Tepache Mexican Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Marshall Township

We went for dinner a few days ago to try this restaurant out for the first time. We’re always in search of an authentic Mexican Restaurant in the Pittsburgh area, but often let down by lack of freshness, flavor, and seasoning. We had high hopes for Tepache, but again our hopes were dashed with this meal.

The place was busy in a Thursday eve, but we were seated promptly. Our server was ok, but he didn’t speak much English, so a few questions we asked about the menu, and items we asked for were difficult to communicate, and he forgot a couple items like more salsa (and hotter salsa), and sour cream that my wife had ordered for her tacos.

The fresh chips and salsa were ok, but the salsa was very mild and lacked flavor (other than puréed tomatoes). Could have used more onion/garlic; cilantro; and spice/jalapeño. I asked the waiter if he had a spicier version of the salsa for us, he nodded his head and walked away, but never brought us the spicer salsa, which I’m guessing they do not have to offer.

The food was lukewarm and some was downright cold (my Rajas con Crema side dish, which lacked flavor and corn).

I ordered the Chile Rellenos entree which had a flavorless and weird looking orange sauce on top of the two battered & fried chiles, making what was the crisp outer batter, soft and wet. The sauce had little flavor to it, and would have benefited from some seasoning and a few sliced scallions to give it some color & contrast to the dish. The menu says that the Chile Rellenos are “Drizzled with Roasted Tomato & Guajillo Salsa”, but didn’t own up to what this authentic Mexican sauce/salsa should taste like at all and way too much sauce poured over the meal. Suggestions: maybe add some real smokiness to it, smoky chilies:chipotles, or smoked paprika and some roasted garlic at the very least.

My other side dish that I was excited to try, was the Roasted Corn & Poblano Salad. It was ok, but again needed more flavor to it and was a bit dry and tough to chew.

My wife ordered the Combo Dinner with a Beef & Chicken Tacos and a Chicken Enchilada. Let’s start with the chicken in both the taco & enchilada, it was dry and flavorless. It’s like they forgot to season it.

The beef taco, felt apart and out of the bottom of the hard taco shell when it was picked up from the taco holder. Everything spilled out on the plate. I’m thinking that the greasy beef saturated the shell causing it’s collapse, there are ways to prevent this, including not letting it sit too long in the kitchen before the server delivers it to the table. The beef had Zero Seasoning and Zero Flavor, it looked and tasted like they forgot to add any seasoning at all, or forgot to stir it adequately into the pot of browned ground beef. It basically tasted like browned ground beef, flavorless. The rice and black bean sides were nothing special.

What was most disappointing was that no one ever checked in on us after delivery of our food, despite the manager walking by us several times, and she was standing off to the side chatting casually with a few of the servers. I hoped she’d noticed after awhile that we didn’t eat everything (and we were hungry), and when our server finally came to our table at the end of our meal, he only asked us if we needed anything else, to which we replied, “No thank you”. The fact that we didn’t ask for to-go containers for our leftovers, was a sure sign that we were unimpressed.

As I said, we wanted to find good, authentic Mexican food here, but only found food comparable to an average Mexican Chain restaurant, which is something that we do not desire and have more than enough of in the area, especially at the prices we paid for our meals. Two basic entrees with no drinks/alcohol and just one iced tea, cost us $38.51 before tip.

I hope that the restaurant takes this feedback as well as others who’ve expressed similar concerns, and makes the necessary changes to make this restaurant shine, and truly become an “Authentic Mexican” Restaurant that could last for many...

