Don Sombrero — Restaurant in Miami Beach

I was enticed by all the 5-star reviews, but I guess on a cold, windy, slow week night the server just wasn't able to bring her A game.

My shrimp burrito had potential. It was a substantial burro but just lacked that extra something special that would make it worth traveling for. I kept thinking the entire time I was eating it that I wish I had some Smokey salsa to dip it in or at least some salt. There wasn't enough of any of the street corn or the cheese to make the flavor interesting. The small side of guac was good.

The service was bare minimum. Juliana was friendly enough but there was no attempt to make any sort of connection or to share any recommendation of any sort.

Juliana checked in on me just once as I started eating the second half of my burrito. She did not fill my water (why would she - she gave me my own water so I could refill myself). She did bring me the lemon/lime I asked for but no ice for my water as requested.

She seemed so confident and friendly when I was done with my meal. So excited to give me a card that asked me to do a review on Trip Advisor and Google (but the Yelp! QR code was crossed off for some reason). I almost told her, "I'm not sure this is a good idea for you!" She didn't offer coffee or dessert. Nice person - just no passion for people or the food.

The ambiance was typical Miami Beach Mexican with the bright colors and the music in the background. It was fine but there is nothing about this place that would entice me to go...

We got a 20 dollar coupon from another restaurant for a group of restaurants all owned by the same company we assume.

While walking into the restaurant we were called out to by the neighboring Mexican restaurant hostess if we wanted to eat there. We thought it was odd that there were two Mexican restaurants right next to each other. Our reservation was unknown to Don Sombrero, so they quickly got a table ready and gave us our menus. We were surprised when two in our party got menus from the neighboring restaurant, cafe abuela’s. The menu was the exact same with a different name on top.

The food was pretty good. Appetizers came out hot and flavorful the chorizo nachos were very good. The flautas can with a delicious guacamole salad. My chicken fajitas were cut too large, but again tasted very good with the green hot sauce.

Unfortunately we had a small incident. Some food got spilled on one of the people in our party, sauce covering her whole arm to her neck and over her top. Very normal for there to be an accident and the server apologized many times running for napkins and water. The issue is that management and our server did nothing. We asked for a replacement rice because the food was spilled in a bowl of rice. The waitress had to “check with management”. We expected that at the very least her meal to be comped, but no just the “free 5 dollar rice”. I suppose because of the automatic 20% service charge there no need to...

We initially wanted to go to Abuela's tacos but it was closed. The sign on the door directed us next door to Don Sombrero. The waitress let us know that Abuelas is now Don Sombrero.

I love that they have outdoor seating. Even though it was hot outside, the covered porch/patio area was all shade, and they have heavy fans blowing in every direction. We were very comfortable for the entire dinner. The host was super friendly and welcoming to us. It was busy, but we were seated right away. Our waitress was friendly and helpful when we had questions about the menu.

For an appetizer, we had the chicken flautas on a bed of lettuce and flavored guacamole. The chicken was pulled chicken. It was delicious. You have to try it. We also ordered chicken tacos,steak taco's and the birria tacos. The steak was tender but missing flavor. We added a little hot sauce and that helped a lot. The birria taco was really good and flavorful. Not the best I've ever had but it was good. The chicken taco, however, was the best out of the 3. It was the most flavorful.

There were a ton of other great sounding items on the menu. Oh, I almost forgot. They charge an automatic 20% "service fee" to every bill. It's written in very small print on the menu. Our bill was almost $200. I wouldn't mind that price if the food was top tier...