Pineapple Tequila Mexican Restaurant, Grill & Cantina — Restaurant in Venice

I have been here perhaps a half dozen times since it opened nearly a year ago. The food is good, if not great and reasonably priced;particularly on taco tuesdays. The atmosphere is excellent with very creative glass light fixtures in a chihuli kind of theme.

Sadly, like many places in the area, they struggle mightily with staff. Most of the staff are Latin immigrants with decent, if not great English which hampers their ability to be wait staff. Nearly 1 out of 3 dishes will come out slightly wrong. If you order a hard taco, you might get a soft one. If you order pulled beef, you may get ground beef instead. If you ask for no onions in a salad, 50/50 there will be onions. You get the picture. When I am paying $2-$3/taco, I just shrug this off and enjoy my meal. You can view this as adding a little excitement to your dinner. Sometimes the servers refill drinks, most of the time expect to ask for refills every time. Perhaps most annoying is that PT has not implemented a dish distribution scheme for some reason despite being a chain. In every normal chain, servers have a system to assign where each order goes which they use for groups of 4+. At PT, they just call out each order and throw it in front of whoever claims it. This might work if everyone has fairly different orders, but with tacos or something similar they just guess what is in each one. They need colored toothpicks or some kind of marking system at least if they don't want to train servers on a numbering system. Today when I was at PT, the server incorrectly said what a taco dish had on it which resulted in it being misdelivered to the wrong person who only realized it was wrong after taking a few bites. Rather than owning up the mistake and bringing out another dish of tacos which cost next to nothing, the server actually tried to grab the now partially eaten plate and switch it. It felt like a Twilight Zone episode! In thousands of restaurant visits over my 30 years of life, I have never seen a server try to switch two partially eaten plates! Of course, we told the server not to switch the plates and just bring out a couple replacement tacos and he actually refused to do that and said it was our fault for not checking what was in the tacos ourselves before eating them. PT might have some kind of system where servers pay for their own mistakes or something like some places, but even still it was one of the strangest experiences I have ever had! PT needs very badly to either implement a proper dish numbering system or at the very least mark what is on each plate somehow and certainly should fix any mistakes properly instead of asking patrons to swap meals a few bites in. Of course, the server did not ever bring out any replacements, take something off the bill, give us a free dessert, or even apologize for the mistake compounding the injury.

If you want some decent $2 hard, $3 soft tacos, you will be hard pressed to find a better option than PT, but boy oh boy does the staff need better training...

Beautiful restaurant; vibrant, fun, true to the name. Food was decent, the street tacos were yummy! The complimentary salsa was delicious, too. Our server was very nice and efficient despite it being a busy Sunday afternoon. The host, however, completely soured our initial impression and it was tough to come back from. Our party had been quoted a 15 minute wait, which was fine and we provided our phone number so we could leave and come back when our table was ready. About 15 minutes later we came back in, sat in the small waiting area and waited about 5 more minutes before checking back in on our wait. The host rudely said “I texted you twice 8 minutes ago” to which we showed that no such text was received. When they showed their text, it was to the wrong number which means it was incorrectly put in by the host. No worries, it happens, but the absolute attitude displayed by the host was UNCOMFORTABLE. No apology, no “let’s fix it”, just a dirty look and shrug. They slammed menus and silverware down on the counter, stormed off to check on a table, then led us to our table without a word. They slammed the menus down on the table and walked away before our entire party was even halfway down the corridor to get to the table. This display of behavior toward a customer is unacceptable and I’d be mortified if I knew a staff member of mine ever treated a guest this way, especially when the simple, easily rectifiable and honest mistake was made on the restaurant’s end. As stated, this truly soured our experience and leaves all of us hesitant to return, despite the positives...

We recently celebrated my mom’s birthday at Pineapple Tequila in Venice. We had previously visited their North Port location—which was a great experience—and this one didn’t disappoint either.

We ordered the chiles rellenos, which were delicious, the carne asada, generously served and flavorful, and the quesabirria tacos (listed under a different name on the menu). The tacos were very tasty, although we wished there had been a bit more consommé to accompany the three tacos.

One of the highlights was when a staff member came to prepare fresh guacamole at our table. His friendly conversation and the experience of having it made fresh in front of us made it extra special. He was incredibly kind and welcoming. Our server, originally from the Dominican Republic, also gave us outstanding service—he was attentive without being intrusive, allowing us to enjoy a relaxed, unhurried meal. As Mexicans, we love to linger after meals ("sobremesa"), and he was very patient with us, even helping us take some great family photos.

The food, the drinks, and the overall atmosphere were fantastic—truly one of the best Mexican restaurants we've found in this area of Florida. Now I understand why it gets packed during high season and on holidays! I definitely recommend visiting during the off-season to enjoy extra time and a more relaxed vibe.

While the hosts at the entrance weren't the friendliest, once we were seated, everything changed for the better. My mom had a wonderful birthday celebration and we had an amazing and...