MEXTIZA By: El Sarape — Restaurant in Olympia

I've been a patron of this particular El Sarape for a few years now, since 2021 when my office moved super close to it. I've always really liked El Sarape in particular because they had a great deal on a lunch prices, and their food was actually pretty dang good!

I just went there recently though, and wow things have changed. The remodel looks great. Gotta give you props on the atmosphere. I love the new tables and chairs, and the much more open dining room. It looks really good.

But as soon as I looked at the new menu, I knew something was really weird. The prices are so much different. I used to be able to get my lunch quesadilla for $11.99, and that was with asada. Now, it's $20 for that same meal. I still ordered it anyway as it's been my usual for years. The waiter, not kidding, told me that that comes with FRIES, and asked if I wanted to switch that out for rice and beans???? Yes, I want to sub that out for rice and beans. Since when has anyone come to a respectable Mexican restaurant and ordered FRIES? Are you joking? That's a huge red flag already.

I get my chips and salsa. It's alright. I'm noticing that the chips look a bit different. They're inconsistently seasoned, some looking significantly different than others. The salsa is alright. I'm noticing that it's pretty thin. I can't quite remember if the salsa was thicker and packed with more veggies before, but I kinda feel like it was. No matter what though, the chips and salsa are never going to be a dealbreaker for me. I'm really just waiting for the actual meal.

I eventually get my entrée. Normally, I'm given a huge oval plate with the quesadilla, rice, and beans, all put together on the same plate. Today though, I'm given a circular plate with the quesadilla on it, and the sides are served in bowls separate from one another and separate from my quesadilla. I've never seen that before at any Mexican restaurant ever, but okay.

The quesadillas here used to be super thick, full of asada, cheese, and the right amount of oil. Not too much oil, but you knew it was there. The tortilla would be filled everywhere, and evenly cooked. Today though, parts of the quesadilla were very thin/empty. Those parts also featured crispy bits of tortilla which was a weird contrast to the more filled middle section of the quesadilla where the tortilla was softer (like it should be) and not crispy (like it shouldn't be). There's definitely less oil used overall.

The cheese... I'm not sure if it was different, or just less, or cooked for a different amount of time or under different conditions. You know that satisfying feeling when the cheese pulls and stretches apart as you grab a slice of the quesadilla? That was what I'd get when I ordered this last year. But not today. Today, there was no cheese pull. And not much asada either. It was definitely there, but significantly less than when I would previously order this dish.

The raw amount and quality of asada and cheese previously in this entrée was what really sold me this dish every time I visited here, and to see how that has changed is a huge dealbreaker for me.

The rice? Meh. It was too mushy and sticky. When the rice is done correctly, you should be able to separate all of the little pieces of rice with your fork. It's supposed to be soft, and maybe a tiny bit mushy, but not stuck together in chunks. It's also traditionally supposed to be served on the same plate as the beans and quesadilla.

The beans? They used to look super normal. They'd have that pinkish red hue that you'd see everywhere else like at the Mayan or at any good food truck. But these beans I was given had much more of a bronze hue to them and I don't really know why? Is that a different seasoning or something? The cheese they put on top of the beans also wasn't melted at all. It looked like it was straight out of the plastic bag of shredded cheese. It's supposed to be melted on top of the beans.

Altogether, I'm just not going to come back. Especially for the new price point, there are higher quality options available...

The server there, the younger man that never introduces himself, gives the worst service. I have only ever been to this location, and the first couple of times I was so so happy to finally be able to eat Mexican food again since becoming a vegetarian. But I went back with a friend after raving about how wonderful everything was, and the young man left us there and never checked on us again after he took our orders until he brought our checks. Our drinks were long gone and I was unable to finished my meal without a sip of water.

I attempted to go back with my son a while later, and we were seated with the same server. Once again, it felt as though he couldn't get away from our table fast enough.

But last night was the worst, and what prompted me to write this review, only after attempting to contact a manager or the owner via Facebook first.

My husband and I went for dinner. He ordered the street tacos with carne asada and I ordered the vegetarian street tacos.

My husband was brought street tacos with shrimp (these cost $4 more). No big deal - the server took them away and they were remade and the correct ones brought out quickly. We moved on.

