Popocatepetl The Mexican Utrecht — Restaurant in Utrecht

We booked two 3-course meals through Social Deal (which means you get a selection of courses for a fixed price, excluding drinks and extra costs). The chicken wings starter was quite good, it was tasty but a little dry. The nachos were decently tasty but the plating did not allow easy and even eating, also it was somewhat low on meat quantity. As main course I had Pollo Picante, the flavor was good but again kinda dry, nice sides dishes though. The enchilada chicken was tasty but if you don’t like too much clumps of cheese it might be to overwhelming and the dish had a lot of bell pepper pieces (paprika), the rice side dish was kinda boring and dry (wasn’t very clear what part to eat that with). The drinks (pina con menta and Cuba Libre) were just okay, the pineapple drink was full of mint pieces that it was hard to drink without having leaves. The Cuba Libre was supposed to be Coca cola based but the taste of alcohol was a little too heavy. For dessert (churros and cinnamon ice cream) it had its good and lesser parts. Churros and vanilla ice cream were tasty but the chocolate sauce was not. The cinnamon ice cream was tasty but the red fruit was like a liquid sour jam. Then finally the service, unfortunately I might have caught them on a bad day. We were sat kind of hidden so this whole area did not get attention as needed. As for how we experienced it, sometimes she was at a table next to us but didn’t check on us, sometimes she’d look at our food while we were clearly finished and didn’t take it. Her attitude was not friendly more judgmental and quick. In the end they made a mistake on the bill and they were not considerative when I mentioned it. All in all it’s still a place to experience but not a place I’d quickly choose...

Honestly, the food looks great. It all looks alluring enough to whip appetite into a frenzy before you sate that need by eating. And that is where the disappointment strikes, right after the sinking feeling that something is amiss. And the part which is missing is the taste which is, to me, quite essential to the whole dining experience.

The sticky chicken feels like it's only cooked with a dash of sauce to give some semblance of flavour yet it missed the mark when you actually feel the grey, cooked flesh of the chicken. The bone-in-ham looked truly appetizing yet it's flavor profile was flat and rather underwhelming. The "salad" was nothing more than finely chopped coleslaw and the fries tasted like they were cooked in a low-quality air fryer. No slight crunch or deeper flavour.

Service-wise the staff did their best yet they seemed a bit overworked and undertrained though this is mostly nitpicking from my side. What irked me most was that my group of 12 was split into two different tables not even close or in line so conversation with the rest was impossible. If they could not handle a group they should have said so when we reserved our spot.

It's just too bad, the restaurant looks lovely and the staff has heart yet the core experience is rather lacking. I expected Mexican food with spice and a rich flavor profile yet instead failed to deliver....

So disappointing. I really missed my time in Mexico, so I went there. With my partner, we booked a table. When we arrived, the host was very cold and distant. Barely a smile. We then ordered cocktails. They were delicious! Before we received the cocktails, a waitress came to take our food orders and asked us about the drinks. First clue that the service is not very well-organised, but at that point, it can happen, it is fin.

We then ordered a starter "to share". That's when we started to really have doubts. We had a poor tortilla tostada filled with iceberg lettuce. 6 or 7 euros for that? Seriously? Not even an extra plate or something to help us share the food. I then had the vegetarian fajitas. The guacamole and fajitas themselves were obviously not homemade. You know when the guacamole is too smooth, too green, too homogeneous? Exactly like that. And again, only filled with iceberg sla and poor bell papers not even well cooked. It felt like they tried to put vegetarian meals on the menu without knowing a thing about that diet. I didn't even have beans with the salad!

That was sad, the service was sloppy, hesitant. I left before the desert. But the...