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As a lover of Mexican food, I thought I'd check this place out in Gastown, even though I had read the two terrible reviews on here. The place looks decent enough having a semi authentic feel to it. But the minute we met our waiter, it was all downhill. He stuffed us in a corner very quickly, left us alone for close to ten minutes. He had a small band aid hanging off his lip which I thought was strange and kinda gross.The kicker to this whole thing was when he came to finally take our drink order, he was TEXTING while doing it. I couldn't believe it. Then after receiving our drinks about 15 minutes later my girlfriend got up to try and get us to take our order because he dashed away very quickly after dropping our drinks off. He proceeded to basically SNAP at her and raise his voice saying he couldn't make the food come any faster. It was shocking. Later when we received our food, which wasn't cheap mind you, the spiral dropped even further. Terribly small portions. Bland, flavorless. The rice was boring, the beans, tiny and tasteless. My friend had the cheese quesadillas and I couldn't help laughing at his '"where's the cheese" comment. Not impressed to say the least. I will never be returning back to this place.
Yikes. This place goes to show that location alone can keep a restaurant open if tourists are involved. Food was atrocious. Rice that tasted like instant stuff, a sad little smear of refried beans that would have been better straight out of a can. Portion was tiny and terribly over priced for this impressively bad food and un-ignorably anemic portions. The waiter had the gall to write "Thanks!" cheerfully at the bottom of the bill and then an unmistakeable arrow pointing to the bottom line of text on the receipt that says "Gratuity: 15%" and directs you to pay your server..." Just plain bad all around.
Chose Vallarta Grill on a Saturday night because 4th Avenue was closed around Las Margaritas. The waiter was very nice, friendly, and fairly efficient, and one person in our group of 7 who had to eat quickly was able to order and get his food in record time. Drinks were kept topped-up or re-ordered as needed.
The food itself was quite bland for the most part. The people who ordered enchiladas said they were decent, and the fajitas were fine - hard to make a mistake with those! The quesadillas were small and had only cheese and chicken... not even served with salsa, sour cream, or guacamole on the side. The 3 other dishes were unimpressive.
It's unfortunate because the decor of the place is very Mexican and enjoyable and the staff is nice. I walk by the restaurant every day and it's never very busy at all, maybe 1/3 full when they have live music. La Casita, at the other end of the block, is much busier, although I've tried there as well and I can't say the food was any better. Service at La Casita was definitely worse. Perhaps if you make careful food choices, Vallarta Grill can be a pleasant dining experience.
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