Gardela — Restaurant in Mexico City

Had very high expectations coming here. I work in a high-end steakhouse, so this seemed right up my street.

Had a good impression initially, the service seemed really attentive and to a high level.

Food seemed decently priced too, and they had some "specials". We looked at the wine menu, and found that most wines, especially the reds, were €20+ for what turned out to be a 125ml pour.

The waiter took our order for food (without writing anything down, just by memory), my partner ordered the Pulpo and I the Ribeye, chef's recommendation. After a minute the waiter came back to say actually instead of the ribeye, I should have the cheaper, "special" Argentinian sirloin instead, because it's much better. I forgot my rule that when restaurants push something it's because they need to get rid of it (typically because it's going off), so I agreed and went for it. The waiter then left and came back a few minutes later, saying he forgot what we ordered for sides. Predictably.

Portobello Mushrooms with a 3 cheese sauce for starters, the sauce was delicious but we found the mushrooms very bland. No one asked us if we enjoyed our starter.

Our mains arrived quite quickly, the sirloin steak on a serving board. The waiter who brought it, cut it down the middle and asked if I agreed with the cook temperature. He was about two meters away and I didn't have my glasses, so I said yes, it looks fine. The steak was served with two chillis that I was told not to eat because they're extremely spicy, and a button mushroom. I didn't even take a picture of it, cause I'd rather save the memory on my phone than have a picture of what I received. I put the butter that we received with the bread for the table onto the steak to melt it, and was a bit confused as to why it wasn't melting. It was because my steak was cold. I cut into it and took a closer look, the cook temperature was rare, closer to blue. I wanted to send it back to grill for a further minute, but all of the servers seemed to just disappear. So I just ate it, it was still quite tasty with the butter and Chimichurri. My partners Pulpo was tasty, but the scalloped potatoes were undercooked and bland, and there was a prawn on the plate that she couldn't cut through with a knife. But overall very tasty. At no point did any server come to check on us. The server who cleared our plates never asked us if we enjoyed our meal, or if we wanted to see a dessert menu.

We promptly asked for the bill instead, having decided to move somewhere else for drinks after dinner. I had decided to leave a tip of 5% just out of gesture. The server who took the payment, I think Emmanuel but I can't say for sure, asked if we wanted to leave a tip on card, I told him I would leave it in cash. He stood at the table for more than a minute taking payment for the meal that we did not enjoy one bit, and didn't even think to ask if we had enjoyed our meal, if everything was okay. I had decided I had had enough with the service, and decided I was actually not going to leave the tip after all. We stayed at the table for a minute after paying, and the server came back over and opened up the chequebook to see if we had left the tip yet. When he didn't see anything, he then proceeded to stand in the middle of the exit door, blocking us from leaving. He got called away, however, so we got up and left, to meet our Uber on the corner. Our server, outrageously, followed us out of the restaurant, down to the corner where we were getting into our Uber, and asked us in English if we realised that the tip is not included. I told him "Yes. Your service was sh!t, so your tip is sh!t". I don't think he understood me.

Thanks for ruining our...

Ohhh boy where to begin...

Very very very bad DO NOT COME HERE. Go to La Docena next door it is 1000x better that’s the bottom line.

We ordered shrimp and we started to use our hands to open the shrimp but it they smelled horrible and full of ammonia. I’ve worked in restaurants for over a decade and know when product is bad. We didn’t eat it and instead sent it back immediately. They didn’t admit to the smell. I told them to eat it, but they didn’t want to try it either. They brought us hand sanitizer and even that couldn’t mask the smell glued to our hands. They apologized that we didn’t like the shrimp but they wouldn’t admit it was bad.

Then came the steak. Literally zero flavor. It was their prized dry aged ribeye that costs 1125 pesos and it wasn’t worth a dime. They didn’t check on us and just saw we left the steak on the table. Finally they asked how it was and I told them honestly how flavorless and disappointing the steak is. I told them to try the steak and tell me I’m wrong. This time they did try it and both waiters themselves agreed it tasted flavorless and was not a good product!! (their words not mine) they honestly apologized and were upset it was such a bad product. They said they couldn’t control the product that comes in on trucks. Um.. okay?

Look all if that I’m actually fine with. Take the items off the bill and let me go home, but instead what ensued instead was a 30 minute stand off between the restaurant and us. No manager stopped by to talk to us. No guest recovery whatsoever. Instead our server was stuck going back and forth with the ‘Chef’ about the issue and obviously the ‘Chef’ has no idea how to properly handle front of house issues let alone pick fresh shrimp or cook a decent steak.

Unfortunately, we were held hostage without a bill and after finally asking again for the bill we got a bill with the full price of the bad items on check. Obviously I told them this was completely unacceptable but the best they did was discount the steak. Absolutely ridiculous. We paid because they kept talking to a security guard out front and as foreigners it made us feel like they would send him in if we took the situation further. No wonder the restaurant was dead on a Friday night.

I reiterate DO...

My companion and I stumbled across Gardela on a Sunday afternoon, while on a leisurely walk. As I'd spent many years in BsAs, I thought we'd give this Argentine restaurant a go. We were both suitability impressed. Our acclamation was warm and inviting, always a harbinger of good things ahead. We were seated front and center in the outdoor terrace, and quickly offered menus in both Spanish and English. A wine menu was provided upon request via a tablet, which I found quite useful as it organized selections by a number of criteria. We chose empanadas as starters, and I imperialistically decided the spinach and cheese to be "our" favorites. These were baked versions, so those of you preferring the fried variations might have a different opinion. The bread basket was exemplary. So many choices with two dipping sauces as well as butter. Too sinful. We ordered our steaks from the Argentine grass fed menu options. I chose the NY strip, my companion, the filet mignon. His was the better of the rwo, but not by too much. Both our sides, the potatoes with cream (potatoes au gratin or dauphinoise) and the mashed, were delicious. The caramelized fried onions, provided gratis, were exquisite. I had selected an Argentine Malbec, Pacheco Pereda, which we both found paired well with our beef. For dessert, I selected the panqueque de dulce de leche with vanilla ice cream, which was actually comprised of three pancakes filled with copious amounts of dulce de leche and garnished with slivered almonds and vanilla ice cream, while my companion selected the strawberries jubilee with vanilla ice cream, which provided quite a tableside show. Both were large portions and so very delicious. As a parting digestif, we were provided with two glasses of iced sparkling wine, gratis, which were much appreciated. We left, quite satiated and satisfied, knowing we'd found yet another wonderful dining spot to add to our...