Altanera Roma — Restaurant in Mexico City

I ate at Altanera as a tourist so this biases my review.

Pros: Overall this was a good experience, nice ambience and decor, music was fairly tasteful, tables were a touch small for a party of four but not a major issue. Ordered the guacamole con chapulines and albondigas. Both were good, with the albondigas being the real star. Tortillas served throughout the meal were excellent and paired well with everything. I expected a small dinner and was surprised with how full I was by the end. There were some theatrical elements to serving that I really enjoyed and we were attended to without being shoved out the door after paying the bill. Was expecting scam prices but honestly very affordable.

Cons: Some friends ordered the pozole verde, which I think is a dish that does not translate well to the more minimalist style of this restaurant. I tried the broth and it was underseasoned to me. Another friend had the chicken mole and it was quite bare with the mole looking a little thin. I would probably give a higher review if I hadn’t been just in Puebla a couple days before. The service was at times overbearing; standing a couple tables away from us to see if we need anything is appropriate in a busy restaurant but since there were no other customers in sight having two people stand ten feet away was a little much. However, I’d much rather be over-attended to than ignored.

Would recommend to others, although it may be a bit trendy for some and ordering from the menu may need to be strategic, I had a good experience and I’m...

The place is undeniably beautiful, with stunning views of Mexico City—but that’s about where the positives end. The food was horrendous, and the service? Well... let’s just say "altanera" (arrogant in Spanish) perfectly describes it. What a fitting name for the restaurant—LMAO.

The restaurant claims to serve traditional Mexican cuisine with a creative twist, but it was a huge letdown. I ordered the Mexican rice, which turned out to be as dry as the Sahara Desert and completely flavorless. It was clear they used consomate (artificial tomato flavoring) instead of real tomatoes. The tostadas were hard as rocks with no crunch whatsoever.

Adding to the disappointment, two of my guests' orders arrived long after we had finished our meals. The highlight—or lowlight—of the evening was when one of my guests ordered a "Mega Grande" Sope. After waiting for an hour, the Sope finally arrived, and it was tiny AF! Seriously, there was nothing "Mega Grande" about it. And to make matters worse, the tortilla was stale. Instead of getting upset, we just had to laugh it off.

Altanera is not worth your time or money. Save yourself the trouble and get authentic Mexican food from the street vendors.

I highly recommend the group of ladies outside Mercado Medellín—Tlacoyos Y Quesadillas Medellín. That’s where you’ll find the real "Mega Grande" Sope and other traditional Mexican favorites!

Overall, it’s a thumbs down for this place, but we did get a good laugh out of it. Stay...

Food ordered: salad (don’t remember the name), it was good but had too much oil. Half as much oil would be good. meatballs, they were good but lacked flavor rib eye steak, this was cooked well and tasty

The food overall was good, but it seems like it could easily be improved. The steak cost $75 dollars, so it’s quite expensive and not worth it.

Service: Maybe our waiter was having a bad day tonight, but service was quite bad. He wasn’t attentive and seemed to have an attitude, not sure if we did something wrong. I went with my wife who’s a fluent Spanish speaker and I’m conversational, but the waiter completely ignored me and only spoke to my wife. We ordered the steak to share but they only provided one set of utensils and we finished half the meal before we got utensils or mayonnaise for the French fries.

Environment: it was nice up there, a bit cold and dark. Probably beautiful for brunch in the morning and that might be a better choice than dinner.

Overall, if you’re going to spend $100+ dollars per meal I’d expect better service and slightly...