Margarita - great, really took the edge off…read more
Food - nothing objectionable but nothing to write home about.
Service: read on.
The restaurant has a wonderful ambiance, with plenty of room, music, and hand-painted furniture. We were greeted promptly and received our water, chips & salsa, and menus right away.
The main problem that we saw here was that the management has decided that they "check all the boxes" for a general level of acceptable service, and as long as the customer accepts this unquestioningly, there's no need to go above or beyond.
Stephen Covey advises: Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Our server seemed completely unprepared to act as an intermediary between the kitchen and management on one hand, and us (the customers) on the other. When we specified what we wanted, she went away for a long time, then came back, only to be told again what we were asking for.
Some examples: Drink menu had no prices. We wanted a breakdown because we knew the drinks were oversized, and wanted to share a margarita. It took a couple of requests to get this. We had to reject the 2 oversized pitchers. Then, Instead of bringing us the oversized pitcher with 2 glasses, it was the oversized pitcher with one glass, so one person was drinking out of the pitcher through a straw, waiting for the other person to be ready for a refill of their glass. Awkward. Fortunately, the margarita was superb and (almost) worth the wait. But having to pour from a pitcher with no spout was messy, and of course we had to request extra napkins to clean up the mess. And of course the napkins took awhile to arrive. Might I add, it was a Thursday night and we were virtually the only patrons in the dining room.
A good restaurant does not need to have the customers spell out complaints in a Yelp review. Again referencing Stephen Covey, "Be proactive." Anticipate likely requests such as prices on the menu, customers wanting to share a pitcher of drinks, extra salsa, extra napkins, dietary exceptions such as no beans.
Chips & salsa: Come ON! Three adults, a modest bowl of chips, and one thimble-sized souffle cup of salsa? After which, when the entrees came, we had to ask for more? We were asking each other jokingly if there were tariffs on salsa that we hadn't heard about.
Ordering directly off the menu with no deviations or substitutions was almost guaranteed to get us what we wanted. Still, the portions were heavy on rice, okay on the main dishes, and positively miserly on sauces, dressings, and condiments...the things that most restaurants provide without having to be asked.
One member of our party ordered and very explicitly asked for no beans to be included with the carnitas. Sure enough, wall to wall beans, and my friend sent the whole plate back for de-beaning. Again, someone in charge was apparently thinking "Nonsense! Everybody likes beans. There must be some mistake. We'll just give them beans regardless, and they'll thank us for it." No. Give the customer what they asked for, the first time.
All in all, we were hungry, and we were fed. But as per the above, there were problems. And when there are problems, communicated to the server, it's vital that the server come back shortly after delivering the food, to ask how everything is, and if there's anything else that might improve the experience. For example, some sour cream would have been nice on the tacos dorados. But the server stayed far away for the remainder of the meal, so there was no opportunity to requvisits. Tellingly, no other senior waitstaff or managers came by to inquire as to our level of satisfaction. They just didn't seem to care.
El Meson has occupied their prime site in Chattanooga for many years and can be an enjoyable place to gather. But for smaller parties who know what they want, this restaurant needs to work harder and smarter to earn their respect and return vidits.