Worst restaurant experience in villages
 

Tonight my husband and I ate in Spanish Springs at Ay!Jalisco we have never eaten there before. After being seated and given the menu I ordered California grilled chickent buritos and my husband order a combination dish. The waiter brought over the basket of chips and sauce. We waited about 20 minutes. Never did the waiter ever come back to see if we needed additional chips, water or to apologize for the long wait. Finally the food came. You can tell the food was sitting under the hot lights because the dish was hot but the food wasn't. Again no apologizes. We were given two napkins only. Couldn't find our waiter anywhere. Finally found another waitress asked for additional sour cream and napkins. She returned with the sour cream and 2 more napkins ( as if there was a napkin shortage). Half way into the meal I took a bite into my second burito and realized I bite into a very HOT pepper, I removed it from my mouth but it was too late. My tongue and the back of my throat was burning so badly that I started to get very nervous, as I never experienced any thing like this and I didn't know what to do. I was drinking as much water as I could but nothing was really helping I just had to wait it out. So nervous to continue with the meal, because I didn't trust that there was more strong spices in the food. At this point my lips were swollen. When I composed myself I starting looking for my waiter who was no where to be found. I went over to the woman maitre de and asked for the owner of the restaurant. After another wait of 10 minutes she came over without the owner and asked what was wrong. I showed her the hot pepper and told her what happened to me. She got very defensive and said that he happens sometimes. She didn't apologize. I told her that the meal isn't advertized as a spicy dish or I would have not ordered it as I am sensitive to spices. I told her my mouth feels like its on fire and how upset and I am that I could not eat any of the remaining food and neither would by husband and would like our check. She took our food away and never offered to give us a different dish, she just said nothing. I don't think she is the owner or manager. I actually think that there is no supervision in this restaurant. She returned with the bill. The bill showed a deduction of only 1/2 the cost of the burrito dish and in addition charged us $1.49 for the extra sour cream. My husband and I just wanted to get out of there. I am still so angry of how we were treated. I have never had such an awful experience in a restaurant anywhere before. I am posting this because this is a dangerous situation. Luckily I was just uncomfortable and didn't become ill or needing emergency assistance from this instance. No one should have this horrific experience !! Because of the service we had decided not to eat here again but what happened afterwards is just unbelievable.

This is not good. So sorry this happened to you. I guess if you spoke to the owner and they don't care then we're all out of luck.

Next time you ever eat anything hot, do NOT drink water. It makes it worse. Ice cream will help.

So sorry that you had a bad experience there.

We had dinner there in Feb and really liked the restaurant! We felt the service was attentive and because we do not like to be rushed through dinner, we often worry about the entree being brought out too soon. We like to enjoy our meal leisurely. We felt that the food flavors and quality and service were excellent and we were pleased to put "Ay! Jalisco" on our list of places to which we are looking forward to returning.

Every restaurant has a bad night or a bad dish on occasion. I would suggest you try them again. We really did have a very pleasant meal.

I'm not going to defend them as 'wasn't there' !

But..

Since we live north of 466 we eat there quite a bit. Probably monthly since they opened. Can't say we ever had a bad meal. Service at times is a little slow but to me it looks like some of the help maybe didn't show up when that happens.

And as for 'spicy' in the mouth.... eat plain chips. I guess it absorbs the hot oils, water just make it worse usually.

Being retired we try to avoid eating out on Saturday nights.... the waits are long and the service is often poor. It happens often. Besides every night is a Saturday night.

Bread and milk will take most of the heat away...The manager should have offered this to you. Serving this type of food they certainly know what would help..

Actually, bread, rice or any kind of starchy food like that are best. Water just spreads the capsaicin oil around your mouth more.

I think the restaurants around here are simply inundated with people. Service will suffer.

just a thought why would you go to a Mexican restaurant if you have issues with spicy foods. We eat there often and enjoy the wait staff it gives you time in between entrees and appetizers. Might want to consider a restaurant that serves food that you can make sure there's no added spices.

