Papi's Mexican Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Lexington

So let me start by saying, I LOVE tamales. They are in my top five favorite foods. I typically go to "Farm Market: best tamales in town" or have a close friend make them and AH! Both places- amazing.

Papi's tamales: very disappointing.

Farm market is closed Sundays, so I thought I would try someplace new. I called and ordered "6 cheese and jalapeño tamales plain, no salsa no queso, no sides, plain in the corn husk" . I made the 30 min round trip, got home, only to find all my tamales are out of the husk, swimming in a watery cheese sauce and falling apart. I call, ask if I can pick up replacements to get what I actually ordered. They tell me No! I will need to buy 6 more, what?? I say no I'm not going to pay more money to eat my food the way I ordered it. Finally the manager gets on and is very nice and says we will have that ready for you soon.

Another 30 min round trip, I get home and the tamales are plain as I ordered but now I'm mad, I'm not even hungry and they are the worst tamales I have ever had. Super salty, Falling apart, no flavor, and terrible texture.

Plus sides: the manger and host zoey were very nice, I'm sure their other food is great, but I was CRAVING good cheese tamales like farm market or my friend Ereth's and papi's tamales were super duper not good. I even had my boyfriend try them just to be sure (because at this point my range could very easily have skewed my judgement). He took two bites and then put them in the trash.

End rant.

Edit: After spending $25, and driving over an hour for nothing, I thought to myself “at least they included some chips and salsa, I’ll just eat that for dinner” annnddddd the chips are stale. So....

Just left this place. We entered at 7:48. We were seated at 7:56. The kitchen closes at 9. I believe we ordered at around 8:16, meaning a server came to our table, asked us what we wanted, and wrote it down. Until then, we got no chips. We had heard that the margaritas were 2 for 1 dollar, and we asked TWICE at the bar to make sure this was the case. I said out loud "The margaritas are 2 for 1 dollar, not 2 for the price of 1 right?". Both times, they quickly said yes. An hour later, we had not received any food. My friend went to the kitchen window and asked, and was informed that they forgot about out food order, and hadn't even started it. A server came and apologized. A different server came to inform us that the drink total was $44. We thought it would be 8!!! I mentioned that I specifically asked the server about the price and he told me he "misunderstood" and that each drink was 2.50. They didn't give us any discount for the lack of food at all. Trash serving service (WHO FORGETS ABOUT 4 ORDERS ENTIRELY) and trash customer service (no discount, "misunderstandings") avoid this place, there are plenty of good restaurant nearby.

Edit as a reply to owner: I guess the simple fix for this is to teach your employees how to say "No" when they are asked about exactly what we are discussing. That way you can stay in business and focus on forgetting...

The chips were awful salsa decent. Service was extremely lackluster I had to get my own boxes for leftovers I fed to my dog for the cattle did not die in vain. Took me 15 minutes of waiting then had to hunt down the waiter for my check. I was once asked if the food was good I said absolutely not and the waiter then just departed not to be seen again. I was not in the mood to be confrontational or else 100 percent would have asked for the manager of the establishment. I’d like to find a positive here but I can’t it’s also extremely loud atmosphere appears everyone is trying to talk over a rock concert event though it was not overly crowded there was no wait. Well theres a positive no wait for a shh meal. I highly recommend place your credit card or cash back in your wallet and dine anywhere else heck McDs definitely higher quality. What they called steak not sure in what part of the world or cow. Anyway hope this may save your night from a bad...