That‘s right, the place is called 鈥淢exican Restaurant鈥? here‘s our second review from Tim Mitchell about a, you guessed it, Mexican restaurant in Pudong, at 200 Zhe Qiao Lu. Harsh but funny, enjoy:
I knew this would be a culinary adventure when I realized the entrance was deep inside a parking deck. Upon walking into the Mexican restaurant featuring pictures of pizza everywhere, I was seated at a table featuring filthy kleenex as a garnish. The wall art was quite lovely however. It featured movie posters including “The Mexican”, “Once Upon A Time In Mexico” and a plate with the Mona Lisa on it.
I ordered an apple juice and was brought a frothing green concoction which I realized was cucumber. I did have the lovely experience of the waitress calmly explaining that it was indeed apple and that I was mistaken. My next unfortunate realization was that the wait staff could not read a word of what was on the menu and could not properly identify their own items. This was confirmed by them bringing me everything on the menu but what I actually ordered.
Their idea of nachos supreme is a dish of corn and corn flakes topped with cheese. I tried questioning them on this and immediately realized they actually had no idea what went in their dishes..as the waitress kept telling me the nachos were as described. She kept pointing at diced tomatoes and tortilla chips..and telling me my creamed corn dish with corn flakes was exactly that. 聽So here we have a restaurant where nobody on staff knows what is on the menu鈥?hat goes in the dishes鈥?r to bring you what you order (while jabbing the picture of what I actually wanted with my finger).
Let us discuss enchiladas. I make amazing enchiladas at home. Enchiladas are properly sauced..spiced鈥?heesy 聽deliciousness baked to perfection.聽 What the restaurant brought me was a plate of shells containing absolutely none of the ingredients advertised on their own menu. Not the sauce. Not the cheese. Not the meat. Not even the flour tortillas.
So here I sat with a cucumber juice鈥? plate of creamed corn, corn FLAKES and cheese鈥?a plate of undercooked bloody chicken wings 鈥?n order of taquitos wrapped in rice shells (advertised in flour)..and something called enchiladas. The wait staff actually came over to fight with me multiple times claiming their food was as advertised.聽 As a bonus, none of the dishes or drinks I actually ordered ever showed. They did however come hand me a VIP card at the end of the meal for a discount when I came back.
Tim and Mendy‘s Summary-
Horrifying. Something out of a bad movie. This is the restaurant the unfortunate campers go to just before the axe murderer shows up. Literally the worst case scenario for a restaurant doing what they think is western food. I kept asking Mendy if we were on candid camera. For the love of laowai everywhere鈥?o not pick this place.
Breakdown-
The Food- 聽Insanity. Nothing had the ingredients on the menu. Wait staff fought trying to tell me rice paper was a flour tortilla. Telling me bright green cucumber juice was apple. Food undercooked and dangerous. 聽Everything was a nightmare. Not one redeeming feature. The menu is mainly pizza and pasta. They have FOUR Mexican dishes. Portions were tiny, bloody and seemingly put together at random. I wouldn鈥檛 go there again at gunpoint. The menu features English, but the actual dishes are not what they advertise. The wait staff WILL fight with you and claim they are.
The Environment- The kitchen was small and staffed entirely by elderly women. It was filthy. The seating area (200 seats) was filthy including a dirty kleenex on my table. The restaurant is part of a parking deck, fyi. Chinese restaurant upstairs? PACKED. “Mexican” on Valentines Day? Empty.
Service- Nonexistent. They brought dishes at random..then fought with me saying I ordered them. What they brought had none of the menu ingredients and was bloody. BUT they gave me a VIP card.
Areas For Improvement- Shut it down.
聽Items Ordered-
APPS- Mcdonalds
MAINS- Mcdonalds
DESSERT- Mcdonalds
By Tim Mitchell
