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 of the people.