Pueblo Lindo Meridian — Restaurant in Meridian

My boyfriend and I ate here tonight and honestly had such a subpar experience I don’t think we will be back. Starting off, our server came to our table after about a minute or two and took our drink orders. She then gave us our chips, salsa, and drinks and then let us be until our food arrived. When she gave us our food, she didn’t ask if we needed anything or offer to refill the empty salsa or our drinks (she was so quick to go to another table we didn’t have time to ask for anything either). Both of our sodas and the salsa were empty for half of our meal before our server finally came to check on us. I asked for a refill of my soda and our salsa and she promptly left again and brought them to the table. She visibly looked at my boyfriend’s empty cup and walked off to another table before we could say anything else. We didn’t see her again until after TWO other servers noticed our lack of service and came by. Towards the end of the meal I left the table to use the restroom and one of the other servers took his plate and left mine at the table after he let him know we needed a box for my food. No box came. Our server came to our table without saying anything and took my plate, set the complimentary dessert down and then walked off again. Aside from the terrible service, I didn’t even get to take the rest of my meal home… which is insane. I wanted to say something but we didn’t have time to sit and wait another 10-20 minutes before getting someone’s attention so we just left and likely won’t be back. Food was good but not good enough to pay full price for something I didn’t even...

What happened Pueblo Lindo?? Are you under new ownership, do you have a new chef??? All I know is, tonight has left me with the heebie jeebies. First, my diet coke came. What in the dirty dish water was that? When's the last time you cleaned your soda machines? I tasted my daughter's lemonade. Same...taste. I'm not exaggerating, go take lessons from McDonalds on soda machine cleanliness. Then, I ordered something I have gotten many times before, and this was not the same even remotely. Camarones a la diabla.. DIABLA, meaning SPICY. There was ZERO spice in fact I would rename it Camerones a la Ketchup. It was litterally sweet, and tasted like it was only made with ketchup. Zero spice, flavor... it was gross gross gross. I still shudder when I think about it. I have had this before, it was delicious, i do not know why you changed it. I added lots of the cholula sauce and it couldn't save it. I ate 2 shrimp, tried to swallow a 3rd and just couldn't do it. I ended up just eating my beans and rice. Last, we ordered the Fried Ice Cream...seriously...what has happened? It used to be delicious. I didn't know Fried Ice cream could be made without sugar. The only sweetness on it now was the jam. The ice cream had no sugar, the topping had no sugar. It was also soggy not crunchy. Another something we couldn't finish. Now did we mention it while we were there?...No, cause I don't like making people feel bad, but I got home thinking, wow, I don't know what happened, but they need to know. As of now we will...

Based on the excellent reviews, I either have to believe either my experience was a one-off or the reviews are planted and/or made by people with frighteningly little experience with Mexican restaurants. Aside from one item, everything else I had was OK... not great... not even pretty good... just average. But that one item is my all-time favorite dish in Mexican cuisine dish... the chili relleno. The relleno that was served was on the smaller side. Not a deal breaker since chili sizes do vary. It did make wonder if the small size was why they were able to get almost no cheese in it. But even at that, I would've been OK. But part of the relleno was not drowned in sauce. When I took a bite, the batter tasted incredibly stale with a funky texture. It gave me the distinct impression what I was served was prepared several days in advance, reheated, and tossed on the plate. All it did was make me wish we had gone to our favorite local place instead. The Treasure Valley doesn't have tons of Mexican restaurants, but there are some reasonably good options here. Ordinarily, I'd be inclined to give an establishment another chance, but the stale flavor of the relleno combined with what that flavor represents in my head is going to make it unlikely for me to try Pueblo Lindo again. Even if the stale flavor wasn't there, I'd probably give the place 3 stars or if the service was incredible, I might feel generous enough to go to 4 stars. But as it was, I feel generous...