Azul Tequila Bar & Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Pawtucket

First review be nice 😡

TL;DR: great staff. Top of the line drinks. Uninspiring food. Gorgeous interior but it doesn’t have that authentic charm I’ve seen in other north east Mexican restaurants.

I would first like to compliment the staff. They did an excellent job in making me feel welcome from the hostess to the manager. Everyone stopped in at an appropriate time and really elevated the experience for my partner and I.

I had 2 drinks. ($16) A classic house margarita, and a house margarita with mango with a taijin rim. I couldn’t recommend this place more for drinks, they really did a good job. My partner had 2 of the non house margaritas made with syrup ($15), and those were also really good!! I’ll definitely be heading back to this bar!

The food was honestly kinda meh. The menu seemed priced on the higher end, matching up to some of the higher end restaurants in the greater providence area. I went in seeing an almost 5 star Google rating and expected something unique and noteworthy, and unfortunately that is not what I received.

The tacos appeared to not match up to even Taco Bell unfortunately ($17). My partner said they were dry and if she weren’t starved and a marg and a half deep, she probably wouldn’t have even eaten the three they come with.

I got the la Mexicana sandwich ($18), which I understand might not be everyone’s favorite, but the entire dish was hidden under the thickest layer of chorizo I have ever seen, and I love chorizo don’t get me wrong. It was more burger than sandwich, but it just simply was not good.

The fries were unremarkable as well, underdone, not crispy, but salted correctly. Pretty decent.

The property is gorgeous! There’s flowers adorning the walls, I got several pictures of my partner, it’s a really cool building and they really worked hard building it I can tell. It feels inauthentic however, I can’t put my finger on why, it feels like big money got put into it, ripping out all its heart and soul. If you visit, you’ll see what I mean.

I will definitely be returning, probably not for food, But definitely for drinks!! Solid 3/5, don’t expect anything great from the food, but everything else is...

I will begin chronologically.

They have items on the menu that they don’t even serve. Asked for the cauliflower tacos, was told they don’t make those. Not they were out, just straight up don’t make them. So there are two items on the menu they don’t even make because they have cauliflower. I asked when do they even have that is vegetarian then? One item, a plain quesadilla. I said sure, asked for a side of refried beans too, they don’t even have black beans even though that was on the menu too. Also order the queso dip.

I asked for a diet coke or diet pepsi, whatever they have. I was brought a warm can of diet coke.

When they brought the food, queso dip never came and neither did the beans. I asked the waiter and he just said Ya I didn’t put in the order for the dip. No sorry, just a ya I didn’t do it. Said they would bring the beans.

The quesadilla was fine, nothing special, but they also gave the tiniest sides of sour cream and quac to go with it.

The waiter the disappeared for about 25 min, never checked on anything till we waived him down for the check.

The manager possibly was mostly screwing around at the bar while this waiter screwed up other things (overheard table issues at the people next to us)

At the end, they charged us for the beans. I said you charged us for the beans and we never got them. Waiter said, yes because side beans are extra. Right, you are charging us for beans that never came. Then just a oh okay ill remove it.

The most F’d up part really? Charged us $5 for that warm can of soda.

The waiter then went on to tell us we should come back for the taco tuesday. Are you crazy? This was a bad experience and we just went through telling you I can’t eat almost anything on the menu, especially tacos.

We went at like 130-2 in the afternoon, it was not a super busy friday, got our food in okay time which was the only saving grace.

This place seems like it misses it on everything, service, food (even my wife didn’t like their carne asada), ambiance. Try...

First time trying Azul. Walking in, I was so impressed with the cleanliness and colorful atmosphere. It was really beautifully decorated with lots of photo opportunities. The first table we were to be seated at was not ideal...too close to the bar which was lively but just too loud. My partner asked we sit at a booth, which was made available to us immediately and it was comfortable. There were TVs with EVERY sport at all angles. That's great for sports lovers you literally won't miss a thing! I was excited to try their house margarita..it was just Ok, a little sweet but not bad...but 14 dollars?. No free chips and salsa...bummer..then what we ordered was unlike any salsa I'd ever had before. It was more like marinara sauce. Fresh, but with mozzarella sticks would have made more sense. There was no acidity to it it was also really sweet. Time for more food reviews...I got tacos de Baja and they came out looking beautiful. However, the flavor was just not there. The crema was nice and the fish was cooked well, but so bland. Even the colorful slaw on top fell FLAT. It was disappointing. My boyfriend got biria tacos...and wow. First of all, I don't know what was going on with the consume but it was so thin and oily it barely stuck to the shell for dipping. Definitely would not be good for sipping after...It did not seem that the meat was cooked in it at all either.Again, the meat while cooked well, had no flavor. There was no warmth, no depth, and it just tasted like sugar-which was confusing! The cheese was the best thing on that taco...Our server was pleasant and seemed sincere. But because of the price and the lack of flavor from the food we won't be returning.

TLDR; I think changing up some of those recipes would make a tremendous difference because the space alone is enough to want to go in..AND the service is good too...but the food is why we go and everything else is...