Cha Cha’s Restaurant

This place had great service, the staff was very friendly. I was in a party of two, we ordered the Cha Cha’s Trio which was plenty of food, it could probably feed a party of three. The margaritas were delicious and the ambiance was amazing. They had gazebos covered in artificial flowers which made your dining experience a little more private.

I ate her last week to celebrate a co-worker’s birthday. The restaurant is located right by the medical center and has a lot of greenery on the walls/​ceiling. The table they led our group of eight to was on an uneven surface (the floor was slanted downwards) and the furniture is definitely dated. The chips were warm and served with a mild salsa (nothing too exciting). Several people in my group ordered the Thursday lunch special (Enchiladas Verdes served with rice and beans with your choice of chicken, beef or cheese). Others ordered the Mini Mexican plate and the chicken, and beef fajitas. I really enjoyed the enchiladas — they weren’t too greasy or smothered in cheese like I have had at other Mexican restaurants and the rice and beans were good too. The service for our group was great. We had several waiters refilling our drinks and asking if we needed anything. We told the staff we were celebrating someone’s birthday and a group of them sang to our table and brought over sopapillas with a lit birthday candle, a sombrero for the birthday celebrant. The sopapillas were very light — not overly greasy or too crunchy, with the right amount of sweetness. Overall my impression is that the décor/​actual restaurant leaves something to be desired, however, the food and service were good.

Hola! This place is old world Mexico and their cheese enchiladas are great. Is stop in once a week to see me amigos. Here is a special tip we regulars ask for —ask for the waiter/​server sauce. Amazing roasted
peppers salsa that you have to ask to get. Tell them chief mike sent you.

This was truly a disappointing experience. From the outdated décor to the wait staff all the way to the food (which by the way made me and my partner ill). I had heard ok things so we ventured out and it was terrible. Tragic because of how much we LOVE Mexican food!

I love to come here for lunch. Unlike some places, they have a lunch menu with a good variety of dishes to choose from. They offer free chips, salsa and hot tortillas with your meal. I usually order the Mini Mexican Plate. It comes with a mini taco, cheese enchilada, mini chalupa, rice and beans. It doesn’t look like much, but I find myself swearing to hit the gym afterwards.
The atmosphere is ok. They have tables set in these indoor gazebos covered in decorative flowers which is quite unusual, but adds to the charm. On another side of the building, they have an indoor water fountain. With the tile floors, it can get a little loud, but all in all, I enjoy catching up with my friends over some good Mexican food.
Oh and they boast the best margaritas, but I’ve only had them once, which for me, isn’t enough to form a good opinion. ;-)

There really isn’t anything good I can say about this place, except the owner was friendly. The food was edible, but not enjoyable except for the salsa. The chips were not good, so it’s not as though I ate much of the salsa. The beef enchiladas and fajita nachos were not good.
The service was awful. I was at a table of 14. I understand that the wait time is longer, but some people were finished eating by the time the caldo that some ordered was brought to the table. It took so long for beverage refills.
This is not a restaurant that I would come back to.

Another of our favorite Mexican food hangouts. The margarita list is endless, plenty of fun and top shelf choices to go along with the great food. The owner always treats to a poured shot of tequila… what a blast! We haven’t had anything bad here, expect the usual crowds in the evenings and lunch from the medical centers. All in all a great place with tons of history and dedicated owner who is always on site.

Cha Cha’s used to be a long-​standing, upscale Tex Mex institution… it held its own in the Medical Center for what seemed like decades, y’all. They were voted best margarita many times — if I remember correctly, the source was the annual margarita pour-​off. So, voted by the people of San Antonio! I used to occasionally enjoy a marg, the Caldo Azteca, & some ceviche from there. It was an alright joint, not the best, with some select great dishes & margaritas!
Imagine my shock when I moved back home & Cha Cha’s was closed. Not just lights out for the night, but in like forever ever. I’m not sure why or for how long (at least a few months), but I noticed it re-​opened again recently. We went back for a marg the other day… it looks & smells like they literally just opened the doors after many months of closing. It’s musty & moldy… looks rundown & a bit dirty. Even the tile topped tables were rickety & sticky.
Our margaritas — both frozen & on the rocks — were pretty gross. Powdery taste, not much tequila, & an odd «flowery» flavor that was not pleasant. The service was awful. We had to chase down our server for the check, then chase her down again to retrieve our cards.
Will not be back. RIP Cha Cha’s of the back-​in-​the-​day…

Be aware of your receipt. We had a party of 14 of I understand that the tip must be included but the waitress decided to tip her self at 20% of the total bill including the taxes. Very upset by this practice and not sure if that was legal.

