Ellie Z.
Google
Social media brought this place and its Christmas festivities to my attention, so we (a group of 6) decided this was where we were going to have our Christmas outing.
We had reservations for 4:15 on a Friday, and we got there a little before that. Just from the sidewalk out front, anyone could tell that this place was decked out for the holidays. There were two separate photo ops for you to take pictures in front of, and the little hallway they created that led to the front door was super fun to be inside of.
There were already a couple people in line when we arrived, but thankfully it moved pretty quickly and we were able to be sat immediately upon checking in with the hostess. The restaurant itself is a pretty small space. Literally two rooms with a bar taking up half of one of the rooms. But they sure do utilize every inch of the walls and ceiling with everything from lights, ornaments, etc. There was even wrapping underneath it all, so you couldn’t see any wall/ceiling at all lol. They had Christmas carols playing (not too loudly thank god) and different Christmas movies playing on every TV.
Now onto the food and drinks. They didn’t bring out chips and salsa like at every other Mexican restaurant; we had to ask for them. Our server brought out two baskets of, I thought, mediocre chips. They weren’t sturdy and didn’t have much flavor. At least the salsa wasn’t overly spicy. It had a nice, addicting heat to it.
They had a whole drink menu for the holidays - each cocktail was $18. There were several that sounded tasty, but I opted for the Grinch (same with my mom since I honestly felt a little rushed by the server). It had tequila, either peach or apple schnapps (I can’t remember specifically), and other ingredients that should’ve made it taste quite delicious. Instead, it only tasted of tequila. I already am not a big fan of tequila, so I was hoping the 4 other ingredients in there would mask the taste of it, but no. I appreciated that it was really strong, but for $18, I’d want it to taste like a good cocktail, not just a glass of tequila. My mom thought the same.
The food came out fairly quickly, fortunately. I ordered the plate of nachos off of the appetizer menu. It was a lot of food and had a good amount of chicken on it. Again, though, the chips used in the nachos were the same as before, so I was having a really hard trying to keep the chips from breaking while scooping the extra toppings off the top. On the menu, it said there was chicken Tinga in the nachos, and it seemed like it was the same chicken in everyone else’s meals that had chicken in them as well. After several bites, we all agreed the chicken was too spicy. (We’re midwestern white people though, so take this with a grain of salt lol)
My dad ordered the barbacoa and I guess didn’t realize that it was literally just one taco, so he finished his meal in not even three minutes and then had to eat off my my mom and grandma’s plates. My mom’s street tacos were small.
We all thought the food was good, just expensive for the portions you got. I’ve been to Mexican spots where their plate of nachos can easily feed two adults. The portion was a little smaller than other places.
Also, our server wasn’t doing anything to deserve much of a tip, and we already saw that they automatically add gratuity with groups of 6+, so we didn’t feel obligated to leave a tip.
The Christmas decorations and vibes were nice for the holidays, but I won’t be coming here outside of the holidays. Another example of a Scottsdale restaurant with the word “modern” in it not being worth the money.
