Garcia's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Horseheads

Coming from a Mexican who grew up eating authentic Mexican home cooking, who has also had access to countless excellent Mexican restaurants in Illinois, this food was frankly extremely disappointing. We came here at the recommendation of an acquaintance who grew up in Elmira, and thought why not since we were in the area. The service was great, and the waiter spoke to us in Spanish which was appreciated. However, it was more disappointing that they would serve this food to people who they understand to be Mexican. I ordered the Speedy Gonzalez which comes with a taco, enchilada, and a choice of rice or beans (a first to have to choose between them for me). When I asked about what comes in the taco, they said ground beef or chicken. When I asked about the enchilada, asking if it came with green sauce or red sauce, they just said ‘enchilada sauce’. When the food was served, I was very disappointed to see a hard shell ground beef ‘taco’ that was worse in quality and quantity of food than what you can order at Taco Bell. There was no indication that the Speedy Gonzalez would give a hard or soft shell taco, and I assumed the best in the restaurant to give me a taco with an actual tortilla, especially as we were speaking in Spanish to each other. The sauce of the enchilada was also 90% similar in taste and consistency to marinara sauce, and the filling was low quality ground beef that made me feel like I was eating a ravioli out of a can. The drinks we got were ok at best, but for the price were absolutely not worth it. My partner ordered a burrito with rice and beans, that came with ‘burrito sauce’. This burrito sauce was the same marinara sauce used for the enchilada and the filling was also low quality shredded chicken. The two salsas for the chips were ok, without much difference in taste or spice, but they were at least ok to eat. The guacamole did not taste fresh, and seemed like it was just avocado, and maybe some lime and salt. Overall, I am stunned that this restaurant can claim this food to be Mexican, and will never come back. I will also warn others to not seek actual, authentic Mexican food when stepping through the doors of the Quality Inn. I am glad other people seem to enjoy this food, but it is offensive to my culture, and frankly if this was offered to Mexicans in Jalisco or Mexicans in the US it would go out of business before they had a chance to serve the...

We were seated quickly and had someone greet us and bring chips and salsa. A minute later we had a drink order going in. They came quickly as well. Food was average. Shrimp fajitas came with tails still on the shrimp which is a bit annoying pulling tails off steaming hot food. We ran out of chips as the queso dip arrived and requested more. 10 minutes later they showed up. I signaled a server to come over about them and she gave me the "yeah, yeah, yeah, somebody will be out shortly while not even asking what I needed. So when chips came after the entrees, our queso was cooled down and now pretty dried up. We were never asked about drink refills during the meal. It was myself, wife, and two kids. I had a beer while they all had soda. We were charged $3.00 per soda even for kids ones. I said that seemed quite high, and was told "well you get free refills". We won't be back to this restaurant. I hope someone from Garcias reads this. Keep this up and one family will easily turn into several and then to hundreds that take their money elsewhere. As a former restaurant manager, trust me when I say, it will add up and put you out of business like Formosa Buffett as I recall it being called who used to be right...

Honestly the chips and salsa were probably the best part of what I had. They seem to have a pretty sweet bar but we didn't partake. I had the chimichangas with ground beef. They were a bit smaller than most of the other Mexican restaurants around. Additionally the toppings didn't seem as premium. Rather than being topped with guacamole salad it was a weird Avocado paste which could have come out of a pouch in the refrigerated section of a supermarket, some lettuce and cheese. Honestly I'm trying not to be too critical, it was fine and I might come back but as opposed to most places around this wasn't much to write home about.

Also most of the entrées cost a few bucks more than other places around that serve similar cuisine and my biggest pet peeve in Mexican restaurants: they charge money for extra chips and salsa 😓

I'm still giving them a 4 because the service was acceptable (still nothing to write home about). The point here is you can come here and probably won't leave particularly disappointed. Maybe you'll like it more than I did, especially if you want a margarita 🍹 because they...