This place has just re-​opened, although Unilocal is still showing it as closed. I spoke to the owner when we stopped in for dinner last night — he’d never heard of Unilocal,but he sure has now!
As to our experience — you enter through the front door and walk down a l-​o-​n-​g mildly lit corridor — there are dining rooms on either side, but you can’t get to them until you pass the men’s room (which has a bright green sign) at which time you get to the desk where a number of very eager staff members say hello.
The building seems to be huge — several over-​decorated rooms including one which looked like little gazebos, at least one separate meeting room, and there’s a bar at the back. When we were there, there seemed to be four tables including us.
For us, we were seated, got our water, and then waited waited to have our order taken. Once that was done, the food came in a reasonable space of time. I ordered a margarita, and won’t do that again. Strangely, it was served in a large white wine glass which felt rather weird. It was very sweet and pretty weak. .. not sure why I finished it, but I did.
We started with commercial chips (room temperature) and what I think was taco sauce rather than salsa. We were hungry so we ate more than we should have — not really worth the calories.
Spouse ordered a chicken dish topped with white cheese and avocado which he pronounced delicious. My enchiladas were okay, except that I’d asked for one cheese and one chicken, and the cheese one turned out to be very salty beef. They get full marks for their beans — I usually don’t eat them, but these were very flavorful and I wound up scarfing them down. The corn tortillas were commercial grade, always a disappointment.
The TV was on with various sports albeit no sound (the waiters kept checking the game and changing the channel) and the music was an odd playlist ranging from 60s rock to Mexican Hat Dance.
Everyone was friendly, to the point of seeming anxious, which may be because they just re-​opened a week or so ago and people aren’t exactly pouring in. AI would have liked to given them a high five as a starter, but the experience just didn’t warrant it.

The only thing I come here for is their margaritas since they have such a huge assortment of flavors that’ll please your taste buds. Other than that their food is just average but overpriced.

This review is simply for the DOS-​A-​RITA.
OMG. I’m not gonna lie i don’t even know how i got home after this Dos-​A-​Rita not only was it the best one I’ve had in SA but it was POTENT!
I was suppose to call my sister to let her know i got home safely I passed out as soon as i got home she was worried sick (sorry sis) it was so worth the $ 10.
& I went back for half of Spurs-​margarita when they are playing say what!
***Note that the Cha-Cha’s on Bandera drinks are not as strong and cost just as much. definetly come to this one.

Being that Texas is… so close to Mexico, you know there’s strong competition in the Mexican dining arena. Cha Cha’s doesn’t really come out on top for me.
Their chicken tortilla soup was okay, but what disappointed me most was an experience I had eating their chicken soft tacos. When biting into one, I bit into a chicken bone. Kind of turned me off to finishing the rest of the soft tacos (I ordered two a la carte, so it wasn’t much anyway), and when the server asked if everything was okay (he was a SUPER sweet guy, so stars for that), I mentioned the taco had a bone in it. He profusely apologized (poor thing, I knew it wasn’t HIS fault!) and said he would talk to the manager about removing them from my bill since I only had a bite.
When he came back, he apologized again saying the manager pointed to the menu’s disclaimer that says: «Bones might be present in chicken meals» and that he was not going to be able to remove it from my bill. Granted it was only a couple bucks, so I told him no worries, but I just felt that it was terrible customer service on management’s part.
Just because you say bones might be present in a diner’s meal beforehand (!!), that excludes you from ever having to fix the problem should it come up? I don’t think so. If a customer is unhappy with their meal, you might want to fix that in the future.
With okay food and less than impressive management, Cha Cha’s only gets two stars.

