Mezcal Tequila Kitchen — Restaurant in Worcester

A very frustrating experience that could have just been avoided with some honesty.

We arrived two and a half hours before a show and expected a long wait time, which it was at an hour. We informed them of our plans for the show and were assured we had ample time. Once the hour passed, I began noticing that other parties that had arrived after ours were being seated. I inquired about our expected wait time, and was answered with “you’re still pretty far down the list.” We waited another half hour. I listened to the hostesses and their priorities for seating. They weren’t going directly down the list, but by party size. If two two-person tables opened up, the would push them together for a larger party of four to six, even if two-person parties had been waiting longer. The waiting room dwindled to a bunch of two-people parties waiting while the higher-priority large parties were seated. All the while, we’re being told that it “should only be a few more minutes.”

An hour before the show, my husband starts showing signs of having a sugar crash. We’d had enough. We called them out on their horrendous seating priorities. Either they seat us, or we leave. They choose to seat us.

It took about 20 minutes to order. We ordered what we think should be the fastest items to get because we were in a rush and my husband needs sugar (a quesadilla and enchiladas). We were informed that our order would probably take about 45 minutes to be prepared.

At this point, we had had enough. If we were just told that there was a possibility of being late for the show on our arrival, we’d have gone elsewhere. Or if we were told that our estimated wait time had little meaning because of their messed up seating priorities, we’d have gone elsewhere. We needed to get the management involved.

We very sternly explained our displeasure with the experience so far to the waitress, but made sure to say that nothing was directly her fault and were not angry with her. After a few minutes, a manager took over as our server.

To the manager’s credit, he got our food out in about 20 minutes. We scarfed down our food as fast as possible and ran for the show. We felt bad for the original server; she seemed shaken with our stern reaction to the restaurant’s treatment of us, so we gave her an extra tip. I was met with one of the coldest “thank yous” of my life and got a serious stink eye.

We will not...

We were happy to see Mezcal had tried to go full phoenix after the absolutely horrible condition they were in at the old Major Taylor Blvd location. They'd used to be our 'special' restaurant that we didn't frequent often, only on milestone occasions.

Tonight we ordered take out from their new location on East Central Street. My wife got the roasted corn salad with shrimp, my son, quesadilla with an add-on of chips, and myself two chicken tacos with an add-on of chips.

While my wife's salad seemed well portioned and palatable, we had some issues with the other two orders.

I'll be fair and say, my son said the quality of the chicken seemed better than what he was served last time we went. But his $1.50 extra chips were missing from the order.

My tacos were gorgeous to look at and the flavor profile was nice, but, despite getting the bag as it was going to the host stand, and only a 10 minute ride home, the second taco ate through the single corn tortilla before I could eat it, falling apart when I tried to pick it up. Also, my $1.50 extra chips were missing.

Both of our meals were lukewarm where other restaurants seem to be able to pull off a much higher temperature.

In regard to taste, what we got was not bad. Not great, but not bad.

Do I feel it was a good value for the price? Absolutely not, and the missing items were a nuisance, especially since I'd gotten chips rather than a third taco. It was a silver lining I suppose, as I wouldn't have been able to pick up the third taco anyway.

We didn't call the restaurant, they're just far enough away that going back over for $3.00 worth of chips wasn't warranted (plus the food we had would have been even colder), nor was it worth arguing over a refund.

So will we go back? Probably not. As it is, I wound up going out to Qdoba to get something extra for me and my son. Given we can get better food for the similar pricing, with better accuracy from other independent places around Worcester, they're unlikely to get my business again.

For what it's worth, the folks actually eating at the restaurant seemed happy enough, so maybe Mezcal needs to simply cut out take-out for the sake of their reputation and focus on the...

Food: we tried everything that was on the menu for restaurant week. To start off we had salsa and chips which the salsa had a bit of spicy which I’m not a huge fan of and was rather watery so I didn’t really love it as much. The champechana is similar to perhaps ceviche, but it’s cooked shrimp infused with tomato juice but it also wasn’t my favorite. It had a lot going on for it to be very watery and bland. The chorizo was better with the cilantro avocado cream with the cheese and meat salted enough. Our entrées were delicious. The chicken was flavored super well with the sauce. The short ribs was also delicious and tender, although I didn’t really love the excessive sauce over enchiladas. The desserts were super sweet and actually very overwhelming as there is a lot going on like there’s five different things that are incorporated and it probably would’ve been better if they just simplified it. For example, the fried ice cream had chocolate and strawberry syrup with coconut flakes, mini chocolate sprinkles and whipped cream, which was just packed with straight up sugar.

Service: our server was very nice and she checked up on us a couple times to see how everything was going.

Ambiance: they just recently moved their building from E. Central St. to where the 99 restaurant used to be. It looks really beautiful and modern inside. I love the green that catches the theme of the restaurant and the display of tequila when you first walk inside, it looks like they took a lot into renovating the place.

Location accommodation: is connected to a Starbucks and a hotel but they have plenty of parking and it can be a little bit confusing to get in as there’s two ways to get into the restaurant and one way is more like the backside where Starbucks is seen as well. The other side is on the way towards the highway, but not great ways of directing where the...