El Mexicano Steak House — Restaurant in Funchal

This is hands down the absolute most terrible food on the island. This is a place to steal the tourists money. You are greeted by a years old sign saying that their credit card machine is down and they only accept cash or revolu. The gauge of a great Mexican food restaurant is their chips and salsa ..here for 9€ we ordered the chips and guacamole. This came out in a plastic bowl with 1.5 oz of Doritos jarred guac. On Madeira I purchase avocados all of the time, they are abundant, delicious, and we make fresh guacamole 2x a week... just for perspective, they are changing 230€ a kg for this prized garbage....we also ordered the 6€ chips and salsa... insulting, and a crime against humanity to charge 6€ for some continent chips and some mild tomato concoction in a plastic bowl with 1.5 Ramikin of weak ass attempt of salsa. The service is not good at all, we were only 2 tables in the restaurant on a Thursday night from 7-9pm, we had to hunt down the server in the kitchen after he never returned. They then do that scam where they give you an ipad with your bill on it ..of course they will be deleting this bill off of the iPad as they only take cash so they don't have to pay any VAT on it. Scummy practices, terrible food, unattentive service, ZERO for value and so unacceptable to charge 15€ for some store bought chips and a couple of ramikins of sauces. Oh and they give you a coupon for 5% off your next visit🤣 dare to dream!!!! we would only have to pay €14.25 next time for the raping... This is hands down one of the worst tourist traps on Madeira island they should be ashamed and embarrassed to do business like this. We were also warmed not to get margaritas here because they...

I have no clue why people are giving this place a 1 star.

First off, our server was very helpful and friendly. He did speak very good English. The restaurant is decorated very cute. The tables are varied with different chairs. Some have leather comfy chairs and others are director's chairs. The kitchen is a type of open kitchen where you can view the chefs cooking and preparing food behind a glass window. The food is a little more expensive than other local places, but you are eating foreign food, so most is likely harder to make and the ingredients hard to get (I know as we live off Mexican style foods as it was part of our culture back home). It is also in a tourist area. The food was good. My husband who is Cuban Mexican, really liked the tacos. I got beef taquitos and they were also good. I also had a margarita and it was decent. The owner was very nice and showed us some of the pieces and where he got them...

From the general reviews of this place I had higher expectations. The largest issue at this restaurant is the service. I think it was such an issue because they are under staffed. Food was ok, above fast food but definitely not in the realm of good Mexican. Waited for almost 30 minutes for our drinks and to top it off a margarita that was ordered when we arrive only was delivered when we wanted to leave (after 4 requests to 2 different individuals) which we didn't want at that point. Then when trying to pay they suddenly didn't accept credit cards. Despite the signs on the door (our waitress said we don't accept CCs and then when asking another the machine wasn't working today, making it hard to believe either), we were able to gather enough cash but not being told before we ordered (and I firmly believe we were lied too) didn't leave a good final impression. This is a place I would...