alejandro's — Restaurant in Monterey

TLDR: A new beautiful monterey gem, 10/10 go visit!!

Let me first say, this restaurant is a stunner. Its a lovely mix of rustic latin & chic - modern with a tad of hipster but not so much its pretentious. My fiancé and I couldn’t say enough good things about the ambiance. We asked to not be seated in the center of the room in our reso (pro tip if you don’t like being fishbowl’d) and we got sat in this adorable two top in this side alcove - perfect. So kudos to whomever designed this place, you nailed it for my demographic at least ;) (late 20s early 30s)

Okay lets talk food - I saw complaints about the prices and such but honestly homies get with the economy, margins are tight for food service and food is insanely expensive right now. Especially quality ingredients so if you choose to go to more elevated dining please adjust your pricing expectations - we found the pricing to be fair given the deliciousness and quality. (When people say “meals used to be so much cheaper” yea fam, duh. Its a recession. Dozen eggs cost like $8 right now. It is what it is.) All that soapbox aside, I added pics of everything we got - the shrimp dish was friggin delicious. I want it again already writing this! Everything we got was perfectly cooked, balanced (right amounts of salt/fat/acid/heat for my foodies out there) They served homemade blue corn tortillas with the osso bucco and it was chefs kiss as well. I have zero complaints and I worked in Michelin dining for several years at the end of my culinary career, so take that for what its worth :)

Finally service - easily one of the most attentive, professional, friendly and welcoming staff I’ve had in Monterey. Great job on the team, seriously. They had a huge mix of personalities in the restaurant the night we visited (like some drunk business yuppies & snobby older folks - one literally pointed at his water glass in his hand an said “agua” to a busser, like really dude? Yikes.) however they had brilliant hospitality all the way around. I’m kinda picky (again having worked in fine dining, but I do adjust my expectations per the vibe) and they were on par with SF fine dining in my opinion. When a service staff stops hustling to hold the door and thank you for dining with them, thats a great sign.

Okay thats my 2 cents on Alejandro’s, we will definitely be back and with family next! Keep it up, you guys are going to smash it...

Hello, the number one take away is- the quality and flavor of the food were amazing, 4.9 stars. Our servers were good, the hostess very good, the bidders could be more warm but I get it they were young. Sad to say we sat next to the kitchen and I saw that allll staff besides the one hostess up front? All wait staff, cooks were male. Although the food and mole tasted authentic and deelish, the vibe was a tad squarish and cold, and the music was like techno dance, like they were trying to be some hipster sheik New York something. You are in Monterey, a historically Indio then Spanish population, surrounded by old pueblos and ruins and California history, but none of that was represented at a placed named Alejandro’s, with this amazing mole on the menu? Just a missed opportunity in my opinion. Go and get th Duck with mole sauce, incredible, the duck had a crust or “bark”, with salty spice on the outside with that rub, charred well then inside the sliced medallion of duck, the meat was cooked to tender perfection. So juicy, not too fatty, the chef rendered the fat out well and got that duck skin char goin’. And a fabuloso mole on top? Not too much, but it’s never enough since it’s good enough to drink. We had the Tres Moles appetizer plate which came with a side of blue corn tortillas. They had the perfect thickness to soak up the amazing mole. My favorite was the darker brown the Mole Negro, a close second was the Red Earth brown Mole Coloradito, and last the orangish looking Mole sofrito, all so tasty. The sofrito one was mild and butter sooo much like Butter Chicken. We had 3 types of cocktails, an off menu Dirty martini they made for my dinner partner, a great guava margarita, and fantastic Expresso martinis to finish off my night w/Alejandro’s. Can’t wait to come again…I’d love to hear rainforest music, OR anything Latino, for music, maybe a beautiful piece of art designed to reflect the native lands we are on, the coast/wild life -could be a nice touch Anyways,...

Do not order the special!! I was invited to try this restaurant by a friend who made it very clear from the beginning that she would be paying for everybody's tab. We arrived over 20 minutes early to our reservation time and they were able to sit us despite it being a busy Saturday night. The restaurant location is exactly what you would expect to find on Alvarado street. Delicious drinks and entrees listed on their menu- entrees between $25 to $40, drinks on average about $15, exactly what you would expect for the Monterey area. Waitress was very friendly and came by to take our drinks and appetizer orders. She asked if we would like to hear the specials, we said yes. She mentioned the steak special and made it sound very delicious. One of the members in our group said he would like to try the steak special- the waitress quickly added that the steak was on the larger side and that she always suggested it be a shared entree between 2 individuals so I agree to share it with him. She didn't share cost for the steak special but being that nothing on the menu was listed over $40 I assumed it would be priced somewhere around $60 to $80. I was completely mortified when the bill came and saw that the steak special was listed at $170, I was a guest and would have never ordered something so expensive knowing that I was not the one responsible for the bill. I was more than willing to pay for the portion of my bill when my friend insisted that it was her treat and she paid for everyone. I quickly zelled her $200 to make up for the meal that I had been partially responsible for. I was raised better than to take advantage of someones generosity and the truth was I was mortified. Alejandro's shame on you for misleading your patrons. Despite the restaurant having great food I think our entire group was left with a sour taste in our mouths and none of us will...