Four Roses — Restaurant in Groningen

While not short of any vibrance in night life, Groningen lacks ethnic cuisines. This makes the Four Roses appealing (more than it deserves) to those seeking for more authentic, more-than-your-Dutch variation of French-Italian-Greek-Japanese-Thai or Indian restaurants around the city to bring your family to for dinner. After all, the colorful Mexican decor, salsa music in the background with every brand of Tequila you could ever imagine lining up the shelf behind the bar, it would make this a perfect place for a night out with your mates to have something better (and costlier) than the usual watered down fraternity cocktails than elsewhere in the city.

Despite having made a reservation, we were left to wait standing for a long time. While staring at the bartenders juggling their orders, waitresses scurrying through the crowded tables until we were FINALLY seated, and not being served our drinks for the first 15 minutes into sitting, we figured they must have been so busy and popular for a reason. However, the busyness and the slow service (to a negligent level) showed absolutely zero correlation to the quality of the food and service. We waited an hour and a half to get our order, in the meantime trying to pass on our increasing impatience with good humour. Tables around us were also growing impatient with their orders taking so long as well.

We ordered an appetizer to share, which was comparable to the side order of nacho chips you would get from a burrito truck- soggy tortilla chips with cold-hardened cheese and micro-tomato pieces. Of the meals we ordered, the fries were undercooked and hard inside the middle, rice was undercooked, entree portions were small, and everything was extremely salty. The guacamole had a suspiciously bright colour (hint: food colouring) and caused us to have upset stomach soon after we left. The longer our night became the less friendly and more irritated the servers became, and we felt sorry to even keep asking for our drinks after they had long forgotten. This made the overall experience poor.

We are not pompous foodies nor difficult customers to please. But seriously, this place let us down.We didn't even have much...

In one phrase, the best Mexican food I've ever had in a restaurant. You come into a warm, welcoming place with a buzz and vibe. Menu is varied to suit all tastes without being too large, and captures the heart of true Mexican cuisine whilst still being accessible. Service was with a smile and genuine human connection. Food arrived on time and was good enough to set the standard nationwide. Not very spicy, perhaps, but I'd rather have damn good food than mediocre but spicy grub. And next time the heat chaser that I am knows to order the most Caliente variety. Then there was the drinks. Here you'll find an unpretentious professional and passionate expert who'll succinctly tell you everything you need to know about good quality tequilas and mezcals. Found a drink I love and felt like a valued patron. Will certainly return to this slice of heaven....

The food was nice. We ordered chicken fajitas, nachos and poppers. They all tasted really well. For drinks I had strawberry margarita (highly recommended) and we also had mezcal tasting. Drinks were good. But with entradas, they didn't bring cutlery. Which was a little weird for me because we needed them for side dishes on the plates.

For the bad part... When we first entered the restaurant, they were (I think) trying to fill the places from the back of it. So we couldn't pick a place to sit inside. But the weather was nice so we sat outside. Nobody came out to bring us even menus for 30 minutes. I had to go in and ask for service. Because of the delay a bottle of water and my margarita were on the house. But even after ordering our food service wasn't so quick.

As overall experience it was pleasent, would go...