El Mero Mero Taqueria — Restaurant in Edmonton

I read other reviews before posting this one to see how different my experience may have been from others'. It seems that other customers' feelings about the several kinds of meats and beans being tasteless, dry, and anonymous in tacos and other dishes; the guac missing basic ingredients; and the service being minimal are not exceptional.

From the reviews and owners' responses to those reviews, it seems like the owners are aware of these issues for a year, and have committed to listening to customers and doing better. These aren't the growing pains of a new restaurant. The owners' pleas to talk to the staff during the visit are pointless with delivery. As a suggestion for improvement, if the food can't be delivered consistently, the owners should consider not offering delivery service.

From our two visits, the food has not improved in the last year of the owners committing to do better. Our group shared a few kinds of tacos. By the time we each had one kind of taco on plate, we could not tell them apart by their flavours. We ended up calling them white, beige, more different beige, and brown. They were worse than chips at conveying the salsa to our mouths. The salsa was the only passable part of the experience. Suggestion: If flavouring the meats and other ingredients is not an option, add little flags like Ikea does for different kinds of meatballs to identify what the visually anonymous food items are.

If we wanted salsa or sauces for dinner, we would have gone to a restaurant which specializes in those. Suggestion: Use the need to mask the poor quality of the meat with salsa to become the best salsa and sauce place in the city.

We knew that the soft taco tortillas exists because we can see and feel it, and it absorbs all the moisture in our mouths, that is perhaps why we could not taste it. It appears that the shell also makes anything wrapped inside it equally boring, and literally makes any flavour, texture, and quality the food may have had disappear from our tastebuds. Suggestion: If you can't reliably make tortillas that promote instead of sabotaging their fillings, consider not including tortillas. Deconstructed food is a thing in current year.

I know that flavour is subjective. When dozens of people who have eaten at and enjoyed other Mexican restaurants in the city review this restaurant's items as flavourless (or a pile of salt, depending on the day), that becomes objective data that the restaurant is not meeting customers' expectations.

Constructive criticism: The owners want to appear to care about customers' opinions with the plea to send an email. If the owners want to show that they care about customers opinions and "resolve the situation", they can read these reviews, identify the common themes, address those themes in their cooking and service, and advertise that they've improved on the items that many customers find lacking.

What the owners will actually do: Alternatively, and more likely, the owners will reply with snark to ignore/deny that the...

Googled Mexican restaurant, and this place popped up as I was on the west side and wanted some good Mexican food. It's located in a business area in the front. Easy to locate and lots of parking. I'd imagine during the day parking might be a bit harder but in the evening, since most businesses are closed, parking was easy. Plus, their sign it bright and colorful, so it totally helps you find their location. Once inside, you can feel the mode change. It felt both lively, welcoming , and intimate due to the size. I'd say it seats about 20 people at tables and another 6 stools at the bar. The tables are a mix of tall chairs and then lower tables that also have a really unique padded bench. I was able to get a seat immediately, surprised they didn't put me at the bar as I was dining solo. You can see right into the kitchen, which is quite cool. Specials are on the wall along with items for sale from the company along with other creators. Feels very much like a community wall. Once I was seated, though, I noticed that there were three people in the back kitchen working on orders while only one server was working the floor. She was taking orders, working the bar making drinks, and also ringing up orders that needed to be paid. So I sat for about 8 minutes to place my order. Eventually another staff member came out to help which was needed. Decided to try their Tortilla Soup $10 and their Pescado Fish Tacos $16. Asked for the soup first and then sat back and watched at the rest of the restaurant filled up and people waited to be seated. Seems like a very popular place. Saw a couple get sat at the bar for a date, family of four get seated next to me while a couple with their Grandfather leave after enjoying a good meal. Was a great mix of people. My soup arrived a bit later then I expected. This is an item I imagine they have in the back already made and just needed to be assembled. I do think they were understaffed which was the delay. The soup was sooo good though! Almost hearty enough to be a meal. Loved every bite. The issue for me was that I wasn't even done my soup when they brought out my tacos. I didn't want to rush eating my soup as it was soo good. But that meant when I did get to my tacos, they were cold. They too tasted great, but I am sure the deep fried cod would have been soo much better when enjoyed hot. Timing in food is key and truly adds to the experience. I'd happily go back. Should I order the same things I would again ask that they serve one as an appetizer so that I can enjoy the main meal hot. Small pet peeve too, when at work in an environment where you want to come across as a professional, leggings are never a good idea. Servers all had on uniform shirts, but when paired with black leggings, it comes across as lazy. Sure they are comfortable, but so are slacks. It through me for a loop is all since leggings are just fitted sweat pants and you'd never wear...

We were very excited to try this restaurant after hearing about them on Druken Mukbang’s Tiktok. We were seated at a table almost right away. She asked for orders after a couple minutes. Which was completely ok we just were not ready to order the two mains. We put the appetizer of tortilla chips and pico de gallo in and our kids meals. Our server did not let us know that the kids pops were not included. $14 for a kids meal and pop isn’t included. So $18 for each kids meal? Service was very slow. We got our chips and salsa. It was absolutely delicious and we ordered some more pico de gallo because we found there wasn’t enough, at the same time we ordered the main meals for my husband and I. When the main meals came out, is when the pico de gallo came out. I think that she could’ve asked the kitchen for the pico de gallo to come out right away so that we could’ve finished up our chips and salsa. Shouldn’t have to wait 15 minutes to get more pico de gallo. The food was absolutely delicious. The only thing I would say was the tortilla shells that go with the tacos. They crumble pretty easily so you have to eat them very quickly. I had a guava margarita and it was absolutely wonderful. I was disappointed with the service. I think it’s a little silly that pop isn’t included under the kids meals. Our server Ailani came around a handful of times over the course of just about two hours. Many people kept coming up to the bar and coming from outside to get their bill / more drinks because it seemed like the service was so slow. When we got our tacos she was about to walk away. We had to ask her which tacos were which, which I feel like when you get a platter of 10 I shouldn’t have to ask. You should explain what’s what. When we were all done, we waited for a bit and she never came back. So I assumed with this restaurant you just go up to the till to pay. I asked if that was the case when I went up to the table and they said oh no sorry. At the end, I asked for a cake to go with some ice cream and as as I was waiting after I had paid for it they said oh well we don’t actually have the cake…. So then they had to refund it, which it was completely fine, but it was just the icing on the cake. I was just let down. I used to work as a server and we were constantly checking on our tables and communicating and making sure that the people that came had a wonderful experience. For over $140 I expect a...