Mesa — Restaurant in Hamilton

I have to say I had High hopes for Mesa and unfortunately that had me crashing down to the ground hard and fast.

Let’s talk about Mexican in Hamilton. Everyone LOVES places that sell tequila but is anyone actually tasting the food?

I had ordered the grilled panela with my friend. The FIRST thing I noticed was the chips were SO SO stale and literally gross. I ended up eating my cheese and beef with my fork. The dip or whatever you would call it was delicious and it had a hint of saltines from the cheese that was lovely.

Unfortunately, that was the only good thing on our table. We both ordered tacos, she ordered the El Pastore and I got the beef Barbacoa. The meat itself was OK.

The issue I had was that this is the first time I’m going into this restaurant. No one person ever suggested when we ordered oh, did you want to add pico de gallo to that? Or did you want any of these toppings and pointed out on the menu Any type of “have you been here before” or anything like that would’ve been more helpful than absolutely no direction or questions. Anywhere I’ve received tacos from I’ve never had to ask for them to put pico de gallo on it. It just comes with it… so getting our tacos with just meat in it was a little disappointing. Not to mention the fact my friend asked “what do you think I should get, A burrito or tacos?” She said “I personally like tacos” and that was it. No further instructions. So when our plates came with the most Un-garnished tacos I’ve ever seen in my life. We were kind of surprised.

The other thing that was infuriating was the fact that you try to make eye contact with the servers and nobody comes over to you. So by the time we actually decided to eat and not wait for them the server was clearing my plate with the full salad and rice on it; still I was shocked he barely asked while grabbing the plate but I honestly didn’t care because I am NOT done with this review.

The salad on my plate with shredded iceberg, lettuce. On top of the 2 tablespoons of iceberg lettuce was a tablespoon of what look like diced tomato. I went in with my whole fork and I bit into this lettuce; it had that horrible taste and smell you would get when you Buy a bag of lettuce from the grocery store that’s pre-washed….And it sits too long in your fridge and starts to go bad. It had that funky “you should’ve thrown this salad out smell” let’s not discuss how there was absolutely not a drip of dressing on that salad. Before the restaurant tries to tell me that that lettuce was meant for my tacos, I’d like to point out that on the menu it says it’s a side salad. That was not side salad; that was rotten and not dressed. Needless to say, I was not a fan of the rice but I’m normally not a fan of others rice to begin with. Basically flavourless kind of like a minute rice but it had a colour to it, and I took one bite and didn’t touch it again.

I’m so disappointed. I’m not just disappointed in Mesa, I’m disappointed in a lot of Mexican places around here that really just don’t have the quality. To name a few Mesa, the mule and the Los Mayas are just really over hyped and I think it’s more the fancy drinks than anything.

Mesa you were a great thought but I’m never cheating on Maria’s Tortas Jalisco again. She’s the #1 Mexican place in Hamilton. Fresh EVERY TIME. Never a stale chip in the house!

Sorry folks but this was far below my expectations and it’s sad because I live around the corner and this would have been perfect if the quality of the food matched the hype...

I am not a complainer... as you can see from my previous reviews. However, myself and boyfriend went out for an impromptu date. The restaurant itself is very well done, the server was good, friendly. The woman who dropped the menus though couldnt seem to care that we asked twice to order a beverage. However, I went down to the washroom and it was occupied. I waited and then a server or someone who worked there came out. She didn't look well nor did the washroom after her leaving. I assumed she wasn't feeling well. That should have been my first red flag. We ordered nachos and the starter set of tacos. At first food seemed flavorful and enjoyable. Then I had a bite of the nachos with the beef barbacoa, that had large pieces of fat, upon checking it was actual beef skin, which did not sit well. We also found 2 hairs in the nachos. Not sure if it was beef hair from the skin as it seemed still attached (it clearly was not from the meat pulling practice as I'm well aware of how pulled meat looks) We then got our order to go and threw it out. We ate less than a 1/4 of the food. Upon arriving at home we both could tell our stomachs were not doing well. We decided to lay down and hope for it to pass. Less than an hour later we were both physically ill. FOOD POISONING. We are still currently sick. I don't write this review to hurt the restaurant but to let the public know so they do not have to experience the very uncomfortable experience of food poisoning. Hopefully the restaurant can practice better food handling practices. I hope nobody else got sick today or...

Unfortunately amazing food won’t make up for the horrible customer service and overall experience. Upon making a reservation for 5 people, I was grilled on the phone about if my party was missing one person we would lose our reservation. I assured the woman on the phone all 5 people would be there. Upon arriving, our table was not ready and the waitress/hostess began questioning us about our guests (2 people were parking, one person caught up on Go Train due to accident), I assured her our full party was arriving in a few minutes. We were questioned 3 times before being seated, and upon being seated we were continually harassed by our waitress where our fifth person was. I explained the Go Train accident, and it didn’t seem to matter. She continually told us they could really use the extra chair and table for other guests. She also rushed us to order our entree before our fifth guest arrived. Our food arrived before our drinks! Our poor fifth guest didn’t get her food until after we had all eaten (she ordered 5 minutes after the rest of us) and the waitress clearly had forgotten her order. So my friend had to eat her meal all by herself. The entire experience felt rushed; like staff didn’t want to deal with anyone and just wanted us to eat pay and get out so they could get more people in. Don’t have a sit in restaurant if you don’t want to offer guests an experience! The food was great but I have never witnessed such horrible treatment of paying customers at a restaurant before. Very disappointed and will not be returning or...