El Mezcal Mexican Restaurant Ocala — Restaurant in Florida

Very Disappointed! We are frequent diners of this establishment, since moving to Ocala over a year ago. Sometimes, we can't stay away, dining there 2 or 3 times every week. Today, we walked away very disappointed. We decided to stop for lunch on a Saturday a bit after 12pm. The restaurant was not that busy. We were seated outside on the patio (our request) quickly, and the waitress brought menus, and took our drink order promptly. She also brought us our drinks, salsa, and chips in an acceptable amount of time. That's when things started to go down hill. We waited for over 30 minutes for the waitress to return to take our food order. Once she took the order, she asked if we wanted more chips, and we said yes, as at this point we were getting hungry. We got the chips about 10 minutes later. After another 30 minutes went by and our chips and salsa were all gone as well as our drinks, another waitress came over and asked if there was something that we needed. We replied that we were waiting for our food. She said, I will be right back. Soon after, she came back with our entrees, telling us to be careful because the plates were hot. Apparently, that was an incorrect assumption on her part, as the plates as well as the food were cold! My husband's refried beans had crusted over they had sat for so long, and my entree was supposed to have scallops and shrimp, but there were only shrimp and not very many. In fact, the entree was mostly rice. We ate as much of it as we could tolerate because at this point, we were not about to complain, and waste more of our day on what was supposed to be an enjoyable lunch outside. Again, we waited for what seemed like an eternity for the waitress to return so that we could ask for the check, and again, it was the same waitress that went to get our food, not the waitress that was supposed to be our server that returned. She apparently told our waitress to get us the check because the original waitress brought the check. By now, it was after 2pm. So very disappointed!! This has been our go to restaurant. We have raved about this place and brought out of town guests there to join us. Sadly, we will now have to look for other options in the future. If it were just the service, then we would give it another try, and maybe if the food had been hot, it would have been okay, but to have both food and service both unacceptable, is a deal...

Edited review to four stars based on response from owner.

The food looks great but was average overall. I don't normally spend a lot of time writing about the experience but I really wanted to enjoy this restaurant and felt a need to share.

Ambience:

Nice overall, comfortable. Beautiful art and very clean but the music was so loud we had problems talking at the table. We had to ask three times for them to lower it.

Margaritas:

Good flavor and not stingy on the tequila. Not big on size but not small, either.

Chips/salsa:

Salsa was alright but tasted more like tomato sauce than Mexican salsa with no texture. A side dish of Pico de Gallo would have been wonderful. Still, the salsa was good with the chips. But...

Most chips were tired and saturated with oil with a taste from some other cook or day. Some had a darker color from that. Fresher chips were on the top and the older below. The fresh ones were crunchy and flavorful.

Fajitas:

I like fajitas prepared with the steak separate from the vegetables so it gets a sear and a little blackening for better flavor and texture. The same for the veggies. Hot and fast. But cooked and served mixed together makes it more like a stew and kills the individual flavor of the meat and makes it a little mushy and the same for the peppers and onions. I would not order again.

Chili Relleno:

Very, very small anaheim(?) chili stuffed with ground beef. Good flavor but a chili relleno normally is stuffed with cheese and fried with a flour coating. Had neither. I would not order again.

Taco:

Crisp corn tortilla. Tasty ground beef. With the fixings on the plate this taco was good.

Rice:

Cooked perfectly. Good flavor. Was a good compliment.

Refried beans:

Ok but almost no beans noticable in a puree mix. Overprocessed. This should be a perfect compliment with the rice, but not. I have had the same elsewhere but just a little texture is nice to the eyes and to the palate.

Guacamole:

Sorry, but not much flavor. Just mashed avocado. Still was good as a compliment to other items. Add salt, add salsa or......Pico de Gallo on the side?

Service:

As a party of two we were there at about 3pm on Monday. The restaurant had maybe 4 or 5 tables occupied. Initial service was slow waiting for initial contact by the server and first drinks and chips. After that...

My family and I went to the restaurant. We were seated right away, but we never even put our order in until we were done with the bowl of chips and salsa. Tatianna came to get the drink order, disappeared, brought the drinks back about 5-10 minutes later, took our order then disappeared again. The waitress was awful! She was very sour, never once smiled... everything about her screamed unfriendly and unprofessional and impersonal. There was a different person that brought out half the food, then she came and dropped off the other two dishes. 10-15 minutes later, she stopped back by and asked if the food was good, then disappeared again, not even waiting for an answer. She gave my husband a refill on his drink, didn't ask about the rest of our party (my daughter was out of her drink the latter half of the meal and didn't get a refill; NOT BY CHOICE). She came back and took the plates, then we asked for the check. After 15 minutes, my grandmother was getting up to go to get checked out (without the check!!) and here comes the sour waitress. She handed us the check, we went to checkout with a different lady, and the waitress that had disappeared AGAIN came stomping up behind us and snatched it out of the hand of the woman we handed it to. She was told she was a horrible waitress and she couldn't care less. She made no effort to apologize, neither did any of the other staff. One staff member just laughed. My grandmother told the establishment we would NOT be returning. When we did pay, they didn't even bother to give us the signature portion properly. It was attached to other people's orders and the people told us it didn't matter what we signed. We had to tear off ours and sign the paper. So unorganized! When we went to leave, Tatianna told us sarcastically to have a good night. Totally not genuine! This was the worst service we have ever had and would NOT recommend anyone eating here! If we could give this restaurant a 0...