Tereza Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Budapest

Overpriced and extremely poor service. We were astonished by how poor the quality of the food was. We ordered a nacho plate, which came with an interesting "salsa" selection (which was pretty much pickled chili sauce) and garlic sauce which just tasted like ranch. I was confused by the choice of the salsas as they don't suit the nachos very well. The nachos themselves were OK, but the salsas left much to be desired. For the main course, I ordered taco al pastor with salsa, but I was shocked to see that the salsa slopped on top was the same picked chili sauce used in the nachos! The only positive that I can mention was that the chicken was marinated well. The rest of the ingredients tasted old and bland. My partner ordered a large burrito bowl, which was very disappointing. All of the ingredients used were canned! It barely had any seasoning besides from the complimentary lime (I count this as seasoning at the moment as it was the only thing that had any flavour in that dish). I have no idea how they can just chop several cheap ingredients, throw them on a bowl and charge almost 3000Ft for it... The service was slow and quite unfriendly considering the price of everything and how empty the place was when we arrived (it didn't get any busier when we left either). Half of the staff were idle, doodling on their notepads or chatting amongst themselves. It was clear that they were very overstaffed for that day, and I wouldn't have a problem with them sitting around if they were at least a bit friendlier and more attentive to their clients. However, it was so outrageous that they charge 30% for service! I understand that tipping is good-practice in Hungary, but we are just students and the service left much to be desired. Not sure why the dishes are so expensive if the ingredients are awful and the decor is...

To be honest it was a disappointment and ridicuolusly overpriced. First of all it is not easy to get spot place. They don't take reservations on the actual day, you have to go there and queue up at the entrance and wait for a table to became available. It's all happening in the garden, despite the fact that the place has at least the double indoor space which is totally empty. Why?! After 15-20 minutes we were seated. Girls at the entrance were kind and polite. The service was slow. We were sitting there for at least 10-15 minutes and no waiters has come up to us. On the other hand the food was serverd quite quickly. The food quality was below we expected, nothing authentic, no exciting mexican spices, everything regarding the plates was just average. But the price was way too high for this quality. A simple taco is around 8EUR, a quesedilla is over 10EUR. But what shocked us was the pricing of the burrito. Plain burrito is over 5EUR if it is small, and over 8EUR if it is big. And if you want meat in it, they charge you another 5-6EUR. Also you can have the most common mexican beer, Negra Modelo for a shocking 6.5EUR price. Not even the best imported craft beers did cost that much! All in all price/value ratio is low, definitely not recommended. You can have way better value for your money in an other mexican restaurant in Budapest, you might want to check them up...

The food is excellent - truly no complaints there. But the tipping experience was one of the most uncomfortable I've ever had in a restaurant.

After the meal, I was handed the bill along with a credit card machine that had a tipping slider ranging from 0% to 20%. The waiter stood silently over us, watching as I navigated the screen. Pretty awkward to kick things off.

What made it worse is that I wasn’t sure if a service charge was already included - it wasn’t verbally mentioned. I had to ask the waiter directly, and only then did he confirm that a 15% service charge was already on the bill (I later saw it written there, but in the moment, it wasn’t obvious).

Who thought this system was a good idea? In the U.S., I usually tip 20–25% even when service is mediocre - I’ve been in the service industry and look for reasons to pay back the generosity once bestowed on me. But here, I felt like I was being coerced into double tipping or paying a hidden fee. Really terrible.

If you want a 5-star review from me, here’s what needs to change:

Don’t have a double tipping system. Choose either the flat service charge or the optional tip.

Don’t have the server linger while someone is making that decision.

This kind of setup ruins an otherwise great dining experience. We shouldn’t just accept this as the new normal - it’s manipulative and...