Villa Azteca — Restaurant in Salinas

Villa Azteca in Downtown Salinas is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE RESTAURANT! I am NEVER disappointed whether it's the presentation, environmental, staff and how they keep upscaling their menu. Sometimes you discover a restaurant that just puts so much love and care in their details for their customers and Villa Azteca does that! They do it with the decor that's been carefully picked, the dishes they use to put your food on, the uniform the staff wears, and the love they have for their culture just surrounds you! The Family of Villa Azteca works so hard to create such an upscale menu and environment...honestly you feel you're eating at Pebble Beach! It's a family run business and you will see the Father bringing in the goods the restaurant needs, the sister who greets you with her beautiful smile and helps the customers with their orders, sometimes you'll be lucky to have Andres visit your table he is one of the Chefs and sometimes you get a peak of their mother whose hard at work in the kitchen. Their staff is always professional, friendly and efficient. The food is HONESTLY the BEST you will have experienced!! FLAVORS hit your tongue and the aroma of all the delicious dishes they are preparing hits your senses, your eyes get seduced by all the beautifully prepared MEALS that pass you by and you wait in anticipation for yours to get to you! MY favorite dish is the Tuetano...Roasted bone marrow served with two black bean sopes a side of guacamole & their very popular chili oil a true delicacy. The chili oil that accompanies this dish it is so wonderful I always order extra! They have a great selection of cocktails for you to try and their flan is one of the best! They only take reservations for 4 or more and every day and night there's a wait so come early and be prepared to stand in line to get in. They seat you pretty fast but the wait IS ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT!! Every dish they have is so delicious...I honestly think I've tasted all of it!! If you're in Salinas YOU MUST stop by to eat and experience the love they share in their food! You will not be disappointed!! P.S. don't forget to try their Horchata Ice Coffee...my new favorite drink!!! Enjoy!!! I LOVE...

We had heard really good comments about this restaurant and the food looked very appetizing but the service was not up to par. We were a party of 3 and when we got there they told us they would call us when it was our turn to be seated. We took a stroll around downtown passing the Maya cinema for like about 40 min and no call. We then went back to the restaurant where we asked and they seated us after 40 min and we noticed that there were people sitting down that were there way after us. Also people coming in who they seated right away with no wait. That was only the beginning. After we were seated they asked what we wanted to drink and brought chips and dip for us. That was all we ate that night. We ordered our appetizer and our food. We waited for like 30 min and nothing was brought to us while a party of 7 who came after us was already eating their food. We asked about our food and they said that the appetizer takes a longer since it goes in the oven. The tables around us were being served their food and most of them who came after us and had more people. We asked again for our food and they said it was being prepared. We got tired of waiting about an hour for the food plus another like 40 min for the wait in which they never called us to be seated until we went to check. We told them that we were leaving since they had taken a really long time and we didn’t feel comfortable eating there anymore with people staring at us and having to have waited almost 2 hours to be...

We went as a party of 10. We were really happy to be seated promptly. We ordered our drinks and food with no problem. I’ve been here before and have had great service. Here’s where the issues took place. We got our food after 45 minutes. It was expected as we were a large order. Unfortunately, they forgot one whole order and they got another mixed up and before we left, they were asking for some of our seating before we were even ready to leave. I was told by the waitress (I have 3 witnesses to prove) our order that was forgotten would be “on the house”. I had to share half my food with my wife before hers even came out and by that time, we were mostly full and used the dish to fill in the gaps. When I got my tab, the “on the house” order was not the case and was told by the staff it was never told to us even though 4 of us heard it. They offered a 15$ dessert but we told them we were full and would not eat it. I asked if they could just take off the price of the dessert from the tab considering the circumstances but they refused as “that was all they could do”. I was told that if we would of give the food back, it would of been a different story but considering we were told it was on the house already, there was no reason too. We were already at a $200+ tab not counting the tip and thought we would get the treatment we deserved. We left our name and number and date of service and will see what the owner has to say about it....