Azteca Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Akron

Saturday 3/25 4pm, 4 people in party. As soon as you walk in the door it feels "dirty" idk the dust, the grease film, the tables and chairs all needed cleaned. We asked for a table and sat, the table was really wobbly, so we checked every table around us (we were the only customers in that side of the dinning room) they ALL wobbled. An employee came over and jokingly stated it was the floor.. nope.. not even remotely, all the table legs were uneven. Regardless, ordered drinks 1/2 pitch of margs and then 2 additional jumbos, we asked specifically if they had Mango flavored, we were told yes (NOPE got peach and it was gross) I ordered a soda with my drink, didnt bring. So far not off to a great start (never been here before was recommended) Ordered 4 meals, nothing special, straight off the menu. Brought the drinks, she literally dumps half the "on the rocks" marg on the table and the woman who ordered it. No apology, no extra napkins.. she just giggled and walked away. Sigh...45 seconds later our food comes out.. like NO WAY is it that fast...and dude is trying to just dump the plates and run.. as he sets the first plate down (mine) I can tell its not what I ordered.. not even close, then he calls out "nachos" again NOT OUR ORDER but instead of taking 2 seconds to listen he just keeps trying to drop the plate..he finally gets its not ours and he picks up the 2 plates and TAKES THEM TO ANOTHER TABLE.. now I know I didnt touch anything.. including the plate BUT EWWWWWW they dont know that. JUST GROSS. Our actual order comes out and... yeah again.. not great. My steak quesadilla was shredded pot roast, that was not "steak" just advertise shredded beef, dont say steak..its misleading, husbands shrimp enchiladas the 4 or 5 shrimp in each enchiladas were rubbery, overcooked, just gross. Our companions dinners were just as awful.. you get the point. So, here we are close to 100$ later and everything was just bad. Go to pay the check and I notice that the total (before I added the tip) was a little over a 1$ difference. I asked why, "oh your using a card, if you dont want to pay it use cash" WHAAAATTTT at the end of this AWFUL meal your now going to charge me to PAY FOR THIS AWFUL MEAL??? NOPITY NOPE NOPE. I dont randomly carry 100s of dollars in cash, do you? and now we are trapped.. what choice do I have, since I wasnt given one?? Overall, Dirty, poor service, bland gross drinks, bland bad food, stale chips, make sure your food didn't come from another table and you have to "pay" to pay for your meal. Save yourself the hassle.. Go to Titos in Fairlawn or El Papas on Howe. Much better...

I was considering leaving only two stars, but the food was so good I must bump up to three. However - and this is important - there are very good reasons the experience cannot be rated higher.

One: The tortilla chips/salsa, which can and will be used as an easy first impression because you will have them at every Mexican or Tex/Mex restaurant you will dine at. The tortilla chips here are dry and unsalted, making them simply a delivery mechanism for the salsa. The salsa was surprisingly spicy with a good flavor, but very watery. We had to ask a few times for a second bowl for our party as some of us wanted to add salt.

Two: We were dying for strong drinks after a hard day, so I asked specifically if the margaritas were strong. Our server indicated that he'd make them strong. I ordered a pitcher, and when asked "Gold?' replied YES PLEASE. I would be shocked if there was more than one shot of tequila in the entire pitcher. Not one of us felt even a slight buzz, which is completely unacceptable for a $22 pitcher. The menu price for a pitcher said $21.75, so the 'Gold' may have resulted in an even higher cost. For basically fruit juice. :(

Three: It took 20 mins for our server to come back to take our order, we were actively looking around wondering if he'd gone on break or something. Asked again for a second bowl of salsa, and napkins.

Four: We were seated in a booth by a bumped-out bay window, which featured some dead-looking plants, dust, and cobwebs. Not what you'd consider an appealing atmosphere.

In closing - when our food came, it was outstanding. One of the best chicken fajita quesadillas I've ever had. The rice served with it was flavorful, and a generous helping of sour cream was also provided. I'm still stung from paying $22 for a pitcher of iced fruit...

Paid $72 (including a 20% tip) and they forgot HALF my food. They handed my husband a stuffed, tied bag. When we got home we realized they forgot $30 worth of food. When I called them, Sandra asked if we could make the 25 min drive back to pick up the food (no) informed me she had no idea who we ordered from (clover) implied that a door dasher took the other half of my order (my husband said the was not ready yet when we got there and that it was handed directly to him as soon as it was done) and implied that it was my fault for not checking (because my husband was supposed to open this bag in the middle of the restaurant??? Or maybe she thought I should open a bunch of Mexican food in my car). She couldn't refund me but would "put a credit on the books" (my husband says that is probably the "spit in their food" list.)

I didn't get any dinner, except for 1 pitiful chimichanga that didn't have mole or cheese sauce but some sort of weird, thin gravy, ice cold of course. We ordered a large white salsa but got a large container of cheese instead. That was probably for the best, as the tiny dipping cup of white salsa we got was just miracle whip with a pinch of spices.

My kids churros were nice. My husband said his burrito was basic, but good, even though it was cold.

Finally, even if we had checked the overflowing bag in my car or in the middle of their busy restaurant, we still would have thought all the food was there because the gave us 2 tinfoil wrapped packets and a large, random container. The packets were just plain tortillas with nothing else and the container appears to be some kind of mushroom soup (none of us eat mushrooms)

0 stars and I will call...