El Azteca - Ashland — Restaurant in Ashland

Absolutely unimpressed with El Azteca Ashland, having only been there one time with a group of about 20 people. We worked with the restaurant several days in advance so they knew that we were planning to arrive at 6PM and needed to be finished and out the door by 7:30PM for another engagement.

We arrived on time (4 stragglers were 10 minutes late) and they had space in the back room area for us, but the service started to break down very quickly. It seemed that the one server dedicated to us could handle about 4 orders at a time. That's four drink orders. Then back for four more. Then four more. Etc... and some folks were missed.

Then the same pattern for the meal order. Four at a time. Then four more. Etc... and others were missed. Some dishes were just incorrect. Others were cold.

Others dishes were just plain weird... steak tacos served as bits of crumbled meat on flour tortillas with nothing else; no lettuce, salsa, cheese or any other item. When asked, the server who had just put the dish down on the table actually looked at it (we guess for the first time), rolled his eyes, then picked up the plate and took it back to the kitchen. It returned 5 minutes later with OK fillings.

Some were barely served by the needed 7:30PM departure time and they mostly just paid and walked away (can't imagine leaving any tip).

Consensus: Sloooooow. Inaccurate. Bland. Odd. Many had never been here before and remarked that they did not plan to return. Our...

This restaurant has catered its menu towards a population that does not enjoy salt or spice, because this is probably the blandest Mexican food I have ever had.

Ordered 1 tamale and 1 tostada. The tamales are obviously brought in frozen and heated up in the kitchen. I don't know how a tamale slathered in sauce could still be so tasteless, but there you go. I could choke down maybe 1/4th of this aberration before giving up on it.

As for the tostada - well, when you get a tostada, you anticipate the crunch of the shell, the creaminess of the sour cream and guacamole, the tang of pico de gallo and the delicious heat of beans and meat. This tostada? Well, my expectations were turned to mush, literally. The shell was so soggy it fell apart before I had the chance to pick it up. There was so little meat it was hidden by the lettuce and guacamole. But I guess it was topped off nicely by a large slice of tomato. They couldn't even be bothered to dice it up, at the very least.

The tortilla chips - well, they are tortilla chips. You can't mess those up. At least I had a nice snack from this.

If you need to ease your way into Mexican food, or have always wanted a more toned-down version of Mexican food because you can't handle flavor, this would be your...

It’s not hard to figure out why Ismael and his staff continue to position El Azteca as the top Mexican restaurant from Doswell down to Glen Allen. His staff is well above average… they hustle… remember those days? It’s refreshing.

Decor could use an upgrade. I am told that it is already being planned.

Menus at El Azteca are updated to meet customer demands regularly. Just check out the dinner specials as you enter the restaurant. Or check out their Mea/Facebook page: “El Azteca Ashland”.

Tonight I had seafood on the brain and they delivered big time. Off menu special. Salmon, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, mushrooms, avocado… yikes!! The salmon was cooked perfectly. They also prepare this delicious plate with two chicken breasts. I usually travel to Richmond to find half of what was on my plate tonight. Of course, if you arrived at El Azteca with Mexican cuisine on the brain… you are definitely in the right place.

I shouldn’t have, but after a brief description of their new signature dessert, I had to risk total food coma. In Puerto Rico we call it flancocho. It’s a layer of flan resting on a rich vanilla or chocolate cake. Absolutely decadent. ...