Walked into this place as a group of 5 on Saturday night with no reservation and were told 45 minutes to an hour wait. I’m not from Pittsburgh but I was with friends who were and they said it would be impossible to find a quick table anywhere so we decided to wait it out. Ended up being about an hour and 15. It looked like you could sit at the bar and get drinks if there was room while you waited, but we just hung around the foyer. We didn’t make a reservation because I didn’t know what my schedule would look like that evening, but they do take them so you’ll want to make one to avoid waiting as long as we did. Other than the wait, I really liked this place. There were some menu options that seem to be less common at American Mexican restaurants and sounded really good to me. Started with a glass of tepache to drink. They have an alcoholic version and a nonalcoholic, I went with the nonalcoholic. I had never heard of tepache before and was excited to try. I loved the complex flavours - it definitely tasted homemade! It was sweeter than I expected but not too much. The pineapple and Tajín salt garnishes were a great touch. I would definitely recommend giving the tepache a try if you’re interested because I think the taste would appeal to a lot of people - it does have a bit of that fermented flavour but is less funky than things like kombucha. They have complimentary chips and salsa. Their chips were clearly house made and fresh and warm when they came out. They were thicker and puffier than the average tortilla chip and I really liked this texture. For my entree, I ended up going with one of the combos because it allowed me to pick exactly what I wanted and try a few different things. I got the Southern-Style Tamal and Spinach & Mushroom Enchilada Verde for my mains, and Nopal Salad and Rajas con Crema for sides. I loved the tamal and the enchilada. The salsa verde on the enchilada was so flavourful, it was a little spicy but mostly just vibrant and tangy. Lots of spinach inside! I’ve never seen a banana leaf-wrapped tamal before and I enjoyed the slightly different (maybe more herbal?) flavour of this. Also the consistency of the cheese filling was perfect for some satisfying cheese pulls. The rajas con crema were also very good although the sauce was so rich that I had to leave some. The nopal salad was the thing I was least enthusiastic about. I still enjoyed it but the nopales tasted like they were out of a can and as a result the salad was lacking the spark that everything else had. If you really want nopales I would still recommend this, but if not there are probably better sides. Amazingly I still had room for dessert after all this, and I ordered the Flan Elote. The texture was rich and kind of interesting in a way that I can’t put my finger on - it wasn’t completely smooth but in a pleasant way. The caramel sauce was delicious with a flavour that I again couldn’t put my finger on. And the strawberry was so fresh! Just a good meal all around, and the staff was all very friendly. Even though they were filled to the brim, everyone was so calm and it looked like they were doing their best to keep things moving. Prices are totally fair, and the portions really are generous - I think I was only able to finish everything because I was absolutely famished...

Service: Excellent. Very friendly and checked in with us often. 5/5 stars

Atmosphere: Clean out front. A little strange with the dried flowers hanging all over the place, but what do I know about interior design... not a darn thing.

Table side guacamole: Ingredients were fresh, but the combination was severely underwhelming. Zero garlic available for the guacamole. Virtually no salt. It was a creamy, flavorless mass. 1/5 stars

Tortilla chips: These tasted like bagged grocery store "restaurant style" chips. With the exception of absolutely zero salt on them. The "hypertension suffers" special. 2/5 stars

Salsa: Watery but good flavor. 3/5 stars

Mar Y Tierra: The was supposed to be a NY strip steak. It was 1/8 inch slices beef that would be better served in a sandwich. It was fatty in all the wrong ways and tougher than a prospector's shoe. It was seasoned appropriately, but the texture killed it. The fire roasted corn was canned corn put under a broiler, the rice was clearly from a bag. Zero fresh ingredients. This could be yours for $22. 1/5 stars

Tamal - Northern Style: I was once in the desert and didn't have a drink for 12 hours. Somehow this tamal was drier than my mouth felt back then. The chicken was stringy, tough, and was just on this side of being considered jerky. This chicken was so old I bet it could have a shot and a beer at the bar. Zero seasoning... again. This was clearly a reheated abomination. This was part 1 of a $17 entree. 0/5 stars

Tamal - Southern Style: This had hope, in terms of flavor, except I made the mistake of ordering this with ground beef filling. The "ground beef" had the texture of circa 1994 Taco Bell "ground beef." Ground beef should not be gritty. This was gritty. This was part 2 of a $17 entree. 0/5 stars

Enchilada Rojas: Flavor was okayish. It's like being asked to the prom by someone good looking, but finding out that they have no personality during the event.The roasted tomato and guajillo salsa was barely present, much like my Junior year prom date. This was part 3 of a $17 entree. 1/5 stars

Black Beans and Rice: This should be a staple dish that is simple and flavorful. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The beans were clearly from a can, the rice clearly from a bag. Again, zero seasoning. Someone there must have had their dog hit by a salt truck, because whoever is running the kitchen in the back hates salt. This was part 4 of a $17 entree. 1/5 stars

Verdict: Arguably one of the worst Mexican food experiences I've had in recent memory. This really does taste like a middle school cafeteria version of Mexican food.

Side Note: I can't really understand how they are this highly rated....