Cuishe Cocina Mexicana — Restaurant in San Antonio

My party of 4 was incredibly excited and ready to try this place - we raved about it for weeks. We looked at their pictures and read other reviews. We eat at fine dining restaurants 2-4 times a week, so this was supposed to be up our alley. We love street food and family owned bistros. That being said, we know what fine dining and what good food is. From dining at Bohanans to eating at taco trucks on the westside, we love food and we value all aspects of it. Unfortunately, thats what this place lacked - good food that's worth the time and money. The only thing we liked about this place was the aesthetics. Good music, nice decor, I give the looks 10/10. The food was average and it was really bumming us out for the prices they attached to their plates. The portions were also much smaller than we expected which added to the disappointment. We ordered the ribeye, the pulpo, and two chiles en nogados, and for appetizers we got bichos and aguas chiles in addition to a few cocktails and a jara of jamaica. The bichos, ribeye, and chiles were good, but as mentioned, the chiles were SMALL. We even told the server we were going to have to eat elsewhere after, the CeN was so small, it was almost funny. I don't want to say the name of our server because I believe he was just doing his job, but he was being incredibly pushy most of the night. Anytime I asked for a recommendation, it had to be the most expensive item. He was very pushy about the wagyu, and when we asked for the check, he pushed desserts and after-dinner drinks repeatedly even after we said no and that we already had plans for something else MULTIPLE TIMES. It was so annoying we told him to go and leave us thinking about it. When he came back asking of he could bring our drinks, we had to tell him no several times. When we got there, he recommended a drink for me which I didn't like (I told him my favorite types of liquors and flavors and specifically told him I didn't like string drinks), and brought me something that was exactly what I didnt want. When i asked him if he could take it back, he hesitated made a gesture (even with a mask we all noticed) and said he could TRY to see what he can do. At that point, I told him to just bring me more juice because clearly it was an inconvenience for him and maybe more juice would help, that he was happy to do. Nope, it was just as gross and unpleasant. I gave it my husband because I didn't want it and when he came back to ask if it tasted better, I told him I still didn't like it and that it didn't help, and so I was going to hand it to my husband and he didn't comment. Apparently, that drink was $16. I don't mind paying $100+ for a shot of good tequila, but I do mind paying $16 for a drink I tried to return and told him I didn't like. Had I known, I would have insisted he returned it to the bar regardless if he could "see what he could do".

We tried hard to like this place and it didn't live up to the hype. The $230 tab was a "live and learn" lesson for us because the only thing we can say about this place is "disappointing". Even people at the bar who were frequent visitors of this establishment said this place was more for "finger foods" and not "actual dining".

** After discussing with my husband and our friends, I wanted to add that the staff had almost 0 consideration for personal space. Apparently other people (according to the reviews) agreed. Our server was less than a foot away from my face almost at all times when he came by and I had to squish into my cousin when a busser came to bring drinks or pick up plates, which by the way, were piling up at the end of our table for the first 30/45min....

I came here on a Friday night (2/26/21) with a couple friends. Initially things seemed great. The decor is very nice, our waiter Erick was attentive at first, but unfortunately that didn’t last long. Before I go into details, let me say that the guacamole with lobster was super good.

I asked for corn tostadas, which were promptly brought out by our waiter. We asked for more of the corn ones, as I have Celiac and my friends preferred them over the flour tostadas that were included with the dish, but instead we received a basket of the flour ones after about a 15 minute wait. The time between receiving our appetizer and our main course was VERY long, as was having our orders taken in general. In that time our table seemed to be forgotten about. Those around us were receiving updates and attention, but we did not. My friend’s wife had ordered an additional cocktail at one point which was never brought out.

I was very impressed by the camaron soup sample, so I decided to order the actual dish, which was supposed to include potatoes and carrots per the description. It also comes with a side of cilantro and onion. I asked for an order of grilled shrimp with it. Well, when the soup came out there were neither potatoes nor carrots in it. It was very quickly dropped off so I couldn’t say anything after noticing such. Our waiter never came back either while we were eating our entrees so I couldn’t mention it to him. I will say the grilled shrimp was amazing, perfectly seasoned and they were very fresh. The broth itself is phenomenal, as I love spicy food. It had just the right amount of kick and was very flavorful. What I can’t excuse though is presenting an incomplete dish. Not only is this a mistake on the kitchen that shouldn’t have been overlooked, but then the person serving the dish as well. I used to be a server in a high-end restaurant and you need to always make sure dishes look as they should and are as ordered. I don’t recall ever saying no potatoes or carrots.

I really wanted to fully enjoy this experience, but unfortunately that was not the case. I may give it another shot for lunch at some point, but as of now the two star...

We had a couple of dishes and shared, the drinks were really good; the bar tender made them to our liking. We had Paloma’s and cantaritos, I would stick with Paloma’s only next time; cantarito was good just too much. Chicharrón de pulpo was divine, delicately fried for that gentle crisp all while maintaining the tender texture of a perfectly cooked octopus 10/10 wouldn’t recommend. We accompanied it with fried panela, guacamole and cebollitas asadas. The fried panela came out cold so it lost its life, guacamole perfectly seasoned, fresh and chunky, the cebollitas could’ve used more time on the grill. We also ordered the esquite con tuétano, I was super excited about this dish. Although is was a grave disappointment, the esquite was super dry and flavorless. There was no bone marrow in the dish at all, seemed misleading as it’s served out of a bone marrow bone (tuétano). They give you three dots of mayo to cover the esquite and that still didn’t help the dish. 0/10 wouldn’t do again. I let our waitress know after the 2 bites we took and she asked if we wanted it boxed, I said I would like it taken away we would not eat it. (We were still charged for it) We then ordered the grilled octopus, thoughts were if they can fry an octopus image what they can do on a grill. Wrong, I was oh so very wrong, the grilled octopus was over cooked and rubbery, the pastor flavor was caked on the octopus leaving behind the sweet over seasoned tiny little over cooked octopus. We also didn’t finish or even touch this dish much. 0/10 wouldn’t not recommend. The pictures on google showed this luscious thick octopus, that was not what was served. They did the fried octopus so well I’d probably go back and try some other things. It seems meat is their top dish so next time I’d go for that. The ambiance feels like I’m somewhere in the Yucatán. Great for date night drinks and apparently dancing on some Thursdays! Service was impeccable, we were attending as though we were in Mexico. For that I would give this spot 5/10 would...