Mariachi Alegre — Restaurant in Washington

Went here for dinner while staying at Great Wolf Lodge as we had enjoyed a meal here back in 2017, but this time the experience was TERRIBLE. First they tried to seat us right behind the host booth, with a kitchen door on either side, in a very busy spot. Everyone else was seated in the side out of the way. We asked to move.

The waiter (a tall, older Hispanic man) was impatient, grumpy and rude. He came by like 3 times in a 10 minute time span to ask if we were ready to order and we kept saying we need more time. Said we were ready to order drinks and he just turned and walked away. When ordering food, we asked what was the difference between the small and large quesadilla to determine which to get for our son and he said with a complete straight face "the size" and then just stared at us. I had to actually ask "how big is each one" before he'd answer in a helpful manner. My husband ordered the "cheese dip" and it took forever to come out.

Now the food... The cheese dip was so disgusting, it was literally melted white Velveeta in a bowl. I guess it should have been a clue that it wasn't called queso on the menu, but we get queso whenever we have Mexican so we know what it should be like. It was so thick and started to congeal immediately (having no "sauce" base to it whatsoever) and it tasted just like Velveeta. So gross and completely inedible (for $9 no less)! My chimichunga was not golden brown or crispy at all (this is my go to, so I know what it should be like) so it quickly got soggy between the wet beef inside and the sour cream and guacamole on top. My son's burrito was just meat, whole beans, and rice that lacked any flavor. My husband's burrito was all right but the carne asada was chewy and "gritty" as he said; I tried it and it was not quality carne asada at all. The quesadilla was like they slathered taco bell beef on one side and a small amount of cheese on the other and expected it to stick. The pieces immediately slid apart as soon as he picked them up. My daughters kids meal burrito for $9 was just beef wrapped in a tortilla with beans and rice on the side and the cheese on her beans wasn't even melted. My other daughter had hard tacos that she said were good but soggy on the bottom. My strawberry lemonade had no strawberries in it and tasted really watered down.

By the time we finished we all wished we'd gone down the road to Taco Bell instead and gotten edible food for a cheaper price tag. We won't...

I am from Colorado, where we have latino families who have been there for generations and generations. So pretty much anywhere you're go, you're guaranteed an amazing meal. I also spent a year in Houston, TX where TexMex and Mexican food is popular and you can't go wrong at any establishment there either. I have to say that this unfortunately was the worst Mexican restaurant I have ever been to, and because of what I mentioned above, I've been to a lot. Mexican food is my favorite! I'm not a picky eater. I've never complained about food at a restaurant before, nor have I ever written a bad review for a restaurant (this is my first). But we had similar issues as other reviewers. The place was virtually deserted when we went there (only one other table was occupied). The reason we chose it, is because when they first opened, it seemed to always be busy, so we thought it must be really good. We thought it was slow when we went because maybe it was an off hour or something. But we quickly learned that that wasn't the case. Despite only waiting on one other table, it took the server a very long time to even take our order, and a very long time to receiver our order. Like others, he never came to refill our drinks, or even to ask us how everything was. At the end of the meal, we had to approach the front to ask about our check. I had the chile relleno, which is one of my favorite dishes. I couldn't even take more than one bite out of it. It was literally dripping with grease onto my plate, and the batter itself was soggy. I tried to give it to my husband, and he couldn't even eat it. My husband always takes whatever he doesn't eat home to re-heat, and he didn't even bother because he didn't like his dish either. I would highly recommend going to Casa Ramos in Centralia, or even make the trip up to Olympia and go to Peppers if you want good Mexican Food and...

I’ve been to this restaurant twice now, and while the food has been consistently great, the service has been disappointing. The first visit had some minor service issues, but nothing too notable. However, my most recent experience left a lot to be desired.

Our waiter seemed impatient and uninterested in providing good service. He never checked back with us after delivering our food and brought the check without asking if we needed anything else. We had to flag someone down multiple times. When I asked for the check to be split, he told me I should have mentioned it earlier because splitting it was "hard"— We were a party of six with three adults and three kids.. As someone with a background in the service industry, I know that anticipating guests’ needs is part of the job, and the appropriate thing to have done is ask us. And splitting a check is not hard, a minor inconvenience at most. That could've been easily avoided had he asked, about that & literally anything else besides what we wanted.

To make matters worse, we witnessed the waiter blowing his nose without washing his hands, which raised serious concerns about hygiene. The overall vibe was that we were an inconvenience, even though we arrived two hours before closing. We felt rushed while ordering and ignored the rest of the time.

I don’t like leaving negative reviews, but the way we were treated made us feel unappreciated. When spending money at an establishement, I expect more. While the food was good, it wasn’t good enough to make up for the poor service. Unfortunately, I won't...