Los Mezcales Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Fond du Lac

UPDATE: The owner of this place, or whomever owns the google maps page for this place, went out of their way to somehow find my cell phone number and cryptically text me about "Have you been to Fond du lac recently". I figured it was the owner once I got the text (quite the coincidence) but wasn't sure so I asked who it was. I received a response on 10-01-2024 from that number saying that "You ordered the wrong food and next time I leave a bad review I should state how it was my fault". Interestingly enough, the owner didn't feel the need to address any of my comments about how long the service initially took, or how terrible the food actually was after we received it. I let this individual know that I stand by my review.

The TL/DR: This was probably the worst Mexican food I have ever eaten.

Service: Almost non-existent. There were 4 of us at the table, and we were at the restaurant for about an hour and a half. There were maybe 10 to 15 other people eating during the time we were there. I received 1 refill on my water, and that was only after I flagged the server down and requested the refill. Food took a long time to come out to the table. I ordered 2 things. The chili Colorado (Beef in a red sauce), and an a la cart taco. When my food was brought out it was wrong. Instead of chili Colorado I got some sort of Pork dish in a Verde sauce. I let the waitress know that the order wasn't correct and I was told it would be about 10 minutes for my actual food to come out. It took about 20 to 25 minutes. By that time the other 3 in my party were about done eating. Which leads to....

Food: Zero flavor. The sauce on my meat was the consistency of very thin soup. This is not what a Chili Colorado should be. There was no flavor. No seasoning. Nothing. This food was incredibly bland. The only thing that gave it any flavor was drowning it in the hot sauce on the table, and that is probably only because it was a store bought hot sauce and not house made. Another guy in my party got 4 different items: 2 different a la cart tacos, the flautas meal, and a tamale. He also said his food had zero flavor... tacos were dry. Flautas were essentially a wet diaper of grease. He said the tamale was the only thing that had a little bit of flavor. The chips and salsa were... OK.

I don't know how this place has a 4.7 rating at time of review. Either the "chefs" were having a really bad night tonight, or the people of Fond du Lac have no clue what good food...

It took quite a few minutes for us to be helped when it wasn't very busy. We got our drinks, the margaritas were good! My husband usually does a build your own combo order, and was disappointed with the selections: you couldn't request different meats for different tacos/other items, no mixing and matching - you could only choose one for each item. But we ordered anyway. The chips and salsa were ok. It was spicy, even for me - and I love spicy, but we were hungry, so I ate it. Upon reading the menu, we discovered that a second chip and salsa refill would've cost us extra, we didn't order a second one, but another round was dropped off after we got our food - we didn't touch it as we didn't want to get charged for it. The food came quickly, which was nice. We started eating and I was immediately disappointed with the taste: the enchiladas as well as the beans and rice tasted like straight oil. I understand most Hispanic food is cooked in oil, but it was so overpowering, I couldn't eat my meal. My husband agreed with his meal also. We've never experienced this at another Mexican restaurant. Usually the combinations of all you the flavors is the first thing you notice, not an oily taste. The waitress came back and asked how things were going. I said it was OK but I let her know I wasn't impressed with the taste as it tasted like pure oil. She seemed surprised and told me that they cook things with oil...which I already knew. She didn't seem to understand i was telling her that's all we could taste. She apologized, but when my husband spoke up, and stated we wouldn't be back, she asked us which it was; if it was terrible or ok. We found that somewhat inappropriate, as she just should have apologized and left it at that. She did ask after the fact if there was anything else she could do, but things already quite literally put a bad taste in our mouths. It definitely wasn't worth the price of the meal either, just ok. I will drive to my favorite restaurant in Beaver Dam...

Went for dinner with some friends. They brought a small bowl of salsa and a basket of chips like most restaurants. With 3 people, we went through the tiny bowl of salsa almost immediately. We asked for a 2nd bowl as we still had almost a full basket of chips and were told it would be an additional charge. To which we asked how much. The waitress told us $3.75!!

EXCUSE ME? Since when does a Mexican restaurant charge you for an additional bowl of salsa?

I went to the bar to inquire about this as the waitress was terrible, slow, and confused. Apparently, the additional salsa is only $1.95. For literally 3 oz of salsa. We said no thanks.

This is a shame because the food was super good!! Like really delicious! The house made blended, lime margaritas were so good as well.

However, the service was really slow and sucked in general, and there were only a few other people dining, so it wasn't because they were busy.

**in response to the business's response: No, we asked how much additional SALSA was. Not chips and salsa, we still had an almost entire basket of chips left. Why would we want more? Your salsa is delicious (which is why we wanted more). Chips are great! But the waitress did indeed fail. Yes, you did clear up confusion when I asked at the bar about SALSA, letting me know it would be $1.95 for another bowl. We just felt that was out of sorts with our previous experiences dining at similar...