Palmilla Cocina Y Tequila — Restaurant in Hermosa Beach

Good service but very expensive for what you get!

My wife and I have eaten here a many times since the Palmilla opened. We live in Hermosa Beach and have enjoyed the ambiance and food and have brought friends here on multiple occasions.

We had dinner Sunday, 1/12/20. We hadn't eaten here for several months and we were looking forward to a nice meal. We were seated upon arrival and our server prompt introduced himself and asked if we were ready to order any drinks. I had the Smokey Pasilla Margarita ($11.75) and my wife had the Pepina Diablo (12.75). Both arrived within a few minutes and they were both delicious.

We ordered the Ceviche Tres Maneras ($22.50) which we have had several times in the past as a starter. It arrived in less than 5 minutes and while it was nice, we struggled to find the seafood mixed in with what was predominately finely chopped salad greens of various kinds. At $22.50, this dish was WAY overpriced as it was mostly 3 dishes of spiced salad greens with hardly any seafood.

For our mains I had the Fillet Y Camarones ($45.50) and my wife had the Caesar Salad with wild salmon ($10.50 + $6.50). Again, she was quite disappointed in the sliver of salmon that was strategically placed next to a piece of garlic bread to give the appearance of a much more reasonable portion of salmon. In my case, I received a barely 6oz filet with just TWO medium sized prawns and some roasted vegetables. The menu states that the Fillet Y Camarones is a 6oz certified angus filet with jumbo prawns. What I got for $45 was the bare minimum to say the least and while the steak and prawns were properly cooked and overall the dish was fine, I was disappointed in the just 2 MEDIUM sized prawns that were on the plate - certainly not jumbo and just enough to be the plural of a single prawn to comply with the menu's description.

We finished with a Flan de Azucar ($7.75) that was just way overcooked custard topped with a blueberry coulis and whipped cream. Probably the worst flan I have had in a long time.

It is sad to see that today, management has opted to maximize profits by being cheap with the portions and ingredients in what I can only call carefully designed deception. The restaurant's website does not show prices on the menu. Our final tally for the meal with drinks and a glass of wine was $143 before the tip! That is a seriously expensive meal for 2 considering what we had! Unfortunately, I doubt that we will be returning anytime soon unless they seriously improve on their portions and/or...

So my friends I brought me to Palmilla for my 32nd birthday! We were in the mood for some good tacos with a nice breeze. You do have the option to dine in or dine on the rooftop. I do recommend outdoors if you can stand the breeze. Our server was cool and introduced that night's special. I actually had some heartburn and wanted something with less of a "kick" ( trust me it's usually the opposite). I ordered the fish tacos and especially asked not to make it spicy. The server ensured me the sauce would be on the side. While we waited for our meals, a food runner brought out some soft flour tortillas with 3 dipping sauces. The sweet cream was my favorite! Here are where things get hairy. I got my tacos and of course, it was spicy! Normally, wouldn't be an issue. However I specifically asked for it not to be. I was only able to eat the fish...barely. There was also major miscommunication issues between the server and food runners. 1. The food runner didn't know who's food was who's 2. He brought out another warm tortilla set which wasn't for us ( our server had to awkwardly removed it). Finally, my friend's planned to have dessert come out with candles. The food runner placed it in front of them and forgot the candles. I was so confused! I thought it was free dessert and not a surprise for me. He did return with the candles later. Anyway, it must of been his first day. Either way, the customer shouldn't experience that. Overall, the foodwas okay. In terms of service.... I would say back to training and staff team...

We were early to our event and needed a place to dine. Called Pamilla in advance and spoke to a hostess that assured us they had availability for walk ins right now and could seat us if we came soon. Me and my friends were in the area and got there in under 10 minutes. Upon arriving we were looked at up and down by a hostess with a very rude attitude stating we would not be able to be seated for 15 minutes but could grab bar seating in the meantime. We go sit at the mid section bar seating (have been told many times that seating is available to non resos and eaten there multiple times) we sat for about 10 minutes until greeted by a man who said we would have to move and it was not walk in seating… even though I’ve eaten there specifically for walk in seating in the past and the large table was accompanied by multiple different parties already. Once forced back out we explained to the hostess kindly that we ubered here because we were already told in advance we would have seating. Upon explaining the situation to the original hostess who told us we’d have to wait, instead of making the situation right we were rudely told there was nothing they could do and the wait would now be 20 instead of 15. As someone who works in the restaurant industry and has been a hostess before, this treatment was unacceptable and unprofessional. Super disappointed since this used to be one of my regular spots. Will not be returning or recommending...