La Imperial Torre Reforma — Restaurant in Mexico City

A “cantina” restaurant that gives off the style of the Mexican Imperial era, hidden in the middle of Reforma’s hectic Central Business District. Arriving, there weren’t many signs leading up to the restaurant, and I didn’t even know it existed until a friend told me about it. It’s located on the underground level where the food court of Torre Reforma is, but off to the side as a separate restaurant.

We were walk-ins on a Thursday around lunchtime, and the place was packed. We were told about a 10-minute wait (not with the best attitude). After being seated, we were given a QR menu code (not a fan of digital menus), but I did see other tables receiving a physical menu, so there are options. However, it took way too long to flag a waiter down to have our orders taken.

We ordered enchiladas suizas and enmoladas. The food took another while to be ready, but at least the presentation looked decent enough. The food itself was solid, although the mole in the enmoladas was a bit spicier than I expected, but I enjoyed it (7.5/10). The atmosphere was pleasant, and I enjoyed the space, although the place was packed, and clearly, the servers’ attention was more focused on the bigger tables than our table of two, which was disappointing and evident throughout our visit.

Paying and settling our bill took another 15 minutes, which I thought was just ridiculous. I didn’t appreciate feeling less important than other tables. Although the place looked very much like a classy cantina (without the actual cantina service) and the food was decent enough, the service left a lot to be desired. And it ain’t cheap either—the service really didn’t match the price point, which was the biggest negative of...

Lowest quality food I ate while in CDMX -- unimpressed. I ordered the Imperial Milanesa, a beef entree. It was worse than a dive cafe diner's chicken fried steak. I expected it to come "bathed" in sauce; they must have assumed that I would not be able to handle the heat, and they put it on the side. The cheese was thickly layered and not fully melted. The steak was gristly and chewy. I ate half of it and had to stop. When the server picked up my dish, he joked and pointed at the fact I ate half of it.

My spouse ordered the meatballs with egg in them. They were OK (better than my beef). To me, they tasted cheap. The sauce was minimally seasoned. The rice was plain. The beans were from a can, or so they tasted. We did not finish this dish either.

We also didn't drink our water here. The server put ice in our glasses; after I poured my bottled water into my glass with ice, there was debris floating.

The appetizer was OK -- some noodle dish in a light tomato sauce. It kind of reminded me of baby food, but tasted good with some spicy sauce on it.

My second biggest regret after eating here is accidentally tipping too much for this experience. If you're considering this place, consider...

Ordered a 500 gram steak of “high quality” ribeye and paid 700 pesos for it. It was possible the worst cut I have ever eaten.It literally had huge chunks fat in all the wrong places and it was literally about a quarter of the steak. I am a simple meat eater cook my steak right and season with simple salt and pepper and you won’t get a complaint from me but this cut was so bad I had to say something and save my fellow meat eaters there money. Everything in that pic was pure fat. So...