El Mayor — Restaurant in Mexico City

I’m visiting several rooftop bars here in Mexico City to see what the best ones are. This is not only based on wonderful views but also on my experience of the place including food, drinks and of course quality, respectful service.

The good... El Mayor has a wonderful view of Templo Mayor. The entrance is through a bookshop. There is both a fairly high end restaurant here and a cafe. The hostess sat me as soon as I arrived and I had a wonderful table for the view.

The bad... I wasn’t all that hungry so was intending to have a nice dessert and a drink. The restaurant was quite quiet so there were plenty of tables available including ones ‘with the view’. It was a Sunday afternoon in the rain. However when the waiter came over I asked him to recommend a dessert... this is the moment when it all went wrong. He told me I couldn’t have one in the restaurant and would have to go to the cafe. This was slightly embarrassing as I was already seated etc and there weren’t that many people there. However I made my way to the cafe. I was very surprised asking for the menu in the cafe that it didn’t include any of the nice desserts from the restaurant. I complained to the waitress - at this point I started to feel very angry that I’d been asked to leave the restaurant - I hadn’t realised it was going to be a completely different (much cheaper/not so classy) menu so at this point it definitely seemed like total snobbery on the part of the restaurant. She suggested I speak to the manager.

The ugly... the hostess went completely white when I asked to speak to the manager and suggested I fill in a feedback form as he was currently cooking a flan (one of the lovely dessert options I was denied no doubt). This was a poor attempt to fob me off. I told her I thought it was better to speak in person and I didn’t mind waiting. He was then with me within a couple of minutes. I explained what had happened and asked if he felt that was normal/acceptable. He said it was a policy to only seat people for meals when it was busy but shouldn’t be an issue when the restaurant was quiet such as today. He did not ask me which waiter had suggested I leave so I didn’t get the impression he took the issue particularly seriously. He invited me back into the restaurant but I declined having already had as much of an experience as I needed and a list of several other rooftop bars with beautiful views to check out. I felt overall he was fairly dismissive.

For future visitors please consider you may encounter some snobbery or look to the cafe option as the waitress I spoke to in there was the most helpful. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to see the views if you don’t want to splash out on the meals they insist on. It would be a vast improvement if the hostess checked with people if they were intending to eat a full meal and direct them to the cafe, a table or a bar area where people could enjoy a drink/snack and the view.

The best experience I’ve had with rooftop bars in the historical centre so far has been at the Gran Hotel. The rooftop restaurant there has the most incredibly stunning ceiling you can admire on the way in plus views of the Zocalo (main square). They had a buffet which was good value for a higher end establishment and the service was friendly, respectful and classy. This is exactly the service I hope for when going to a higher end bar - snobbery and dismissiveness is always such a vast...

A really bad experience my friends and I got from this restaurant. The waiters services was really bad, as the restaurant was full the bar offered us a drink that it's necessary to say the lemonades were cool. But at the time of the payment one of the waiters charged me with my credit card one lemonade and to my friends he charged twice. Later we have to ask four times to the host if there was ready a table for me and my friends and she replied when she looked around she will let us know and turn left to do other things. When finally we got a table the waiter took lot of time to attend us and even he didn't offer us some of water the menus he gave us very late and as one of my friends is from Brazil he ask for his meals the waiter did not take any note and was looking impatient when my friend was trying to explain what he want to eat. Even the meals took long time to arrive and the flavor it was good the service it was terrible, and the table it didn't have cutlery and of course the waiter took lot of time to provide them us. When we finally ask for the bill and I asked to have a fiscal invoice the waiter only give us lot of excuses for not to giving us until I insisted lot of time and also at the moment to make the payment with my Amex credit card I have to go to the bar and write all the fiscal info for the invoice and make the payment. When I made the tip I gave to the waiter it was some coins because I considered the service was terrible and when he saw the amount of the tip he replied me saying that "It was necessary to pay the 10% of the bill" and I replied him that where it was written that i have to leave a tip and even for a terrible service. Later when I said that the waiter took my right hand and put the coins in it and he said me "do it later" "Ahi dejalo para la otra". The thing is that when the bar waiter and the restaurant waiter gave us the worst service that i have experimented in a restaurant in Mexico City. The restaurant administration MUST train better the waiters and host service, or as there were two foreigners and Mexico City non citizen they abuse of that customers? Finally the last thing that I want to say is the "El Mayor" has a good meals but a...

My friend and I chose this restaurant for the stunning view and elegant atmosphere, and it truly was beautiful. We ordered a couple of drinks and were excited to try the food.

Wanting to try something more traditional, I ordered the chile poblano stuffed with what was described as chicharron. After doing a quick search online, I saw that it meant pork meat — which I was okay with. The dish was beautifully presented, but after a couple of bites, the texture felt really off, like slimy or gelatinous. When I asked the server, he explained that in Mexico, chicharron meant pork skin, not meat. That was a pretty big surprise and unfortunately a dealbreaker for me. I couldn’t eat any more, felt so nauseous. The server took the plate but didn’t offer to replace it with anything else or recommend an alternative, which was disappointing. He even seemed mad like I was supposed to know what chicharron was. I ended up being charged for a dish I barely touched, and my lunch was essentially ruined.

I understand that it was a cultural misunderstanding — and I take responsibility for not knowing — but I wish the staff had taken a little more care to explain the dish more clearly, especially since it’s something many international guests may not expect. A bit more empathy or flexibility from the server would’ve made a big difference.

Overall, the setting and style of the restaurant are excellent, but my experience with the food and service left me...