I have read the other reviews on here regarding Charlie's, and for all those that claim it is the best Mexican food in the Lower Mainland I really have to wonder if they've ever had Mexican food before (despite their claims to the contrary). I'm not even sure if I'd say it was the best Mexican food in Port Moody, and considering it's the ONLY Mexican food in Port Moody that's not saying much for the place!

I moved to Port Moody 9 months ago as of a few days ago I tried Charlie's for the second time. The first time I was there (about 6 months ago) the service was slow (even though we were the only patrons in the restaurant), the chips we got were old tasting and were overcooked (even bordering on burned), the salsa was tasteless, the restaurant decor (although eclectic and could be cute and homey if updated slightly) is in desperate need of a deep cleaning and could be described as almost dingy, and over all the whole experience was a disappointment.

Despite all of this, I was craving Mexican and didn't feel like driving to Poncho's (on Denman Street where the food and service is truly some of the best in the Lower Mainland) so myself and a friend decided to give Charlie's a second chance. Like a bad case of indigestion, my same complaints regurgitated themselves to come back and haunt me, making the second experience worse than the first.

This time when we arrived the place had quite a few people, but other than that everything was the same. Same old-tasting almost burned chips (which, I forgot to mention were cold -- whereas in most Mexican restaurants worth their weight in re-fried beans would serve them warmed). Same bland salsa. Same dirty atmosphere. Same horrible service (it took 20 minutes just flag down a waitress to bring me water and menu's, another 15 minutes to get a watered-down margarita, another 20 to be able to order food, and then another HOUR to actually get the food). When the food did arrive, it was cold (you'd think after an hour waiting for it that it would at least be warm, but you'd think wrong. By the time we actually got the food, we were so disgusted with the experience that we had lost our appetites, which was fine actually because the few bites we did take of the food proved to strengthen my first impressions that while the food it ok it's definitely not good. As well, considering it took the length of time it took to get the food you'd also think that they would let you sit for a spell and actually try to eat it -- but not here. Within 10 minutes our waitress (miracle upon miracles considering we barely saw here for the first 2 painful hours of waiting) was back at the table-side asking if we'd finished and if she could pack anything up. We then had (I'm assuming Charlie) come by and ask the same thing less than 10 minutes after that. We tripped over ourselves trying to accept his gracious offer of release from the culinary nightmare we found ourselves in, paid the over-priced cheque, and ran for our lives --- never to return.

If you have 4 hours to kill, money to waste, want ok Mexican fare and don't want to make the drive into Vancouver, then Charlie's is the place to go. Other than that do yourself a favour and skip it.