El Mariachi Mexican Cantina & Margarita Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in Tonbridge and Malling

My family and I came here for my sister's birthday meal tonight. A small restaurant but we wore mexican hats and had a laugh whilst waiting for food etc. which was nice.

I don't drink alcohol so had a non-alcoholic Passion & Mango Daiquiri - The coconut was a bit overwhelming for my liking but I managed to drink it all.

I ordered the BBQ pulled pork burger and specifically requested NO ONIONS. Everyone on my side of the table heard me clearly and the nice waitress with the brown hair said that's fine. So what's the first thing I see when my meal arrives...? Onions. My sister told the blonde waitress with the glasses that this is not what I ordered so to please change it. Literally two seconds later I get given the exact same plate back... Why did you take the plate away in the first place if you weren't going to correct it? We had to chase it up again and I overheard the same waitress say "Are you allergic to them then?" Why does it matter if I am or not? I asked to not have them so I can enjoy my meal. If I am allergic, you could have potentially killed me! It's just the case of listening. Then she said "Do you want a new one then?" Although the atmosphere was loud, this came across extremely aggressive. It put me in the foul mood for the rest of the evening. I struggled to enjoy my meal. I took the beef burger out straight away and my brother had it. I don't get why you would have beef and pork together. It would have been ideal to have a pile of BBQ pulled pork between the buns with lettuce. The chips were incredibly bland and the salad was quite sad looking. Basically everyone else ate the majority of my meal.

I was too nervous to order a pudding so I got a hot chocolate. I wasn't particularly impressed with that either. Again, it was bland. There was no chocolate-y taste to it.

To top it off, I came home and remembered that I ordered Garlic Bread as a starter to come with the mains and I never got it! Luckily my brother-in-law kept the receipt because it turns out we got charged for it!

I feel like you had it in for me...

Really disappointing. We gave it a chance because the vibe as we walked in really got our hopes up. they really nailed the tex-mex theme. You could drop this place in Texas and it would pass the vibe check (I’m from Texas).

Everything went downhill once we got our drinks. We got a pitcher of margaritas and it was super weak and tasted like water more than anything else.

The food wasn’t terrible, but it’s soo off the mark of any sort of authentic style. Enchiladas are supposed to be basically drowning in sauce and cheese, but it only had a tiny little dried up drizzle of sauce. For some reason there was a huge pile of some really strange herbal “sour cream” that was really weird and definitely nowhere near a Mexican flavour. The beef filling was decent, but this was just not an enchilada.

They’re so close to getting this right, but some weird choices with the food just make it a big miss. It’s a problem with many Mexican or tex-mex places in England, and unfortunately this one is like the others.

If the owners read this: you could actually make the food cheaper by following an enchilada recipe. You don’t need guacamole on top, ditch the peppers/ salad, ditch the herbal sour cream. Just smother it in enchilada sauce. It’s super cheap and easy to make. Also put refied beans as the side. Corn tortilla would...

No booking to an empty restaurant & given a time limit?! I went with a friend that recommended this very restaurant. Out of courtesy both my friend & I chose a meal that wouldn't take too long due to a restricted time. I was not all impressed by the flavour to the meat. There were flies around the place, so tried to look past that! Every 15 mins or so a new waitress would veer to take the plates in the space of 1 hr and urged for the next dish. Even before finishing we had finished our meal. I found of poor grace & put us off wanting to even order more. After complaining to the rude approach of disturbing a meal. The manager admitted that they wanted the table for someone else. So rushing us to eat and force the bill then shove us out in making us feel uncomfortable, even given a time restraint one should not have to be pressured to rush even half way through a meal. Yet still be urged to buy more food. I've never felt so disgusted with the atmosphere, attitude and staff including manager/owner of this restaurant. The service from all round was not pleasant. If considered "fully booked" it is advised to be mindful not to take anymore bookings. Not...