El Castillo Mexican Bar & Grill — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

The staff were friendly and helpful, and it's a nice space, however, the food was disappointing, not authentic Mexican, pretty bland, and didn't seem fresh. The overall impression of the food was that it was pre-prepared, microwaved or straight out of a jar/packet. The quesadilla starter was soggy and the salsa it came with tasted too sweet for my liking, and a sour cream accompaniment would have been better. The halloumi cheese starter was not well seasoned, rubbery and served with bland jarred mango chutney. The garlic parmesan fries seemed like dry oven chips, slightly burnt, no garlic and not fresh parmesan. The mains were slightly tastier than the starters, but overall felt that we could have prepared better quality food at home ourselves. The fish stew was served with a huge amount of rice and was more like a curry than a stew. I liked the broccoli that came with the seafood trio as it was nice and al dente, however, sauce it came with was described on menu as as garlic butter, which it was not, and was more like a packet sauce of some kind that tasted a bit like the fake nacho cheese you get with cinema nachos. On a more positive note it's in a lovely spot down at Newhaven harbour and the space inside has...

Me and my friend were genuinely quite shocked by the way the waitress addressed us throughout our meal. I am female and my friend who was with me is male. Between greeting us, taking our order etc she never acknowledged me once, it was “what drinks would you like sir?”, “how is everything with your table sir?”, “would you like to see the dessert menu sir?” “How was your food sir?” And finally “here is your bill sir” and she put that right in front of him as though he would be paying for me (which he was not). Oddly, she did not appear to mean anything by it but it felt like we were living in a different century and we found it extremely rude. The place has great decor and I would have marked it higher on the atmosphere if not for the waitress making me feel extremely invisible and uncomfortable. Food was very bland and both our meals had absolutely zero spice to it (rather odd for a Mexican restaurant). Oh and just to rub it in, severe lack of cheese on my burrito bowl! About half a teaspoon… overall a very disappointing experience. I...

We visited here as a party of seven with one child and two dogs. We were instantly made welcome and waiter, Damian, was attentive and polite. The food was absolutely to die for! We had starters that were devoured by all...the mains were all delicious and generous portion sizes, which we loved as we're big eaters! 😁 I am vegan and was extremely happy with the way Damian made sure I didn't miss out and provided vegan substitutes to all parts of my menu choices, you don't find that in every restaurant, sadly! Made all the difference 🙂 would highly recommend this restaurant and hope to be back very soon when we're in the area. Thank you for a lovely family meal ❤️ Would recommend tempura cauliflower bites, hot habenara wings and garlic chicken starters, (these were all highly rated by our party!). Mains - I had vegetable sizzler fajitas... unbelievable! 🤤😋 every other main on our table went down a treat. You'll not...