Hecho En Mexico Cheltenham — Restaurant in Melbourne

My first experience at Hecho En Mexico in Cheltenham was good. The food was delicious. It was very busy and the atmosphere was good. Service was okay. My sister and I were keen to go back again to try other dishes on the menu.

About 2 weeks ago, I made an online reservation for my mother's birthday. There was a cancellation policy of $66 for late cancellation or no show.

We walked in at 5:30 and there was a lady sitting at the bar. I wasn't sure if she was a customer that had just arrived or a staff member. She made eye contact and then stared at her phone. We stood there for a while waiting for someone to welcome us. It wasn't busy at all because they had just opened.

She then got up and walked over and asked if we had a reservation. Wasn't warm and friendly, just took us to our table like we were an inconvenience. I noticed that there were no high chairs which I had noted on the online booking. After 10 minutes we were ready to order. We weren't sure if we were to place an order through the QR code or through staff. It wasn't explained to us when we were seated. That pretty much set the tone of disappointment for the evening. I was tempted to get up and leave but it was difficult as we had a group of 10 including kids and babies.

After waiting another 5 to 10 minutes, we waved our hand to get the attention of staff. A guy with glasses came over to take our order and didn't bother repeating the order to us.

The kids meal arrived first. A few mains and then half the drinks. The rest of the order arrived not long after. I noticed that one drink was missing and asked someone to follow up on this. Didn't hear back. The empty cups for water were dirty. Every single cup had black debris in it. I told the staff member to take them away and they should check that the cups are clean before putting them on tables.

Nearly all of our mains were too sour. The flavours got lost in the dish. The Paella had a gluggy texture that wasn't pleasant. The watermelon margarita jug wasn't as good as last time and was probably the only alright drink that evening. I was so disappointed and embarrassed that the food was less than average. I felt bad for taking my mother there for her birthday.

I will not be going back there ever again. If you are planning to have dinner there for a special occasion, I highly discourage this place. It is a hit and miss and the staff are not friendly and helpful. They didn't bother checking in on us. Also, I wouldn't recommend online booking with the ridiculous cancellation policy. The food is below average and over priced. It isn't worth your time and money. Please avoid disappointment and dine at a restaurant that care about quality of food, consistency and good...

Was really excited to try out the new place as we had been to previous ones and enjoyed it! The service was honestly the worst I’ve ever experienced in my whole life it left us completely gobsmacked. We tried to get attention from wait staff for 40 minutes before someone actually came over and took our order. Every single meal we had was wrong , the waitress and waiters we had couldn’t understand what we were saying or even knew the items on the menu which I believe resulted in issues with the incorrect order.

My main issue was with the nachos. We ordered nachos with no meat but ended up getting vegan nachos which has kiwi fruit in the salsa and my friend has an allergy to it. We said we aren’t risking eating them anymore and asked to have a refund as it’s not what we ordered but also because of allergy risk which could have been a lot worse.. the waiter responded with oh ok and did not understand what we were saying. He said “ can’t take it off the bill”, and rolled his eyes no apology or to change over our food to the nachos we ordered. There were other changes in foods such as no jalapeño or cinnamon around the cup due to intolerances and preferences and each was ignored every time which I feel is a major risk to the health & safety of customers.

I feel you really need to train your staff because tonight could have endly very terribly due to a few staff members lack of communication and understanding. I also feel is extremely disgusting to make us pay for food we couldn’t eat or didn’t order due to their mess up. I was just amazed that the correct order wasn’t even offered and delivered even after we asked to have he food we ordered , they didn’t understand what we were asking and shrugged their shoulders and walked off.

I would definitely not return to the Cheltenham one and please be mindful when ordering if you...

I visited Hecho En Mexico on the Friday of the Queen’s Birthday public holiday. I fully understand that it was a busy time, so staff members were a bit stretched. They were friendly, however I felt like we weren’t really being looked after.

We got there earlier than our reservation in the hopes of being seated a bit early, but no expectations at all. A staff member told us that we would be called as soon as something was available. We spoke to about three other staff members after to remind them (as we saw people coming out of the restaurant) and even after reservation time came, it took my partner to go in and check again before we were seated, rather hastily at that.

We advised the waitress who seated us that we needed to leave by a certain time as we had another engagement. She assured us that our meals would be prioritised. The food came 10 minutes before we had to leave, and one of our dishes was missing. The person we spoke with to advise of the missing dish was very apologetic, but unfortunately we couldn’t wait any longer.

It was a celebration for my 30th birthday and the experience and food was mediocre. To be fair, as stated I am fully aware that it was a busy period so I cannot fault them for that. What I’m disappointed at is that I provided feedback to them privately by email to give them a chance to respond, but over two weeks later I have heard nothing.

Due to their lack of response it will be a while before I think...