Nixtamal Mexican Kitchen — Restaurant in Simpsonville

I've had some terrible Mexican food before but this is in the top 3 worst. I've also had some bad restaurant experiences before, and this is definitely in the top 10. All around, I simply had to post the overall bad visit at this restaurant to warn other.

We didn't have any problems getting into the restaurant, it was mostly empty on a Monday night. Upon sitting (3 adults and 6 children), my wife and my sister ordered margaritas ($13 each). We proceeded to order our food and waited patiently. When the drinks arrived, both my sister and wife could easily tell that their overpriced margaritas had absolutely no alcohol in them. It's was 100% mixer. I notified the waitress who claimed that 3 ounces of tequila was in each drink. The entire drink wasn't 12 ounces, so this is clearly a flat out lie. After basically arguing with the waitress, she brought a bottle of tequila and proceeded to put a single shot into each drink. Both ladies proceeded to inform me that it was night and day, making it obvious that they are overcharging for mixed drinks with $0 overhead in liquor. Don't waste your money on the drinks. The table salsa is your choice of tomato sauce straight out of a great value can, or the hot salsa version that literally tasted like cocktail sauce. I requested a regular or hot salsa, but was told they only have habenero salsa. It was spicy, but completely unflavorful.

As if that experience wasn't bad enough, the meal comes out. I ordered a birria torta along with one of my daughters. This sandwich was so bland it makes a Publix sub taste like a 5-star restaurant. Everyone at the table except 2 of my kids wouldn't even eat their food. The chori pollo was a sliver piece of cheap chicken covered in oil. My entire family loves Mexican food, everything from So cal to tex mex. This was horrid and bland at best. We were warned not to come here, but my sister stated the owners had supposedly changed so we should give them a shot.....bad mistake.....

At this point, we were ready to leave and asked for the bill. The waitress tried to push a machine in my face without handing me a copy of the check. I had to request a paper copy to see why the bill was so high. She storms off and returns with a paper copy and THEN proceeds to tell me that she had took the liberty of adding a 20% tip to our check. That was the final straw. I knew I had to make this experience public.

Unless you've never had Mexican food or prefer cheap bland foods with absolutely no flavor,...

I’ll start with the positives- our server Dolce was lovely! Very attentive and sweet BUT for one omission of information she didn’t share which resulted in my 2 star rating. Perhaps she never was told to do so or maybe no one has ever asked for a premium tequila in their margarita?? But I’ll continue with the positives. Table side prepared guacamole was delicious. The chips were just okay for me, but hubby liked them. He also liked his food better than I liked my choices as he likes whole pinto beans. The pinto beans are not pureed as they are in every Mexican restaurant I’ve been in. Nothing wrong with the flavor, I’m just not a fan of a whole cooked bean in my enchiladas. Now for the BIG NEGATIVE. A house margarita is $13.00. We ordered Silver Patron Tequila in place of the house tequila. We always order this premium tequila when eating out at Mexican restaurants. We expect an up charge (usually $5-6 more to the drink price); we certainly don’t expect the drink to DOUBLE in price! So our $13.00 margarita was $26.00! My husband had two and I had one. This up charge is absurd and we should have been informed when we ordered. At the least it should be printed in the menu as restaurants typically do. We can afford to pay our bill no matter what it is, but the shock of seeing margaritas doubled in price at an inexpensive restaurant was annoying. We will make the trip to Greenville in the future to eat at our preferred Cantinflas where margaritas are made to perfection with a lime juice they make in-house...

Terrible Service! Dined with a friend. We ordered a beer and a margarita. Beer mug was requested. A highball glass filled with ice was brought for the beer. We told the waitress one does not serve beer with ice. Later, she brought the beer with no glass, still no margarita, finally brought the same glass with the ice dumped out, the inside was wet. 10 minutes later, the margarita arrived. This server has no idea how to serve beer.

Tableside guacamole was good, I have had it before. Entrées were fajitas and a shrimp dish. Both were good except fajitas were not served with any cheese, sour cream etc. only a large platter of meat and veggies. The serving was quite generous. However, it only came with 2 flour tortillas. When cheese and additional flour tortillas were requested, there were additional charges. Tortillas did come with the shrimp entrée, but we said we did not want any. Overall, the quality of the food was good, just stingy to only 2 small Flour tortillas, and no other condiments. Also, the entrées were not brought out together, several minutes apart.

Second time there, there will not be a third. There are probably at least six other Mexican restaurants within a 3...