Mad Mex — Restaurant in Cranberry Township

Wow, where do I start? I've dined at a Mad Mex restaurant in another city and had a great experience. Cranberry not so much. Seating seemed to be a problem. We were a group of 8, 5 adults and 3 children. Hostess wanted to seat everyone in a booth made for 4 or 5. Restaurant was almost empty when we arrived. We were eventually seated at tables. Ordered queso and salsa. Queso tasted like a can of Rotel mixed with a block of velveeta...salsa thick as tomato paste..both had an odd aftertaste....yuk Food was brought out sporadically. 2 servers brought some meals, one acted as though we were a nuisance to her. Rude when asked a simple question. One adult in our group ordered Buffalo Chicken wings. 2 wings were undercooked, pink inside. This was brought to the attention of the server. She had no interest. Didn't even remove them from the table. That adult spent the rest of the evening vomiting right after we left the restaurant. One adult wanted to order just the filling of a burrito because they couldn't eat the flour tortilla. Server never took the order and that adult never got a meal. We did get a refill on drinks one time. No one came to clear the dishes. We tried 3x to get the attention of our server for our check after we had been sitting and waiting for awhile. We were not asked if we wanted anything else like dessert. We asked for a box for leftovers and never got one. Still paid for the other order of chicken wings that we wouldn't let the children eat. They weren't removed from the bill. Didn't realize until later on that evening. To top it all off this was a birthday party for a 12 year old who had requested to go to Mad Mex. Imagine how this young person felt after experiencing this. There's more but I'll stop here. I think folks will get the picture. Will we return? Not much chance of that. Will be contacting their corporate office.

Update: spoke with a manager (she didn't offer her name) so I can't give her some credit for trying to assist. She did offer to replace 1 of the meals and provided courtesy cards for 3 entrees that can be used anywhere as was repeatedly pointed out to me. Ok I get it we won't be back. We weren't invited back anyway so no problem. The manager said she was made aware of an issue with food by the server while we we're still at our table and said that we, the customers should have spoken with management that evening. I say that if the manager was told of a situation in her/his restaurant it is their responsibility to approach the customers. In conclusion I did not request any food replacement but in fact turned the offer down several times. The manager kept insisting. I will say she was polite and we had a reasonable adult conversation. I did not discuss the unpleasant ailment that one of our group experienced as there were people entering the restaurant and I thought it would be...

We attempted to go here tonight since we had never been. We try to make sure to support all businesses in our neighborhood. We won't be back. I wish we could share what the food was like but we didn't even get seated. We arrived, waited about 5 minutes before anyone came to greet us. They took our name, my phone number, said it will be a few minutes for her to "figure out what's going on." I then observed this person behind the bar serving drink realizing she must have worked at the bar. All was well until we stood there waiting another 7 minutes when another customer came in, a server came and greeted this person, she said she has 5 people, he immediately grabbed menus and took them to a table. He came back, I said, "excuse me, I was wondering did they have reservations? Because we've been here now 15 minutes waiting for a table and you took them right away. He said, "yeah I don't know why you were told to wait because we have tables." I said, "Oh Ok, great!" Then he said, " one moment let me see what's going on." Ugh. After another few minutes a woman came back with him, he told her what was happening she said nothing to us yet, we stood there waiting while we observed the people with 5, came back to say to her, we now have 7 people, can we just move over to that open table, and she (hostess or manager, not sure) said sure. Still standing there as we are observing all this. This employee standing right near me looking around, I can see 3 tables open. No words exchanged we finally walked out. I'm patient, but coming from a background in being a customer service consultant, this could have been handled differently. One simple solution, if you are called up to help, you find out 2 customers were overlooked and watched people come in to be served before them, maybe say hello, and I'm sorry what happened. We will get you a table right away. An apology or any form of communication would have gone a long way. We left went down the street to Emilianos at Cranberry Mall, were seated in 1 min, waitress with chips and salsa in 3 min from seating. Drinks in 5 min after that. Hostess, and waitress smiles and hellos. We spent $100 for 2 people and happily gave our server a huge tip because for a customer service consultant now Pastor I believe in truly rewarding excellent customer service. It really is that easy. I really hope the manager sees this and has a team meeting. All this also explains why Emilianos was busier than Mad Mex. Customer service is rare anymore, so if you do it right and well, your business...

Mad Mex is a Pittsburgh staple. So many great memories have been made by me at the various Mad Mex locations over the years. Mad Mex has the best tofu I have ever encountered. No other tofu compares. I am not even a vegetarian but I am obsessed with this tofu. Get it as an app, get it in a wrap, get it on tacos, just try it. You’re welcome. Don’t expect any other tofu you find at another restaurant to be this good. It wont.

Mad Mex has some great beers and cool Margarita flavors. During the thanksgiving season they have the best crossover ever dreamt up, of course I mean “the gobblerito.” Is it a burrito? is it a delicious thanksgiving feast? Its both. It sounds gross, yes, but it is exactly the opposite. It is delicious. If you look past how weird it sounds you will be delighted and in awe by its greatness.

If you are in Shadyside and want to experience a delightful brunch, check out the Mad Mex location there. It’s the only one I have been to that has brunch, but there could be others. The brunch is cool and the bloody marys are really hot. No i mean it. Superrrr...