Bitter Honey — Restaurant in City of Rochester

WOW!!! Is all I can say - but for so many reasons ... I don't know where to begin.

When my friend and I walked in we were welcomed by everyone with happy smiles - including the owner, Zack (one of the nicest generous people)! This friendly and helpful service continued on our entire dining experience. Our waitress Amanda was AWESOME! She not only knew what to recommend drink and food wise she knew when exactly to ask and place the orders. She was truly exceptional! Also the speed of service was outta this world!

Aside from the warm welcomes we were impressed by the ambiance of the restaurant. A contemporary, upscale Mexican Bar/higher end restaurant Mexican Restaurant. Decor was nice cool colors and lit with candles on all the tables.

Now to describe the things other than the staff and ambiance that makes the place different and a real dining experience THE FOOD!!! The serving sizes were smaller than normal but that is because it is family style - they are all meant to be small to order many dishes to share and get the real taste and experience of Mexican Flavor.

The dishes I recommend trying are ....

Chiles Rellenos - Best Chiles Rellenos I have had by far - the cheese pepper and special sauce fried all go so well together and the size is perfect - a little bigger than most I have had! If you only get one thing this would be it

Enchiladas Verdes - These are very unique and different than most enchiladas I have had. I would describe these as a cross between enchiladas and a quesadilla... do I need to say more?!

CARNE DEL DIA - Simply awesome! Melt in your mouth Steak! The one I had was served over spicy black refried beans which was the perfect touch to the steak to add some spicy nice flavor.

OH AND DRINKS ... All were delicious DRINK - I've almost tried everything! Get any cocktail and you'll be more than AOKAY I recommend the Paloma and Repeat Offender. If you want a bit stronger of a drink I recommend getting the Mezcal Blanco or Green Ranger. The Bar Tenders are all super cool and know their stuff as well! Its fun to sit at the bar and chat with them

My Friend and I have found our new SPOT...

Asked hubs if he wanted to try Bitter Honey, he looked at the "Comida & Mezcal" tag line and said hell yeah. Arrived and were seated quickly - glancing over the menu and saw 1/2 dozen varieties of margaritas, 1/2 dozen different cocktails... but no mezcal info. Figured it was on a different list, so asked the server when she came over, and she said, "We don't have a list - but we do have like 80 different types of mezcal." We waited to be regaled with the options and she asked if we wanted to order drinks. lol... I clearly looked confused, so she went on to say that they don't have any "bottom shelf or well mezcal," so "whatever we ordered" would be good. (?) I'm still not sure how we would know what the heck to order without any info...? Hubs was actually super annoyed (he was apparently VERY much looking forward to a mezcal adventure, kept grumbling about it all night, lol), but we settled on a classic margarita and an el tio, both of which were lovely. Ordered chips & salsa & guac (delicious!), then he got the pork enchiladas in verde sauce (DELICIOUS!) and I tried three tacos - the baja (fried fish), the Josh Allen, and the zuchini one. All three were fab, if not steaming hot. The baja was VERY light on the fish - two tiny pieces of fried fish (maybe the size of small strawberries?) - but it was crispy and succulently fried. Overall, food was good, service was good - but the mezcal thing really threw us. How do you showcase mezcal in your name - and have dozens and dozens of options - but no way for folks to know about them....? Prices were also a little crazy. $7 for a taco seems a little steep ... but the real OOOOOFFF was when I realized it was close to $20 for a basket of chips and two small (3-4 oz) sides of pico & guac. (Don't get me wrong - both were tasty! Just a mild case of sticker-shock!). Overall, I'd probably go back... maybe there's a secret Mezcal handshake that gets you the drinks menu? Hubs has me dreaming of tequila flights and mezcal...

Had a work dinner with a reservation for 830pm last night. There were 7 of us and we were seated around 840. Our drink order was taken after about sitting there for a while without a greeting from our server. At 915/920 the manager comes over to say they made a mistake with our ticket and they're sorry but they still hadn't poured our drinks. Mistakes happen. But how do you respond? Without skipping a beat just throw a round of shots to go with the round of shots we already ordered and try to be fun and laid back. Ok great, you're trying... But now during the commotion, we STILL have yet to be asked what we would like to order. Now it's 940 and our server comes over to ask how everything's going so far...

This is when I really just lost my desire to try and even chalk it up as "bad night." I had to stop him before he walked away AGAIN and tell him, it's not ok that it's now been over an hour since we sat down and he didn't even try and take our food order. You would think if you already delayed the FIRST ROUND OF DRINKS that you would get everything ordered so it doesn't cause a further delay. Oh and we only ever got a first round as my one beer was gone and never refilled. Now that I complained, the fix was a dessert.

Thankfully, when you have great company, you can still have a great time and make the best of it. However, this will not be the place to go in the future after a disaster of an experience. Only even worthy of the 1 star because the food was delicious. Bitter honey simply left me...