El 1800 Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Douglas

I was looking forward to trying this restaurant when I found it on Google Maps. I think a lot of the previous reviews were much exaggerated compared to my experience here. First impression is the parking lot is very tight and small. There is NO HANDICAP parking. Seating was available immediately even with the restaurant being pretty full. Chips and salsa came out first. Those were free. The bowl of salsa was like a soup bowl and had a lot of chunks of tomatoes in it. It was good. Later, when more salsa came out, it was watery. Food order came next. Beef fajitas and beef enchilada meals. I tested the temperature of the food when it arrived. The beef fajitas were 219 degrees F when they came out. I had to wait several minutes for the three tortilla shells to come out after asking multiple times. Once the tortilla shells did come out (they were 157 degrees F) my fajitas cooled down 100 degrees to a non sizzling 119F.) Three tortilla shells is not sufficient for the fajita meal. The beef in both products was grizzly and multiple times I had to spit out the meat from my mouth because I couldn't chew it. I identified this to the waiter who shrugged it off and did nothing about it, not even an apology. The beef in the fajitas was not cut down and the pieces were a bit too thick for fajitas For beverage, water was ordered. It tasted good, (not like Clorox like many other restaurants serve you from their municipal water) The restaurant was super bright inside (perhaps a bit overly bright) and it was super loud because it was all tiles which do not absorb the decibels of everyone talking in there. If you have anyone you know who gets triggered by loud places, do not bring them here. Overall my experience was a let down. The food was plentiful but not as amazing as I was hoping for. The employees all smiled a lot but there wasn't a lot of verbal communication as many looked like English might not be their language. I don't think I would recommend this...

I'm a bit conflicted on this one. We went on a week night, when it wasn't too busy, and the service was good. The food is good, not amazing, but in regards to the price range it was good. We went back on Friday night and the floors were a bit slippery which was fine.

The service was absolutely terrible. We were interrupted when giving our appetizer order, no silverware or water was offered. The Waiter then proceeded to rush us on the order and, 30 minutes later when we asked him for silverware, brought us wrapped plastics and told us silverware wasn't available (he brought some 5 minutes later). We waited another 30 minutes before he asked us what we wanted for our main course and snatched up the menus before I could get past the 2md appetizer.

I quietly asked to speak to the manager to explain how much we enjoyed this restaurant the first time and she was VERY kind and did a great job engaging with us (we didn't ask for discounts and insisted they don't give us any when she asked).

We were ready to leave for 20 minutes and had to get up and go to the front to pay, at which point I saw our server flirting with some customers at the front table, I watched them hand him their phone and saw him playing around on it, at which point the same manager showed him the check (I still tipped him 18%).

I don't know what to recommend for this restaurant, just know it's a roll of the dice. It might be great or you might...

We were a little hesitant to give it a try because of a few of the other reviews, but decided we would leave if anything seemed "off". We are SO glad we went here to eat! Everything looked clean and well kept! No issues there AT ALL. Dylan provided us excellent service. We had mango margaritas. They were pretty good -- a little on the sweet side for my taste, but still enjoyable. The chunky guac was fresh and the chips were also crisp and fresh. We shared tacos pastor and it was by far the best pastor tacos we've ever had! The meat wasn't dry, had the nice pineapple flavor. The corn tortillas tasted fresh and homemade. Excellent! We also shared ceviche that was delicious! Plenty of extra lime, oranges, and avocado on the side, too. Finally, we also shared a moist, delicious tamal with chicken on top. One of the most flavorful, delicious tamales we've had anywhere. And the portions were HUGE! Plenty left over to take home. Again, so glad we went to check it out ourselves! Looking forward to returning! *Will try to...