Unfortunately, our experience here was beyond disappointing - it was one of those notoriously bad experiences we'll be talking about for years.
We were craving Mexican food, and decided to come here and use our room credits rather than heading down the mountain to a taco shop. It wasn't all bad, but quite a lot of it was very bad. I'll come back to the food specifics later, but I want to talk about our experience first.
Our server was a sweetheart and super attentive, and the food all came out quickly and accurately. But no one in our party of 4 was happy with their food. When she came back to check up on us, we tried to be polite and 'yeah we are fine' it - but clearly she cared about our experience enough to observe that we didn't enjoy our dishes and offered to fix them. She kept coming back to check on us, asking for our honest opinions, and although we were trying to be polite, we didn't have much positive to say. She did an awesome job of taking care of us from the service side, bringing out replacement food and taking items off the check, and bringing us a complimentary dessert - but there's only so much you can do without good food coming out of the kitchen. The manager took care of us with a service recovery credit and asked us to come back and give them another chance. Had the experience ended here, that's probably exactly what would have happened... chalk it up as a fluke and come back next time.
But... then... the chef came out of the kitchen, clearly agitated, and sat down at the head of our table to make us explain what was wrong with his food. Of course this was awkward (how could it not be?) but I tried to take it in the spirit of 'he really cares and wants to improve' until everything we mentioned was immediately refuted and defended/dismissed. It didn't feel like a genuine effort to understand but more like a 'how dare you' confrontation. It was awful. No one should do that to a customer ever. We didn't come there hoping to be let down - we came there hungry and hoping to be fed good food.
So what was wrong with the food that led to all this?
Entree 1: I got Combo #2 with a fish taco. My plate was beautiful. I bee-lined for the gorgeous fish taco, bit into it enthusiastically... and was punched in the mouth by an overwhelmingly pungent fish flavor. I guess my facial expression spoke volumes because my friends all stared at me in shock (I'm pretty well known as a human garbage disposal who will eat anything). I immediately moved that taco off of my plate to get it out of my life. The rest of my plate, however, was great. Good rice and beans, cheesy enchilada, chile releno, and hot fresh flour tortillas. The chicken taco that I got to replace the fish taco was nice as well with mango salsa and nice grill marks on the chicken.
Entree 2: Friend got fish tacos as her entree, and hers were equally as pungent as mine: not edible. She decided to eat only the rice and beans for lunch. We suggested to the chef that maybe a more mild fish would be appropriate - but he defended his choice citing that it was printed on the menu. We also mentioned that he check their stock of the fish because it might actually be off (the flavor really was that strong).
Entree 3: Friend got carnitas burrito and only finished 1/3 of it before declaring it the worst burrito he's ever eaten and giving up on it. I tried a piece of the meat and i thought the flavor was fine, but it was indeed soggy and had excessive fatty mush that i had to pick off. He also complained that there was lettuce in the burrito and wrapped so loosely that it started falling apart as soon as he picked it up. My suggestion would be to pan fry the carnitas to crisp it up before using, and leave that lettuce on the side.
Entree 4: Friend got Enchilada Suizas and didn't eat them, saying the meat was sour. (I didn't try it so can only report 3rd hand.) Everyone else agreed with her that the flavor was wrong. The chef claimed that was intentional and was his twist on the dish.
The appetizers were a better experience:
Appetizer 1: Complimentary Chips & Salsas/Queso Dip: Nothing wrong here. These were probably the highlight of the meal. The chips were beautifully colored and seasoned, and i loved the tower of salsas which included a warm queso dip - which was my favorite part.
Appetizer 2: Mexican Eggrolls. These were tasty - not OMG best i've ever had but definitely passable. The dipping sauce was a weird choice - it was too sweet and syrupy - but thanks to the queso dip and salsas, this was a non issue - i just used those.
~ ~~ SUMMARY ~ ~
(+) Service was great.
(+) Chips/Salsa Tray and Appetizers were great.
(-) Fish tacos were so pungent they were inedible.
(-) Entrees all had something off putting but maybe some is preference.
(+) Service recovery was awesome, but.. (---) the confrontational chef was not.
Will I give them another chance? The service recovery was so great that I just might, but am in no hurry to do so. read more