Morenita Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Athens

We happened upon this restaurant whilst on a leisurely evening stroll. Admittedly our first impressions were not great as the staff seemed nonplussed and the restaurant wasn't very busy. However, after persuing a few other options, we opted to eat as we figured it would be nice to get some alternative cuisine in before committing to local Greek food for the rest of our trip.

They set the tone by giving us an unrequested bottle of water, telling us they couldnt do tap water. The place next door kindly filling up my resuable bottle would seem to beg to differ. Reading the menu was a borderline Joycian task, as only half of the dish details were translated, swimming between Greek and English in a schizophrenic chaos. The staff were again distracted in explaining the contents of a couple of dishes.

When the food arrived it certainly delivered on the alternative front, but not in the manner we expected. We ordered the vegetarian tacos (mushroom) and quesidilla and lets just say the only element of the dish which could be considered mexican was the taco shell itself. The filling was comprised of unseasoned mushroom, spinach, balsamic vinegar and ... olives?!? At this point we began to wonder if the place was in fact attempting some sort of greek-mexican fusion offering, but no element of their menu or presence confirmed those suspicions. Overall the food itself was categorically benign...

The disquietment of the food itself was however eclipsed by the surrounding atmosphere. At any given time there was a cacophony of 3 or 4 different sources of music surrounding our streetside table. When the local street performer arrived to the scene and added his flute to this mix we began to wonder if we had been teleported into some sort of chaotic psychedelic nightmare extracted from the excerpts of a Hunter S. Thompson novel...

....it was a...

First of all, I came to the restaurant with high hopes based on their 4.9 rating. I was genuinely looking forward to ordering and tasting everything. However, I was very disappointed to find that only about 5% of the menu consists of Mexican food—the rest is Mediterranean.

And when I ordered tacos, this is what I got (see the picture below) 🤦🏻‍♂️.

Service-wise, the waiter with black hair who served me was rude during multiple interactions. When I was leaving and said “thank you,” her colleague responded politely, but she just said “bye,” and I even heard her colleague telling her “no.” So unprofessional.

If you’re looking for a genuine Mexican experience, the only things even remotely Mexican are the name of the restaurant, the cactuses on the rooftop 🌵, and the 5% of the menu that features...

Very disappointed with our recent experience. We've been regular customers for almost the last five years. With the recent change of ownership (what we suspect) the quality of service has seriously declined and the opening hours are totally not reliable and not to be trusted (they close at least two hours before official closing time and they gave us ten minutes to finish more than a glass each of margaritas). Both waitresses turned out to be just arrogant and not accommodating at all. So yeah...a HUGE disappointment compared to our previous visits.

Edit to reply to the owner: Also, they don't protect you from constant harassment and even touching by street vendors - as you can read, they actually side with them. Not...