Grand Monarca — Restaurant in Yakima

I'm Mexican, and grew up eating authentic, home-made, old school Mexican food, no different than what abuelitas prepare in Mexico. With that being said, I know my Mexican food, and I can say with a high degree of confidence that the people that say that the food here is not good or just OK, have probably only been exposed to mostly Americanized Mexican food, which isn't really Mexican food.

With that out of the way, the food is excellent. Fresh, home-made tortillas, the salsa, the real one, is not only just the right amount of spicy, but pretty flavorful as well. The staff was quite friendly and their service was top-notch in my opinion. Their aguas frescas? Delicious. Even though the restaurant is small, it punches above its weight as far as how nice and clean it is inside. This has become for me one of the default place to eat lunch whenever I decide to go out: Reasonable prices, excellent food, excellent service, nice atmosphere, what more...

The food was delicious. I only docked a star because of the price of the tacos. I got the quesabirria con consome(don't think I spelled that right) they were greasy but crisp and cheesy and had a lot of flavor. They serve chips, salsa, and beans to every table. The salsa was very mild. Little to no spice, but they definitely made up for that with the salsa that they serve with the food. I regretted underestimating the spice! My partner got the sopes and seemed to really enjoy them. He did say they were around the same price as the street tacos but much more filling for the price. I also got a mojito i thoroughly enjoyed. It was just strong enough and...

Overall I had an ok experience. The only issue I had was the carnitas meat was served ice cold. Almost as if they forgot to warm it up. I was able to order something else, but I was a little surprised they served me cold food. The price of food here is pretty high! I would only expect the best quality of food to show up at my table. The lady serving us was super nice but was just kind of like .. oh it’s cold .. do you want something else? I expected more of an apology considering I was served cold pork. Pretty sure I will not...