Mal Pan — Restaurant in Charlotte

First, I want to make sure that it is well understood that the service and the people who work here are very very very nice. The service was great. No complaints with the people whatsoever. However, let’s talk about the food. We started with the chicken taquitos. They were hard to eat. The tortilla that is being used is too thick so instead of being kind of a light and crispy experience, it’s heavy, thick and chewy. The chicken inside the taquitos is also extremely tough. So obviously, it’s roasted outside of the taquito, and most likely a little overdone to begin with, then you combine that with frying it and re-cooking it in the taquito, and you end up with chicken that’s hard to eat. This was a one out of five. Then, I got a shrimp taco that had fried leeks on it, and the leeks overpowered the flavor of everything else. Not a good combination. The flavor of the breading on the shrimp was just weird, way too much slaw, just not a good taco. I didn’t even bother trying the roasted chicken taco, because I was just grossed out by the shrimp one. And to be honest, $15 for two tacos and white rice with black bean paste is expensive. And I believe it was $12 for two taquitos cut into four pieces. Again, expensive. The entire thing was expensive because the food wasn’t good. Five dollars is too much to pay for something that is gross.Got a mocktail that tasted like aloe juice, except it didn’t have any aloe juice in it. Was just gross. my daughter got the shrimp taco and she didn’t really like it, and she got a steak taco that she felt was OK. The steak was well cooked, but there was too much cheese and not a lot of flavor. In general, this is definitely not authentic Mexican. I wouldn’t even call it white washed. I would call it gross. i’m not trying to be harsh, but I don’t like spending $85 on food that I can’t even eat because it’s disgusting. I am not sure how they get a 4.4, but that just goes to show that reviews cannot always be relied on- including this one. Feel free to go there and try it for yourself. For us, however, we will...

I don’t know why I keep expecting to find good Mexican food in CLT, but the promise of a new restaurant helmed by a former Californian and backed by the solid online reviews was enough to lure me in for lunch. $49 later, and all I was left with was more crushing disappointment and an emptier bank account.

My wife and I ordered a michelada, chips and guacamole, California burrito, and 2 Gobernador tacos (did I mention that the above came to just under $50). The michelada arrived first and is easily the worst I’ve ever had. It was watery and had zero flavor. I’m not sure who designed their “house mix”, but they should be embarrassed of what they came up with. I decided to take matters in to my own hands and went in search of hot sauce, only to be told by the hostess and bar tender that they didn’t have any. A Mexican restaurant without hot sauce?! I knew then that we’d made a terrible lunch decision. This insight was further confirmed by the utterly bland and flavorless guacamole. The chips were good, and the salsa was decent, but nothing to warrant a return visit.

Our food arrived quickly, and much to my happiness, the food runner said that they actually DID have hot sauce, a habanero that they make in-house. This was probably the highlight of my meal, since the heat was enough to add at least a modicum of flavor to the previously mentioned michelada and guacamole. I also liked the Gobernador tacos, but my wife’s burrito was even more flavorless than my sad michelada.

Given the quality and flavor (or lack thereof) of the food, the exorbitant pricing for mediocre fare, and the inability of the staff to get basic info such as having hot sauce right, I can’t recommend this as a place to eat at, unless serious changes are made.

EDITED TO ADD

Since this business likes to remove any negative comments from their social media, they just lost another star. Pro tip, Mal Pan: if you drop the ball with a customer, always try to make it right, instead of silencing them online. Integrity goes a long way...

You know I am one for supporting "la raza" but unfortunately this place let me down. Upscale Mexican food to me is reinventing Mexican flavors into something new. NOT making street food fancy with a hefty price. This place caters to the pallet of white collar nobodies. You have endless pockets and lack taste buds and knowledge of Mexican food. I feel like the Chef here is selling him/her self short on the possibility of dishes one could create with Mexican flavors...these dishes are "safe" I got the cochinita pibil torta. My bread was stale from sitting in the toaster over too long. The pickled onions with very sweet. The could taste the oil in the chips and the salsa was overly sour from all the like juice and lacked heat. The green salsa was bitter and if you knew why a green salsa would be bitter it's due to over cooking the tomatillos..even us Mexican home cooks know that one. My Jamaica Agua fresca was too concentrated (maybe they leave the flowers in there for looks? But it's causing it to be to sour) not to mention the price was outrages. The service however was phenomenal, my bartender was attentive and sensed I didn't like my food as I was scraping off parts that I thought were edible... He checked in frequently and was kind. I don't think I'll come back to try their tacos...as I mentioned in the first paragraph... upscale Mexican food is about reinventing flavors into new dishes. Not charging $13 for a street taco. For that I suggest supporting a small taqueria in the East or West side...