Here's what you need to know: this was the single biggest disappointment for a meal in my 11 day México trip. The only reason I'm giving it 2 stars is because the staff were kind, the food is visually appealing, and the ambiance is very enjoyable. Otherwise, on every conceivable measure, the food is no better than 1 star. Even though the restaurant had an English speaking server who had lived in the Zia and stopped by one time to our table to serve us the appetizer and greet us, the entire 75 minutes we were there, they only practiced English with us with non-English speaking servers even though we kept smiling and repeating that we could not understand Spanish. The entire communication was unnecessarily burdensome. Also, we were THE ONLY GROUP IN THE ENTIRE restaurant, so ther was absolutely no reason why the fluent English speaker could not attend to us, or just simply lend a hand. There was just so understanding of basic service and customer experience.
The only good dish we enjoyed was the complimentary starter the restaurant gives as your sit down - a simply refried beans dip with pork lard and chorizo. That comes out with the 4 salsas they share with you which progressively go from mild to extra spicy. The dip and salsas were enjoyable enough and it stops there. The tostadas served alongside were inedible because they were so tough - most likely underbaked/cooked.
Next came the cocktails. The cocktails we ordered were so sweet, it was like drinking candied soda.
The prawn appetizer was presented well but the orange glaze made it way too sweet and generally overpowered the delicate prawn. What a shame.
The cauliflower dip was so vile with the smell of margarine that I almost gagged on it.
The only edible item was the plain pork tacos which were decent and made better when you accented them with some salsas.
Our children ordered a pasta dish because 3 out of 4 dishes on the children's menu were unavailable, and that too reeked of margarine. That's right - 3 out of 4 ; yet they were prominently displayed as options to order on the menu.
This is an upscale establishment so for 3 appetizers, 1 child's meal, and 2 drinks we paid over $100. Most of our meals in Mexico City for 4 persons could over that but all were good to excellent, and included entrees. This was abysmal.
What a total failure of process, cooking, and service. read more