The Bean at Josefina’s — Restaurant in Mesilla

Like another reviewer said, if you have high expectations, you’ll be let down eating here. Service was fine. They don’t have mixed drinks here, but wine and beer. The large basket of chips set out on the table were stale, after a few chips I had that dizzy feeling in my head and felt nauseated, which only happens when the oil is old or reused. The salsa was average. The food is not homemade. They may mash their own guacamole or dice their own veggies. They do not grill their veggies, but pan fry as there is no depth or flavor to them. They use store bought beans and tortillas. The rice was good at least mixed with the beans. The guacamole tacos were ok, but needed some help with good quality tortillas. Very underwhelming. I make my own tortillas at home with good quality masa, but it’s just not done in most restaurants around here. There was no background or ambience music playing, very dull. Is it that difficult to play latin jazz or salsa music from Pandora or Spotify? For such a historic place, so much could be done, but maybe it’s just the people who manage this place don’t have the foundation of culture and traditions that could make this place all it could be. The foundation of life is good quality food and healthy people and that comes with real culture and traditions. This is why so many U.S. Citizens (careful to say American as there are North American and South Americans), visit Mexico as they are looking for what is lacking here. I would have given 3 stars, but the chips made me sick and at that point I was not enjoying anything. If you walk into a restaurant and the chips are poor quality and the salsa is meh, get up and walk out, don’t expect anything better than that. At least the water was filtered and was good. Huge positive there, but dear management try at least, try to taste the food before it goes out to the customers. If you want a packed restaurant, get it right. You can’t trust FB advertisements for restaurants. Do your homework and read the reviews. The worst thing in life is the CON, the confidence person, the con artist and advertising is just that, a con. Trust your gut, do your homework, or when eating out, don’t. High quality ingredients and cooking from the heart is done at home, unless with those who are truly passionate about what they cook and have a lot of love in their hearts. That’s when you’ll have the best food...

I started following Josefina’s Old Gate on Facebook, and had been willing to go for a long time. I finally had the time and went on a date with my husband on a random Tuesday. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a little bit of high expectations about this place, unfortunately, those weren’t exactly met during our visit. The place is remarkably nice, and it is located right at the heart of Mesilla which makes it very relaxing and beautiful. The service at this restaurant is good, and the staff was at all times very kind... We sat outside where there’s a great atmosphere to it, and I can only imagine how pleasant it must be with the live bands they have sometimes during the weekends. The only downside of the visit was definitely the food... They have an extremely limited menu which, there’s nothing wrong with that if you are a master at your craft and do this few dishes at the top of your game, but that was not the case.... They had a few options of beers (all of them from Ice Box, which is a good local brewery but drinking more than one or two glasses of the styles of beer they carry at Josefina’s can be hard, for how strong tasted they usually are), however, they only had 2 available types that night, unfortunately, just the strongest kinds. We ordered flautas and a smothered burrito respectively, but instead of bringing a beef burrito, they brought the chicken one. No big deal, who wants to be a pain in the rear when we’re trying to have a good time, right? Chicken can also be fine... except it was beyond salty 💔, just like the chips and salsa they had previously served... also, the rice was completely mushy, and was quite salty as well... I say I would not recommend this for people with high blood pressure issues, or those who are willing to prevent such health issues in the future. I am not exactly sure if it was just a matter of bad timing by visiting during the week...or if the cook was having a bad night on that particular date, but it was not great. I think they have a great thing going on, atmosphere and location wise, but could definitely look at improving when it comes down to the menu. I guess I would be willing to give them a second try on a weekend, and find out if there’s a difference in the saltiness of the food. So far, not...

Today we stopped in at a little before 1:00 pm. Fortunately there was a table available, but it needed to be bussed. Since there was no one else waiting we took the table. After sitting there for approximately 15 minutes we had to flag down the bus help (this was her second pass) and asked her to clean the table. This young lady was very pleasant and actually was helpful. She asked if any one had been around a couple of minutes later and took our drink order. Finally at about 1:15 the waitress who didn't identify herself came to the table. She took the signed check off the table and then very bluntly said she had to go over to the other table because they had been waiting a long time. At about 1:30 she came directly to the table once again no pleasantries just started to take our order. Within moments of taking our orders she was back and almost literally threw the paper towel wrapped silverware to me and my two lunchmates to our respective positions, by the way she still hadn't introduced herself. We were served our meals and within five minutes of completing our lunch she had our checks on the table. It was only by looking at the check we finally discovered her name was Jenny. To Jenny's credit, she did refill our iced tea glasses once. Overall a horrible experience and I will have to think long and hard before ever revisiting this establishment. Normally I will take pictures of a establishment if I enjoy my visit. In this case, not worth the effort. The food was adequate/good at best. I go to restaurants for service. I cook as well or better than most places that I have been. In this case I would have been better off just inviting our friend over and...