At the end of our meal, we ordered an order of sopapillas ($5.99) to eat there, and an order of enchiladas sonoras to go. It's important to note that my son text me his order, and I wasn't sure how to pronounce sonoras, so I had the server read the text from my phone to make sure the correct order was placed.

When our bill came, the server had charged us for the shrimp tacos ($4 overcharge) and for flan (which costs $7.99, and therefore $2 overcharge). Furthermore, we were being charged for enchiladas rancheros, which prompted me to open the to go bag and discover that my sons order was wrong.

I took the ticket up to the counter and told the woman that came to the counter that my bill was wrong and so was my food and she walked around for 2-3 minutes trying to find my server, who finally came to the table to argue with me that that was what I had ordered. I said, you read it off my phone and he finally took the food to be remade.

When it came to the bill however, he insisted that the menu prices - the prices listed on the menu! were incorrect. That their system showed the carne asada tacos to be the same price as the shrimp. When pressed further, he said they were only $1 difference, but refused to change our bill to reflect the correct names of the dishes we actually ordered and their prices. He opted instead to bring us back the original bill with our corrected to go order and two $1 bills and say "here's the difference".

When my husband recounted this story at work today, a coworker told him this is a common scam with servers. They will ring in higher priced items and hope you don't notice, and then at the end of the night they will adjust the check to the correct, lower priced item and add the difference onto their tip. Better if you've paid cash.

So we won't be back to that location. And I'd warn others to be hyper-vigilant about knowing how much your food is supposed to cost, the names of your dishes and checking your bill...

If you are a Lacey El Sarape fan, they are back open. However, you may not be a fan any longer.

First off, let’s start with the positives. The restaurant itself inside is absolutely stunning! The ambiance, the presentation of the food, it’s all a 10 out of 10. I also love that they say they are shopping for fresh local ingredients from the local community.

The menu however and flavor of the food leaves so much to be desired. They took our favorite meal off the menu along with many others. In addition to removing the chile Colorado they also no longer have the salads we enjoyed, or the burritos.

Salsa, I’ve always been a fan of this restaurant because they (I assume) roasted their veggies. Instead now they are making a fresh salsa. I haven’t been able to eat fresh salsa in 12 years because I developed an allergy to raw nightshades.

Jalapeno Ranch, in addition to the salsa this was the ultimate side for your meal! It is now completely gone.

Queso Fundído, I’ve never ordered this before from el sarapes but I was trying to give something new a chance. It was literally melted mozzarella cheese. No seasoning, nothing. It wasn’t served nearly hot enough. It’s meant to have chips dipped into it, and you couldn’t even do that. I ordered chorizo as well with it. There was no flavor at all, simply burnt meat, no spice no anything. The first time they brought it out I dumped 2-3tbsp of oil off of it, and that was after trying to mix it in the cheese. They then sent us some out separately with the chorizo on the side. No oil this time but still no flavor.

My meal, I ordered barbacoa enchiladas. Again, presentation was great. The rice and beans were somewhat comparable to previous from there (except beans were thicker with no added cheese). However the flavor of the food was not great. Additionally the portions of the meat in the enchilada was extremely disappointing. I took a picture of my second enchilada. I ate that one with cutting off half of the tortilla so I could actually taste the meat. Maybe 1 1/2 tbsp of meat. The verde sauce had minimal flavor except for perhaps fresh tomatillo.

I know this might seem silly but this made me emotional. We’ve been coming to this restaurant for 30 plus years. For other people this might be just the change you needed to enjoy this restaurant. It’s a beautiful date night location.

Finally the bill…

The pricing was disappointing because the flavor wasn’t there. Previously my meal of chile Colorado would cost around $20. I received close to a cup of deliciously marinated and flavored beef, tortillas, and an equitable amount of rice and beans as tonight. Previously we were charged $10 for my daughter’s cheese quesadilla. Tonight we paid more than double for that.

Honestly if things remain as they are we will not eat here again. I wish them the best as a small business and hope they get the customers they need and want to make their business thrive.

In the meantime I would love recommendations for your favorite Mexican restaurant, but first I need it to have some sort of cooked or...