Tequila & Taco — Restaurant in Alexandria

I've been to this location dozens of times. I loved the food but from my experience tonight, I'll never go back. If you're black Q I recommend you don't give this place your business.

When greeted by the hostess, outside, she seemed bothered. I didn't think anything of it because i assumed it was busy inside. It wasn't. I was sat in the back corner of the room. No big deal. Just want some tacos.

This is where the issues started. The waitress, young female, for the section visited the table in front of me 2 time. Every time looking me in the eye, but not offering me water or even taking my order. This happened one more time. After 25 minutes of no service I asked the hostess if someone could assist me. After saying"excuse me" I was responded to with a "what". Rude for no reason.

After 10 more minutes of no service Victor comes over. He brings water, chips and salsa. He also brought the hard truth. When asked if I was part of his section he stated "no". Victor went on to stated that his section was on the other side of the restaurant. He told me the section I sat in made an "L" around the windows of the restaurant. When asked why the young lady assigned to my section wouldn't serve me he stated that she said she was busy. That was interesting because of the 9 tables she had. 3 we're empty. 4 we're eating, one was just seated and she brought them water and I just sat there. Still no service after 30 minutes.

Upon request, Victor got the manager Juan. Juan heard my complaint but had no idea why she didn't serve me. He went to speak to the hostess and that's when I decided that the establishment wouldn't recieve my business. On my way out I warned another couple about the incident before they decided to eat here. On my way out I heard Juan addressing the hostess. I shook his hand and thanked him for listening to my complaint. I only hope that he handles the situation appropriately. I wasn't going to waste any more of my time waiting to find out.

I'm a African American male. My hair cut is short and neat. I came in wearing a zip up hoody and a solid black tee shirt. I wasn't drunk or boisterous. I was polite with staff. Even when complaining to Juan I was calm and collected. What I noticed from the waitress was all the tables she served with outstanding customer service were patronized by white customers. The table beside me, in her section, was being patronized by African American customers. Over hearing their conversation, they too were having problems with service.

There is nothing normal about how the young female waitress acted. She deliberately didn't serve me but served the table of all white customers seated in front of me with a smile. Even though they were sat down 20 minutes after me. If you're black, a person of color or an ally do not patronize this business. There are other local taco options that...

All in all, nothing to write home about. The margarita did it's job, delicious and well balanced, not overly sweet, with the right amount of tequila to be noticed but not to affront the senses.

The food. The chips were fresh, with just enough salt on them. The salsa was flavorful, I'd like to go back and ask if they can add a little bit of heat to it... something to make it pop.

The Enchiladas, you can pick and chose any meats you want with 3 enchiladas. Steak, Shrimp (costs +$2). Ground beef, grilled chicken, shredded chicken, and a few others. I ordered the ground beef and shredded chicken and assumed that the ground beef would be the weaker of the two meats I had selected. However upon diving into the beef enchilada I was pleasantly surprised, well seasoned not overly salty, and incredibly flavorful, as I'm writing this up I wish I had gotten three of them. The shredded chicken was ok, not great, bordering on boring. There simply wasn't enough sauce, now keep in mind this isn't a Tinga Shredded chicken, this is just plain ol' shredded chicken ... which was a bit overcooked as well. Dry, the chicken was dry.

Accoutrement: The enchiladas came with Spanish rice and refried beans. Which had diametric problems. If I didn't know any better I would have thought that the Spanish rice was simply a packet of Uncle Ben's Ready Rice. It was just missing a whole lot of flavor. The refried beans were overly salty, and honestly made me pine of a glass of water.

Service and Staff: Pleasant, honest, check-in frequently without being over bearing. It was a nice place to grab a seat at the bar. I've never quiet had an experience where the manager comes by, asks how the food is. Hears "It's ok," with some hesitancy, and accepts it and walks away. I didn't want to push the issue, considering it was good enough to clean the plate. But I would have appreciated giving this feedback so the kitchen can hear it and find other solutions.

Time: The food came out fast! Almost drive through fast. Which makes sense especially if their primary audience is people grabbing lunch here during the work week, it would also explain if the chicken is pre-made and shredded and kept warm -- this would dry it out over time. It's dinner, I don't need to receive my food within 5-10 minutes of ordering.

Desert: Get the keylime pie, Your Welcome. This...

Overall pretty good. Tequila & Taco is a great Mexican/Tex-Mex restaurant located in the heart of downtown Alexandria.

I stopped by here on a Friday evening around the dinner hour so, obviously, the restaurant was pretty busy but we were able to be seated immediately outside.

At first, our service was pretty good. We got our chips and salsa delivered within minutes of sitting down and the waiter had our drink orders soon after.

That's when things started to slow down a little. We got our food probably 15 minutes later and it was a HOT minute before we saw our waiter again. Understandably, the restaurant was pretty busy, but she only stopped by once during the meal to make sure everything was okay and, by that point, most of us were dying of dehydration and finished half our meal without some of the condiments (salsa, hot sauce, etc.) we had hoped for. Not a huge deal, but definitely a bit irritating.

I will say she was quick to bring the check and quick to pick it up once we were finished eating.

The menu wasn't super diverse, though there were a plethora of drink options, but it covered your main Mexican options (burritos, fajitas, enchiladas, salads, etc.)

The food itself was pretty good. I ordered a beef burrito which was filled with rice, beans, lettuce and some shredded beef. It was good, but certainly nothing to write home about. The meat tasted a little bland and the enchilada sauce on the top wasn't quite enough to give every bite flavor.

That said, there was plenty of food. The burrito was quite large and I definitely left the restaurant filled.

Another thing that sort of bugged me was that the soda was delivered in individual cans. I've spent some time in South America, so I get that's kind of an authentic touch, but we're not in South America; we're in the United States and dang it, I get thirsty during my meal and don't want to pay $2 for another glass. Just kind of felt like a money-grab to me.

Will I come back here? Potentially if I'm in the area and have a sudden craving for Mexican food, but apart from that,...