Lime Mexican ® — Restaurant in Sawtell

I am a local and have visited Lime on a number of occasions, however the last 2 times we have been unpleasantly greeted by the same front of house staff member who has been extremely rude and condescending both times. The first time he was extremely rude when we got to the restaurant 7 minutes early than our allocated booking, and once we were seated he rudely cut us off when we started to order some drinks saying he isn’t the waiter that takes drink orders and he “can’t do everything”. The last occassion we visited was again on a Saturday night and as we walked up to the front counter I stated that we had a booking for 6 at 8pm and his response was to roll his eyes as he condescendingly scoffed and said “Well I need a name for the booking”. Once seated we were asked if we had been to Lime before to which I replied yes, however I was accompanied by visitors who then asked a question about whether we order drinks at the bar, to which the staff member replied “Well she said she was a local so that’s why I didn’t explain” in an extremely rude and condescending tone whilst pointing at myself and then explained that “no you don’t order from the bar we aren’t a pub we’re a restaurant”. He then proceeded to move us from our inside table 25 minutes after we had sat down, to outside because they wanted to close early, despite booking a table for the allocated 2 hours. Overall after this our interactions with this male staff member were not pleasant by any means and we left feeling once again unsatisfied with the level of customer service from this particular staff member. This is such a shame as the food is decent.

Our group was made up of 6 individuals who are a mix of both locals and non-locals, and we will all no longer recommend Lime Mexican Sawtell to anyone we know nor will we eat...

We just had dinner this evening at Lime Mexican (Monday Night) and I really don't understand what all the ratings are about regarding the food and I wish we made other plans unfortunately.

Our kids (11 & 13) had nacho's and they didn't have more than few bites as it was just terrible. Very oily deep fried corn chips and the nachos sauce tasted like it had BBQ sauce in it.

My wife and I had taco's (pulled port and southern fried chicken) which were OK. The looked great and garnishes were very nice... but again they were nothing special taste wise and the southern chicken variety was very, very, very oily.

I would expect in a place that serves tacos, enchiladas etc ($25-$30+ mains) there would be, MANDATORY, on every table a minimum of 1 hot sauce (Tabasco at the very least) if not a choice of a few Mexican hot sauces to apply to your meal choice. But there are none at all.

I may be wrong, but when two full meals go back to the kitchen 99% uneaten I would want to kno wwhy as a business owner or manager. But no one took any interest sadly.

Sawtel is a beautiful place and Lime certainly had its place here. Probably more suited to young couples & large groups looking to have big night on the Margaritas. It a nice looking restaurant and the sat night atmosphere looked good when we walked past that night.

I would put this restaurant on par (food wise only) with Mexican food like Zambrero, Mad Mex etc. Its very, very pedestrian Mexican food and not authentic in any way whatsoever. You probably get better Mexican in Gusman Y Gomez

Please don't overlook any of the other restaurants purely on Limes "food reviews" as you may be doing yourself a disservice as we did...

We visited Sawtell and recently got treated very badly by one of the staff at Lime Mexican. We were sent a text message prior to our arrival at the restaurant to carry a mask as it is mandated by the govt to wear one indoors. This confused us as we dine out twice a week in sydney and have never been asked to wear a mask to enter a restaurant to be seated. When we approached the lady at the desk to guide us to our table, she was wearing her mask under her nose. We had already observed for five minutes from a distance and she never once wore her mask properly. Yet when our turn came, she asked us to wear a mask to go to our table which was literally 4 steps on the right, outdoors under the shelter on the pavement. My husband had not carried his mask and was not allowed to enter at all, to walk 4 steps to the table to then remove it and sit and eat. He had to walk back to the Airbnb to get his. She was rude on her treatment saying we had informed you and you were required to wear your mask, while consistently not wearing hers properly. It was like she was doing us a favour by allowing us to sit at the restaurant. Neither the food nor the service is that great to have such arrogant staff members. And yes Covid times can be scary and we need to be considerate but also follow logic and a sensible approach. We can’t encourage a culture that under the garb of mandates allows for illogical rules that are excessive, redundant and rigid. Especially when the hospitality industry needs to bounce back from the lockdowns. Needless to say we won’t be booking at this restaurant again and will recommend the same to...