Minero — Restaurant in Atlanta

Minero is a Mexican restaurant located in Ponce City Market Atlanta. As we had quite a bit of fast food already and Asian food is not an option (we have better and cheaper options in Singapore), we decided to try out the Mexican tacos as Minero this evening…

Ponce City Market had its roots from the Ponce de Leon amusement park and ballpark in the early 1900s and in the 1920s, was constructed as a regional warehouse and distribution centre. In the 2000s, Jamestown bought over the site with the intention to redevelop for mixed-use while honouring its history. Today, Ponce City Market is home to retail shops, restaurants and office spaces. For visitors like us, it offered a different retail experience altogether. The Food Hall itself is home to about 30 restaurants, including Minero – a casual Mexican eatery serving authentic dishes inspired by the flavors and culture of Mexico, led by Executive Chef Bill Hogan.

From Minero’s website, we found the reason why they named their restaurant Minero:

“Named after the Spanish word for “miner”, Minero represents the storied history of the taco, which supposes that Mexican silver miners named the dish in the 18th century. The word “taco” referred to the dynamite miners used to excavate the ore in the mines, which was made of pieces of paper wrapped around gunpowder and inserted into the holes carved in the rock face.”

They also shared that the corn used to make their tortillas are specially chosen and the masa are made in-house daily:

“The Minero team tasted over 40 varieties of corn from different producers before choosing their favorite: Masienda. Using a traditional nixtamalization process to make fresh masa every day, Minero grinds the corn in house, which results in a truly authentic corn tortilla.

The corn Minero uses comes from Masienda, a company operated by Jorge Gaviria. Masienda’s goal is to connect with small independent farmers in Mexico who are growing single origin landrace varieties of corn to import to the United States. Minero uses a Yellow Olotillo corn grown in Oaxaca. By utilizing this amazing company and their unique products, we are able to create an incredibly delicious tortilla.”

After being seated, the staff brought over the Minero menu and served water. After browsing, we decided upon

Tacos – 2 for $11 (We chose Al Pastor Pork – charred pineapple, white onion, avocado puree, cilantro and Grilled Steak – picked peppers, green onion, queso fresco, cilantro)

Guacamole and Chips – $12

Sweetwater Hazy IPA – $6 House Margarita – $12 (reposado, anejo tequilas, fresh lime, fresh oj, curacao, agave)

We were delighted by the Tacos offerings at Minero. The Al Pastor Pork was slightly spicy and flavourful with its meat tender and fatty, just the way we like it. The Grilled Steak on the other hand was not really the beef steak but more like a chili beef. Still delicious with the yellow capsicum which was slightly sweet – adding a nice crunchy texture. As for the masa itself, we love the texture which was slightly thicker, giving the taco a nice bite...

For the full review of our visit to Minero, visit...

1 star is too high for our experience - in reality they should've earned negative stars. We were greeted and sat fairly quickly where the server took our order for drinks and appetizers - that is where things started to fall apart. Another server brought our appetizer - chips and salsa - $6 for 3 less than an ounce wooden bowls of salsa. Putting the chips in a tortilla warmer was a nice touch - if the chips had actually been warm before they were served. No one came to check on us, we had to flag down another server for some water (since we still hadn't gotten our drinks). After the appetizer was done our drinks finally arrived - I didn't realize that drinks were supposed to be a separate course. At this point we were able to order dinner - some tacos and a grilled steak plate. Well that was the last we saw of our server, no one came to check on us or give us a status update. 40+ minutes later no food at our table, drinks are long gone, no one giving us an update, we had it and decided it was time to go. All of a sudden the tacos are ready but they are still working on grilling that steak. We were fed up with the waiting and lack of service and paid for our drinks and the appetizer. We did let, I think it was the manager, know that there was no excuse for this - it wasn't a rush time, the server did not have many tables, other people had come in, eaten, and left and we were still waiting for our food. He did say sorry but did not try to make it right. There was no excuse for the lack of service or the time that it took to prepare the food (since looking at the kitchen it was all cooked and being held - all they had to do was assemble it). I can't really comment on the food since we never got it. I guess if you have nowhere to go and are not hungry when you come in by the time you get your food you will have had time to...

I usually like this place and recommend it to friends often for the margaritas, especially. However today, after I again recommended it and came with a friend, who was a first timer we were extremely turned off. The nice young lady at the front told us we could order our drinks at the bar. Upon going to the bar, we waited to get the attention of the young lady bartending, who was having a conversation with a friend/customer also at the bar. Initially this wasn’t an issue but she continued with the conversation in our general area and neglected to even acknowledge us, to the degree that I thought maybe she was going on break. When she took a breath I asked her if she was working. She immediately got offensive and replied “of course, why wouldn’t I be?” I replied that we were waiting for her to take our order. Instead of apologizing, she began a condescending banter with me. I can only assume she was acting out in front of her friends, telling me I could order from the front desk or the other bartender at the end of the bar. At that point she directed her coworker Justin to help us (clearly she didn’t want to at this point).. I had already decided I didn’t want her to serve me anyway because she was so nasty. My friend, who had not said a word to her, then tried to order from her. She rudely refused to serve her either. She is a poor representative of this otherwise nice establishment and has horrible customer service skills. Justin was an amazing bartender and stepped up where she lacked. These 2 stars are strictly on account of her. For identification purposes, this was Saturday, 4/5 around 6p and she was a young African American female whose name...