Agave — Restaurant in Chadds Ford Township

A friend of mine and I were curious to try this Mexican cuisine outpost on the northern frontier of Kennett Square in Chadds Ford. After passing it on a commute home from work I knew this place was going to be different just from its name " Agave". We walked in the door and found it tastefully laid out Southwestern style without being tactlessly over done. I was delighted to see many guests obviously enjoying themselves and none of them were in a hurry to do anything else but linger. My Ukrainian friend Lena and I sat down and chatted, viewing the menu with a separate card describing the the specials. There was someting for everyone and anyone on those menus without being overwhelming. Our waitress, Diana appeared as if by magic and had us comfortable with drinks including my odd request of a martini up with two slices of green jalapeno, which I named after the Aztec Sun God ( I can say it but cannot spell it) . Best vodka martini I have ever had. Lena ordered a starter with guacamole which was not heavy. I left my selections for dinner up to my beautiful waitress Diana and she obliged with a fabulous pan sauteed beef steak and peppers and sebollas. I was impressed by the flavor and tenderness. The conversation was intense and constant and the meal we both had was complimentary to it all. The finale was and incredible chocolate cream cake that I will be shamelessly dreaming about despite trying to lose weight when I am not visiting Agave. My excursion here was well worth it. This is no typical Mexican cantina. At Agave, latin cuisine has just reached a new more sophisticated level without the culture of its...

Don't come here expecting good Mexican food -- it's a "concept" restaurant run by someone who has no idea how to make it seem real or taste good. (The list of Italian dishes on the back of the short menu is just one hint.) Our experience was off-putting -- we were led to a table in a largely empty room, then ignored by 3 or 4 staff members chatting with their backs to us. New arrivals were seated at tables right next to ours, which was odd, and the loud music (not Mexican, maybe "ethnic"?) was frequently interrupted by advertisements. Nice touch. We ordered margaritas and were surprised to see them served in clunky highball glasses; the owners didn't bother to invest in barware to carry out their theme. Or in decor, for that matter -- wooden bread troughs on the walls? Maybe they had some relevance to the prior business.) We'd have overlooked all this if the food had been good, but it wasn't. The margaritas were both disappointing -- a bartender's poor riff on a usually delicious drink. And the appetizer we planned to start the meal with was, too -- a small platter of nachos that wasn't hot and didn't have much taste, which we needed to stretch with a blanket of chips (for an extra $6.) By that point, we decided we'd wasted enough money -- higher than justified prices were the final insult. If you're looking for a place to get a good meal on Route 1, just keep going. There are more, better,...

This used to be our favorite restaurant but we went tonight and we won’t ever go back. One of the draws was the BYOB but it sounds like they added their own bar and now the BYOB is gone. Ok, sure. We still love their margarita mix so we ordered two and at $13 each, they were so so small, not the margarita glass in Lewes, more of an highball glass and filled with ice. The drink was meh and we didn’t order a second round. It’s loud in there too. Louder than I remember and we had to repeat our orders to the waiter a couple times before he could hear us, and the place wasn’t even half full. We wanted to bring kids because they used to have a well priced kid menu and tonight we paid $12 for plain grilled chicken and white rice. The kids left hungry so we stopped on the way home. Overall, the adult food was good but paying $25 for three tacos is just too much. What really made me sad was no complementary chips and salsa anymore and what kind of Mexican restaurant does that? I hope the one in Lewes doesn’t change like this one did. I’m sad to say we are taking this off our list of places to go or recommend. We will never go back but cherish the memories of what Agave...