’ll mirror what everyone else has said.
You’re going to come in and get pretty much a combination of Chipotle and Baja Fresh. I’d say the ingredients are pretty similar in quality. The Price tag is going to be higher though.
I come here 1 every two weeks or so because there is no other option within 10 minutes from my office.
Everytime I leave wishing there was a Chipotle or even a California Tortilla closer.

As others have said, this reminds me of Chipotle but they they have a bar and a wider variety of items. They also have one of those soda fountains that offers 50+ varieties. Their tortilla chips have seasoning that reminds me of the Red Robin fry seasoning.
This place isn’t anything special but is a perfectly acceptable lunch shop if you are in he area.

Similar to chipotle, but they do carry more variety of ingredient and they have a bar.
I had to get the recommendation from employee. He recommended me Casarito. It is basically burrito and cheese on top of it. It was just okay, it could be way better if the food was hotter.
It costs a bit more than chipotle, but nearest chipotle is like 10 miles away from where I work at.
it has a cool looking soda fountain machine (all-​in-​one). if this place was busy, probably I hate it. but this place is far from being busy, so i could take my time to try new drink.

Salsarita’s is basically just like Chipotle, but with a wider variety of items. I went with my family and the food was good. My wife and I ordered the Mexican Pizza and they were very tasty.
On the down-​side, and the reason I took off two stars: The food behind the counter just did not look fresh. It had that look like it had been sitting there for a while. Also, the staff was not very friendly. They were not un-​friendly… They were just there. It is kind of a downer when my family goes into a place happy, and looking forward to a meal, only to have the staff pull you down because they don’t want to be there.
I hope that Salsarita’s can get their quality and staff issues under control. I would like an alternative to Chipotle.

Bad American Mexican food. Won’t be going back.

I probably won’t be going back here, unless my husband wants to. We went this afternoon and I guess we went at an off-​time, there were only 2 other people in the place then. I ordered a veggie burrito with no tortilla, and they sectioned off every side on the plate. They also gave very small portion sizes.
The food was bland, when we got back to our table, I had to basically drench my burrito bowl with hot sauce since there was no taste. When I was ordering, I asked for some shredded cheese, and the girl put about a teaspoon full of cheese on my bowl. When I asked for sour cream, again she put the size of a thumbnail on it. Grr!
My husband liked what he got, but he asked for a large burrito and got a small, and it wasn’t even packed as full as burritos from Chipotle, CalTort, or even Moe’s. The rice was very bland, the veggies had some strange aftertaste (hence the reason for a gallon of hot sauce lol), and although the restaurant was clean, it wasn’t very welcoming.
This one ranks on the bottom of my Mexican food (chain) list. Like I said, I wouldn’t personally come back here again.

Went to Salsarita’s for a fund raiser, will be adding it to the rotation. Love the option of shrimp as a protein. I had the shrimp burrito and a Margarita, and shared a plate of chicken nachos.
The burrito had decent flavor, got the large and it was a decent meal size — not as big as Chipotle. The nachos were good too, but not the best I’ve ever had. The Margarita was respectable, especially for a quick serve restaurant. Recommend for good cheap eats.

Definitely will not be going be back. Food was fine, service was not. When you get a combo and they ask if you want salsa, queso, or gauc, when I get this tiny container of queso, I mean tiny, I am not expecting to pay a $ 1.50 extra. Especially when the food is already over priced. Save your money, you won’t regret it.

I’m going to renege my former statement that this place is better than Chipotle.
Everyone there is super friendly, but this time around the food just was not as good. Also, when they put my to-​go box in the bar, they didn’t place it in so the bottom sat flat… so when I got home I had two soft tacos with the meat and cheese outside of the shell… and the beans pushing up again the lid.
Also, they were out of large lids… uhm… ok?
Will be back… after I go to Chipotle that is.

Not a bad new place – decent meats, interesting combos, and you can get a margarita!
I happened to see they opened on day shopping and stopped in for a taco. As someone living in SoCal for awhile, I got used to Mexican food that is not made with ground beef. Salsarita’s has a nice selection of meats: shredded beef, ground beef, shredded pork, chicken, and shrimp. That is so much more to choose from than other «fresh mex» places IMHO. The topping selection also included fresh cilantro – not something every place does!
I really think the prices are reasonable. They have a special for every day of the week and we went today and had the wet burrito special for $ 6.00 and were full! I can’t remember exactly which days but they also have an awesome promotion that kids eat free on certain days w/​purchase of adult entrees.
The staff was courteous and the manager even told us about the restarant and how things worked (this being our first time). We will be back!!!
The one negative I have about this place is that sometimes the shredded meat can be a little watery. When I had my tacos, juice was running out of the shells. This was not a problem with the wet burrito (for obvious reasons) ;p