Rating: 1.5 forks out of four

How can you say no to chips, salsa and margaritas close to campus? On Folsom Boulevard, between 65th Street and the back entrance to Sacramento State, sits a newly renovated Mexican restaurant called El Patron Bar and Grill. Their motto is “Lunch time. Dinner time. Tequila time.” With the name reflecting popular, pricey tequila, the motto only makes sense.

Food:The menu consists of basic Mexican dishes such as burritos and enchiladas as well as custom Mexican-American dishes such as pasta with tequila cream sauce. I had a “wet” chicken burrito; the burrito was filled with white rice, chicken, pico de gallo, cheese, sour cream and topped with green enchilada sauce. The unoriginality and blandness of the burrito was unimpressive and would cause any traditional Mexican food lover to cringe. If grandma’s homemade tortillas are what you crave, I suggest you stay away.

Value:A meal for one costs about $10 to $20 depending on entree and drink selections.

Entrees start at approximately $10.

Entrees were a good size, not massive portions, but about the size you’d expect for the price. Unfortunately, not the quality you’d expect for the price though.

The burrito I ordered was mediocre and the nachos my friend ordered were served cold.

Alcoholic drinks are $7 to $9 per glass, including margaritas. Margarita pitchers cost about $30 each, which turns out to be about four individual glasses. The drinks are expensive and a little on the weak side.

Service:For a busy Saturday night the service was not bad. Nearly all the tables were full in the restaurant, but our table seemed to get food and drinks in a timely manner. Our waitress was nice and our special requests on food orders were taken care of and accurate. The service was one of the better parts of the dinner experience.

Environment: The restaurant has a friendly vibe and the decor is comfortable and actually kind of nice. It seems like a place that could be a modern, Mexican food hot-spot for weekends if the food and prices matched the festive environment.

A mariachi band played while we ate, making it slighlty hard to have conversations with other people at the table, and talk to the waitress, but turned out to be a great touch that made dinner fun.

Overall:El Patron has the potential to be a fun, popular place, but as long as their food is just ok, and their prices are above reasonable for college students, it won’t be the new “hot-spot.”

Casey Farrell can be reached at [email protected]