Carlota's Authentic Mexican — Restaurant in Arizona

This review supercedes a previous positive dinner review when we were a party of 6 and this restaurant was still located across the street.

This time we were a party of 8. My wife had called earlier in the day for a reservation for our planned arrival at 5:30 on a Sunday night. The person my wife spoke to said they not longer took reservations. Odd, because the automated telephone answering system required her to give her name before putting her thru. Whatever, my wife and I arrived 30 minutes early to get in line and planned to have a drink at the bar.

The rest of our party arrived a bit early too or on time. Then we all waited in the bar for the next hour and 30 minutes. They'd previously told my wife and I it would be a 30-40 minutes wait max, and kept saying "soon" when asked where we were in the queue. Otherwise we won't have waited.

The 8 of us stood around at a table for 2 that had a drinks and meals from previous guests that wasn't bused during the time we were there. Yes, we asked a couple times. They said they were too busy.

They never once came by to ask if anybody wanted a drink. I eventually went to the counter and asked the bartender standing immediately in front of me for a beer. He said "I'll put you on my list", and immediately turned away and walked down to the other end of the bar to talk to a customer he apparently knew. I never got that beer. He never looked down to my end of the bar again.

When we were finally seated and had waited another 10+ minutes at the table the waitress said she could not serve torrita chips until we placed our food order. We'd been waiting over an hour and a half and were really hungry. "Sorry that's our policy now".

It was past 7:15 pm now so my wife and I had been there over 2 hours. We all quickly ordered and our meals arrived a few minutes later. Most all other customers had finished their dinners and left by now and so were just about the only people left in the restaurant. Why had they been so slow to seat us? "There was a party of 7 with a reservation that we seated ahead of you.". Reservations? We were way past caring what the story there might be.

What made the experience so exceptionally painful for all 8 of us was that the staff was so completely inattentive, seemingly ignoring us on purpose.

Then we got our bills, and discovered they'd added an 18% tip, and were being charged for the torrita chips. According to the menu the first cereal sized bowl was free. This was indeed the appropriate ending to a miserable evening.

There many good Mexican restaurants in Tucson to chose from. We certainly won't be back...

Giving Carlota's just three stars seems a bit stingy, so let's call it 3.50 stars, eh?

Today was my first visit, after seeing a lot about it on Facebook and so forth. And, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed Carlota's food, and the environment and the staff.

I've heard/read people say that they thought it was awful ... but I think they must have had something that they simply didn't like.

Because I think they have the best, or close to the best, salsa in town; and their chips are very, very good too.

I might have given it a higher rating, but the albondigas I had were mostly meat and were very filling (five BIG meatballs in a BIG bowl of soup -- AND the corn tortillas they served with it were fresh and seemed to be handmade) were mostly meat/beef. That might sound funny, but all the albondigas I've had before had rice and spices mixed in with the meat. So, maybe there's a style of cooking them that is pretty much pure meat and if so, I apologize for saying anything even slightly negative. But, I would have preferred a slightly 'softer' albondiga (if that's the word), with rice included and perhaps some garlic in the soup and inside the albondiga itself.

Also, one reason I give less than 5 stars for places that are otherwise excellent is that I do not like Pepsi and I just tolerate RC Cola. Carlota's serves RC Cola, which is not awful. But, it's not Pepsi.

Finally, I was there about 12:30 p.m. on Friday. I did not have to wait, but there were a lot of people there. Older people. A woman with two children. Business people. Laborers. Everyone seemed to be very pleased with their meal.

The people were friendly, also, they even offered me a free sample of their sopapilla ... it was VERY good.

I recommend Carlota's. It's a lot better, a LOT LOT LOT better than El Molinito's on Oracle near the Hilton. If I had only El Molinito's to choose from for Mexican food for the rest of my life, I'd give up eating Mexican food. Carlota's, on the other hand, I'd be happy to eat their food for the...

Hidden gem!! Me and some buddies (4 of us) were in Tucson visiting & came across this restaurant and decided to give it a try. From the outside looks like a nice hidden gem & when we walked in it had hardwood floors & a great layout and great ambiance.

We were offered salsa (a normal salsa & a habanero style) & chips which seems normal and we took advantage! The salsa is homemade & it was amazing! The "regular" salsa had a great flavor and the heat was mild, whereas the habanero had less flavor than the regular salsa and had a medium heat that also had a 2nd layer - then we combined them and were blown away that you could eat the regular salsa by itself or make it pop adding the habanero to taste.

I had the chicken chimichanga & added the green sauce to it. Excitedly when it arrived I have to say was a good size to a big chimi. The green sauce was so good & complimented the chicken chimi...and my first bite showcased the flavor of the chicken - and they don't skimp on the meat! They couldn't do anything wrong at this point. My buddies had variations similar (some had goat meat) and another some tacos. None of us were disappointed - and bought salsa to take home as there are so few places that have fantastic salsa. With this said...every time we are in Tucson we know where we are having lunch...No doubt.

The staff welcomed us when we walked in, they made us feel like we were part of a family gathering and so friendly. Even joked with us because we really went crazy for the chips & salsa - as explained.

Go...