Mexico Lindo — Restaurant in Hawaii

I recently had the opportunity to dine at Mexico Lindo, located at 600 Kailua Rd #109, Kailua, HI 96734, and my experience was nothing short of disappointing.

Firstly, there was a mix-up with my son's order. Despite requesting red sauce, he received green sauce instead. This miscommunication was incredibly frustrating and affected the overall enjoyment of his meal. It's like ordering a comedy movie and getting a drama - not what you signed up for!

Secondly, our waitress M.M. seemed to struggle with taking our orders. She had to come back and clarify what I had ordered, which was a carnitas plate. When the food eventually arrived, I was disappointed to find that the carnitas were overcooked and lacked substantial meat chunks. The dish appeared to be dry and over-fried, making me wonder if they were aiming for "crunchy" carnitas.

Furthermore, the service provided by our waitress, M.M., was subpar. She was not attentive to the needs of her customers, and I had to flag down another waitress to get her attention. Despite wearing a smile, her actions did not match her friendly demeanor. It was frustrating to see her taking our orders without writing them down, leading to the mix-up with the sauces and the need for clarification. It's impressive to memorize orders, but not when it results in getting the orders wrong!

Lastly, the overall quality control of the food was lacking. The overcooked carnitas and the salsa, which resembled spaghetti sauce more than the zesty delight we expected, were not up to par. Although the salsa had a hint of spice, it was not enough to compensate for the unsatisfactory food. Additionally, the understaffing during lunch hour resulted in our waitress being overwhelmed, attending to multiple tables, and bar causing a slower service experience.

I usually leave a tip even if the food and service are not great, but M.M.'s service was horrible on my $95.80 bill.

Considering the disappointing food quality and subpar service experienced during our visit, I regretfully cannot recommend dining at Mexico Lindo unless the owner and management step up their game. I hope they take steps to address these issues by improving the food preparation, and sauce accuracy, and providing sufficient staffing during peak hours. In the meantime, you might want to spice up your Mexican food adventures...

Pro’s are the quality of service. Our server did a good job taking our order, bringing us drinks and interacting while ordering. This is why I decided to give two solid good stars.

Con’s.. there are a lot.

The food was ordered and came out relatively quickly;A little too quick..

Ordered the kids from the keike with shredded chicken as the main protein. Their plate came out first, along with the “appetizer”. The chicken seemed as it was reheated in its juice, did not taste fresh (made the same day) and came in a huge quantity (more than over a pound) for one keike plate. Instantly regretted purchasing two.

Their cheese skillet with chorizo was our appetizer. Like I said, this came out with the kiddos plates. This was probably the worst cheese plate I’ve ever ordered at a “Mexican” Restaurant. If you grab a mixture of Mexican cheese blend and throw It on a skillet with a little bit of milk and blast it with heat, this is your product.

My wife ordered a wet burrito with carne asada as the protein. The meat was extremely salty and made the whole burrito taste awful. When you order a burrito, you want your favorite protein! This.. restaurant, absolutely butchered the burrito, I’m not entirely mad about it thought because it’s not really Mexican food to begin with.

I ordered the carnitas plate that looked like everything should of been in a burrito type deal. The carnitas were… okay. They needed salt, something about them, as I’m sitting here writing this review, is not sitting in my stomach well. I wasn’t asked what type of tortillas I wanted, just given de arina.. red flag.. felt like I was eating Texan styled Mexican food.

The rice and beans that came with every plate, minus the keiki plate, was not good. I’d of rather waited 30 extra minutes, on top of the 10 that we waited for everything, to get a good set of rice and beans so I could at least enjoy that. Needless to say, I did not take any of this home. Left overs on the table.

If you’re reading this, and you like real Mexican food, don’t come here. Spend $70 elsewhere for a family of 4. If you’re going to make Mexican food, don’t insult the culture. If you do end up trying the restaurant and enjoy it, good for you, don’t take my...

I dined at Mexico Lindo 4 times before writing this review. The first 3 times were great. The food was tasty, the margaritas were delicious, and overall it was a good dining experience. I recently visited again (4th visit) and was told that it would be an hour and a half wait for three people, when there were two open tables outside. First red flag. I asked again and the hostess suddenly changed her story and said we could now sit outside at one of the open tables. We sat, figured out what we wanted, and ordered. One of my guests got the Grande Burrito and the other got the Tres Amigos with Kalua pork and ground beef. The grande burrito came out very salty so we asked the waitress if we could switch it out for another Cali burrito, and the tres amigos also came out salty so we asked to switch it for chicken tacos. When the Cali burrito came out, the steak was even saltier than the meat in the grande burrito! I tried one piece of the steak and it was unbearably salty. I honestly should have sent the burrito back to the kitchen since I didn’t enjoy it but we ended up paying for it. The kitchen had two opportunities to make the dish and completely blew it each time. This place is known for its margaritas, not for its food. As much as I enjoyed the variety of margaritas, I was incredibly disappointed by this last visit and will not be...