El Mezcal Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Knoxville

I was wrangled into going here by my daughter's soccer team - it was very likely the worst Mexican restaurant I've ever been to. The salsa was watery and bland, the mixed drinks were watered down, the crunchy tacos were served soggy, the burritos were tasteless and filled with hamburger meat the consistency of Alpo, and there seemed to be a shortage on cheese. My daughter ended up sitting at the team table without her food because she was somehow forgotten despite her best efforts to be politely noticed; this wasn't rectified until I went and tracked down the manager . I was overcharged on the check (though the manager quickly fixed the server's error). Two kids meals, two adults eating "combination plates", and two drinks (+ tip) were nearly $50 - at least a $10 premium over consistently awesome places like Soccer Taco or...

Love this place to death, but I will not be coming until after the pandemic is over, even for takeout. I have never in this entire pandemic seen so many unmasked college students crowded in a single place. A review on here said that they enforced mask rules, but that is absolutely false from what I've seen. When I came to pick up some takeout, I was absolutely swarmed, and I mean SWARMED by unmasked college students. I've been coming here for many years, and I have never seen the place so crowded. At least 30 unmasked people were crowded outside around the entrance. It was impossible to exit without physically brushing up against multiple of them. I felt like I needed to shower afterwards. Definitely not something you expect multiple miles away from campus. Please stay away for now if you would like to...

All I can say is wow. How this place has changed and not in a good way. First, my food was not warm, right menu item but all wrong. Second, if we hadn't paid attention (group of six at lunch) four of us would have paid for cheese dip when only one ordered it for our table. Third, the waitress brought out a birthday sopapilla. We did have a birthday but didn't ask for anything. Thought it was complimentary, nope! And the man running the register asked when it was mentioned we didn't order it and charged for it, "But you ate it? You liked it?" There is that "wow moment" when you know there is a problem.

Second time in about two months with not warm food and bizarre wait staff issue. There are plenty of places to eat in the area and this won't be one for at...