The Cowboy's Taqueria

I am posting this review with some hesitance. I have seen the owners response to some negative reviews and I am not excited to receive response back. That being said, my family of four ventured in here one day because we were exicted to see menu options that my one child could safely eat with his food restrictions.. I am happy to report that he did not have any reactions to the food here, which is fantastic. If you have to live the gluten free lifestyle - the food here DOES appear to be safe. I was excited to see authentic soda bottles, it added nicely to the aesthetic. Unfortunately, that is the extent of our satisfaction here. The host we had did not seem very warm and welcoming. We felt a bit like we intruded or were a bother when we walked in. They brought out table chips, which was a small basket with a small serving of salsa. As a table of four, I believe we each had two chips each before they were gone. I had ordered empanadas, we also had two people order tacos and one person order the carne asada. The portion sizes were small. All of our meals came with rice and beans in addition to the main order. Rice and beans are so so cheap to make. I was surprised when it was just a cup or so of prepared rice and 1/4 of a cup or so of beans. Especially since the serving size of the main meal was small as well. The rice was very bland and wet, it did not taste fresh. My empanada did not taste fresh at all. In fact the flavor was off putting at first. Almost like tuna, but it was filled with chicken, crunchy onions and tomato. It came with a single empanada, which was not large by any stretch. The person who ordered the carne asada had a single piece of very thin steak (like milasa) about the size of a 5x7 photo. It was not seasoned. He said it tasted boiled, and a few tortillas. It was not hot when it arrived - the tortillas were though- that was appreciated. The tacos are street style sized tacos. Which is fine, but two certainly wont fill most people. If the rice and beans were a more substantial serving - the main course being so small wouldnt have been so noticable. I was very exicted to try this place, we eat a lot of mexican food, spanish food and puerto rican food, it is a substantial part of our lives. I was underwhelemed by the flavor and agree with other reviews that stated it was bland and that the servings are small. All in all we spent 80 dollars and had to go get food elsewhere later because it just wasn't enough.