Metzy's Cantina — Restaurant in Newburyport

I wanted to love this meal so much, and I honestly can’t remember the last time I paid this much money to be this disappointed.

First let me start by saying, the service was lovely and the staff were friendly and welcoming. They have a great setup for online order and curbside pickup. So that much was appreciated. Also, my margarita is delicious.

But then, the food happened.

They were out of Mole sauce which was what I had ordered online. So they called me and I swapped for the cream sauce. It basically just tasted like cream cheese. (Which is cool I guess, because I like cream cheese.) We had also ordered guacamole for our nachos (a double portion) and there was none to be found. So, those are two things we paid extra for that we didn’t get.

Everything is completely flavorless. The beans taste like they are straight from a can. The rice was bland and dry. And the portions were smaller than I would have expected. Certainly less than I typically get at other mexican places. I tasted some of my boyfriend enchiladas with the verde sauce and it was flavorless. Oh, and the pictures and descriptions don’t really match what you actually get. The enchiladas are pictured plated with some pico, and a sprinkle of cheese (which were absent.) And the nachos were supposed to have sour cream (Nope) and while it did have beans and pico - it was the lightest sprinkling. I definitely thought there would be a bunch of leftovers - but the portions weren’t large enough for that.

We spent $90 on a meal that was meant to be a nice treat for us, and it’s a mistake I won’t be making here again.

• UPDATE*

So, Stephanie went above and beyond to make up for our poor experience. Our food was remade, and it’s a COMPLETELY different meal. Beans are super flavorful now (obviously they hadn’t been seasoned at all before.) We did notice that the nachos had been sent with the pulled chicken before instead of pulled pork (pulled pork was definitely better.)

So, still a super A+ for service.

And it’s apparent that the food CAN be great. But how it ever made it out the door the way we got it the first time is beyond me. It seemed like whoever made it the first time wasn’t paying attention and didn’t care. But the second time, it was fantastic - and definitely a meal I’d be excited to have again. Now I get why there are so many...

This is my first review of a restaurant, I have been a server and in the restaurant industry for over 20years, I also consider myself a foodie. I review every restaurant I go too, read comments before I even step foot in a establishment. I feel that my experience at Metzy’s needs to be noted. Sunday night my BF and I wanted to go for Mexican, after searching and reviewing Metzys we decided to head on over, the location and restaurant was cute, however, was so bright. There was one other family in there and I will note that it was a hour before closing. It took the waitress or whomever greeted us 15 mins to even get a drink order, we ordered Street corn and Korean bbq wings, the street corn was 3 full size ears of corn that were cold, cold to the point like they were just taken out of the fridge, the wings had a taste but were dry to the point where they were hard to eat, however, the waitress never came back to check on us and we were hungry so we ate what was in front of us and push through and let it go, it was about 10 mins later after the cold dry apps were finished that she took out order, I ordered the orange chicken with cashews and cilantro rice, he ordered pork tacos with pineapple, those came about 30 mins later, my rice was cold and legit tasted like metal, the chick again was cold dry and no cashews and the breading looked like it hadn’t even been cooked, his tacos were absolutely inedible, they had no flavor consistently of pet food and the pineapples were just thrown on top. We took one bite and realized we weren’t pushing thru this, we asked for the check and left. I have never been in a restaurant where people have left good reviews and had a worst dinner. The standards were less than I have ever expected and as a chef to serve that is just unprofessional and shows how much they do not care. I won’t go back, and I have read all the responses the owner and chef respond and don’t expect any type of responsibility but what happened and what you call good food is just inexcusable. I will never refer or go back...

I've been going to Metzy's since the food truck days. Moved out of the area shortly after the restaurant opened. We recently moved back to merrimack valley, and were so excited to be able to have Metzy's again. I'm sad to say though last night will likely be the last time.

We ordered takeout which took over an hour. Understandable I guess, but still annoying. My husband ordered fish tacos, I got sweet potato/black bean and pork tacos, and we ordered some chips and guac.

The $7 chips and guac consisted of one tiny to go container (like the kind you put salad dressing in), but it was okay there was so little because it was nearly inedible. There were half inch hunks of raw red onion mixed in, overpowering the whole guac. It also had zero salt. Seemed to just be avocado and red onion.

Our tacos were giant, which you would think is great, but it was mostly iceburg lettuce, tomatoes and even more red onion. The sweet potato black bean (my old favorite) was woefully underseasoned. Pork taco tasted good, but was so saturated in oil I had to eat it with a fork and knife. My husband's fish tacos were mostly cabbage and stuffed so full you couldn't even pick them up out of the to-go container.

I'm not sure what happened, but this restaurant has just gone downhill. Everything seemed rushed, and like there was no care or love put into the food (a stark contrast from the food truck days).

Maybe it's coronavirus, maybe it was a bad night, maybe the restaurant is sacrificing quality for quantity, maybe it should have never become a brick and mortar. Whatever the reason I'm sad one of my favorite spots is...