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It has been a crazy, weird and confusing year. All because of a virus. A very serious virus and we all now are adjusting to this new norm on campus with zoom and six feet apart. Now, while this year has been unlike any other, it doesn’t mean students have to isolate themselves in the dorms. Following all the safety precautions that allows people to still go out and find new places, even with a group of friends. Here in Des Moines, just about every restaurant and bar are open to the public, following their own safety rules, sitting customers six feet apart. Last week, I went to a fairly new place, it looked like a pirates’ hangout place but with Mexican food, very friendly staff and overall good experience.

Located in downtown Des Moines, sitting on the new Martin Luther King Jr. Rd. and 5^th St. Rita’s Cantina offers an open patio with many tables as well as seating inside. When I walked up to the place, I could tell by not only the number of bicycles parked, but because how the outside is set up, that it attracts everyone walking by or riding (bicycles) by. The patio is illuminated by string of lights as urban decorations.

Rita’s Cantina is presented as a Tex-Mex restaurant. They have a variety of choices for their fajitas and burritos, steak shrimp and chicken.

 When I arrived, I was a bit surprised to find that it looked more like a Caribbean bar than a Mexican restaurant. When I got to the door, I was greeted by the friendly staff, I asked to sit at the bar and we went inside. The bartender was very friendly, instantly stroke out a conversation with me, where I asked about the margaritas and their menu.

When I got the menu, I was pleased to see that everything in the menu was around $10.00. There wasn’t anything over $15.00 which makes it ideal for the college student’s budget. As I was deciding what to get and decided to look around and see if I could spot people’s favorite meal from the menu. That didn’t work out too good for me, I did noticed they crafted local beers on tap and something in the menu was a bit different from all the other, “the margarita flights,” I was very intrigued by this but I already had a 20 oz. margarita coming, then the margarita showed up. It was so well put together that I felt bad drinking it, I had the 20 oz. frozen mango margarita and it looked like it came out of a 007 movie, then I got to the Margarita Flights being served, is a wooden tray with four glasses and each glass has a different type of margarita chosen by the customers. Nice thick glass cup with salt on the cup’s ring, a lima and of course the straw, the margarita itself had the bright mango color and different shades of it, I believe that had to do with lights and the glass cup, not too sure, but either way, that margarita looked very elegant.

For the food, I went with a steak burrito and given the prices, I was expecting something matching the price. Nope, that burrito was huge. It smelled like no ingredients were missing, the steak inside was cut in decent chunks with sauce on top and put on the plate with rice and beans in a very organized and elegant way, it was delicious. It’s a good price for good food in a generous serving, definitely on a college student’s budget.

Back on the place, something around the place was odd but in a good way, it didn’t look like any other Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been to. It reminded of restaurants form back home in Miami, FL, it looked more Caribbean than Mexican, especially with the giant skull painted on one of the walls. The music also called my attention, it wasn’t in Spanish, they had pop music playing.

So, Rita’s Cantina is a new place that serves Mexican food, has friendly staff, makes awesome margaritas, looks from the Caribbean and play popular music in the background. It fits the average student and is great place to hang out that is not so far away. It is 15 minutes by bicycle or 10 minutes by car and is located in downtown Des Moines. After a good meal and margarita (if you’re 21 years old) you can keep sightseeing or just hang out with friends in downtown Des Moines. Don’t let schoolwork keep you away from a good meal and time.