Mezcal Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Ashland

My quest for out-of-this world Mexican food in Ashland continues. I was hoping Mezcal would be a contender after making its triumphant return following a 3 year hiatus. I never got a chance to try the place the first go-around, so better late than never.

The location has it all. Downtown spot amidst the friendly Ashland bustle. Third floor balcony seats with an amazing view of the valley—unbeatable when the weather is just right. We made reservations outside and it ended up being a gorgeous warm evening with a cool breeze. Drinks came out. I was stoked for a nice meal.

The eats were ultimately lacking. The highlight of the meal was the chorizo queso dip for the chips. Aggressive flavor with diced peppers and seasoned chorizo in each bite. My main was the shrimp enchiladas which I think they forgot to season. Enchiladas tasted like plain tortillas, rice tasted like plain rice, and beans tasted like plain beans. It was missing the spice and flare of a good Mexican joint. The wet burrito was a notch better, so I think there could be some hidden gems on the extensive menu. Although I’ve noticed when a restaurant menu has several pages, it becomes too difficult to execute every option with finesse. 🚩

Overall in my mind the place falls in the “tourist restaurant” category. Probably good for people passing through who want a spot with a great view walking up from the plaza. I think if the restaurant wants to level-up and attract locals, they should simplify the menu to one page and focus on elevating...

Originally being seated the waitress said it was a 1 hour limit outside so we decided inside because we had others coming. The waitress came to take our order and we had questions and she said she would have another person come help us cause she was new. 20ish min later she came back and said that person wasn't going to come and took our order. Placed our order and we got our food and the bar tender came and let us know there was a 90 min. Limit and had received our food 5 min before. And she proceeded to tell us that we had 30 min left. While this whole time a table outside had been there since we showed up and we are waiting to pay. Now I know your all thinking we were demanding, but that is not the case. We had a table of 8 they couldn't handle it. And the business was not full. Now with all that being said the cook was amazing because the...

The food was good, but one of the servers was unnecessarily rude for no reason. Three of us sat at a table near the bar. The room was dark enough that we couldn't read the menu. I asked our server if he could turn on the lights and he was happy to help. Another patron mentioned how nice it was to be able to finally see his food. Fast forward 20ish minutes and a female server walks into the bar area, mentions how the owner doesn't like it when the lights are on, and proceeded to turn the lights back off. One of the women I was with mentioned to the waitress that as a customer, we would really like to be able to see our food. In the middle of her statement, the waitress turned around and walked away leaving the lights off. Our actual server was great. I don't know who that lady was, but her behavior ensured I won't...