Tequila Joe's — Restaurant in North Island

Booked in for a large group for my birthday dinner giving the restaurant 2 weeks notice. I got called on the day to organise a pre order from all the guests coming. We were happy to pre order but a bit more notice would have been appreciated as it felt rushed and made issues when receiving the orders.

On arrival the table we were provided was extremely close to the wall meaning if anyone on that side wanted to get up they would have to crawl under the table. Not to mention there were not enough seats for the amount of people I had booked for. If this was going to be an issue I would have rather been told it wasn’t able to happen than have my friends standing while eating their dinner.

The food was relatively quick to the table and what I had was tasty but not filling in the slightest (I ordered a main and appetiser).

Two of the nachos that were ordered never came to the table and so those people never ate. However when paying the staff we’re arguing that they did in fact make the nachos and they had it on camera of them bringing it to the table. We asked to see the footage as we knew confidently they did not bring these meals but they said they wouldn’t pull the footage up.

At the end when the last person paid they also said there was a drink unpaid which no one ordered. My friend said okay and was willing to pay their meal and the drink that wasn’t anyone’s and when they were charged they charged them for the remained of the bill (the 2 nachos that never arrived and the drink as well as their own meal)

When leaving they told us we’re not welcome there anymore. I found this quite disheartening as these mistakes were not made by us. If there was confusion it could have been resolved easily but instead having my friends and family accused of lying and being yelled at but when asked for proof they couldn’t give us any.

If I had known the experience would be like this I would have opted for a different restaurant as there are many in town that accommodate for large groups with ease.

Very disappointed as this was a first for most of my group. We were told not to come back but to be very honest I wouldn’t go back and would discourage other people from dinging here in a group...

My friends and I came to Tequila Joes for the Thursday All you can eat Taco’s night. We were very excited to try this out as this was our first time and thought this place would be the perfect place for us.

Unfortunately, we were sadly disappointed by the service received during our time. Firstly, when we were waited on, we had ordered a few drinks and 2 shots. To our surprise we were waiting for more than 20 minutes for 2 shots to come to our table. We flagged down the waiter 3 times and each time she said “ I’ll check on it now “ and every time she walked past nothing had changed. So my friend who ordered the shots got up walked to the bar and had to order them again as they hadn’t even been ordered in the first place along with a Virgin Margarita.

As the night progressed we received our tacos each time they came, the less appealing they looked and tasted. At one point we were disgusted at the beef flavoured tacos.

The fillings looked like they had been slapped on and chucked onto the taco and when we took a bite it was watery and gross. The substance in which they were cooked in dropped into our plates and was not enjoyable to eat. Which put us off completely. The wait time for each taco was average. but as we got more it took longer and longer each time.

After this we were not only appalled with the service of the night and the food wasn’t as great. We decided it was time to leave, and as we were about to leave and pay. Our virgin Margarita had come as we are getting ready to pack up and leave. We were told we could not take it away as they had no cups and said we had to drink it before we left.

Overall, I would not recommend foodwise, let alone the service and the actual atmosphere. It makes me sad to think that a place with so much potential has left us with this impression on our first visit. We will not be returning and we will be sure to make note to others that ask us that we do...

Talk about bland. Everything is overpriced for what you get.

I ordered the beef rancheros and the meat was super fatty and covered in a very dark sauce that tasted and looked nothing like a typical ranchero sauce. The sauce had a burnt flavor mixed with chilli, I had about 3 bites before I had to stop because the taste was so bad . To the contrary, the black beans were so bland I would have preferred to buy a basic can of beans and cry into it so that there was at least some sense of flavor.

We also got a chicken quesadilla that looked delicious, perfectly cook and heaps of chicken. Problem was the chicken was dry and there was hardly any cheese. Disappointing but still better than the beef ranchero.

Tequila Joe's also managed to make flavorless guacamole. But their house made corn chips were on point.

Setting and service where fine when we arrived but as soon as the place started filling up, the bartender would keep turning up the radio every time the voices got louder. Eventually people were yelling just to be able to hear each other.

I requested a to-go container because I live with boys that will eat anything. The server offered to package it up for me which is all good, normally. He put about 1/4 of the remaining food in a container and called it a day.

Overall, this was the most disappointing dining experience I have had...