Ajo Al's Mexican Cafe — Restaurant in Scottsdale

My family and I have been coming to Ajo Al's since they opened well over 30 years ago. Is it the most authentic Mexican food in the valley? No. But over the years it's been consistently decent. Today's lunch was mediocre at best. The salsa tasted weird, like it was mixed with the hot sauce, not so much because of the heat, but because of the different taste and consistency. The chicken in my taco salad was not shredded at all. It was very large, very dry large chunks of what never got shredded breast. The rest of the food was as expected.

The reason for my review has more to do with the service. It's weird I'm sure that I'm complaining about service being too fast but I am.

I met my brother for lunch today. We wanted to go somewhere sit down where we could relax and enjoy each other's company, as we haven't had lunch together in a while. This was not the place today. We were done and had the bill paid in under 30 minutes. We might as well have gone to an order at the counter place for as relaxing as it was. I would tell you the name of our server, but she never offered it to us. She basically had no greeting or polite conversation or welcome vibes of any kind. She just literally approached the table at a breakneck speed and said, "Can I get you something to drink?" as our tushes were literally just grazing the booth to sit down. And before we had even had a chance to open the menu, she brought the drinks and again at a very fast-paced speed wanted to know if we were ready to order. We had to put her off a couple times just to have some time to breathe. Her whole energy was very frenetic, very impersonable and just very very rushed. Keep in mind they were not busy. There was no wait, there were plenty of tables open, and within the 30 minutes of the time that we had our lunch, the place had almost completely cleared out. Unless she was in some kind of speed competition, there was no reason for her to be consistently running by acting so harried. Overall, it was a very off-putting atmosphere and definitely not a place to have a relaxing lunch.

Going forward, if we want someplace to sit and relax, we will choose a different establishment for our lunch. However, if you need to be absolutely in and out in under 30 min, you might think fast food is your only the option, but I can tell you Ajo Al's lunch makes fast food feel slow as molasses--maybe just avoid the salsa and the...

I have been going to this location and coming here since I was like 5 years old and it was our favorite Mexican restaurant in town with generous portions. I have been getting the pollo con queso for over 20 years and it used to be massive, but every time I get it now it is smaller and smaller. Literally every single time it is smaller. The pollo con queso is literally half the size it was 10 years ago. That is outrageous. So the price goes up, but the size goes down? How is that fair? I understand raising the prices on the menu because the cost of supplies and produce are more expensive for you to run a restaurant, but making a product half the size it was before is unacceptable! And so many reviews on here are saying the same thing, then you go on and say that you didn’t reduce the size. Please don’t lie to your loyal customers that have been going to your place for over 20+ years. Very shady practice of raising the price but making your food portions smaller. Also, my family owns a restaurant that has been around for over 15 years and yes we have raised the prices on the menu because of inflation, but we have not and never will make the portions smaller. That is extremely shady and disrespectful to your loyal customers like us that have been there since you opened. And now lying to us by saying that the pollo con queso didn’t get smaller when it obviously has is not right. I am sad to say but after yesterday and the years of coming here since I was a child is over. I really hope you learn from this instead of continuing to lie to your customs that your food isn’t shrinking. This is coming from one restaurant owner to another restaurant owner. Do the right thing. Don’t lie to your loyal customers, because we are not blind when we see the size of something being half the size of what it used to be. And yes, raise the prices because of inflation to survive, but don’t also shrink the product. Listen to your loyal customers or else you will lose more like me. I wish...

My experience was ok, I should mention I was part of a large group of 20 + people (we DID have a reservation).

First of all, even though we had a reservation the table wasn't ready for us for about 10 minutes after our reserved time. We were only assigned one waiter and although he was very nice, he seemed overwhelmed.

Our food did not come out all at once. Actually people at one end of the table had completely finished by the time the other end received theirs : / In top of this the waiter had evidently not written seat numbers so he was calling out orders and it took way more time that it should have. Because of all this we were all late to an engagement we had scheduled after dinner. All of these issues would have been easily fixed had we been assigned two waiters and seat nunbers had been assigned to orders.

On to the food. I had the fish tacos which did have a good flavor in terms of the sauce and dressings, but the fish itself was awful. It was incredibly dry and unpleasantly chewy. If I had to guess I think they chopped up the fish before cooking it as there were no larger solid pieces. This would have also made the fish dry. They also may have been dry because the order wasn't timed correctly and had been sitting in the heat lamps. Either way, an error that could have easily been prevented. My husband said his enchiladas though were ok. I couldn't finish my tacos.

Maybe this place is good for small groups, but I wouldn't recommend it for larger groups. I worked restaurants for ten years as a waitress and all of the issues I discussed displayed a lack of experience in service, cooking, and...