Mazatlan Grill — Restaurant in Redding

When my wife and I moved to Redding a few years ago, Mazatlan was the first restaurant we went to. Looked cool on the outside! We had a fine dinner that evening. Recently we were hungry for some Mexican chow. We hadn’t been to Mazatlan in over a year (there are lots of good Mexican places in Redding!) so off we went. We arrived around 6:30PM on a Saturday night. The place was lively, maybe80% full. Our hostess greeted us with a big smile and immediately brought is to our table. As we walked into that room (there are 2 dining areas) there was a large table of very happy, celebratory young adults - make a lot of happy noise (hooots, table slapping etc). We asked if we could sit in a more quiet area. Our hostess laughed and took us to the other side. Much quieter. We were quickly visited by our waitress for the evening. A really friendly person (I forgot her name…). Lots of smiles and pleasent. We ordered our drinks. My wife wanted a Margarita and our waitress helped her make her decision - on the rocks, no salt. I had my go to brew - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - they have it on tap! :-) After going through the extensive (and pretty informative) menu we settled on Chile Verde and the Plato Al Pastor. As soon as our drinks arrived a nice basket of crispy, nicely salted tortilla chips and two dips. A perfectly balanced tomato salsa - not too thick or too thin and just the right spice level. The other was some kind of bean and chopped vegetable medley in a tart dressing. Both were excellent - in fact we ordered another bowl of salsa. The bean medley was a nice compliment to the salsa. Would love to have it again! Our food arrived not long after (almost too soon - we were enjoying the chips and salsa too much!!!) LOL The Chile Verde was spot on. A tasty, rich and a little tart green tomatillo sauce with a fine combinatioin of fried onions and peppers. The pork was cubed just right and was both tender and flavorful. Well done! My Plato Al Pastor was good - very tasty a nice vinegar based red sauce with grilled pineapples. The flavors mixed great! The pork, the tangy sauce and the smoky sweet pineapple. I had to take one star off - IMHO the pork was diced a little too small. It worked great when put on one of the warm fresh tortillas - but eating it standalone was a bit of a challenge since the star of the dish (the pork) was diced pretty small. Both portions were generous and we had enough to take some home! The sides of rice and refried beans were also very good - nice and hot, good flavors. It was a fun and tasty meal in a lively and colorful place! Highly...

To put this in context, we did come on Cinco De Mayo so they were busier than usual so I'm not sure if my experience is representative of Mazatlan on a normal day.

Overall the food is good...but we had issues with the service. Before getting into the issues I feel it's important to note the things they do that are above average. They made the guacamole from scratch at the table with a cart which was pretty cool.

Also, they have an amazing coconut shrimp appetizer. I ordered this with a side of rice and beans for my meal. It was some of the best coconut shrimp I ever had...on par with the shrimp I had in Hawaii at Bubba Gumps...it had a really good dipping sauce. Margaritas were also good quality.

Now to the service issues. I waited 20-30 minutes with my food getting cold to receive silverware to actually eat it. Our server was a nice guy but seemed slammed...and the other staff in general were not particularly friendly or helpful to cover for him. The margarita came out very fast but we waited a long time to get help with a number of other things. I asked for some flour tortillas which never came. Couldn't get another dipping sauce of a different style. They didn't have exactly what I was looking for but didn't bring anything to try. The check took a very long time to get help with. Overall it was just noticeably bad service.

Finally, the atmosphere is festive but could use some improvements/renovations. It felt slightly dumpy, not super clean. Maybe I'm expecting too much coming from a larger city than Redding. Was this an isolated Cinco de Mayo experience. I'm not sure, but if I had the choice I prefer the Cicada Grill across the street for the better atmosphere and more interesting menu, although this place you could say feels a bit more like a local/family environment.

I would come back an order the coconut shrimp again...but I would take it to go to avoid the aforementioned issues...and maybe a double order since the portion is not huge. If the owners are reading this, your restaurant has some great potential but focus on fixing some of these...

The staff was very professional, spoke perfectly good English and Spanish fluently (important for communication). They kept an eye on our drinks to ensure they were refilled promptly. The chips and red salsa were great. They also had a different salsa with boiled beans, a sort of pico de gallo, and nopales (cactus). That salsa was bomb for sure. One of the staff went to the table behind us and pulled out a cart with fresh ingredients and prepared guacamolee on the spot, like a personal chef. Very entertaining. If you want to invite some friends to impress, definitely order the guacamolee for a good show. We ordered mariscos (seafood) at our table: tostada de ceviche, shrimp cocktail, fish, and oyster. They were very generous with the shrimp and juice. Definitely got our money's worth with the quantity and the size/flavor of the shrimp. For that reason, I would ask for the tostada on the side so the ceviche does not make it soggy. The shrimp cocktail was definitely not bland. It was a bit on the sweet side though (not my preference), but plenty of flavor. The fish was huge, but I did not order it for myself to eat, so all I can say is it was not small or thin at all and had plenty of flesh. You could order the oysters plain, or prepared (for an additional cost). We got them prepared. They dressed them with a salsa that had tomatoes and onions, and added a large shrimp to each one. They had sliced oranges and limes seasoned with Tajín. It's fairly expensive, but worth the price, so be prepared for a large bill. Overall, I give it an 8/10 for the service, flavor, quantity, and entertainment. *I apologize for not taking any pictures. I was so hungry I stuffed my face right when the food came out, but just imagine large oval plates with very generous...