Mx21 Mexican Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Portland

We were truly excited to check out Mx21 and we were so disappointed. To start as we walked in, saw no one at the front desk, not one staff person around. Mins later we see a woman and she walked right by us 3-4 times without acknowledging we were there. I saw a gentleman and approached him, as he didn't approach our party either, let him know I had a reservation and he said we needed to wait for someone to come let us know our table was ready. After 10-12 mins of waiting, we are finally approached by the woman who has ignored us all this time. At our table we waited about 10-15 mins for someone to come take our drinks/food order. We asked for 2 beers and 2 drinks, which took 35-45 mins to arrive, all this time, our waiter never came back to ask if we needed anything. We called on someone and asked for chips, which came with no salsa, asked for salsa, it never came. Drinks finally arrived and we order food, 30+mins later, not one napkin was given to us, the lovely woman sitting next to me saw I needed a napkin and graciously offered me hers. The woman I mentioned (who sat us down) finally brings food, only 1 plate, nothing else. We were a party of 4, 3 of us had no food, 10 mins later another plate, mins later another one, and finally the 4th plate arrives, food came in a period of 20 mins, not all at once as usual. For a molcajete and fajitas we got 3 tortillas which weren't hand made as advertised. We asked for more as 3 isn't enough for what we ordered. We asked if we could get more tortillas and those never came, asked for chips, those never came, salsa didn't either. 3 of our dishes had no taste at all, while the "Torre de mariscos" was super salty. There was no salt or any condiments on table, no salsas, nothing. To say this was one of the worst dinning experiences of our lives is an understatement. Staff seemed to not have any idea or direction of how a restaurant works or any experience in costumer service. We had high hopes (based on videos on social media), reality was definitely different. Would not recommend based on...

We were seated pretty much right when we got there which was nice... Once we sat down, the waitress didn’t come to take a drink order for about 5 minutes. The drinks took exactly 18 minutes to get to us (I sent a text to my husband then so I used that time to know, also keep in mind we haven’t even ordered our food yet)… * SIDE NOTE * The place was NOT busy at all. So there really was no excuse for it… Anyways, the waitress came to bring the drinks and we finally got to order our food. I ordered the Trio Enchiladas & my friend got the Quesobirria. (Quesobirria for those who don’t know, is basically a quesadilla with birria extras). Okay so my enchilada tortillas were GUMMY. Very clearly not cooked properly at all. The rice had to be cooked HOURS before and the refried beans looked like they were from a dollar store can. Thrown all on a plate and then microwaved… My friends Quesobirria were two TACOS on a plate. She asked the waitress “is this the Quesobirria or the birria tacos” and she said “our Quesobirria is tacos.” (Uhmmmm ok?) Neither my friend or I are confrontational but being Hispanic, I know what’s what with food. And this wasn’t it…. The craziest part was, our drinks took 18 minutes from the time we ordered right, but our food took 6-7 minutes to get from the time we ordered. So CLEARLY they have the food premade and they just heat up in a microwave or something.

Just to add, the rooftop has no side covers so one side of your table will be blinded (even w sunglasses) so they def need side blinders or the adjustable umbrellas like every other rooftop has.

I was suuuuuuuper disappointed in this...

Really wanted to like this place. We were hopeful when we saw the Insta post promoting the rooftop, margaritas, Mexican food and sweet breakfast pastries.....but:

The rooftop deck cannot make up for the mediocre food and borderline incompetent service. We visited twice within 3 days (once for breakfast and once for dinner) and both were dissapointing.

Breakfast: music is cranked to bar level at 10am, no pastries as advertised (waiter looked perplexed when we asked about them) but said she would check and never answered us. Coffee was weak and not hot. The omellete was decent, but honestly hard to enjoy due to the rest of the experience.

Dinner: half full short glasses of room temperature water were dropped off at the table (its 80 and we are baking in the sun). No waiter to be seen for at least 10 mins....off to a good start. Waiter arrives and we request cups of ice and order a Cadillac margarita(clearly they forgot the Grandnarnier and added orange juice) that came about 10 minutes later. Food arrives: rice and beans were cold and really had no taste. Chicken fajitas: not sizzling, not grilled... but drenched in some sort of tomato based sauce ? And I am highly suspect of "handmade" tortillas. They were ok, but ended up turning rubbery with hard edges once they cooled. Requested extra tortillas that we never received, but were on the bill. Burrito was good, but small and came with nothing. Chips and salsa were the best thing on the table.

May consider returning in one month which should be ample time to make necessary...