Welcome to restaurants in The Villages. Captive audience they don't need to be nice.

have eaten there several times and have consistently had good service and good quality food. as far as spicy peppers in mexican dishes, that is what may be lurking there; it is a fact of life when eating mexican food (not Taco Bell of course). i do not know if you did or did not speak to a manager, but no names were mentioned which indicates to me that this is not a serious complaint, otherwise you would have more facts to back you up. they should have offered a free dessert or something like that;

My husband and I probably go there about once a month and have always had very good service and have never had an issue with the food. With that being said, we usually go for a late lunch or early dinner...and totally avoid the crowds.

do you carry an epi pen for such reactions? i don't think i would eat in a resturant that uses spices that could cause such a reaction

I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what happens afterward?

Just a teaspoon of sugar makes the burning go down:)

Me too. What happened afterwards?
Montezumas revenge?

Sorry you had a bad experience. We eat there once a week & love it. Service sometimes is marginal. I agree with the napkin situation, always have to ask for more. We order side order chicken chimi which is quite affordable.

We don't know if my wife got it there, but after eating there she got the " revenge " and it lasted for 6 days. After extensive blood and stool testing the doc says it was absolutely food poisoning but again we cannot prove it came from there. She had no symptoms till the next day. She has an iron stomach after living in Central America and Mexico for several years so the taste, spice, and heat were not a problem for her. We will never return there out of fear.

who sticks a large pepper not cut up in a burrito

Unless a person has proof of an issue (especially food poisioning), that person should not make any connection what so ever to a restaurant. That business could be totally innocent and suffer reputation damage. This particular restaurant has been unintentionally connected to food poisioning. The PO confirms this with the statement "we will never return there out of fear".

It's probably not good to make this post referring to this restaurant if you don't know it was them. Not fair to give them a bad rap.
It could have been from something else that was eaten that day or the next.

Hi,

First I wanted to say to those who posted that "I shouldn't eat in a Mexican Restaurant if I am are sensitive to hot spicy foods". The burito was orderd as such: chicken, cheese and rice only ( no beans ). There was a hot pepper but into the second burito by "mistake"(this is what they told me). My complaint is that is dangerous to serve something this hot "by mistake" when someone isn't expecting it or could be even allergic. Unfortunately the swollen tongue and lips subsided within two hours and my throat continued to burn for a few hours more but I was fine. I should have been given bread or milk by the restaurant which would have helped but they didn't even offer that. They didnt even apologize ! I don't care about the compensation it is all about how they treated me after the complaint and no management available on site. I have eaten mexican food many time before and never had an issue. There are many other restaurants here that would act more decently regarding this circumstance.

We eat there often, and although my wife says she can't do spicy foods, she has never complained about anything being too spicy. As a fan of spicy foods, I have found what is advertised to be spicy is what I call TV spicy. Give me the hot sauce. I recommend Ay Jalisco...they have one of the best vegetarian menu offerings in TV.

Sorry for the bad experience but any business can have a bad day. We eat there fairly often but definitely avoid the busier times of day. Food has always been very good and service while not always fast has been attentive. I usually will give a place a second chance before condemning them.

Why would you eat at a Mexican restaurant if you are sensitive to "spicy"?

Topic police
 

Back to the subject of this thread, the worst experience I had in a restaurant in the Villages was at the now closed Havana when I found a medium sized (1/4") red bug crawling in my salad and the manager/owner said it was because they get fresh lettuce every day. As if that is a good reason??? I am looking forward to Hemingway's.

Could have been worse. Better than finding a half-eaten red bug in your salad.

Havana

Pork Biscuit gravy on tilapia when the menu said mango chutney. Reason, they ran out of the mango chutney (first ever visit). Never asked me if I wanted to substitute.

Caprese Salad, arrived with moldy rotten basil. (second and last visit until recently)

Dinner with the singing wait staff was edible!

Yes nobody goes there anymore it is too crowded.

It will thin out soon..but do you really eat out more than few time a month..than a small wait for us is not a big deal

Tax day is coming and soon the snowbirds will return to their accountants

My contribution;


Ordered a tuna melt and it was not hot. Asked to have it warmed up and the cook said that you should not heat mayonnaise because of salmonella.

Thank you for the input. I hate spicy food.