Pepper's Cocina Mexicana & Tequila Bar — Restaurant in Fernandina Beach

My friends and I stopped by over Labor Day weekend. We were hoping for a nice dinner on the patio but it was anything but that. The server, Elena Clearly hasn’t worked long in this facility and left a sour taste in our mouth from the moment we sat down. She was nice but very awkward. Ordering a margarita from her was horrible, as she had no idea about some fairly common top shelf tequilas. You do work in a Mexican restaurant, so this information should be somewhat familiar. My husband wanted a Herradura blanco margarita. Her response, “I have no clue what that is, but we have a house margarita you can get.” We explained to her it was the brand of tequila and then she follows with, “Well just so you know, that’s going to be more money but I don’t know how much. She said I don’t know tequila brands at all” The margaritas came in a standard drinking glass, which was weird considering the rest of the restaurant has a standard margarita glass. She then brought out our guacamole but before setting it down said, “well, I forgot this but it’s here now so it’s all good!” We proceeded to order our food, which she repeated back. She came to check on us 15 mins later and thought w already received our food but we said no still waiting. My husband and my food came out, and we waited a little before eating until our friend received theirs. Ten plus minutes go by, and still no other plates come out. So we began to eat since our food was getting cold and then one other plate came out. Another 10 minutes and nothing. Our waitress was behind us greeting her other table and having an in-depth conversation about how she loves art, does watercolor, and took AP classes and on and on (a good 5 min conversation). She finally came to ask us if everything was good, and we said we told her the four meal (fajitas) never came. She looked shocked, but had she been paying attention to her tables she would have realized this awhile ago. As that happened they were bringing them out. Granted the food coming out late wasn’t her Fault but it was a kitchen issue. Never have I had this sort of experience at a Mexican restaurant. The food was basic and nothing to rant about. I give it 2 stars because the patio area was nice and they were able to seat us fairly quickly with no...

Saturday night in Fernandina Beach wherever you go busy. Understand and get that. Walked to the hostest stand to put names in for table. Greeted by hostest that seemed to have more questions than answers. We advised where we sat didn't matter. After some unclear back and forth we got outside table. All tables were covered except one. Good atmosphere tv with bowl games see pretty lights and watch people go by. As waiting to be served notice what tables are being served have multiple different waiters. And most tables are neglected. Reason for this is every server has more tables inside. So coming outside is an after thought. 15 minutes pass by and server greats us with chips and salsa. Only highlight of meal for us we did like the salsa. Some heat but won't take the skin off your tongue while waiting for your drinks. We ordered drinks unsweet tea for wife and house red sangria for me. 15 minutes later server apologizes for no drinks as they had to make new sangria and new unsweet tea. We ordered meals without drinks yet as advised kitchen behind so sooner we order the better chance to get. After waiting 15 minutes more for drinks and watch the table complain next to use for lack of service. Drinks finally arrive. Tea was a light brown watered down mess. Guessing too much ice in the container when they made it. Sangria equaled some strong red wine with a couple chunks of fruit. No sweetness. I let the ice melt to cut it down. Finally 20 minutes late with empty bowl of chips Don't expect refill on chips. The meal comes. Wife taco salad with shredded chicken. The shredded chicken was more like tough chewy chicken chunks. Tough and not tasty. Reminded me the chicken in a can you get at Aldi or Walmart. My plate carnitas. Cold tough and chewy. Think plate sat under heat lamp and got cold and hard. Plate hot to touch but food cold. Understand Fernandina is a high end location but even had the meal been perfect not worth 60 bucks for common...

Went here last night for the first time and it wasn’t a good experience. Got seated rather quickly and when our server (receipt said Isabella but to specific young, red haired girl) got to us, she took our drink orders (water) and brought them out within a few minutes. That’s about where the expected good service ended. We never got any refills on our drinks, no cutlery and had to ask for napkins, my husband received his food while I waited an extra 10 mins for my order to finally come out and when it did it was wrong. When we placed our order, I asked her what is the replacement for meat on the peppers nachos and she said they could do grilled vegetables. I said that sounded great I’ll do vegetarian nachos but with no lettuce. She appeared to have understood and even came back and verified that I wanted no meat but when I finally got my food, all I had was a plate with chips, refried beans and cheese- no vegetables anywhere. She apologized for the wait and said the cook originally added vegetables to my nachos but she had to correct them and have them redo it to take the vegetables off. What? That’s what I ordered. The nachos were so bare and because I wanted what I originally ordered, I had to wait another 10-15 minutes just to receive vegetables that looked like they came from a package that can be easily found in the frozen food aisle. At that point, it was time to go since it had already been hour. Server kept saying she was sorry the whole time for different mistakes made but didn’t really fix much. We were polite throughout the whole terrible experience, after all, they’re preparing the food, but, the continuous lack of service and the basic food reflected in the tip I chose to leave (Even at the moment, I felt I was being generous). Customer service goes a long way. This is coming from someone who did this for a living in college. Didn’t intend to write a story book but it really...