La Pasadita Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Gainesville

We will never go to La Pasadita restaurant again. We walked in to be seated and were asked about not having a mask. We kindly informed the host that we are “exempt“ from wearing a mask. He proceeded to ask why we are exempt from wearing a mask and was told it’s none of his business why nor can he ask me why. He told us if you don’t wear a mask you can’t sit down at the table. We took a moment to look around and nobody in the restaurant sitting at their tables we’re wearing masks. So to walk from the front door to the table a mask is required but once at the table the mask can come off? We understand that Alachua county is holding businesses hostage to be their enforcement arm of tyrannical government but this violates the order that’s in place.

Alachua County “First Amendment to EO-20-30, section 3(C) states:

c. A facial covering shall not be required for children under six, persons who have trouble breathing due to a chronic pre-existing condition or individuals with a documented or demonstrable medical problem. It is the intent of this provision that those individuals who cannot tolerate a facial covering for a medical, sensory or any other condition which makes it difficult for them to utilize a facial covering and function in public are not required to wear one.”

We clearly communicated that “we are exempt” from wearing a face mask. La Pasadita Restaurant violated the order for which they were trying to enforce. Furthermore, they have zero right to ask us to disclose any protected medical information to explain why we are exempt. You failed your customers because you refused to educate yourselves about the executive order. And now you will lose business because of your own choice to...

Sadly had to update my review from 5 stars to 2 stars.

Food is still the best Mexican in Gainesville, the problem is the service has gone from good, to bad, to simply unacceptable. In the course of the last five visits we've had to ask for our appetizer several times and in most cases it arrived with the entree. Same with chips and salsa. Most of the wait staff either don't care or just hate their jobs. There's about two employees there who seem to want to do things the right way, the rest are completely checked out and will straight up act annoyed if you follow up on basic requests like drink refills, etc.

Want your drinks and order taken within 5 minutes of being seated? .....50/50 chance. There's a decent possibility you will literally have to grab someone walking around and ask them who your waiter is supposed to be.

If you order apps or chips and salsa (which are not complementary) You will most likely have to follow up on this several times, And as mentioned there is a good chance it will just show up with your entree anyway.

Really stinks to have to change this review, I loved this place. The food is absolutely amazing, but they really need to invest in some servers who can at least pretend like they don't hate the customers. It's not a good look when the wait staff actively seem to try and disappear when people walk in the door. Last time we were there we watched a group of four people stand at the door for about 10 minutes before they got annoyed and asked somebody about getting seated. The worker didn't say a word, grabbed some menus tossed them on a table and gestured at it...this is with most of the restaurant being empty. Totally out of line...

I don't like giving bad reviews, but I have very mixed feelings about the food here and am pretty disappointed. The barbacoa was phenomenal, which might be worth coming back for. However, the service wasn't great, the server could not tell us how big their empanadas were, she just said she didn't know and giggled. Our food took forever to arrive and was cold to lukewarm when it did arrive. We were hungry so we didn't bother sending it back, but the nachos were soggy because it must have all been sitting for quite a while before being brought to our table. Had to flag down the server for a refill of chips and to refill my water, definitely was not attentive to our table and they never asked us how the food was. I didn't believe the other reviews, but they definitely have the worst, mushiest Mexican rice I've ever had. Somehow, the barbacoa made it worthwhile even though I found a few bone fragments in it. Oh yeah and the bathrooms soap dispenser was broken so no way anyone can wash their hands (health code violation?). This place has a lot of potential, but sounds like they've gone downhill recently. Other reviews indicated that they had paper straws, but this is the first place I've seen in Gainesville that still uses plastic straws. They also served their queso and salsa in styrofoam bowls for a dine in meal for some reason, which past review photos show that they used to use real bowls a month ago.

Edit: upon eating my leftovers, almost every bite of barbacoa had bone fragments in it. Couldn't even enjoy the one thing I thought they did well. So dropped it...