Tequila's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Rising Sun

I have to admit: based on some verbal reviews, I went into this with pretty low expectations. However, we were here for a late lunch and there were not a multitude of options for a non red meat eater like my mom. We sat down to an empty restaurant with three staff members in the back at the bar. Our waitress seated us immediately and went to the back to bring water. We said we needed a minute to look at the menu when she arrived, and decided on an order of their "chunky guacamole" to share, the bean and spinach burrito with a side of rice for her, and the burrito ranchero with red sauce for me. After about 15 minutes, with us craning our necks to try and flag her down, she finally returned to take the order.

The guac came out suspiciously fast, and the ugly brown sheen covering the top told us this was NOT fresh guacamole and had probably been sitting uncovered in a fridge for some time. It tasted the way that it looked and we were unable to finish the little dish full of brown-green paste. Our burritos came out about 20 minutes later, which again, was odd in a completely empty restaurant. Hopefully if would mean everything was made fresh to order. My burrito was flat, with a single layer of chicken or steak and the occasional onion; there were no other fillings and really did not look or seem like the burrito advertised on the menu, especially as it had open ends which makes it more of an enchilada. It was covered in small meatball-like chunks of chorizo and a red sauce so thin it looked like broth. Amongst this mess were huge pieces of canned pineapple. I asked my mom how hers was and she sadly told me there was no spinach in her burrito. There were, however, unexpected canned pineapple pieces not listed on the menu mixed in with the black beans and a few other small veggie pieces, of which she was not a fan. We would have mentioned it to the server, but she stopped by to see "how everything was" when we had just cut into our food and not tried it yet, and by this point, she had disappeared again. We eventually just gave up and ate our food because we were hungry. Then began the waiting game.

We chatted for a while, assuming that our waitress was busy in the back. Then we saw a young man walk in and head to the back and sit down with the group of staff members that were sitting at the back bar the entire time. They continued their conversation while we stacked our plates and pointedly put on our coats in order to hopefully signal to the server that we were ready for the bill to be dropped. No dice. Finally we had to resort to going up to stand at the front before one of them took notice and sauntered up. She asked how the food was and my mom mentioned that there was no spinach in her bean and spinach burrito, and also the mystery addition of pineapple. The person just shrugged and began to ring up the bill. No apology, no explanation, nothing. I have worked in the food service industry before and I try very hard to be incredibly friendly and generous with front of the house staff due to that experience, but it took a lot for me to not tell someone off as she turned away from us to laugh at something someone said in the back of the house. We hurried out of the restaurant and spent the rest of the drive remarking on how bad that lunch was and that we should've just chanced the burger place down the street despite her dietary preferences. I would not recommend this place and would go so far as to tell people not to come here. Drive the extra miles and go somewhere else. I'm from a small town like Rising Sun and I love to see local restaurants do well in small towns, but this was a major miss for me.

Tl;dr: I have only ever given one other one star review, but everything I could grade a restaurant on failed here unfortunately. Subpar and obviously old food, incorrect orders, absent waitstaff, poor customer service... I...

Realty a mixed review. The food was excellent & they have an amazing vegetarian burrito. Now my server was very interesting. He served my food & was really short with me. So short I received my bill right after my food was delivered. Literally said 5 words to me. I asked for something additional & he took my bill back & acted as if I put him out. He did bring me the item I order though. I was checking his attitude off as if he was having a bad day. He never came back to my table & after 15 min I just went to the cashier to see if he could get my bill. He grabbed my ticket & rang it up. I tipped over 35%, just to hope I would make my servers day a little better. Then I asked the cashier where the bathroom was. He pointed me to the facility & I went to the restroom. As I was at the urinal my waiter came in & told me I didn’t pay for that additional item that he did not add to my bill. He was yelling at me! I told him politely can he wait until I finish & wash my hands? I told him I would take care of it as soon as I finished. He acted like he distrusted me. I basically had to tell him to get out to let me finish (ackward). I walked out & the waiter wasn’t there. I went back to the cashier to pay & he must have heard what just went on. He told me not to worry about it and apologized. So really a mixed review, because the food & cashier was great. The older gentleman that waited on me should never serve tables & keep him away...

We love coming down to the Rising Star casino boat. Food options are fairly limited here. Kids really wanted Mexican so we drove downtown to eat here. We have 3 kids, my husband, myself, and my parents. So a total of 7 people! They had an empty room but instead piled our large table right on top of other people, right in the middle of their small restaurant. They brought us 2 half full bowls of salsa and 2 baskets of chips. My kids love salsa..and let's face it, who wants to share salsa with a double dipping kid?! We asked for a couple more...only 2 salsas per table is their policy! Really?!! When in all we only had 1 full one if we combined ours. Said we could pay for extra! I've never had that problem at a Mexican restaurant! Then the food took forever to come. At least when it did it was hot and really delicious! Too bad I never got my drink refilled to enjoy it more because our waiter never checked on us after he nearly slammed the plates on the table. I wish the service was better because the food tasted great. We had similar service when we were in town for the Bean Festival in the fall..chalked it up to the festival. But nope..seems consistent with the place. I won't return.. I'll explore other...