La Santisima — Restaurant in Phoenix

My hubby and I visited on Cinco de Mayo, so I had some expectations and hope for a good Mexican food meal. I had also heard a ton of great reviews for La Santisima and personal friends recommended it. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype. First, parking is a joke. The restaurant sits about 10 feet back off of 16th Street which is VERY busy. They have about 10 spots to park along the front and then a few more down the side street. I ended up parking a block away from the restaurant. Second, the service was apathetic at best. I will give them the benefit of the doubt, that perhaps they were busy because of Cinco de Mayo, but there were several empty tables and we were there at 5pm. Our waitress could barely be bothered to look at us, forget keeping our drinks fresh. Third, the menu was HUGE and a point in their favor was the translation available alongside each of the Spanish named dishes. After placing my order, I headed to what looked to be a very large, abundant and varied salsa bar. Once again I was disappointed as I found half of the salsa containers empty. As it was only 5pm, I was at a loss as to where all the salsa had gone, unless these were the leftovers from lunch. The potential for some fantastic culinary adventure was there, but not realized. And on top of it all, there was an abundance of flies all over the place. If I am dining outside, I totally understand that flies are uncontrollable; however, it is not a condition I am comfortable with inside a "nicer" restaurant. Finally, my meal was delivered. I ordered two tacos - I can't tell you what they were called, because I just pointed to them on the menu when I ordered. They were both very delicious, great quality ingredients and very flavorful. They were the standard street taco size...and cost like $7 each. When we finally got our bill, I was disappointed at the cost verses the value I felt we got. I don't think I will be driving out to Phoenix to get food from La Santisimia Taco Shop anymore...I will stick to some...

TERRIBLE. I arrived to this location as a birthday dinner at 6:00 and told the wait would be 30 min (since we did not have reservation), said that was fine and waited the time. Was sat down approximately at 6:40 and the hostess took our drink order and returned promptly. This was the only prompt thing to happen as our waitress did not come to take our food order for another 30 minutes, and only came because we had to tell the hostess that no one had come yet. Waited for an appetizer that took 25 minutes to arrive. Asked about our food THREE TIMES. And at 8:40, 20 MINUTES BEFORE THE CLOSING TIME, our food was still not out. Spoke to the waitress that we had not seen since we ordered our food. And told her we wanted the food for take out. Keep in mind, we had waited 2 HOURS FOR OUR FOOD. The waitress when hearing our frustration was very rude and defensive. Stating that she had another party to attend and telling us that we have to understand this. We should have been told prior to this wait that because they had a large party, they could not attend us. Instead we waited HOURS, asking about food that never came, and receiving terrible food in the take out boxes when it did. The chorizo and Carne asada tacos were burnt and the rice and beans were placed in small salsa container. When we asked the waitress for more salsa lids she stated that she would have to CHARGE EXTRA FOR SALSA LIDS. When we got the expensive tab (the waitress stated she would remove two dishes from the tab, this was a complete lie and we had to ask to see the receipt) we saw that she still wanted to CHARGE US 20% of GRATUITY for the take out order. This was removed. Overall the worst experience. DO...

$90 for 6 tacos and a coca cola. The room they put us in was extremely hot and it took them 25 minutes to turn the AC on for us after we requested. The waitress took forever to take our order. I had to ask 4 times for a refill of my soda then she brought me the wrong drink. She didn't give me what I asked for when I ordered and set it up to charge me more. Why does everything have to come as a taco, burrito, or quesadilla? Very Odd. The rice was not mexican style and had no flavor. The tacos were all lettuce/cabbage with little sprinkles of meat. The chips were very cheap quality. Very rude while we were making our orders and when we were paying. She made sure to circle the tip area on the receipt to swindle an additional tip from me without telling any of us that there was an automatic 20% tip included. The service was absolutely terrible. Our section was not checked on or serviced. This is a mexican restaurant for white people who don't know better and people who want a cool atmosphere for social media pictures. This restaurant is solely in it for the money and will try to squeeze as much money from you as they can for their sub par mexican food. All fillings and no meat. If you are a mexican expecting traditional mexican dishes prepared the way they are in mexico then go somewhere else. The food was a washed down flavorless mess of tortilla, lettuce, and salsa. The portions were fit for people with stomachs the size of a golf ball. There are plenty of better mexican restaurants that give better quality food. There are plenty of places with far superior service. If you eat here there's a fair chance you will leave feeling cheated. I do not recommend. Avoid...