El Azteca Family Restaurante — Restaurant in Show Low

Adding an additional review. Every time I eat here I'm impressed. This last time I felt it was another time to speak up. The margaritas are large and different than the usual with the orange citrus adding a special touch. This time I had the seafood salad, Oh My! Huge, with an amazing amount of warm seafood resting on a bed of lettuce and beautifully dressed. So delicious! The new ownership are seasoned professionals. The restaurant has a freshness due to new interior paint, flooring and seating. It’s a happy, cozy place to relax, enjoy time with family, friends or just some “me” time. I hadn’t been here before, so I was surprised that in addition to the large open area there are separate rooms that looked very inviting. There is also an outdoor patio that was calling my name. Another time, soon. I was greeted when I arrived and taken to the open area that shares that space with the bar. The state liquor license was still pending when I was there but anticipate Margaritas on the next visit. The menu was extensive with all the favorites and then some. Chips and salsa arrived immediately. The salsa was hot for me, which is normal, so I asked for my favorite add in, Ranch Dressing. Perfect with the chips that were thin and crispy. Was very impressed by the staff; friendly, asking questions to make sure the dining experience was what I expected and returned often checking in. I ordered a Taco Salad with ground beef, an easy choice for comparisons with other restaurants. I also ordered a side of guacamole, and sour cream. It arrived quickly by a smiling waiter who asked if I needed anything else. The shell was light and crisp, not greasy at all. The cold items, like the lettuce, were cold and the hot ground beef was hot. I also appreciated the restraint when adding the lettuce. Many restaurants use lettuce as a filler in their Taco Salads, that wasn’t the case here. Everything was proportioned nicely. I enjoyed the plating which gave a fun vibe. Photos were photoshopped to remove the diners...

We realllly wanted to like this place. Service poor. Very slow. Not enough attention to customers. Tacos were soggy and food was lukewarm. That means it sat waiting for our waiter to pick it up and bring it to our table. Both orders of tacos were wrong. I ordered a shredded beef taco and got chicken, which was actually good. The 2nd one was ground beef instead of shredded beef. Rice was under cooked and needed seasoning. Green chili was too tough to eat and smelled weird, spoiled Beans were runny and needed salt. Not good. Staff was NOT attending customers. We waited too long for our waiter and people had cleared out. We saw 2 tables dissatisfied with their food. Staff too busy talking with eachother. We were the only ones in the place when our food arrived and to add insult, they charged us full price, even though we sent a whole plate of food back. There is just no excuse for this. We will not be back. They need to realize that if they want to succeed, customer service is key and they need to listen better. You can't be standing around having personal conversations with eachother while the customer waits and the food gets cold. Just basic rules for having a successful business. Once people have a bad experience, they never go back and word gets out. We want you to succeed, so please fix these things. We so want you to succeed, but you have to listen to your customers and these reviews. Overall, the food we did eat was just OK. Nothing great. Seasoning is off. Chips and salsa were pretty good. We got hotter salsa and mixed it in with the mild salsa and...

Honestly, the food was pretty rough beginning to end. The chips were burnt and the salsa tasted like raw tomatoes and something I couldn't put my finger on. The refried beans were grainy. The rice was okay, the shredded beef had some flavor, but the tamale was very thick and the chimichanga was, like the chips, over fried and burnt. The chicken burrito was literally just a half a boiled chicken breast cut in half and wrapped in a raw wrap... not even shredded. I've never seen that in years of eating Mexican food. The Chile relleno would have been fine, but again the batter on the outside was fried to black. I had to remove it all together to eat the inside. The BLUE Margarita was also, okay. Honestly, we won't be coming back. It was a complete mess from...