BARCOA Agaveria — Restaurant in Phoenix

I came here 8/31 around 7pm. They were doing karaoke and shut down most of the other locations like the basement bar. I had no idea and I don’t believe I saw it on the website either about the karaoke event. I wish I knew prior to going. The parking is 30 some dollars for 3 hours which I find absurd. But that’s not their fault.

Anyways the bar is nicely decorated for sure and I love that. But the cantina is really small. For a karaoke event it was not the best use of space since the bar of the cantina practically takes half the room and then there’s like 4 tables you can sit at. I was a bit confused finding the door since it wasn’t very obvious. When I walked in there was the karaoke host at the table and I asked where to sit and she indicated any open table but I’d have to order at the bar. Since there’s also bar seating I don’t know if ordering at the bar is a great idea since space limitations was definitely obvious.

I had two drinks there. One was a guava margarita and the other was a Paloma. For downtown drinks they’re not badly priced. I’m not a huge fan of tequila but the drinks weren’t bad. They were definitely strong though. I asked the bartender if they use a syrup or real fruit for the guava margarita. The bartender said it was ‘real fruit but it’s kinda syrupy’. Let me say it came out of a white squeeze bottle and it was 100% syrup. It’s the simply squeeze syrups and that’s NOT real fruit. It’s a syrup infused with real fruit. So i was very disappointed to see her make it with a syrup which is cheap instead of making it with real fruit as she stated it was. They moisten the side of the glass and then roll it in Tajin and salt. I wasn’t a fan of the tajin going on the side of the glass instead of around the full rim.

The Paloma was fine. But again side of glass rolled in Tajin and salt. The food was pretty good and average priced. I had some shrimp tacos and they were very good. The outside patio wasn’t like hot because there were misters. I sat outside with my friends because it was too loud inside due to the karaoke. I didn’t really feel like there was any waitstaff besides the bartender. I didn’t really see anyone clearing tables and there were empty glasses on the tables and bar.

My friends and I didn’t really enjoy the experience as much as we thought we would. We saw the menus on the website with the pictures and it looked so good. And I thought the fact they do tequila private tasting was pretty unique. The website was very well constructed and professional for sure. But the bar and the experience I feel like wasn’t as good as the website unfortunately. My friends and I shortly left after the few drinks and food and went to a separate location to continue our night. I wish we would’ve been able to experience the basement bar and the upstairs bar but again we had no knowledge of them being closed down due...

I did not enjoy my experience at BARCOA. I asked about their Mexican ponche, which was listed on a specials board above the bar and the bartender kept giving me roundabout answers about it.

When I asked about the flavor she didn’t know and asked a man at the bar, who I assume was the owner. He said it was pomegranate. I have never encountered Mexican ponche outside of holiday seasons so I said I would try it. Imagine my surprise when she pulls out a bottle of premade store bought run based ponche.

At any time, the bartender could have told me it was a premade drink they served out of a bottle, like a wine or sangria, but served over ice. Well at this point we had already paid so we took it and it tasted like the most disappointing grape juice with an alcoholic kick. I’m not sure why this is on their menu but it was not great.

I also tried their margarita and it was fine but I’ve definitely had better.

Going back to the service, even without that strange encounter about the ponche with the bartender, the service is lacking. We came in on a weekend midday, there were a few people seated at the bar and no one anywhere else. The bartender shouted at us that we must place our order at the bar and pick them up as well. I’m not sure why she couldn’t walk to the table and serve us, especially as there were like 3 other people there beside our group.

I will not be coming back to this place. It seemed like it could be a fun place to hang out, but the lack of decent service and lack of knowledge of their drinks don’t make me want...

From the start this server gave off extremely rude and condescending communication. They clearly did not want the table and wanted us to leave so they could be cut or not have to provide service.

Upon ordering there was a few of the parties guests that was not a fan of tequila. Our servers response to those members who didn’t like tequila he told them, “wrong bar then.” How does that make a guest feel welcome? I get that it’s a tequila bar but they are attending due to a friends birthday but why would an employee say that?

I inquired myself about a drink and not liking mezcal so much I asked if this drink was extremely Smokey and the waiters response was, “Well it is a mezcal.”

Upon towards the end of our night at this establishment half of our group wanted to leave and the other half decided to stay and close out for the group. We asked to close out the check but then an individual asked to order one more drink before we left. Our waitor said “your parties check is closed out now so you’ll have to order your drinks from the bar now.” We still have our table and we’re sitting at the table when an individual asked to order another drink but basically this waitors response didn’t care paying customers wanted to spend more.

Won’t be visiting this establishment and would not recommend based on my experience. Tried to reach management as well with...