Mountain Madre Mexican Kitchen & Agave Bar Downtown AVL — Restaurant in Asheville

What a beautiful restaurant. From the moment you walk in the door the atmosphere and decor welcome you like a warm hug. We started at the bar to have Margaritas while we waited for a table and was greated by the largest selection of Tequilas and Mezcal. You can make your Margarita dreams come true at Mountain Madre. Now I know how I love my Margaritas made, so after reading the cocktail menu I asked the bartender to add agave syrup and orange zest and she was more than accommodating and willing. That’s great customer service. So that’s the thing with some patrons giving 1 or 2 stars. You can’t please everyone so if you know you like something and you want something extra that’s not quite included don’t be afraid to speak up and say so. Case in point. I am Venezuelan born and I know what hotness I like and what flavors I love in my food. I have been eating black beans all my life so after receiving my black beans I knew that I needed more than just black beans, I need flavors in there so I ordered the salsa. The amazing tasting Street corn I had before that was bombtastic and I wanted those flavors on there and boom I added it and it was perfect. I had the vegan chicken tacos and they were delicious and tasty with this nice mix of veggies on top that made it so fresh. The flavors were on point. Everyone at our table of six loved their food and walked away super happy. The owner Danny, awesome and kind guy by the way, came by several times and took care of us and our birthday girl. The meals took longer to come out but we didn’t mind and understood it was Friday night and super busy so they gave us some queso and guaco with chips, that’s how you comp customers. The chef, I believe his name was Kyle, came out apologized for the wait and asked us how everything was! That’s beautiful! I couldn’t have asked for a better night from such caring and amazing people to make my friends birthday any more special. Now your wondering about cost. Well that’s all relative to what you feel a good drink unique food and atmosphere is worth to you! Me I don’t mind paying more if I am getting what I want or I am asking for more than what is being offered. One thing is for sure I love food and as someone who has been cooking Latin food since she was six I can appreciate when someone makes some damn good food! Thank you for taking care of us Danny and all at...

Edit after the business response: I appreciate the response. However, I did question the server on why I could only choose beans as the filling & why I couldn't have beans & rice like any other Mexican restaurant I've ever been to. The server told me there were no substitutions, contradicting the business response.

I also understand the downtown prices are expected to be higher. However, with such a drastic price difference also comes much higher expectations. The quality of a $10-12 plates in other more expensive city downtowns is much better compared to the $17-24 plates we got at Mountain Madre. Just facts. Hopefully this dialogue helps the food & flexibility improve even if the prices don't.

Original review: This place is a tourist trap. The prices are outrageous & the taste is bland. The enchiladas I ordered were "pre-made" with no substitutions and with it didn't come with beans like at every other Mexican place (just rice & some corn) it made sense because the ONLY filling in the enchiladas were beans.... No veggies, nothing. Bizarre.

The taco salad was like soup. The salsa was bland and didn't come with the food.... We had to beg for a small side of salsa without paying because each plate was $17 - $24 and didn't include salsa/guac?!

This is a place run by someone who either doesn't know what Mexican food is, doesn't care about quality and/or hasn't been to a properly run Mexican restaurant (I've been to 100+ run better for 1/3 the price). For just 2 mediocre plates and some expensive chips & guac (AGAIN NO SALSA?! they wanted like $7 more for salsa omg) I paid more than if I'd gone to a good Mexican restaurant and gotten 4 margaritas (we had waters because we couldn't afford paying for drinks after the expensive food), but it's ok a place with poor food probably doesn't have good margarita.

Unfortunately the service was great but couldn't make up for the terrible experience.

Also we were sat in a cold corner near the door when there were DOZENS of tables in a bright, warm...

We were in Ashville for a wedding, and my husband decided to take me to this restaurant because my favorite food is Mexican. I had to laugh because our server was the epitome of the tiktoks I see on what an Ashville server is like. There was no explanation of the menu or how things came. I wanted 2 street tacos with ground beef and all the fixins. There was confusion around the sauces, again, which could have been a non issue if there was an explanation on how the menu worked. We were encouraged to buy a flight or trio of sauces to try them out. I just wanted 2 tacos with salsa. The menu was confusing as it did not show that they came with salsa or pico.

The server brought me a tablespoon of salsa and a tablespoon of pico on the side for my two street tacos. I know everyone's taste buds are different, but the ground beef was not seasoned well at all. It was mainly salt with a little bit of a chili powder taste. The street tacos were on ONE corn tortilla. My experience, everywhere else in the world, is that street tacos come with 2 corn tortillas. The taco was so hard to eat I ended up dumping the inside on top of the beans and rice so I could eat it with a fork. Unfortunately, the beans were not cooked or properly seasoned either. I was very disappointed in the lack of service, flavor of the food, and the inability to eat the taco with one flimsy tortilla that fell apart before I could finish.

They only had a craft vodka, but that was fine. They could not make martinis, but the vodka soda I ordered was absolutely delicious and made very well.

All in all, not a good Mexican food experience, but the atmosphere and drinks were nice. We went back to the hotel and ate food we brought...