Mercado's — Restaurant in Tyler

My family and I had one of the worst restaurant experiences we’ve ever encountered — and we’re still in disbelief.

We came in as a party of 4 adults and a 2-year-old child. Upon arrival, the hostess told us there’d be a 10–15 minute wait, which we didn’t mind. However, we watched two different groups (with similar or fewer people) walk in after us and get seated immediately — by the same hostess. We were seated right by the host stand, so we clearly heard the party sizes.

After asking another hostess why we hadn’t been seated, she simply said, “I’m not sure.” We then asked to speak with the manager, Moe. Instead of helping, he was immediately rude and dismissive, falsely claiming we were a party of 10 and couldn’t expect to be seated quickly. (We were only 5 people total, including a toddler who just needed a booster.)

As we were finally being seated, Moe continued to be rude, and the original hostess came over with an attitude as well. Eventually, Moe sent her home — but the lack of professionalism was overwhelming.

Our waiter, thankfully, was kind and respectful, and the only reason we decided to stay. But then the food arrived. The guacamole appetizer looked brown and old. My chicken quesadilla was cold, and both the cilantro rice and my grandmother’s charro beans were hard and undercooked. When we asked to swap sides, we witnessed Moe gossiping with another staff member, after which that employee yelled loudly, “Go get them in Mexico.” Completely unacceptable and offensive.

The manager never once apologized or checked in on us, though we saw him going from table to table doing so for others but completely avoided us.

When the bill came, my dad calmly told Moe, “The service here was not great. I’m going to tip the waiter, but if you were a good manager, you would comp the ticket.” Moe immediately snatched the check from my dad’s hand — then called the Tyler Police Department, falsely accusing us of harassment and attempting to dine and dash. That was never the case. We were still on the property, ready to pay, and had done nothing but speak up about the mistreatment we faced.

To top it off, we later learned one of the servers refused to serve us and didn’t want to sit us in her section which is likely why we were left waiting in the beginning.

This experience was discriminatory, unprofessional, and deeply upsetting. We will never return — and I strongly encourage others to reconsider visiting...

Not the quality they have been known for. Used to be one of our go to Mexican Rest, not anymore, and my last one with them as there are many other Mexican restaurants everywhere in competition. BEWARE of all the up-charges not listed on the menu and certainly not mentioned by your waiter. A cheaper "Lunch Menu" was almost $50 for 2 older citizens, no alcohol. If you go with what seems to be the cheaper Lunch menu, understand that when the waiter ask you what topping you would like, unknown to the consumer, each one is an upcharge. But in my case when asked, I ask for chili sauce on the enchilada and chimichanga, seems pretty normal. What I got, and was an upcharge on both, was some some nasty canned queso sauce poured all over my food. Had no taste and was a mess, no chili. Don't ask for some "other than there stock pretty plain table salsa" or you will pay $3 for 2 small tiny cups. And since a lot of Mexican restaurants seem to be eliminating onions from their menus (what-I thought Mexican food was all about onions), a little pill cup size (about a tablespoon) is $.75. Not even enough to put on my food much less my wifes food. I even ask the waiter about upcharges while ordering and she flat out lied and said no! I'm guessing that most, if not all, don't even look at their ticket. Just charge and move on. Not me. Also, Since they have made a decision to eliminate their best sauce over a good Chili Relleno, the famous Etouffee sauce, that's the infamous straw that broke the camels back!! We will patronize the many other restaurants that do not blind side you with their many secret upcharges, making the back-page lunch menu $50 for 2! No...

We have been many times and the food and service have always been good. This time howerver the young lady serving us seemed overwhelmed. Drinks took a long time until some of them arrived and getting the rest took reminders that they had not been delivered. Chips and salsa ran out before we got to place our order and we had to stop the waitress and ask her to take our order. When the food came it was incorrect. We had to track down the waitress to get it fixed and by the time it came we had almost finished plus it had been sitting around a while and looked like it was a fake dinner. A lady from managment asked how things were, and we explained the situation. She did jump on it to speed things up but no offer was made to compensate for shoddy service. Our second round of drinks arrived as we were about to leave. We understand it is difficult to get staff. However new staff need to be properly trained and advised tips are based on the quality of service provided. From a managment perspective it looks like things have or are slipping as there was evidence that cleaning standards have slipped since the stands used for serving had the remains of several previous meals down the legs. We know current conditions are hard but as customers start coming back, cleaning and service standards count to wards a successful recovery. We have tried on our part to support a number of places during the last year but places that are not as clean as they should be with poor service will move to the bottom of the list of places to eat. If this was our first visit it would be our last but since it has until now been good we will try again in the hopes it...