Marioli — Restaurant in San Antonio

I’ve only been to Marioli once, and that was enough. After reviewing the menu I tried to place an order, but the older woman just sat there staring at me. After a couple of minutes she finally rolled her eyes and came to take my order. She didn’t understand what I wanted so a younger women took my order. The younger woman was pleasant and understood what I was asking for. We had a brief conversation, and I thought everything was going fine.

I’ve worked in food service for years, so when I’m at a restaurant I make it a point to always say please and thank you and always have a good attitude. I paid, thanked them for the tacos, and started to leave. On my way out the older women started talking about me and called me a “pinche gringo”. Although I speak Spanish, I choose not to most of the time because I’m not as fluent as I’d like. In case you’re not aware, that’s pretty damn rude.

Then when I got to the car the tacos weren’t wrapped in anything, and we’re spread across the bottom of the container as if she had tossed them in like trash. It was an added insult that the food was not very good. I’m not sure why I was treated so poorly, or why our food was handled like a bag of trash? I was nothing but polite.

I normally eat at a restaurant at least a few times before reviewing it. Most of the time a bad experience is a one off thing, and is soon forgotten. Marioli is the exception...

My favorite dish at Mexican restaurants is chili relleno. It is like a litmus test of food quality. I eagerly anticipated this dish at Marioli's because of high restaurantreviews, but "bitterly disappointed" is an understatement. Their's was very bland; the egg batter didn't taste fresh; and the chili was thin and almost mushy. I suspected it had been frozen, which the waiter confirmed. REALLY? For $13.20, I was served a previously frozen chili relleno. The dish also contained a small scoop of rice and a small bowl of beans, which were tasty. The guacamole that I ordered was fresh, but bland and very unremarkable. The small amount of salsa served wiith a handfull of tortilla chips, before my meal, had a very strange spice combination, tasting more Italian than Mexican. And the waiter service was very poor. So - was there any part of my meal that was really good?...

We went for the first time on Friday night. It had such good reviews so we were excited to try it! We were seated and the waitress came back with our drinks (coke in a can) and plastic cups. I would expect that in a hole-in-the-wall, cheap mexican food restaurant, but not somewhere where it's averaging $12-16 per person. Then she brought us chips and salsa but we got maybe 6 chips for the 2 of us. (Chips and salsa on the menu are $5. A bit overpriced!!) So we got our food, it wasn't hot, my black beans were actually cold, and the rice was horrible. Not what you expect at a mexican restaurant. To top it off, after our waitress brought our food, she never came back to check on us. And it was $33 for two taco plates. Definitely never going back. Overpriced, bad food, and...