Porter Steakhouse & Seafood — Restaurant in Mexico City

I have gone through the trouble of writing reviews less than 10 times in my life. By and large only when it's really good or something really bothered me. The threshold for me writing a bad review is much higher because I'd rather just let it go. But I felt like I was in a tourist trap in this place. A number of things went wrong here of which I'll list just a couple.

My friend and I ordered about 7 items. The main entree I was looking forward to was a rather undercooked steak. At one point they removed a half eaten plate out from in front of my friend to replace with the main. The plate was never returned. When I mentioned that my friend was not done eating, they looked baffled and confused that it should be returned to the table, embarrassing us in the process. My friend spoke Spanish, so this was not a language issue.

All good, let's keep moving and not spoil an otherwise expensive experience. Eventually the maitre 'd came to ask if everything was okay. This was nice. My friend sheepisly mentioned in Spanish that my main was undercooked. He paused and looked apologetic, hesitated, and then just carried on. He just made a split second mental decision to move on. No big deal for him, ja.

And the kicker: not once in my many months here in CDMX has anyone done this propina manipulation trick with me, but when the bill arrived I was confidently asked "will that be 15% or 18% sir?" If you know, 10% is the starting point for tips in Mexcio. The coward that I am, I accepted the offer for 15% ha. Rats. I hate this type of feeling when spending ~...

I received the worst service I have ever received in my life. That's why I'm giving it a low rating. On the other hand, I must say that I ate the most delicious grilled octopus I have ever eaten in my life.

To explain in detail: We had to sit at the table directed by the waiter with his harsh and sullen expressions, while almost all of the outside tables of the restaurant were empty. While ordering and at the service stage, the waiters were very indifferent and reluctant. At the end of the day, our orders came and we ate our food. Yes, the food was delicious.

After dinner for two, we asked for the bill; the account was 1336 mexican pesos. We travel a lot and we tip a lot in the countries we go to, whether it is stated on the invoice or not. There was no explanation about tip on the bill at this restaurant and I got up leaving 1400mexican pesos. I didn't even think about tipping because the staff was so rude.

As I was leaving the restaurant, the waiters cut me off and forced me to tip. I felt very bad. If they had stated it on the invoice and I knew it was mandatory, I would have left anyway, even though they didn't deserve it. I asked if I had to tip because I thought they didn't deserve the tip and didn't want to give it. They said yes and forced me to leave 60 more mexican pesos :)

At the end of the day, if tipping is mandatory in Mexico, it should be stated on the bill. If not, I was bullied at...

Wonderful place. Steak was undercooked but they went over and beyond in cooking us some things off the menu so I've got to give them props for that. The biggest annoyance, and it was an pretty major problem, was how often we were interrupted by random people trying to sell us stuff. I'm used to it here as it happens everywhere in Mexico, but this was unbelievably frequent. We couldn't get 5 minutes into a conversation without someone actively interrupting us to shock us with electricity, buy candy, buy flowers, people just begging for money, guitarists, trumpeters, you name it. Sometimes we had three people stop in the same minute. It was unbearable. We probably should have asked to move inside honestly.

I get wanting to let the locals make some money, but the frequency of the interruption bordered on the wrong side of harassment.

Porters needs to get that under control or it will drive...