Plaza Mexicana — Restaurant in Vernal

We decided to try this place out as we are in town for the Dino Half Marathon, and this place had raving reviews. When we arrived the restaurant was busy, but we were told the food was good enough to wait. Immediately we were thrown off by how irritated the staff was to have to seat 6 people (not a large number of people in my opinion), but decided to brush it off because they were obviously busy. After about 30 minutes we were seated, and our waitress was a bit snippy as we looked over the drink menu acting as though we were wasting her time (mind you, we had been seated maybe 2 minutes prior to this interaction and we had never been here). We again, brushed it off as them being busy and put our drink and food order in shortly after. The food took a while to come out, but it was decent and freshly made. By this time, one of the gentlemen in our party ordered a second beverage and the waitress rolled her eyes and never brought it out to him. He decided to just not ask again since clearly that was such a hassle. Eventually, the waitress brought our almost $300 check out (all on one bill even though we were clearly seated as 3 couples, and had mentioned separate payments already), and we politely asked for the checks to be separated up front at the register. This woman literally rolled her eyes and questioned why we were being "so difficult". (Our "difficult" table left over $150 in tip between cash on the table and tip on the card). That was the last straw. Overall, food was decent but overpriced (We spent right under $500 for 6 people) and the waitress ruined our whole experience. Unfortunately, when we come back to Vernal we will not...

If you plan to spend any time in Vernal, Utah (the middle of nowhere), you'll want to have a meal at Plaza Mexicana. The custom-carved and hand-painted booths make for a festive atmosphere. The menu is large, with lots of options, but the small print is rather hard to read; the pictures are somewhat helpful.

The food seems fairly authentic which is impressive for this remote outpost of civilization. The mole enchiladas were very good; the chicken inside the enchiladas seemed to have been cooked in the sauce and the enchiladas were topped with a generous pour of mole sauce so as to consume it with the enchiladas and the accompanying rice and beans if desired. My wife enjoyed the enchiladas seizes, which didn't quite match my expectation of a cheesier sauce. Our nine year old enjoyed his grilled cheese and large steak fries. Everything arrived together and hot.

The beer options were limited and overpriced with just a few common domestic bottle options like Bud and Coors at $4.75 and some Mexican import offerings at $5.75. There were no microbrew or local beer options. Every booth had a tacky sign like you might find in a 7-11 about what year a person's birth means it's ok for them buy alcohol.

The main entrees were priced reasonably at a little over $10, but the kids' menu item and drinks added up quickly; the sopapillas at $5.99 were not great. A scoop of ice cream would have made it a better value and appear more special.

The service was adequate, but shy of attentive. Restrooms were in good...

Honestly never felt so ripped off. I ordered steak fajitas, queso, and salsa. Some how it was $50! I wasn’t paying attention due to just getting off a 16 hour shift. Salsa was in a 32 oz cup. I guess that’s where all the charges came from?!?! The fajitas barely filled three tortillas and no rice or beans were included. The queso didn’t even fill a quarter of a regular size bowl but is considered a large. I also got four brown bags full of chips. For the amount of food that was given I didn’t use half of one bag on queso and salsa. Way over priced per portions and flat out ridiculous. I’m from Texas and this is the worst Mexican restaurant experience I’ve ever had. I’m still hungry after eating all the fajitas and queso, but still have a giant thing of salsa and chips. This is a knowingly over charge and scam for portion sizes and giving a crazy amount of the cheapest product to make it look good. I’ll be telling my entire company about this. I wish I wool pictures to show how pitiful the portion size was for the charge of a mediocre Mexican meal. Owners should be ashamed of themselves for...