Animal Masaryk — Restaurant in Mexico City

We went on a Friday night and it could have been a good experience but there were a couple of things that really bothered us that tarnished the occasion.

When we arrived the hosts were very friendly. Our table was not ready so we had to wait a couple of minutes at the bar. From the start different hosts kept coming at us offering us things. We asked for some time to check the menu but they would keep coming at us and interrupting us getting to the point of being uncomfortable. Once we got seated, again the waiter being pushy offering us drinks so we accepted to get natural water as the waiter offered just to have some peaceful time to check the menu. He served us a couple of Evian bottles and then we ordered our cocktails and food

Checking the menu after the water was served we noticed that they basically brought us the most unreasonably expensive option of water. There were other cheaper brands of water and there was even a bigger bottle of Evian that we could have shared for almost half the price. The waiter didn't tell us the options, they simply decided on their own. That's called ripping off customers and set a really sour tone to start the occasion.

Regarding food, they served flatbread with 5 different sauces which were very good. We ordered a a spicy salmon roll that was very basic, simple and unremarkable. It was just saved by topping it with the sauces from the flatbreads.

Then we got tuna tostadas which were really tasty. And finally we ordered tacos al tambor that again were dull in taste and had to use the sauces to give them some flavour.

Cocktails were very good and the decoration of the place is top-notch.

I could forgive the unremarkable food, maybe we could have come back again and try other plates that I'm confident can be much better that the ones we tried. But the trickery to try to get the most money out of us with dishonest tactics is something I am not willing to tolerate.

Very unfortunate and disappointing they have these practices. In the end it was their loss. They lost a customer not only to this restaurant but to the other restaurants in the group, and servers lost their tip that went into the "unsolicited unnecessarily expensive water"...

My girlfriend and I went to dinner, and had terrible service by the Manager Avila. After eating, Avila came to our table asking for the tip. We told him the tip amount to include and he responded by questioning us, then saying he has to go to the back as his machine broke.

A few minutes later he returns to our table, questioning us for a third time about the tip to include. He went as far as to ask us where we are from and if this is our first time in Mexico City, which I found to be extremley disrespectful.

Both my girlfriend & I were planning to leave Animal with highly positive takeaways, however, Avila really ruined the experience.

If you are traveling in CDMX and debating to go here, please be advised that this is a review of one individual at the restaraunt, and not a review of the food or decor.

That being said, the most important thing that I do care about when going to a restaraunt in another country or city is being respected and not feeling like I am being taken advantage of.

As I mentioned above, Avila is only one person at the restaraunt, however, he is the Manager and is able to direct and influence his staff negativley.

In traveling here, we have found CDMX to be a culinary rich city with so many options of restaraunts and cafes where we have met genuinely nice and hospitable waiters/staffs where you are not questioned or dispected.

Hope this is useful if you are...

Just smoking mirrors. Fancy decore, it's more a club than a restaurant. You can't have a diner and a conversation. Music is extremely loud. Worst service, the waiters are trained to push you the most expensive stuff in the menu. The food is horrible, I order the octopus tacos, the tortillas were burnt black, hyper salty. They also claim to have mesquites and it's basically yellow corn with Cheetos dust on top. The drinks, they have sumptuous drink supposedly made with good brands licours. We ask to see the bottle of Chambord they clame they make a cocktail with and they brought us a Costco casi licour bottle. Obviously in the drink menu e says Chambord.

Last, we were celebrating a friend's birthday, they bring you with the cake a bottle of Champaign with it, so don't fall for the trick , they start bringing the champagne glasses and will pour it in less you are attentive and say nop thanks for pushing the bottle but no thanks. Lame trick unfortunately a lot of people fall for it.

Don't be deceived by this "fancy" restaurants that do have a nice decor but lousy service...