Fazoli’s <sic?> Italian chain is a lot like that although the immediately does vary widely. And a few aren’t doing the level of table service they used to. But most at least still have “Breadstick Boy” (or girl) coming around letting you eat more carbs than any living person really should.
How on earth can a restaurant mess up Mexican food that bad??? I don’t get it. Now I’m going to have to go (It’s been years since I’ve been there. The food did’t impress me enough one way or the other to remember it at all)
I think you get three types of folks in CB when it comes to the food. Kids, who don’t know what good food is; Parents who don’t go out much anyway, and are just happy they’re not cooking tonight and are instead having a drink while the kids are busy running around checking the place out; and then the rest, who realize there are 30 better Mexican restaurants within 2 miles of the mass-produced microwave fare before them. It’s not inedible, but the best they serve would, admittedly, be sent back in even an average Mexican restaurant. But really–THAT’S NOT WHY YOU’RE GOING TO CASA BONITA!
The place is a horrorshow. The food was just this side of edible… not remotely approaching mediocre.
The service sucked… cattle prodded through a never ending line in a cafeteria style line. It’s old, half busted and not very clean.
This is Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s greatest prank.
In our family its running joke as a punishment for misdeeds. “Do your chores or I’m taking you to case bonita for dinner.”
They don’t.
The issue is that there are all sorts of food snobs, and people who want to fit in with the food snobs. Both types–and there are evidently plenty on this board–tear their hair out over the fact that Casa Bonita doesn’t have “real” Mexican food.
For those of you who haven’t gone at all, or haven’t gone in a long time, here’s the best advice you’ll see all year long–ignore those people. The food at Casa Bonita is FAR better than those idiots like to claim.
It’s … definitely a place one should visit. Once.
The food is not THAT bad. It is better than Taco Bell. But they have a bad habit of using Velveeta in what should be Mexican dishes, which is sort of an abomination if you really have any idea about Mexican cooking.
Their sopapillas have improved. They used to be wretched. Now they’re just mediocre.
I find I enjoy it most during lunch, when it’s not aswarm with people, the way it is during dinner. You get more of a chance to examine the joint, soak up the atmosphere. True, you miss all the bizarre stage shows, but, well, it’s a tradeoff…
LOVE Casa Bonita! Food is terrible, though (excepting the fried ice cream). A fun time with friends - just relax and enjoy what it is.
No, it IS bad food. Legit unqualified, not food snobbery, shite. It was not better better than Taco Bell unless you are eating out of the dumpster BEHIND the Taco Bell and then it would prolly be a dead heat. My 20 year old son could barely get through his first serving of an all you can eat order and he would eat the asshole out of a dead racoon if it was paid for. In a party of like eight, it was a unanimous worst restaurant food ever… and we have been to Golden Corral… more than once.
I, too, thought Casa Bonita was a made-up thing for South Park.
Then, last year, I was amused to hear an All Things Considered interview with one of the cliff divers.
I seem to recall looking up pictures when I got home.
I am stunned to hear that there are defenders of the food at Casa Bonita. To even call it food is generous.
I guess there’s a reason why Dinty Moore Beef Stew sells so well at grocery stores. It is truly vile.
On top pf that, the “entertainment” is fifth grade puppet show level. I’d rather be stuck on the Disneyland ride “It’s a small world after all” for 50 consecutive rides than have to watch a show at CB.
It’s one thing to stop at “South of the Border” in SC to break up a long drive or to buy fireworks, but another to actively seek it out. Same for Wall Drug in SD.
Now that’s not fair. The divers are quite skilled compared to fifth grade puppets.
I dove (real dive) from a 10 meter platform in third grade. That’s about 33 feet.
Does Chuck E Cheese have booze, too? It seems like intoxication is what best could redeem either place.
Casa Bonita was quite popular in Little Rock from the mid 1960’s until the early 1990’s. Their lunch crowd line used to extend out all the way to the door. They did have the entertainment room, but I only recall going in there a couple times with friends. Mostly we went for the all you could eat special and the hot sopapilla and honey. They had a Mexican guitarist/singer that went from table to table.
Little Rock got a lot of Mexican immigrants beginning in the late 1980’s and many opened restaurants. Casa Bonita couldn’t compete with authentic food and closed around 1997.
Why ya dissing Wall Drug? Free ice water! Awesome fiberglass dinosaurs you can climb on! Jackalopes! Real, live, Jackalopes! What’s not to love? Actually their bookstore has a great selection of western-themed books, and the western-style clothing store is good too. It’s a fine stop on a boring drive long I-90.
Beware of the other “stops” along I-90 in South Dakota. It’s a rock garden but no they don’t really grow the rocks there…
I had no idea this was a real place!
Or me! My family frequented Casa Bonita frequently in the 80s. And Crystal’s Pizza just down the way…remember? Those two places were awesome for kids. Crystal’s had a cartoon theater and an entire carousel indoors.
Genuinely a little sad that neither of my kids are going to get to experience the joy of Casa Bonita or Crystal’s…
And damn…now I’m in the mood for a sopapilla…
In the same line of thought…
Molly Murphey’s was it?
Wait staff dressed as different film/TV characters or singers. Working At the Car Wash (Rose Royce) audience interaction at the salad bar. If you ask where the restrooms are, they send out a squad of firemen and sirens blare as they escort you there.
Food was kind of like Chilis is now. IOW, a decent enough meal for the un-snobby.
Ah yes, Molly Murphy’s! Hadn’t thought about that place in years. The “bathroom alarm” was, for a kid, the most embarrassing thing EVER! Oh noes! People know I have normal bodily functions! 
Was that a Tulsa thing or were they a chain?
JohnGalt:
Live? Clearly, I gave up browsing there too soon.
But the free ice water is definitely refreshing, if you’re driving across South Dakota in the summer, no question.