Teocalli Cocina — Restaurant in Lafayette

I’m not sure how to write this review, the food has never really let me down. But my wife and I have been coming here regularly for the last 3 years. When we first came, we were treated to a really amazing experience with a mezcal flight, they showed us the ropes and introduced us to the whole worm salt and grapefruit thing. We were hooked, the worm salt was delicious, the flavors together is just out of this world. However, ever since this first experience it’s gotten worse and worse. We come for the mezcal and worm salt, so when it slowly becomes this thing of I have to ask for the worm salt, which is fine I’ll gladly ask but they started to really limit the amount, so we’d ask for extra. Then it became “hey we want this flight and can you bring extra worm salt?” They’d serve it with a small pinch, so then I have to ask again. Every time it was less and less, the mezcal experience deteriorated time and time again until last night. Now I want to be clear, our server was amazing and I applaud her for dealing with my difficult ass. But when I ordered about 80$ in liquor for me and my friends, then I ask for extra worm salt, she doesn’t even know what it is and goes to check. She comes back and says we have to pay for worm salt(wtf, not one time have I had to pay extra for that, mind you we spent around 100$ on booze alone every time we come in, I always drink top shelf mezcal and spend quite a bit on it). Okay, whatever I’ll pay for it, but if I’m paying for it I want more than a sprinkle. So she brings the mezcal maybe 15 minutes later, there is a tiny amount of worm salt. I hate speaking up, or complaining but the fact that we were always treated to the mezcal and worm salt and always given extra when asked, to now I have to pay for it and then it’s still a tiny amount?! I told her “if I’m paying for the worm salt, that’s nowhere near enough”. Honestly the whole thing is just ridiculous, I realize this is salt and a silly thing to be upset about, but what is the deal? Is this a mezcal place where we treat customers to an experience or are we nickel and diming over salt. All and all, this place has just gotten worse and worse. It used to be a place my wife and I would come for our date nights and try new mezcals and now I honestly don’t want to come back. Again I want to emphasize, the server was great(maybe a tad salty with me after I complained; pun intended) but otherwise great. But yeah where’s the consistency? Every time I walk in the door I spend 100$+, always tip 20+ percent , I’m not coming back and spending that kind of money when I’m not getting the same experience I used to get. The servers are uneducated and the bartenders seem to not give a damn, or know about the way it used to be either.

Our experience before this also was poor where the bartender was more concerned with flirting with some girl than taking my wife and I’s order. It’s a bummer, we loved this place and it was our favorite date night spot in town, whenever friends are in town that’s where we would...

They are new, so hopefully will get better. We went for lunch on a Friday, in a big group (9), so that may have been part of the issue. It was mid-90's and we had to sit outside, where there were no fans, air or mister's to help cool us off (maybe that will change, because they were VERY LOUDLY working on the patio roof during the lunch rush.) The service, although the waitress was very pleasant, was not very good. LONG times between check-ins. Half of the plates they gave us were dirty, so even before the food was delivered, started off on a bad foot. Some of the menu items seem so unique, that even those that eat Mexican food often hadn't heard of many of the ingredients. (Could be a good or a bad thing depending on your adventurous spirit.) That did make it hard to determine what to order until guidance was given by the wait staff. Once the food was delivered, it is supposed to be served "family style", but the nice server helped and allowed each person to take their order off the tray without having to reach across several people or pass the tray ourselves to get our orders. A couple of the people (including me) got the hamburger. DELICIOUS hamburger for a Mexican restaurant (I am allergic to many of the spices in Mexican food, so am often relegated to hamburgers at these restaurants. Not many can say they have good burgers!) BUT, the "condiment" that came with the burgers was a lumpy, BLACK and very unappetizing looking... blob, for lack of a better word, in a condiment container. When we asked what it was, the waitress didn't know. (She later came back and told us it was a burnt tortilla aioli. I didn't try it for fear of allergic reaction, but the other lady did & said it was spicy, but...eh.) And, speaking of burnt. 2 of the 9 complained that their food was burnt and didn't finish their 2 tiny street tacos. One of the group said they had been there twice (on their first visit); the first time AND the last time. (They did say the tuna taco and the guacamole was very good, if you're looking for suggestions.) I'll probably give them another try, but much later, to allow them to work out...

Went to teocalli on a whim the other week, we have now been 5 straight Mondays and it is one of our favorite places we have ever been in Colorado. The food, specialty cocktails and service made my experiences memorable.

I’ll start with the food, WOW everything and I mean everything is unique, fresh and tasty. You are garunteed to see something you have never had. Queso funditio is to die for I haven’t gotten tacos yet but I have ordered 5 of the big plates last 5 trips they are all amazing but here is how I ranked them. 1 Pork shank 2 Pescado a la 3 Carne asada 4 Chicken Pasilla 5 Birria de res Can’t go wrong every single thing I have tried is amazing. Side of bone marrow 👍🏻

Service/ bar we are bar people, we LOVE sitting at the bar so the fact teocalli has some seating is awesome! For us the service at the bar can make or break the whole experience even if the food is 10/10. we seem to run into service issues a lot when we go out and generally we just don’t return. we are admittedly picky and very easily turned off by poor service but Luckily for us the first time we went was a Monday and Scott was behind the bar. we told him it was our first time and he genuinely seemed to care about making our experience great. He went through both menus with us giving us suggestions and small tid bits which helped make our decisions. Drinks were amazing, minero infused pineapple marg amazing. When i sit at the bar with Scott I feel like everything is going to be taken care of without me even asking and I can just relax, it’s small things For example he knows our drink order already, first night we were asking about the different salsas and he gave us extra salsas so we could try them all. He let us taste different sauces for the enchiladas and he always gives us little samples of some of the cocktails he was making. All small things that don’t seem like a lot but when you add them up they really do matter. If you find yourself there on a Monday sit at the bar and enjoy some good service, drinks and food. Thanks for the unique flavors teocalli,...