Phil Sandoval's Mexican Restaurante — Restaurant in Hoover

When this place opened, all of my coworkers swore up and down that it was just amazing. I'd never been to one up in Huntsville and didn't even realize they derive from there. I assumed it was a huge chain which was why I didn't want to waste my time. That, plus the food my coworkers think is great is pretty lackluster to me. But I digress...

I swung by here after work today and figured why not try basically everything I can? The place is super clean (albeit new, but that's not always the case). The decorations were festive, they have a decent amount of outdoor seating, and every employee with whom I came in contact was unbelievably friendly.

I sat at the bar and Sharon was the most attentive employee I've encountered in two decades trying new restaurants all over the US and overseas. She was honest with her assessment of the menu, a great conversationalist, and found a perfect balance between giving me time to peruse the menu/eat and taking my order/making small talk.

As soon as I got there, I was given chips with salsa and the taste was so different than most other Mexican restaurants. It was a bit spicy but also sweet simultaneously. Usually, salsas tend to be savory but theirs sort of breaks the mold. I was told they also have a house salsa that's spicier so I'll have to try that one next time.

I ordered the three tamales with 2 pork and 1 chicken which came with rice and refried beans. One of my biggest qualms with Mexican restaurants is that- although I'm sure actual authentic Mexican restaurants in Mexico have a variety of flavors- Mexican restaurants in the US have entrees and sides that all seem to taste the same, almost like everything was cooked and seasoned in the same exact pan.

Every bit of my meal was flavorful with a completely different flavor palette in each portion of the meal. My drink, the mambo taxi, was delicious. It wasn't overly potent, though, but that was probably for the best since I was driving home. I got both the coconut flan and tres leches (to go) as well. The flan... oh. my. goodness. That flan was amazing. I like flan but this dessert was like cheesecake and flan had a baby. Every bite was heavenly.

I said I wouldn't mention it if I didn't like the tres leches, but I'm not gonna lie. I have no idea what that was. 🤣 Don't get me wrong, the entire experience still merited 5 stars, but I don't even understand what the flavor profile was trying to be here. It was like strawberries inside, peaches outside, and a cinnamon overload. The flavors were just so off. I know they were trying to maybe be exotic with the taste, but just stick to good ol' tres leches.

Otherwise, it was outstanding. I'll definitely be back- just won't be buying the tres...

The food was terrible from start to finish. Our waitress, Cat, was very sweet, however she alone was not enough to save this experience. We will not be back. Very first bite, there was a chunk of beef in my refried beans. When I asked the waitress if there was meat in their beans, she went to ask and said it must've been a mistake as their beans do not come with meat. I, personally, do not eat beef because it makes me sick. Thankfully, I was able to spit it out once I realized. DO NOT EAT HERE IF YOU HAVE DIETARY RESTRICTIONS! The rice was dry and my chicken quesadilla was just awful. There was also a very large garnish on the plate, with a small pile of tasteless "pico" if you can even call it that. Also, who puts celery in a quesadilla? It was supposed to have sautéed onions/peppers, which were sparse and mostly raw. The shrimp taco salad, which only came in a dinner portion, came with what appeared to be a bagged salad mix with mostly cabbage. The cheese dip and salsa were TASTELESS, with no spice whatsoever. You can always tell a good Mexican restaurant by the freshness of the salsa, and let me tell you, you will be disappointed here, unless you have no tastebuds. The music was way too LOUD, not to mention a man coming around CLAPPING very loudly throughout our experience. This is very disruptive and quite RUDE. The staff was also hovering where we were seated a talking/laughing quite loudly, as if on break. Which obviously, they deserve a break, but maybe somewhere else where they are not disturbing customers. However, there were so many staff members, maybe they just didn't have anything to do? They had the doors open to the restaurant, thus flies/gnats were everywhere. I had to fish a few out of my water glass. This is also pollen season, why would you keep the doors open like that? If I wanted to sit outside, I would've asked for a patio seat. Overall, don't waste your time or money here....

So overrated and overpriced for the quality. I think people are just excited because it’s a new restaurant in the area… The atmosphere is fine, it’s a cute place. Our server was really nice and attentive. The food is where the experience fell short. We ordered fajitas. Tell me why any place should serve fajitas that have 4x more onions than they have actual meat. Like damn, I love onions, but please calm down. There were also maybe a measly two bell pepper slivers in the whole serving. Sad. ☹️ They advertise having their meats freshly grilled, but all I could taste was over-marinated meat with liquid smoke. It was actually devastating because I was so excited. At least it was tender! 😀 The tortillas had the texture of eating straight dough. They didn’t necessarily taste bad, but I felt like I could feel the flour dust in them. The rice was maybe a solid 6/10. Average Mexican rice. The refried beans on my little brother’s kids meal were super spicy for some reason, but maybe that’s just the style here. His quesadilla was actually pretty good in my opinion, but I don’t think most people would come to that conclusion honestly. The chips were good, I really liked the queso. It was very unique, but also on a way that most people probably wouldn’t like. It tasted faintly of cheese whiz and Cheeto dust, but I was kinda there for it. Salsa was bad though. Really bland. Overall, very upsetting because we were so excited to try it and it was just not great. There are definitely better, more authentic restaurants to go...