I lived in Asheville until 2000 and Salsa's was always my favorite restaurant. I return to Asheville every year and Salsa's is always the one place I am sure to visit. Two weeks ago my husband and I had lunch there and were extremely disappointed. We ordered the chicken nachos which normally are huge and piled high fresh tortilla, yucca, and taro chips, and unusual ingredients with eclectic and exotic flavors. What we got this time was a sad plate of nearly toppingless chips that were too big to eat without breaking up. The chicken looked like the precooked steamed chicken from Quiznos and was completely void of flavor. There was a glop of pureed black beans, a small amount of shredded cheddar cheese (usually there was goat cheese or monterray jack, etc), and two small dollops of salsa. The salsa did taste like what I remembered but there was so little of it we mostly ended up eating plain chips. Plus the nachos were $9! Normally that would have been a deal but this was awful. We had planned to order entrees as well but after the poor appetizer and the grumpy waitress we sadly paid our bill and left. I am terribly disappointed and don't plan on returning. What happened? I took a cooking class once with the owner (around 2000) and he prided himself on locally grown ingredients from seeds he had brought back from his native country. These nachos didn't contain a trace of anything fresh aside from the tiny bit of salsa. I hope they go back to the way things used to be or that this was simply a VERY off day for them.
Pros: funky ambience
Cons: flavorless, toppingless nachos
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