Aleli — Restaurant in Mexico City

Brutal experience.

I'm not one for bad reviews, but my partner and I were SO excited for this meal and left frustrated, swindled, and swiftly fell ill.

The concept of cooking modern takes of traditional dishes on open fire is great, and their Michelin nod for both the restaurant downstairs and Aleli gave us confidence this would be a memorable meal, which it was, but for all the wrong reasons.

The dishes were sadly, uninspired, smothered in bland sauces, either undersalted or oversalted, and were unevenly cooked or not cooked at all, with little to no charred flavour.

Wines, beers and spirits were all big brand offerings, a surprise given their other restaurants.

We hoped that service would be the saving grace, but it simply felt like nobody working wanted to be there, and that guests were an annoyance. Back of house staff were friendly.

Despite having a 'Bib Gourmand' recommendation (good value), we found the entire menu overpriced and to top it all off, my partner and I both had horrible digestive issues for 48 hours after our meal as many other guests experienced, now that I've read other reviews. We noticed other patrons leaving their plates unfinished and should have taken that as a warning before eating.

I know how hard running a restaurant can be, as well as the risk of 'off' nights — but quite frankly, that was one of the worst meals of my life.

I hope Oswald and the management team make some critical changes to better match the experience with the expectations, and keep a closer eye on food handling for the safely of their...

We had a good overall experience here, with excellent and attentive service. We expected the menu to be more grilled/wood fired items, but we found the preparations to not really seem grilled. Perhaps this was our misunderstanding of the restaurant's focus. For example, we enjoy grilled lettuce and thought that's what we would get, but instead the "grilled lettuce" was a very generous portion of cold gem lettuce (crunchy, not at all softened) in a tasty peanut dressing. Everything we ate tasted good, but it wasn't memorable. The servers and bartenders were very sweet and eager to please. They did a good job on a pretty busy night. In the restaurant's defense, we ordered only the small dishes, as this is normally how we like to eat (shared plates) and the menu items sounded more appealing than the main entrees (which were limited to 2 or 3 choices). We were asked about our water preferences, and not unexpectedly charged like others reported.

The rooftop patio is open air but with walls, so there is no view. All of this is just fine, but it wasn't exactly what we were expecting. Still, we appreciated the eager service and the bill was not too expensive.

One additional note: requires stair access -- 3 tall flights....

Why isn't this place getting more love? Love the food, love the 'special cocktail (mezcal with lavender)', and of course the rooftop makes it perfect!

Food: I got the toasted avocado, which was very good. It was a tad bit tart, but maybe that's because I'm not used to (citric) acid as much? For main, I got the half octopus (full is good for 3 people according to the waiter) which was grilled perfect! While their menu says it's not spicy, I thought it had decent bit of heat. Finally, that cheesecake was the perfect way to end a very good meal. Will definitely recommend this place over many others.

Ambience: The rooftop on a sunny day is the perfect place to dine.

Service: Probably the only thing I'm not happy about. The waiter, who was very friendly from the beginning, suggested I get half the octopus. I asked if the price is half as well, to which he said almost (700 for full, maybe 400 for half). But when I got the check, I noticed I was billed 700. When asked about it, he said it's half octopus that's listed on the menu.

1 beer, 1 cocktail, 1 main, 1 dessert -...