Espíritu — Restaurant in New Orleans

We walked down after Wednesdays at the Square, and had been here a couple of years ago when it was a different restaurant. It's a nice room. Decent decor, clean space. Got seated right away, and our server came by quickly. Very friendly, and helpful with suggestions. We ordered apps of guacamole classico, and churros. At the same time, I ordered a Cochinita Torta, which is "Yucatan style Pork, cashew habanero aioli, pickled onion" as stated on the menu. Babycakes ordered a couple of al pastor tacos. In a few minutes, the churros came to the table, with a chocolate dipping sauce. The churros were great. Sugary, cinnamon dusting on a nice tasting fried dough. With the sauce it took it to another level. We were sitting after that for quite awhile. Enough so a manager came over and apologized for the wait. Our entrees came out, and it was underwhelming. My torta had a lot of bread. Or maybe it was a lack of pork...or pickled onion... Or flavor.. Or (please fill in your own adjective here). The fries were good. Babycakes said the tacos had no flavor. She asked for some hot sauce or salsa to get some kind of taste to it, and it kind of worked. Two entrees, two misses. As we were eating, the manager again came over to apologize for our guacamole not coming to the table (we hadn't seen our server for a bit), and said he could see the guac in the window, and, not seeing anyone around to bring it, went over and got it and brought it to the table. He did comp the guacamole since we were almost done with our entree. The guac..... Had tomato in it, with lime juice. Again. Kind of bland and tasteless. No garlic?? No onion??? Salt? Pepper? Jalapeno? Come on. Service, not great. Food, not...

I was really looking forward to the hype I read on Google. My partner took me there for my birthday dinner. I will say that our drinks were the star of the meal. There were some great mezcal offers and plenty of cocktails to choose from.

The service was good. Our server was attentive to our drinks and made sure that we always had full glasses, whether it be of water or libations. Our server was kind and attentive to our needs.

What disappointed us was the food. If this is the best Mexican restaurant you've been to, you should go out more. To start, we ordered the Creole queso. This seems to be something served in various restaurants around the city. The queso came out warm, not hot. I would have preferred to have it come piping hot and wait a few minutes for it to cool down. I ordered the cochinita pibil and my partner ordered the lamb mole. We ordered the elote street corn as a shared side. Our orders came out in less than two minutes after ordering. When orders come out that quickly, it makes me wonder how long it was sitting under a lamp or how long ago the order was prepared. My tacos were dry and warm. The lamb was cooked well, lacked flavor, and also warm. The mole on the lamb was pretty basic. None of our food actually came out feeling like it was not cooked fresh.

After finishing our food, we decided not to order more because the price compared to the quality and portions of the food did not seem worth it. We ended up getting a small after-dinner meal to supplement...

Update! Ummm, being from Texas and California it wasn't the best. The seafood queso was too "regular" for the setting. "TOO MUCH GARLIC IN IT & THE GUACAMOLE" You want both dishes to taste distinctive not the same ! It wasn't even Velveeta quality in my opinion. It wasn't creamy at all. The guacamole was too much like baby food. You want your guacamole chunky and thick, more cilantro. The meat had no fajita smoke to it whatsoever. No kind of smoked Mexican grill meat flavor. Absolutely no flavor, and no cilantro."NOT ENOUGH CILANTRO AND ONION" No salsa was in the bag and it took a little too long for that time of day, for the cars I saw. It wasn't bad, however it wasn't A1 either. Definitely not Abuelos or our restaurant quality in Houston and Arlington Texas on Mexican style food. Customer Service was great, I will say that and I did still tip. Now we know that some foods are Tex-Mex but it still should have flavor, the meat had no flavor at all. It had No nothing ! Also, in Texas, 🇨🇱 you get salsa and chips as a condiment with your order. You get salsa in the bag period.. And if you are going to do curbside then do curbside, if not, don't. It certainly is still being posted under the site. Most places are, especially restaurants, so that wasn't necessarily doing me a favor. But glad to see a correction could be made if I ever decide to come back to...