Ghost Pepper Taco + Tequila Bar — Restaurant in Boston

My fiance and I live in the Savin Hill (OTB) neighborhood but it's taken us a while to actually check out Ghost Pepper. We came for dinner on a Friday night...as soon as you walk in, you can see they definitely spent time (and money) on the interior design. It's well done, they're definitely going for a hip, clubby restaurant vibe (music videos projected on the wall, untz-untz-untz club music playing). When we got in the door, the host asked if we had a reservation...which surprised me because, as I said, we live in the neighborhood...we drive by the restaurant on our way home and it's never packed. Literally the idea of making a reservation never occurred to me. It also was clearly not necessary as the restaurant was probably about 40% full...the availability of open tables did not, however, stop the host from seating us directly next to the restroom doors and the service counter. This may seem like a small thing to complain about, but literally we were seated within 3 feet of at least 5+ employees at any given moment which just makes the dining experience more awkward than enjoyable.

Our waitress, to her credit, was nice...we liked her, and I don't blame any of my dislike of the restaurant on our service experience. The overpriced, trendy vibe of the restaurant was established, however, as soon as she began explaining (since this was our first time at the restaurant) the way the meals go--this is a tapas style restaurant, the tacos ($6/piece) are the size of the (small) plates that you see before you on the table and you'll most likely want (read: need) to order several. We ordered 5 tacos (the pollo frito and carne asada) which were quite good. In all honesty, I can say that I enjoyed the tacos. Did I feel they were $6/piece good? No. I would be fine to pay $4/piece for their tacos...they had a good amount of meat (which was really flavorful and cooked very well), and the flavors were good (definitely on the "fusion" side of things, not your traditional Mexican flavors). With the great flavors of the tacos, I was shocked with the chips and salsa (another $6...not terrible, but when you're already being gouged with the cost of the drinks and main food, the least you can do is offer free chips and salsa)...which were terrible. The chips themselves were fine, but I've never tasted salsa like that in my life. It wasn't at all spicy...a bite of it just gave you a chunky, sweet tomato-ey taste in your mouth. Like a watered-down ketchup with texture. (I apologize for putting that picture in your head)

I could go on, but really...it all just reads the same. Overpriced and not satisfactory....It honestly pisses me off because I feel like this restaurant is not at ALL reading the neighborhood. This is Dorchester. We are not Southie and you are not Loco's. Maybe in 10 years Savin Hill will be a more urban spot where these prices would be totally the norm, but currently the people living here are mostly families...the trendy/hip/clubby vibe of the restaurant is a little out of place, but could be fine if the prices were more in line with the quality of food, and the people you're trying to sell it to. And maybe I'm totally wrong....maybe the owner doesn't care to serve the people living in his neighborhood...he's clearly angling towards the young and money-ed type of clientele. But please bear in mind that this is a NEW restaurant trying to charge the same rates as long-standing establishments that have earned the right to charge more exorbitant prices for their food, atmosphere, etc. And again, a reminder of the neighborhood you chose to build in....Dorchester. This is not New York City where you have a gazillion people looking for a cool new spot and don't care what they're being charged to eat there. This is not even Southie which is full of people clearly willing (and able) to overpay for rent, food, drinks, bars, etc. You picked a historically blue-collar neighborhood, and sure...it's definitely becoming more developed, but we are just not ready for $6 tacos....

I gave this place a few tries before I made a judgement as I know it’s a fairly new restaurant. But one thing that was unacceptable was the service and poor attitude. Most of the bartending staff was very friendly but one woman in particular, possibly the tallest one there, didn’t catch her name. She was extremely rude, very dismissive, and aggressive. I asked for a menu so I can see the week schedule for deals or karaoke. She tried to give me a really nasty wet menu. I asked if i could get one that wasn’t dirty and wet. She rolled her eyes and said hold on. As i was talking with my friend, she threw it at me and kept going on her with day like that was ok

I was nice about it and didn’t even make it a big deal. But it didn’t sit well with me.

Also side note: if you want to properly order food or anything. Don’t go on karaoke night.. it’s nearly impossible with how loud it is. Speaker volume needs to be brought lower.

For Food: The food is okay but could be alot better.. I love extending restaurant information to the board at food network for opportunities but after that I don’t think I will.

Only notes.

The nachos not consistent with the cheese layout and the meat is all at the top. Typically with nachos meat should be melted with cheese. The nachos also had way too much beans. It felt like it was done to mask the view of the lack of steak, also beans were asked not to be in the order and still were. We sent them back.

Birria Tacos were actually great but they weren’t birria tacos I ordered the beef birria tacos and it wasn’t shredded beef as it should be. It was chopped up steak and cheese and the Side broth wasn’t even birria sauce.

The wings were great. No comments

The chips and guacamole is very sad. In any normal Latin/ Mexican restaurant the guacamole is a good portion….here the guacamole was legit one small ice cream scoop and it’s not worth the 14 dollars.

The carne asada plate with rice and sweet plantains was ok. The sweet plantains tasted a bit stale and rice needs more flavoring.

Street tacos don’t have...

My three friends and I went out to celebrate one of our birthdays. We all got there between 4 and 4:15 pm.

We started off with water, then drinks, and then we ordered appetizers. All the food took longer then normal to come out, but nothing too concerning. We had four of them. Queso fundido with shrimp, Guacamole + Chips, Plátano Frito and Elote (Street Corn). I did not order the Queso fundido it was okay...but not on my list of will try again. Guacamole + Chips, I thought was too salty, but the other ladies seemed to really enjoy it. I did order Plátano Frito and Elote (Street Corn), which I enjoyed. I had better "Street Corn" at the Pink Taco, but this passed and there is not a lot of ways you can mess up Plátanos. This first part, from water to appetizer, took about an hour , maybe an hour and a half. The waitress, who was also the bartender, came back at a reasonable time and took our food order. This food took the longest to come out almost an hour. No one complained because we were enjoying girl time. One friend had the Camarones taco meal. She didn't like it, she stated that the shrimp was over cooked. Pollo al Horno and Chicken Enchiladas, which the other two ladies ordered seemed fine. They both enjoyed it without complaint. I had Churrasco and 1 Chicharrón taco. I requested my steak medium, but it came out as pictured. Since we had appetizers, we were pretty full and just requested to go boxes. I didn't complain about my skirt steak. I placed it in a to-go box and cooked it to my temperature when I got home. When I cooked it to my preferred temperature I found the seasoning to be good and it tasted great. Why did it get a low score? Because after spending about $230, and 3 hours there (because service took so long), a couple of servers, not our waitress, came to our table... seemingly trying to rush us along. It was rude and unappreciated. We did we did start share this with our waitress/bartender. I feel no...