La Carmela — Restaurant in Brisbane City

I visited this restaurant hoping for a good Mexican dining experience with my friends, but unfortunately, it fell short on many levels.

The food was average at best, nothing special to note. The churros were passable, but the drinks tasted watered down, lacking any real flavor. If you’re looking for authentic Mexican food, I wouldn’t recommend this place.

The service was mediocre. While the waitstaff tried their best, the overall atmosphere was unpleasant. Upon entering, I witnessed a disturbing scene where a man who I believe was the manager was publicly reprimanding a female staff member in Spanish. I speak Spanish and understood that she was being humiliated. The staff member was visibly shaken, which was upsetting to see. This kind of behavior is entirely unprofessional and unacceptable.

To make things worse, my group requested to be seated at a round table so we could chat comfortably, but we were placed at a different table instead. When the round table became available, we moved to it, but the manager rudely informed us we couldn’t sit there, claiming it was reserved despite there being no sign indicating so. His tone was unnecessarily aggressive, and he repeatedly came over to our table to remind us the restaurant would be closing soon, which only added to the discomfort.

On top of that, they were charging extra fees because it was a game day even though it wasn’t a weekend. This seemed unreasonable and felt like a blatant attempt to capitalise on the event.

Overall, the experience was very unpleasant. The manager’s behavior was appalling, and I genuinely feel sorry for the staff who have to work under such conditions. A restaurant’s priority should be to make customers feel welcome and satisfied, but this was far from the case here. I definitely won’t be returning, and I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone looking for good food or a positive...

I got this delivered from UberEats so can't rate service or atmosphere- but the food was straight up nasty. This was like someone read about Mexican food and tried their best to recreate it without a recipe. Everything was bland and came from or included ingredients straight from a can. Please don't think Mexican food tastes like this. Try elsewhere. Surely, their reviews have to be fake. I may be naive in my faith in humanity - at least their tastebuds. They need to cook things, not pour them out of a can and call it a day. I had jalapeño poppers, birria tacos, and the enchiladas rojas with haloumi and bean filling. Legit: from a can - for almost everything in these dishes. Absolute yuck. 🤢🤮

Enchiladas - plain white rice, canned black beans, packaged corn tortillas, canned red sauce. The enchiladas had a haloumi filling and refried beans inside. Guess where the refried beans came from? That's right, a can! 0% flavor, 100% bland.

Jalapeño poppers - good size, stuffed with white cheese, crispy coating. Sounds nice, right? Wrong. Too much cheese that was wet. It soaked into the jalapeño and made it taste like nothing. The coating tasted of nothing and a bit of salt would have been a flavor if there were to be salt on it. 100% bland.

Birria tacos - these were actually quesibirra tacos which are normally amazing. They had a shredded beef filling which was not bad. Salty, but passable. The real let down was the consumé dipping broth. They legit got something like Cambell's beef broth in a carton and poured it out and garnished with correander....

TLDR - go for the dancing! Don't eat here. Just another restaurant trying to cash in on Mexican food with no clue what they're doing with the food.

The bad: A few people from our table got upset stomachs after eating -Terrible Mexican food, it might as well be GYGs -No Limes!!!! At a Mexican restaurant! For lords sake that's like a critical component -No homemade salsas - again, if you're not serving a salsa with your tacos at a mx restaurant what are you doing -extra charges for a slice of lemons?!

The good: -The dancing spot upstairs has a great vibe! -Friendly staff

**Response to Business Reply" Thanks for responding, but there were definitely NO LIMES and NO SALSAS, I specifically asked the staff and I was told there was none. All the drinks and food were being served with yellow Lemons, and even for asking for an extra tiny wedge of a slice of lemon they wanted to charge us even though they didnt even include ONE with the tacos. Perhaps management should keep a closer eye on whats actually happening at the restaurant?

I'm Mexican and suffice to say its sad to see when you can't even get the basics right.... sorry for being a bit direct but...