Mochilero Kitchen — Restaurant in Scottsdale

What a terrible experience. We arrived at 6:30 and were told it would be about 20 to 25 minutes before we could be seated in order to allow the kitchen to catch up because they were a little behind. That should have been the red flag, but we stuck around with a toddler.

When we were finally seated at 7:10 after expressing frustration with the wait time, we were greeted pleasantly enough by Faith, who took our drink orders and then our dinner orders. She even offered to put in the toddler's order first so it would come out faster. 30 minutes later, the single chicken taco with refried beans came out. The rest of our party's meal was nowhere to be found.

I began to question if we should just cancel the order as my toddler now was beside herself because it had been WAY too long and she wasn't about to eat. Is this my problem? Probably! But it all goes back to the wait. Had we been seated when we were promised, it would have been fine. Had they been honest with timing, we would have left and been fine somewhere else.

Faith, our previously good waitress, overhead us discussing if we should just cancel our order and became incredibly rude and dismissive. She shortly asked if we wanted to cancel our order. We asked how long it would be and she said that it had only been about 30 minutes since she put the ticket in. Only?!?! Then when she said our food was up next, she just walked away while we were still talking.

A manager came over and I expressed the frustration both with the situation and with Faith and his response was that he'd listen to my feedback. At no point had the word "sorry" been uttered by anyone. Our food came and one meal was ice cold. The manager offered to take it off the bill. Uh yeah, you think? And then he took the plate away and didn't even offer to bring another one out. Of course, there was no way we could wait another half an hour for a plate of tacos.

On top of it all, the food wasn't even good. The mole was awful. The tacos were mediocre. They didn't offer any consolation on any sort of price. They could have comped the chips and salsa or one of the drinks or even the $4 kids meal that went untouched.

There are so many great Mexican/Southwestern restaurants in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area that I'd recommend not wasting a second on this one. Go to Blanco. It's much...

We love Mexican food! I'm usually not that hyped about a new restaurant, but there's this amazing place in the Horizon Shopping Center. It's called Mochilero Kitchen in Scottsdale, and it's one of the best scratch kitchens serving real, authentic Mexican food. "Mochilero" means "backpacker" in Spanish, so basically, they take you on a food trip through different parts of Mexico. The restaurant, owned by brother and sister duo Jorge Cota and Meliza Miranda, draws inspiration from various regions of Mexico, offering a modern twist on traditional dishes. Their craft taco selection was to die for. I went with the Mochilero trio, $16.00, a choice of 3 tacos, rice, and beans. I selected Papa Brava, their potato taco, Carne Asada, and a Baja fish taco. I couldn't decide which one I liked best; everything was packed with flavor, probably the best potato taco I've tried. My wife had the "El Mochilero" lunch plato, $18.00, a cheese Chile relleno with a choice of enchilada and taco. All the flavors were balanced; none of the ingredients were overpowering or too spicy. They have brunch on the weekends, daily happy hour from 2:30-5:00 pm with drink specials and Bonitas. We can't wait to go back for happy hour to order a bunch of Bonitas to try...

We feel ridiculously lucky that Mochilero has opened this location and we can walk here! It is even better than we could have hoped for. We have been going often for over a year now. The menu reflects a cuisine that is actually Mexican and authentic. You can tell that they put a lot of time into every component of each dish. After enjoying over half of the menu, I can confidently say, it is our favorite restaurant. We have introduced many people to the wonders of Mochilero and they never miss an opportunity to return.

The tortillas are made with blue masa and are so delicious, I wonder what magic they are adding! The salsa trio is a must try (especially if you love spicy). Their margaritas are the perfect way to showcase tequila: a little salty, great acidity, not too sweet. Every taco is delicious. EVERY TACO. Their huevos rancheros with red OR green sauce: spectacular. The refried beans or black beans? Both superb. The plantain chips with guacamole? So good they should be illegal. Go for dinner or brunch, you won’t be disappointed.

It is not cheap pseudo Mexican food. It is a nice, beautiful, authentic, must-return-back-to-try-more...