Red Mesa Cantina — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

This was surprisingly the most unpleasant dining experience I’ve had lately in St Pete. I want to start with positives notes. Our waitress was great. Other than the atmosphere, she was the only positive experience we’ve had at this place. Negatives: The food was bad. We ordered 5-6 different dishes on the menu. Every single one of them were unspiced, unsalted and tasteless. Secondly, the busboys rushed in to clean the table (TWICE) while we were still eating and started stacking the plates on top of each other with food still on it. When we told them we are still eating they apologized and unstacked the plates and told us to continue eating :) not even mentioning that he removed our silverware so we had to wait for new service for a while to continue eating.

At the end of the service I called the manager and explained the situation. He listened and said “ok thanks”. I don’t know if the whole restaurant was having a bad day or something but it was almost surreal. I asked him “that’s it?” Then he said “I’m sorry you had a bad experience, I can remove the last dish from your bill” in the most insincere way. At that point I gave up. Money or refund were not the point. Offering a good experience, not fulfilling it and not feeling bad about it when it’s addressed is the point. On top of all this we also all woke up with stomach issues. I will not eat here again. I don’t recommend it.

Ps: the hot Carlos cocktail was good. I guess this place could be a good option for...

Came in on a Monday night at 6PM and sat inside, it wasn’t very busy. Sat for close to 10 minutes while multiple staff (servers, busser & a bartender) walked by our table and looked at us without offering us waters or letting us know our server would be over shortly. I’ve been in the industry for over 10 years and if a table is ever sitting for longer than 2 minutes and I’m available, I’m grabbing them waters at a minimum while they wait. After watching staff walk around us we got up to leave, only then did our server come and tell us he had a large party and would be with us shortly. For starters, If your server is dealing with a large party you should probably give the table to someone that will give them better service. He walked away and I watched him talk smack to his bartender who then looked directly at us. (who also walked by our table 3+ times and then greeted a table that got sat after us). We decided to leave after that ordeal because of the unprofessional way the situation was handled. As a server, if you’re gonna talk smack about customers, at least make sure they aren’t 5 feet away and can see and hear you. Very dissatisfied and disappointed with this visit and we didn’t stay to try the food. The staff could do better as a whole to help each other and ensure customers are taken care of in a proper manner. I’m not one to write bad reviews but I was in disbelief at the way this situation...

Edited after owner reply:

Owner only replied to the review because of the scary safety issue 🤣 🤣 🤣 Look at all the other bad food reviews for them….owner does not address the disgusting food 🤣 Love the it is what it is attitude!

Visited on a weekday. One of only 3 tables in my entire view. My food came out room temperature, not even remotely warm.

Didn’t send back for fear of the microwave and the extended time the food took to arrive in an already dead restaurant.

I ordered the chicken enchiladas dinner. The chicken was dry and bland. Black beans tasted like nothing was done to prepare them but warmed up.

The enchiladas came out hard??? I’ve never had hard texture enchiladas before in my life. I shouldn’t be crunching on enchiladas. They may have been overcooked in the conveyor belt warmer. Not sure but…this is not what enchiladas are!

As an avid Mexican food lover….There are much, MUCH tastier options around town than Red Mesa. The decor is the only part of my visit to Red Mesa that I enjoyed unfortunately.

I am lost as to how this was awarded best Mexican as a Ruskin resident (and Floridian—Mexican eating resident for 34 years) but to each their own!

Although this did NOT have to do with my visit I will add that I watched 3 servers move a high top table to accommodate a party arriving and the entire leg completely fell off the table. Talk about some safety issues...