Xcaret Mexican Grill and Cantina — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

Many of you may have seen a very positive review that Kris and I gave to a Mexican restaurant in Downtown Winston-Salem last year.

However, Xcaretgrillcantinaws fell well below our standards this evening.

Upon arriving we asked to switch tables and were assisted with that request. However after about 15 minutes of waiting we had to get someone's attention to be served. We then received initially friendly but inattentive service from the self-identified manager Fernando. He brought my food out very early and then my aunt and Kris’ food arrived maybe 5 minutes later, but we weren't provided with eating utensils and napkins. After waiting again for some time, Kris had to get up from the table and ask the bartender to give us eating utensils, while our waiter/ the evening manager was outside on the telephone.

The main problem however was that when we brought this to his attention he left the table, threw napkins on the table, served everyone around us at least twice before returning, and then seemed insistent about us hurrying up and paying the bill. He refunded my food because it was cold, but when my party expressed frustration, he was very dismissive and rude to the point of basically saying that there was nothing he could do and that he would try to do better in the future.

Both Kris and I recommend this restaurant frequently to our family and to our friends. However, after tonight's display from the "manager", we will no longer be able to recommend this as a restaurant worth spending money. And let me be clear when I say that we've recommended this restaurant: I have used it as part of his recommendations for places to eat in the city for counterparts at my job and for students and their families. Both Kris and I have taken our mothers and other friends to this restaurant...but not anymore

In short, we paid $51 for food and I'm still hungry and disappointed in one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Winston-Salem.

I hope that the true management of Xcaret reads this and deals with the poor treatment of their guests before it becomes another failed spot in Downtown Winston-Salem.

I have never experienced someone be so dismissive and rude as Fernando pictured standing in the all...

I had dinner with my wife in this restaurant just last night 8/24/18 and if planning to go here please read this, and I have never left one review for anything in my life. We arrived around 5PM to no music playing and the staff laughing and having a good time in the dining room. The food truly was average and there is far better Mexican food in the area, I have lived my whole life here so I am quite aware. The issue though wasn't the food. After we ate and spent our time there listening to the staff partying it up we wanted to pay and that is when we were told that they could only take cash?! I asked why I had not been informed of this prior to ordering and the answer was, "I don't know"... I said I didn't have that much cash on me, it is 2018, no one does! They took my card and kept it for exactly 15 minutes and believe me I was timing this. At this point I went to the front and told the manager that we were done here and I need my card back and asked what he would like to do, that this wasn't our issue and I had been more than willing to pay. At that point the manager along with one of the servers asked if I would walk down to CVS and see if I could get some more cash there?!?!?!?!? I of course refused and at that point I said all the cash I have was a twenty I kept on me for emergencies. The manager looked very upset at me for not having enough cash! (none of this is our fault, remember that) and then he stated angrily, "fine, I will just take the twenty"! Unreal bad service and the manager should be ashamed of how he handled this situation. Stay away, stay far away! Even if the service ends up being fine for you, the food really is average. Take a short trip to Kernersville for example and eat at Don Juan's, it is so much better than this place and the staff is great! I have no affiliation to any restaurant and work in aerospace, this is just the truth start to finish and it is fresh in my mind, it just happened...

I had thought to edit this tonight, while I need to be in my kitchen early the next day. If a space is scratch made, it should be impressionable, just not like everyone else and while I strive for authentic old-world Mexican sauces, it's lost to almost all Mexican 'restaurants' in the US.

Door Dash, ordered the B.T.O. Xcaret which was good at the moment of meeting my needs. Ench La Casa, with the intention of ground beef added, and confirmed, plus the added fee of Queso Oxaca, with a 'homemade' sauce, received shredded pork on top. Not cool, not even mixed in. Received a full credit. What Guac Salad.? A scoop of Guac in a to-go portion, plus half-assed pico. Not cut to size, a scoop in a to-go portion, kind-a like a Tablespoon and maybe a half, -that's the salad.? Where is the presentation.? Presentation well below anything I would every consider to these orders from a highly rated restaurant. With such high reviews, wtf is going on??

Homemade Enchilada sauce for 'house enchiladas' typical restaurant bs, this is not how they are supposed to taste. I travel the country finding the best, I know the best, however most days, it's store-bought sauce, or more from strictly tomato sauce. Homemade is a fake or joke here for sauce, out of a can heated up means saying homemade, or mixing in different ingredients = homemade. However that's usually BS like this restaurant, and most in my personal opinion. While they may touch on certain American-Mexican points of flavor, this not authentic...