Casa Bonita

This spring break, I went on a hiking trip all around Utah. To break up driving (and also to shower before returning to the cities), we spent a day in Denver. We were thinking of different things to do and places to eat when one of my friends suggested we go to a place called Casa Bonita. He used to go there as a kid and his mom went there when she was a kid.

What is Casa Bonita? And yes, if you've seen that South Park episode, this is the Casa Bonita I'm talking about. If you’re thinking it’s a place for high quality, authentic Mexican food, go somewhere else. Casa Bonita is a place where for $15 you can get all you can eat “Mexican food” of the lowest quality. Like the beef for their taco meat is the equivalent of bottom of the freezer, I forgot about it for several years tasting meat. You go there because people jump off water cliffs, perform gun fights, have gorillas, puppet shows, and weird cave stuff to explore. And also for $15 it’s all you can eat “Mexican” food.

As someone with a brain, I paid to get only a plate of green chili bean burritos. It’s Monday and I’m still feeling the retributions of Casa Bonita from Saturday. I had several guy friends who ate plates and plates of Casa Bonita; one friend I witness eat 6 tacos, 4 cheese burritos, 4 some other type of burrito, 2 plates of beans and rice, and 10 sopapilias.

Honestly, the place had some of the most disgusting food I’ve ever eaten. But somehow at 3pm when we went, I had to wait in line behind 40 other people just to get food. This is what my one friend said when I commented on the amount of people here, “White people never fail to surprise me.” (he’s white).

So what does this mean for us? Some of my friends enjoyed Casa Bonita because they can eat as much as they want for only $15. Some of the guys even said once they eat 3 plates full of food, then it’ll be worth their money. I mean, it honestly is a great business tactic. That food certainly isn’t high quality or organic, it’s probably incredibly inexpensive. I also would not be surprised to see that all of that food can be traced back to a corn field in Iowa either. But overall, I think this represents American society. We tend to overindulge in food, even if it sucks. We love all you can eat buffets. We can even compromise good, ethical food values to eat another cheese burrito. In all honesty, Casa Bonita is a meme itself. People know it's terrible food: just read the 1,000 google reviews. Yet, there will always be a line for Casa Bonita.