Mami Finas — Restaurant in Waynesville

My wife and I live close and decided to try this place during a themed day for the town of Waynesville and were excited to try it after reading great things on social media but we left disappointed. We got sat quickly but didn't receive the complimentary chips and salsa that we saw other tables receiving when they were set. No biggie because we could immediately tell they were busy and likely understaffed. We wanted to try the themed drinks but our server wasn't sure what was in them when we asked. That was fine because we thought maybe the drinks were complicated and they just couldn't recall all the ingredients. After establishing what was in them didn't matter, we were told we'd need to go up to the bar to get our drinks. Weird but our server looked young so we thought maybe they couldn't serve alcohol so my wife went up and waited 15+ minutes to get our drinks (bar was slammed). She came back with our drinks and we ordered our food. The food kept getting delayed so we decided to have another drink. We stopped another server and asked if we were supposed to be getting our own drinks after we saw every other server getting drinks (alcohol and non alcoholic) for their tables. They told us our server should be and I made the comment that maybe they couldn't because they were too young. They responded by saying our server was definitely able to and to ask them again. We would've if our server wouldn't have disappeared for a while. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I decided to go up and get our drinks. After waiting about 20 minutes in the bar line (they were still slammed but doing an awesome job), I got our drinks and went back to our table. By this time it had been 35-40 minutes since we had ordered our food and tables that had been sat around us had already gotten their food and were leaving. Luckily we had been brought chips and salsa but come to find out that only happened because my wife asked about it and then had to remind our server 2 more times before they brought them out. Finally our food was brought out. My wife's was okay, nothing to get excited about. My enchiladas, rice and beans were lukewarm to cool temperature wise. I ate them because I was hungry but they definitely would've been better if they were warmer/hot. I chose not to send them back because who knew when I'd get my food and my wife was already eating. So after getting to spend half of our meal together (due to waiting at the bar), we decided that if (pretty big if) we ever come back it definitely won't be on a...

I dont know where to begin.

The restaurant itself is beautiful.

That's where the good stuff ends.

We arrived and were ignored for the first 15 minutes. There were 3 servers and 5 occupied tables in the restaurant.

We actually moved tables and sat at the new table for 3 minutes before I set a 5 minute timer. 3 minutes later, with 2 minutes remaining on the timer, we were FINALLY greeted.

The waitress arrived and stated that she would get us menus and took our drink order, repeating everything back to us. This is a GOOD thing. She returned, bringing us chips with salsa, drinks but no menus.

She realized the error and stated she was going to get the menus. Instead of returning, she went into the kitchen and began assisting other tables and socializing.

Around 10 minutes later, she returned with the menus. She asked if I wanted a fresh tea. I said yes, but please bring a sweet tea and water. She then told me that they did not have sweet tea, even though she repeated my original order of sweet tea back too me and never told me they did not have sweet tea.

She returned promptly with the tea but no water. She asked if we were ready to order yet. We literally had the menus for less than 3 minutes. We stated no. She left.

She began doing other things for roughly 7 minutes, before finally returning. She had to turn around on the way back in order to get the forgotten water and a tea. My husband was not yet ready to order, so she left again.

My husband was finally ready to order after a minute or so and we set the menus down.

We then sat and waited and waited and waited. Five minutes, ten minutes, 14 minutes now - with no sign of our waitress.

We then got up and left.

This was, without a doubt, one of the WORST experiences I have ever had in my 47yrs in a restaurant.

I could never rate the food - we never had a chance to try it. The menu is extremely small with very limited options. The tea looked like cloudy, muddy water. The chips were going stale, but the salsa was really good.

The service though, was absolutely horrendous.

If I was able to leave zero stars, I would.

Very, very disappointed. What a shame.

We went to a neighboring restaurant and had a phenomenal meal and service at that establishment.

Do not waste...

This is a nice place for great food in a small town. Waynesville is known for their antique shops and Mama Finas is in a great location adjacent to the majority of the shops.

The food: I was blown away. I’ve eaten Mexican (Tex-Mex/Americanized) all over the country and this is in my top 3. I had a Chicken Tinga taco, Street Corn, and of course, chips and salsa.

I’ll admit that my taste buds are weak as Tinga usually makes my mouth feel like it’s on fire. This though, this was absolutely delicious. The chicken was shredded perfectly and the Tinga spices were on point as flavorful, not spicy. It was in a corn tortilla with crumbled cheese with some sour cream. I added lettuce as I prefer it on most tacos. I’m not a fan of white corn taco shells, but this had a mild flavor and a smooth texture.

The street corn was off the cob, creamy, spiced with a hint of heat. I really can’t identify the spices used, but they work. I ate mine with tortilla chips and liked that as opposed to using a fork.

The salsa and chips were decent; I think the chips needed a bit more salt and the salsa, I would have preferred more cilantro and more identifiable flavors. It has a bit of heat to it as well. But that is my preference, maybe you hate cilantro and you’re a monster. To each their own.

Service was great and the food came at a reasonable pace. I really liked the decor as well, lots of Picado flags and my favorite, Dia de los muertos art. I only paid $13 for it including a tea. Unheard of in the city or suburbs.

I highly recommend if you ever go to Waynesville, you should...