Boca Grande Eindhoven | Mexican Fine Food Sharing & Premium Cocktails — Restaurant in Eindhoven

Overall a weird experience. When I first arrived I asked for water for the table and was told "Ok" by one waitress who then never brought me water while waiting for the rest of my party. I figured she forgot until I read the other reviews and can see the owner has a very strict "no tap water" policy. Just give me water and put 10 cents extra on the bill. Considering cocktails are advertised heavily and customers could come just to drink it's bordering on irresponsible to not provide water when asked. Despite being illegal to do this in other western countries, it is legal in the Netherlands, but not common.

We then waited about 30 minutes to order. The restaurant was about 2/3rds full, each waiting staff would have to cover about 3 tables (which is pretty manageable, speaking as a former waiter) so waiting 30 minutes to be able to order the drinks for the whole table seems long. Starters arrived pretty quick (but they were nachos, so that should be pretty easy to manage). The nachos were very good.

Among the drinks menu we found an advertisement flyer for a clothing boutique, which is a little weird, but thought nothing of it until using the toilet; the upstairs of the restaurant is a clothing boutique and the model in the flyer looked a lot like one of the wait staff.

We than waited another 40 minutes for our main courses, and were not offered more drinks in that time. When the main arrived the portions were small for the price (18eu for a burrito is bizarre) and 5 of our 6 sides were missing. The quality of food was very good (besides a bell pepper that had not been deseeded properly), there is clearly a talented chef in the back, but whoever set the portion sizes/prices is not interested in value for money. Missing 5/6 sides is also pretty poor, and apparently this was down to a miscommunication between kitchen and waiting staff. We struggled to flag down a waiter to correct this so by the time we did we were ready to go. The waiter who came to us was wearing a white shirt instead of the uniform so I assumed he was the manager - which also explains why he wasn't running tables. He did not understand the issue, did not apologise, and said he had to get the waitress to address the issues, which is weird for a manager to do. As we were waiting he pulled up a chair at a nearby table and began talking to two men. When the waitress came (different from the first who refused to serve tap water) she quickly resolved the issue and was very polite - she was a complete professional. I asked if the waiter in the white shirt was her manager as he was dressed differently and was told he was a freelance waiter. So this freelance waiter wasn't running tables, and was pulling up a chair to talk to his mates - no wonder food was taking so long to come out and there were orders missed.

Overall one of the most negative dining experiences I've had in a few years and only the professionalism of the waitress and quality of food stops this being a 1-star review. Between the weird decision to have a clothing boutique in your Mexican restaurant, no manager present on a Saturday shift, bad communication between front and back of house, snarky comments in reply to other reviews, poor pricing/portion sizes and a "freelance" waiter literally sitting down to chat with his mates I can only put the poor experience down to bad management...

Having visited Mexico, I would never expect the food to match real Mexican cuisine. But we had a few surprises. Even after ordering many drinks, charging up a large bill for a Wednesday night when the restaurant was empty except for us, I cannot understand why we would be charged 3 euros each for a tiny sour cream and tiny guacamole which you would think would come with a quesadilla or burrito anyways. No salsa was possible so we took the dips offered but they were not mentioned on the menu and so we did not assume there would be a cost and were surprised when we saw them on the bill. Also, the spicy pumpkin soup had no spice so I had to send it back and when it came back it was much better. But it was only teenagers running the restaurant when we were there and we did not see any owner, manager and no one greeted us from the adult team of the restaurant. And lastly, when someone asks for hot sauce at a restaurant that serves Mexican food, you would think there would be some homemade spicy sauces or at least some high grade hot sauces available. Instead we got a confused look from the waitress and she came back with a small cup of tabasco sauce. Luckily we were at least not charged for that, lol...The food and cocktails were overall tasty, but the high cost and poor service might have something to do with why the place was empty at 6pm. We won't be back, but we certainly wish you...

The food is great and the staff are friendly. However, our recent experience was disappointing. We specifically booked an early dinner at 17:30 with our baby, hoping for a quick and easy meal. ​Despite being one of the first tables seated, we waited over 30 minutes for our starters, which we finished in just 5 minutes. The main course took another 40 minutes, and we noticed several tables that arrived after us received their food first. ​This isn't the first time we've experienced a long wait here, but this time was particularly disappointing because our baby became frustrated after an hour of waiting. Additionally, the music inside is quite loud, making conversation difficult and adding to the overall sensory overload, especially during a long wait. While we enjoy the food, it's clear this is not a place well-suited for families with young children due to the slow service and loud...