Las Margaritas — Restaurant in Gainesville

Rude waitress from beginning to end, embarrassing and super unprofessional. I get it everyone has bad days, but this waitress was extremely rude. Simply because of an orange for my 1 year old daughter. I asked if they had oranges and if yes please bring me one as we were ordering drinks for my baby girl. Waitress came back with an unpeeled slaughtered, full of seeds sour orange from the bar and placed it on the table. My baby loves oranges and she grabbed them immediately. The waitress then said, “they are not free, we will charge you for them, is that okay? I didn’t ask her how much they were or ever mentioned to her that I was expecting this orange to be free, how did she arrive to this conclusion, I thought to myself, To which I replied ofc. (In my mind at this point I realized she is lacking common decency and education and isn’t worth anymore of my day off). I didn’t tell her but in my thoughts it was like, “she thought I wanted them for free”? Shocked, unamused and clearly embarrassed of her assessment and conclusion I asked, “how much is it”?, I had a poor experience on south beach (jokingly but kinda concerned at the same time, like how much are the planning on billing me for this unpleasant orange slices experience, my baby already eating this orange, and yeah after her remarks maybe they are trying to scam me with this Walmart orange slices lol. Waitress left and came back with, “we don’t have a price for the oranges but will ring it up as a pineapple and thats 2 dollars, is that okay?” I replied of course no problem. So my uncle that goes there a lot started his normal “I’ve been all over South America and Europe” thing he does, trying to be interactive with her, maybe change her mood. But, she just left and never came back to the table. Needless to say, I would never go to any establishment and ask for anything for free, 101 from birth. What is yours is not mine. Anyway, after she left no one came to apologize for her behavior, thus no accountability for the poor experience. I am to proud to ever go back there and so is my uncle, it is sad because he love that place. But hey, not our problem. The manager should be monitoring and checking quality assurance always especially when someone abandons their post. The lack of care for my child safety with seeds and skin, the respect not shown to me or my family and simply the lack of not giving us straws and treating us worse than animals I was generous to offer 2 stars, but if you can avoid been a victim to this waitress in the future, seek salvation and go where people smiles and makes you feel welcomed, there is not price you can put on that even if the...

Two of my girlfriends and I went to Las Margaritas tonight for dinner. We were seated right away which I always take as a good sign. Our waiter approached our table pretty quickly. I took that as a good sign as well. However, I should not have. I do not know our waiter‘s name as he did not introduce himself and I didn’t notice if he had a name tag on. But in all the years I have been dining in restaurants he was undoubtedly one of the worst servers I’ve ever encountered. He asked for our drink order right away. He asked my girlfriend first. She told him water and was going to ask for a cocktail but he had already turned away from her. He did never give her an opportunity to ask for the drink. She just shrugged it off and decided to stick to water. I did order a Margarita. He brought our drinks and left the table. It was “several minutes” before he returned to get our food order. My girlfriend ordered a quesadilla that she wanted brought out as an appetizer and I asked for guacamole. I emphasized that I wanted it prior to the meal to eat with our chips and salsa. We also requested some extra napkins. We waited for the Guacamole but.... Our waiter flew by us several times and on one fly by picked up my empty Margarita Glass and was gone before I could ask where the Guacamole was. I finally caught him to ask about it by yelling at him as he sailed by. It was brought out by a runner shortly after followed immediately by a runner with our meal, including the quesadilla. He never checked back with us to see if we had everything, we never got extra napkins. We had to flag him down to get boxes for what we wanted to bring home. I have to say it wasn’t just lousy service but his overall attitude. He was totally lacking in personality, he was abrupt and rushed. He acted like he did not want to be anywhere near that restaurant. We finally got napkins from another waiter. We needed them earlier but we really needed them after transferring our food into the to-go boxes. I did not tip him. The runners did more to serve us than he did. I can’t tell you the last time I did not tip a server and that probably had more to do with my lack of funds than piss-poor service. Having said all of this about the lousy service I have to say that the food was delicious. Seriously good food. So......

There are many "authentic Mexican restaurants" in Gainesville. It's not hard to find one; just drive two or three blocks down the grid and you'll probably be flanked by one eventually. Despite my use of scare quotes, most of them are all very good - and Las Margaritas is among those.

Whether you go for lunch or dinner, the prices are relatively quite low for the portions you're getting, from appetizers to special combos, from horchata to margaritas, the latter of which can be affordably procured with their respectable Happy Hour specials. They also give you more free chips and salsa than you know what to do with, a contrast to some chains who will find a way to nickel and dime you for even the most basic of side items.

The food is excellent. The secret is in the sauce - many of their items, such as their enchiladas and burritos, are drenched in a delicious red sauce which provides a nice, spicy zing to your entree without being intolerable. The lineup of food items also allows you to be adventurous each time you visit, with many different varieties to choose from. More importantly, the menu also has an assortment of American entrees for those distraught party guests who were the only two in the group of twenty to vote for Texas Roadhouse, or for younger kids who seem to be stuck immovably in the picky eater phase. (A bit of tongue-in-cheek humor there I'm afraid. 😋)

I don't know if they still do them anymore, but LM was also famous for Mariachi night on Wednesdays. If you're celebrating someone's birthday that evening, beware - the enrertainment can be a very interactive experience. 😅

Only cons of this place: I'm among that reviled group of millennial-and-younger who uses their cellphone at the table, and you are not going to get a signal inside the restaurant. Outdoor seating is available and they provide a tower fan on warm days. Secondly, when it's truly busy, parking can be hard to come by. You will likely have to park at the adjacent bank nearby, which you can do during dinner hours - not so much for the lunch rush.

All-in-all, a very fine restaurant. A staple of Gainesville cuisine, one which I hope will continue to survive the post-COVID...