I have to preface my review of Cha Cha’s by disclosing one thing. There is a reason why I do not dine there more often, and it is this. If you pay for your meal with a credit card, I’ve been told by people who’ve worked there that the management has that employee pay the credit card processing fee. I have had this verified by multiple sources, and have no reason to doubt their veracity. To me, this is just plain wrong!
The restaurant itself is an attractive warren of rooms that can be very confusing the first couple of times you dine there. The cuisine offered is typical Tex-​Mex and reasonably well prepared. When I do dine there on occasion, I’m going there for the Pollo con Mole. They offer either all dark or all white meat for a difference of a dollar or so. The sauce is ok, but the bone-​in chicken requires surgery to extract the edible bits. Why can’t any San Antonio eatery just give me a boneless chicken breast with mole? I do it at home, and the food cost does not drain my wallet at all. As usual, I prefer to eat in the bar. The few times I’ve been seated at a table, I’ve been hard pressed to find my server when I needed him/​her. One caution: the bar area is very noisy and loud during happy hour.

The food is bland and overpriced. Below average chips/​salsa. Terrible happy hour deals (and only available AT THE BAR). Only come here if someone else is paying or you are desperate for a margarita within walking distance of the Health Science Center.

Total disappointment yesterday evening.
My family came to visit from out of town and I wanted them to try some good Mexican food so I figured Cha Cha’s was pretty good and it’s near our home so of course we went there. One of my favorite things about this place (if not the food) is the ambiance, it’s just a really nifty little restaurant with all the gazebos and water fountains. We had three kiddos with us (two toddlers and an infant) but we wanted to try and sit in the gazebo to have a bit of privacy. When we asked the hostess if we could have a gazebo she acted really strange and went to the back of the restaurant to get a manager. The manager told us that babies and children aren’t allowed in the gazebo area. Honestly, if it were up to me — I would’ve left immediately and just gone elsewhere but since I was with family and it was getting quite late we decided to stay. The restaurant was dead (besides one or two tables and a party room was reserved).
The whole night went down hill from here. The waitress dropped off a drink menu with us and didn’t come back for about 15 minutes. When she took our drink order — the drinks came fast and we ordered our dinners. I’m not joking — but it took maybe 45 minutes for our food to come out. It was ridiculous. Time is of the essence when you have children with you and our kids are usually really good when we eat out but not this time!
The food was pretty good, nothing really to complain about. It’s worth the price you pay and it came out hot. I was just extremely disappointed with the service and the fact they won’t let children in the gazebo area. I’m a frequent diner here with my co-​workers since I work at the UTHSCSA but I genuinely will never come here again.

Monday night at Cha Chas for dinner. Started with a top shelf mango margarita. They dont skimp on liquor here. was catchin a buzz before my plate arrived !! Poblana mole enchiladas were good. Ask for extra mole sauce. Handmade tortillas were great. Refried beans were also good. Salsa could use s little work. Good service and mile long margarita flavor list. On a scale of 1−5forks i rate this 3 ½ forks! Will definately be back.

I love this place! The staff is so friendly. Great customer service. The mariachi bands are… okay. They look like they’re having fun though, so that makes it good enough for me. The food is okay. My boyfriend who is really picky on Tex Mex food… prefers ChaCha’s to ChaCho’s. Although ChaCho’s has more quantity, I think.
The margaritas are amazzzing. And strong!

The décor is somewhat over the top but the service & food are exceptional. My waiter suggested a chicken dish that was not on the menu. It was a breast marinated in salsa overnight, grilled, and then topped with grilled tomato slices, fresh avocado slices, and white cheese. It was one of the best chicken dishes I have ever had. The service is exceptional as well. If you are ever in San Antonio it is a must place to eat.

I like both Cha Cha’s! That sounds kind of sexual, no?
Anywho, I’ve eaten at both restaurants and enjoy the food at both. Their gorditas are always top notch and the rice and beans are great!
The main downfall is their chips and salsa policy — I believe you are allotted two baskets per table, but after that, they charge ya! I think it’s a good thing so you don’t engorge yourself on chips, but some people really chow down on that stuff!
Their simple margarita is delicious and isn’t a weird green color.
The Cha Cha’s on Bandera is the smaller one, the one on Babcock is more ornate and has more room for parties, etc.