Verde Flavors of Mexico Ironworks — Restaurant in Indianapolis

I'm sure that based on the number of rave reviews received, and I'm sure most are very much deserved, this may go unnoticed. I must leave it nonetheless. For the record, I RARELY leave negative reviews. On Saturday, May 18, 2024, I was in town visiting and my bestie and I attempted to dine at Verde because we'd had a phenomenal experience at the Fishers, IN location the last time I was home for a visit. This experience was absolutely ridiculous and unnerved.

Everything was decent until a collision happened near our table and half of the server's tray, which included salsa and rice (and possibly other items) flew towards our table landing ON my friend, on and under our table. Yikes, and ultimately, no problem, right? These things happen. What happens next is why I'm writing this review.

The server checks on the woman she hit in the head, ONLY. She chuckles and walks away. She didn't even look our way. A few moments later the Maitedie comes out, also checks on the other woman, never turns around to look at our table and walks away. A few more moments pass and he returns with a broom to clean up the mess from the floor. That's when I am finally able to get his attention and to his shock and dismay, he sees an entirely different outcome of the incident. Our table is so disturbed by all the debris from the collison, we needed to change tables. Again, inconvenient, but no big deal. We'd only ordered appetizers and we were ready to move on with catching up.

About 5 minutes pass and the Maitedie returns to our table to offer appetizers as a consultation for the mishap. We inform him that we'd already ordered appetizers to which he replied, "those will be on me." We thanked him and continued our conversation, until another 10 minutes pass and I mention to my friend that we've been waiting for queso and a charred avocado for 25 minutes. Our new server, that's a whole different part of this bizarre experience that I don't even have time to share. Anyway, she asks if we're ready to order, we were, we'd already invested about 40 min., and though we were enjoying our time catching up, we were hungry. We inform her that we had not yet received our appetizers. She checks with kitchen and informs us that our appetizers were put in after a large party ordered.

Ma'am, you're kind for trying to soften the blatant disregard we'd experienced, but if a kitchen can't handle a large party and queso and a charred avocado in a 30-minute window they need to close. Since we watched tables who were sat far after us originally and since the tray debacle, we knew something else must be at hand. We STILL decided to wait. Another 10 minutes pass and the Maitedie stops by and we inform him that we were awaiting our appetizers.

At that point, we had finally caught up enough that we were over it. We paid for our margaritas and left.

There was never an acknowledgement or apology from the original server, and they cared more about the floor than they did my friend who's entire left side was soiled because of the collision. She also came out with a broom to clean up the mess from the floor, but she stopped when she saw her colleague cleaning up the mess.

Why did stay so long? We were really enjoying our conversation and until it became ridiculous, we really didn't pay any attention to the time.

Zero stars on our experience.

The floor?

Side note: The replacement server was kind and unfortunately, she was thrown into the middle of a...

Tonight I went to this restaurant for my sister’s birthday. We arrived a couple minutes before the reservation and we were seated promptly. Awesome 👍🏼

After looking through the menus for a few minutes and deciding our initial food/drink choices, we put our menus down and noticed we had not been spoken to by anyone. It had been about 5 minutes. No big deal, kind of odd. The restaurant was not crowded.

A few minutes go by; we’re presented with chips and salsa. That’s great. But we’d like at least water.

A few more minutes go by; about 15 minutes since we’ve been seated. Multiple servers, busboys, and the hostess have walked by. No one has acknowledged us. No waters, drinks, etc.

I flag down the hostess, who clearly did not want to be bothered, and asked “Could we get someone to bring us water?” to which she replied, “Well, I’ve assigned your table to someone. But they’re in a meeting right now”.

It’s 5:45, and our server is in a meeting. End of meeting time? Unknown.

So I asked to clarify: “Our table has been assigned to someone who’s in a meeting?”

To which the hostess replied (as if this was an audacious question): “Well I didn’t know they were having a meeting”

And then she left. She did not confirm a new server. She did not offer to go get drinks. That concluded our discourse.

Somewhat ironically, the same hostess then brought us a drink menu 5 minutes later. We already had a drink menu, so maybe she thought she was being clever by bringing a drink menu but not drinks. I respect a little bit of pettiness if I’m being unreasonable; but it’s been 20 minutes and I’d literally just like a water.

And yet five minutes later? You guessed it. Still no server and no water. So we left. Oddly enough, the hostess saw us leaving and was very confused as to our departure. I guess when you go to Verde, you should plan on a half hour of meet and greet time before you get to drinks ¯(ツ)/¯

Bummer birthday dinner for my sister. Fortunately we were able to go to El Lago and have great service. Night salvaged, but no thanks...

I don't write bad reviews often; I usually look to find the good in the places I patronize. But on this one, I'm stuck. :(

Let's start with the good.

The restaurant is BEAUTIFUL and very well designed and decorated. The indoor and outdoor seating is fantastic, and the ambiance is top-notch.

The food is really good, and the prices are very reasonable.

We had a beautiful day and requested to sit outside. It's a covered patio and the temps were amazing, and since we don't get many of those in Indiana, I wanted to capture each moment. If you live in the Midwest, then you know days with great weather must be celebrated and cherished.

Now the bad and the reason I may never come back.

The manager who greeted us was not in the mood for my request to sit outside. I don't know what is going on in his personal life, but he brought it to work, and it was awful. :(

My colleagues even commented on his disdainful expressions and curt and dismissive conversation.

He acted like a 70-degree day under the patio would be windy and filled with dust. It was a situation where the restaurant was filled, and if I didn't like it outside, there would be no place for us to sit later. We were there at 11 am on a weekday, and no one else was there.

I don't get it, but fortunately, our server didn't share the manager's attitude, and I didn't need to talk to him any further. As I reviewed the situation, I realized I had been avoiding writing this review because I was still torn. Great ambiance, great food, and great weather, but really lousy guest experience from the start of our meal.

Not sure I'll be back at this location anytime soon, and that's a shame. It's a beautiful space, and we have lunch meetings there quite often, but I would be embarrassed to have a meeting at Verde with this type of greeting.

If you try Verde on 86th st, my hope is that your experience is equal to mine regarding the food and the ambiance, but with a nicer experience should you run into...