Plaza Azteca Missoula — Restaurant in Missoula

I was so excited to have our family dinner here as it is a new restaurant in the area and we love Mexican food.

The atmosphere was fun, festive music playing and everything was clean looking. There was a little bit of a language barrier with the staff but that's expected and was OK. We were given chips and salsa and then a young man showed up with a cart and asked if we would like guacamole. I thought this was their "thing" and said yes. He made it right there on the cart and it was a cute experience but was a bit bland. After receiving our menus I noticed the "Tableside Guacamole" as an appetizer for $12. I really don't like the fact they seem to trick you into purchasing this but let it go as it was a special family dinner. But if it costs money you should state that when you offer it. (It's on the menu so if we wanted it we would have ordered it when we got the menu not before.) We ordered the Beer battered fish tacos, birria rolls and some alcohol. The fish tacos came grilled not battered and were a bit bland as well. The birria rolls were fantastic but a bit overpriced for the portion you get.

However, my largest issue was with my alcohol choice. I ordered the margarita flight and took photos and videos upon receiving it at the table. I took a sip and had a sharp pain in my mouth. I spit out a pinky nail sized blue GLASS SHARD that I had not noticed. It sliced my tongue while spitting it out. My husband immediately went to inform someone and they took the glass piece and told him a glass had BROKEN in the back and remade my sample glass with the same drink. We were not given any customer service past that point. I went back into my photos from dinner and you can actually see the glass piece in the drink. We immediately tried to just finish our food and hoped someone would come to rectify the situation but it did not happen. We received an almost $100 bill including the $12 guacamole and $19 drink that had glass in it. We paid and did not tip as to not make a scene. I don't feel like discussing it with anyone that was present would have gotten anywhere as my injury didn't seem to be any concern for them- almost an annoyance. Super...

We had a party of 7, and got seated right away, which was nice. First weird thing, no listing of beverages anywhere to be found, other than alcohol. I ended up asking about non alcoholic drinks to find out what the options might be, and got root beer, coke, lemonade and something I didn’t understand. I’m guessing maybe they have more options, but I have no way of knowing since they couldn’t be bothered to list drinks on the menu and the waiter didn’t know. They did bring chips with some ok salsa and a very odd sort of ranch dip. Everyone ordered food, and we ordered one dish without cilantro, which they said was no problem. That dish was tacos and came with the cilantro on the side, but the dip/sauce for the tacos had a layer of fresh cilantro sprinkled on top. Frustrating. I was going to ask the waiter about it when he came to check on us (someone else brought the food), but we did not see our waiter or anyone else until we had all finished eating. I ending up picking the cilantro out and making the best of it. I really do like to have someone check in, in case there is an issue with some of the food.

So, all those hiccups aside, the food was alright, but not great. The service was sufficient but not friendly or engaging. And the restaurant itself has little atmosphere. It’s clearly just a different chain restaurant building with...

So.... The Salsa can only be described as tomato sauce, and the Mexican "Ranch" dressing served with the chips as well was also bland. One of us had the enchiladas pablonos, The other had the spinach enchiladas. The enchilada poblanos, we're decent and i liked the plantains that accompanied the dish. The sauce had a moderately interesting mole flavor but ended up just being flat. The spinach enchiladas, we're just bland in every way. We had 2 kinds of their rice. The Mexican rice was just weak in flavor and the strange white rice that came with the other dish. I can only describe as what you might get in a frozen t v dinner with obviously, frozen corn, carrots and peas. Despite the plates being scalding hot, the food was oddly not all that warm itself. We've only tried these two dishes, but I hope it's early enough for the kitchen to work on its quality and flavor complexity.

Staff was nice and attentive but the hard surfaces made for too much noise, and although the table side lamps we're a nice touch the globes need to be frosted unless you like an imprint of a light bulb in your view for many minutes after leaving. The place has only been open for a couple weeks, I hope they will make some critical improvements. The menu has some interesting and unusual choices foe a missoula...