Tamarindos — Restaurant in Whitemarsh Township

I live right around the corner and my first time going to this restaurant was fantastic. We didn't wait long for a table at all, the food was fantastic and served promptly. The free margaritas are a plus and their attention to food allergies is great. My mom and I are both gluten free, so having the corn tortillas instead of flour is fantastic. The second time I went there, it was around 7 pm on a Saturday night toward the end of April. It was a warm night and people were sitting outside in their patio area. The parking lot was cramped, they were hosting a big party and almost every table was full. We had to wait a few minutes for a table, which was out on the patio. Our server was great and we ordered a few minutes after being seated. The free margaritas were flowing and there was live music playing in the background. About a half hour later, we didn't have our food yet and the people who got there after us were already being served. Our server said our food was coming shortly. Another half an hour passed and still no food and our server said that our food was coming out next as we were starting to get impatient (and hungry). I ordered fajitas which shouldn't have taken that long to prepare. Another 15 minutes passed and still no food. We were contemplating getting up and leaving and making other arrangements for dinner. We complained to our server and he completely understood our position. He had tried to explain our experience to the owner and the slowness of the kitchen to get the orders out to tables and he wouldn't listen. Another 10 minutes went by and we threatened to walk out if our food wasn't served within a couple of minutes, when our waiter said our food would be out in 2 minutes. We finally received our food after a an hour and a half after ordering, which is an excessive wait time! I will definitely go back because the food is great, but maybe make reservations first or go earlier on a Saturday night. Or on a weekday when they are less busy. Overall, great food, great free margaritas, great atmosphere, just don't go on a...

Overall, this restaurant gets mixed reviews from me.

The gentleman who greeted me and took my carry out order was wonderful. You got my order correct, and it was quickly done. As this was carry out, he was the only staff I interacted with and was very good, so I am left to assume that service is generally good there.

Food is where I am going to stop at three stars. To be Frank, it might be more like 2.5. We ordered the salmon entree, the skirt steak entree, and the shrimp wrapped in bacon appetizer. The shrimp were fantastic. Flavor was on point, super high quality, was very pleased. The salmon was also very good. Well cooked, and great flavor.

The skirt steak and the sides however wear an absolute mess. The skirt steak was literally raw on the inside. And keep in mind, I am a huge fan of rare and medium rare cook on meat. But this literally was cold on the inside and just had not been cooked. With many years in the restaurant business and years of personal grilling I know the difference, and this was just really poor execution. I had to bring it home and finish cooking it myself. At the end of the day it was tough, chewy, raw, and lacked flavor. The side dishes of Mexican rice and refried beans were absolutely atrocious. Bland, flavorless, and honestly I believe they were at least a day or two old. Again I've worked in restaurants, and can usually tell these things. The Mexican rice in particular was nowhere near living up to its name. I literally had a microwavable bag of Uncle Ben's Mexican rice the other day that was more flavorful and more authentic than this.

Overall, it is not a good value. Even the good food I think is criminally overpriced when dinner for two without any drinks is almost $80. Again, there is some good food there, but nowhere near living up to it's price tag. If money is no object for you, then great. It's probably worth it. But I can give a list of authentic Mexican restaurants in the area where you will get food that is as good or better, for half or even a third...

When I walked in, the place was almost empty. I thought maybe my friends and I were lucky for getting in before the rush. We were celebrating. My friendd were running behind so I wanted to grab a nice table. The waiter said " sit anywhere." There were 3 tables being used with 16-20 tables being estimated in total and this is not including the outside seating area. I went to sit at a table top of 5. There was expected to be 3 of us altogether, the waiter instantly said, "you can't sit there." Because the restaurant was just about empty I did not understand why and to add insult it was said loud enough that for the family's there they stared as I embarrassingly had to find another table (7 people looked up from their meals). I opted to wait in my car until my friends showed up. When we did get seated I had to ask for a straw, as the waiter ignored me 3 times with still only 3-4 family in the restaurant now. I could hear others conversations so the music had not been blasting. He was being rude. I had to run and flag someone else down to get a straw after 10 minutes of trying to the my waiter's attention. The woman that brought the water seemed nicer, but the male waiter seemed irritated and as if I was a bother. Those interactions made us get nachos and with me feeling uncomfortable I didn't want anything else (felt like I did not trust it) - left most of the loaded nachos on plate. We tipped and left. We always try to tip because we understand that's how people live, the food was over-priced but for a good meal we don't mind. But that was not worth it. Went home made food. Would never go there again. Service is a big part of eating at a restaurant. When a waiter is nasty, who knows what people do to food when they think their customer is being a pest or they themselves hate their jobs. The whole time there were no more that 4 tables used at a time but they limited...