Las Velas — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

I'm not one to typically write reviews on here. Pittsburgh is a place with few good Mexican restaurants and this is one of the better places, but after the customer service my friends and I received last night I doubt I will ever return.

We had already eaten at another restaurant earlier that day and just stepped in for drinks and dessert. My girlfriend and a mutual friend ordered a pitcher of sangria, which our friend had mentioned she had gotten there for $11.00 several weeks ago. There were not sizes mentioned on the menu, but they did show for a price for about 8 ounce and a price for 23 ounces = around $11 dollars. They naturally assumed this was the pitcher and order it. We got the pitcher, and were at first excited since it looked like the container was holding about 40 ounces--maybe they didn't account for the ice, we though. However, when we got the receipt it showed a $35 dollar charge for a pitcher of mojitos. We called the server over who explained that the pitchers weren't on the menu and that the pitchers for sangrias and mojitos were recently made the same price (even though 23 ounce mojitos were listed at over $20s on the menu?) She got a manager who agreed that there was about 40 ounces in the pitcher, and I asked how then would it be more expensive than buy two "large" sangiras which would have been over 46 ounces. He then simply stated that the owners set the price, not him, so there was nothing he he could do. I asked about price discrepancy for the sangrias and mojitos and the menu, and again he blamed the owners.

He then took our cards and rushed away. I was livid and mentioned I wanted to talk the the owners if that was the case. We got our cards back and stay away debating what to do. Maybe 15-20 mins past and another server (or manager) came over with shots of tequila and apologized, saying that they recently changed their glassware and that is why the pitchers were off the menu and there were no pricing options. They couldn't even keep their story straight. The staff here obviously was trying to take advantage of us, either because they thought we were relatively young, more drunk than we were, or both. The comp obviously did not make up for this ordeal or the fact we were fed lie after lie to cover themselves.

Its a shame I can no longer recommend this restaurant to any...

This place is ok at best. The taco lacked flavor (can only speak for the al pastor ones) and the fact that it was $5 for ONE taco- crazy. The burritos my husband and I got were a pretty good size & the highlight of our meal (which is the only reason this place gets a star). The service was horrible- our server never gave us her name. She was a Middle Aged Hispanic woman with black hair who did not introduce herself. We had just been sat when she approached us- we hadn’t even been able to look at the menu ( keep in mind it’s our first time there). She asked us if we wanted chips & salsa which we said yes to - when we looked at the menu we realized it was $5 (supposedly it was unlimited refills but we never got a refill since she was nowhere to be found to ask for one). The chips were stale and the salsa was flavorless. Despite all that, we had already said yes & had been charged for the chips and salsa so we just let it go. Then, we wanted to order drinks - My husband asked if they had Dos XX on tap- she didn’t respond to him and rung in the beer. The mango margarita I received was gross- didn’t even taste like mango so beware. She exchanged my drink which was about the only right thing she did. We had to flag down another server to get her to give us boxes & our check. By the time the check came we were just ready to go and the fact that there was what seemed like a mandatory tip added to the bill was what surprised me the most. We paid everything and left since we were in a time crunch towards the end of our meal & didn’t want to drag this experience out. Save yourself the headache and go...

I will never return to Las Velas. The service I received in my most recent visit was terrible beyond comparison. Not only was service slow but the staff was uncaring and/or incompetent. Once our table of four was seated, our dinner took two hours. That in itself would have been acceptable with it being a busy Saturday evening, however during all of that time our waitress stopped at the table exactly two times (to take our orders and bring our checks). Never were we asked for more drinks (which were all empty in 30 mins) or any other ervice during that all of that time. We never received our appetizers. Unfortunately, our experience seemed to be shared by the entire section as halfway through our dinner, the poor service became the universal topic of conversation between tables. Even more aggregious was the fact that nobody apologized. The server did not apologize to my group and the servers did not apologize to those around us expressing the same complaints. Not even the manager apologized when I called the problem to his attention on my way out. In fact, he showed as little care for our poor service as the rest of his staff. I'm sure they lost more than myself as a customer...