La Presa Mexican Restaurant Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Plainfield

5 stars is probably a bit strong, but I did want to emphasize that I was very pleasantly surprised by this restaurant. I am from out of town and staying at a hotel near the airport to catch a flight in the morning. I got into town late, about 9:15pm on a Thursday and tried to go to another restaurant, but their kitchen was already closed. Ran over to La Presa and they sat me at a table at 9:20 without issue. They quickly brought chips and salsa. The chips are ok for a Mexican restaurant. I prefer thinner chips, but they got the job done. Salsa was quite good with noticeable chunks of tomato that wasn’t just puréed into mush, and the salsa was spicier than you typically see at a Mexican restaurant. I usually add hot sauce to the salsa at most restaurants I go to, but didn’t need to here. It also has quite a bit of cilantro if that is an issue for you.

I had a long day working at a customer’s facility and was looking to enjoy a decent drink. Their regular margaritas come in various flavors and sounded pretty standard. I decided to order their “La Presa Ultimate” margarita. I wasn’t offered salt on the rim. Not sure if that was an oversight or if they don’t do that on this drink and I didn’t notice until I got my drink. This is a large margarita. The menu didn’t mention the size, but probably more than 20oz and costs around $14. The flavor is quite good, and tastes mostly of fresh citrus juice. Unlike cheaper margaritas that are made with a harsh margarita mix, this is smooth and tastes fresh. I didn’t notice the alcohol in the flavor at all, and at first I thought it was a weak margarita, but halfway through my dinner I realized my mistake, it wasn’t weak at all, just really smooth. I highly recommend it.

I ordered tacos al carbon because I noticed that it is made with poblano peppers, something that is hard to find in many Mexican restaurants. Almost everyone seems to use cheaper bell peppers instead. The shrimp was cooked perfectly and “popped” when I bit into them. I always really appreciate it when shrimp are cooked really well since it is so easy to overcook them. The sauce on the tacos was good. My only complaint on the tacos is that they were served wrapped in aluminum foil, and the sauce had leaked throughout the foil, making the tacos rather messy to eat. They were also very hot, and I had to wait a few minutes for them to cool before I could eat them. I would recommend the restaurant not wrap them in foil, they would be a lot easier to eat.

Lastly, I want to mention the Spanish rice, because it was probably the best rice I’ve ever had in a Mexican restaurant. Frankly, I usually skip the beans and rice served in most Mexican restaurants because the rice is usually overcooked and the beans lack any kind of seasoning. I tried the rice here because I noticed that it was actually long grain rice, not the pulverized ultra-short rice you usually see in most restaurants. It was also darker red color than most and the flavor was excellent. The beans were ok, they weren’t special like the rice. Like I said, the best rice I can remember ever having at a Mexican restaurant. If I had more room, I would have loved to eat more of it.

So I’m conclusion, I was very pleasantly surprised by this restaurant and what I ordered. Highly...

While the food is delicious, there are many reasons why my family and I will not be returning to this establishment. There are long waits to get drinks, food, and the bill. In the five times we have been patrons at La Presa, we have had to ask for our bill four times. This last time, though, was the final straw. When we finally received our bill, I noticed that the price on our entrees was higher than posted in the menu. I compared them to the menu to double check before asking for it to be corrected and when it was returned, only one item was fixed. I said this was wrong and asked to speak with our actual server. Our server, the woman who I assume is the manager or owner, said that they are in the middle of a menu change and the prices were on the “other menu” yet we were being charged $5 more than anticipated. When she brought our new bill back to us. It was still wrong. Third correction was a charm, but our server wasn’t even the person who brought us the final bill. $5 doesn’t seem like much, but if all tables were being overcharged - that is a lot of profit. How often is this happening? How many people don’t look at their bills and compare the menu prices to the actual charged prices? Many. This isn’t the first time we have been overcharged either. The first time I noticed it, I didn’t say anything about it because honestly I was tired of waiting around at the restaurant and just wanted to leave; we had already waited 30 minutes to get the bill and we were not going to wait another 30 minutes for a correction. Their food is great - minus the carne asada that tasted like it was found off the side of the highway. Overcooked and over seasoned; so thin and dense I could hardly cut it. I didn’t even bother taking it home. Their drinks? The best. Probably so you don’t look at the bill. And the margarita prices aren’t listed either and they have a mysterious up charge for flavors…which isn’t posted. Proceed with caution and don’t go if you are in a time crunch. If you look like you have money to spend they will treat you like gold and then bring you ice cream at the end. Can’t say that was our experience, but observed others getting...

We definitely won't be back had a bad experience from Hostess to getting our food. I will keep it short and simple otherwise I would say every moment FYI I don't live in that town it was our first time there and just saying I worked in the restaurant industry for more than 10 years and just never had anything compared to this place of experience. We waited more than one hour to get our food and no one came to at least apologize for any delays or say hey we are short on staff NADA and just the fact we already had waited so long I was hoping that the food would be good OMG the meat was so tuff my jaw started to hurt so much form chewing it was awful at this point I was done with that place and just wanted to go back to our hotel. Next time we are in town not our to-go place just to finish this up quick advice don't sit people down so fast that you guys can't handle if you are short staff just let them know at the beginning, if you had told us heywe short staff I would understand completely but that did happen and they were sitting people down so fast they couldn't handle it FYI the hostess has the responsibility to let you know “hey guys we are short the staff it's going to take longer then normal” hostess, try to smile or at least fake a smile even tho you are wearing a mask everyone could tell you were having a bad day and I would go on but don't want to make it, even more, longer then it already is it's just an advice. FYI EVERY TIME I VISIT A MEXICAN RESTAURANT I GO WITH AN OPEN MIND and do not expect perfection just a good time, good manner from the staff “The young man that took out chips and salsa was the only one that treated us nicely in a good manner and greeted us “ from all of this the only good thing was chips and salsa, hot salsa, and the fountain drink other than that concerning service, Atmosphere, food it...