ROBERTO'S Restaurant Review

Five of us ate at Roberto's restaurant on Friday night. They brought Carrot fritters and two kinds of fresh bread with 3 spreads to the table. Then we ordered drinks, one ordered a bottle of wine while I had my usual soft drink. They gave us plenty of time to chat before the dinner orders were taken. Everyone but myself had the Chile Poblano soup. I opted for the salad dressed with raspberry vinegarette. It is very good.

One person ordered the Sea Bass Elegante encrusted with pistachio nuts, one ordered another type of fish, one ordered the Jersey Shore Platter with Scallops, calamari and white fish, french fries and cole slaw. I ordered the Pork Loin with apple confit over mashed potatoes with glazed carrots for a veggie. One ordered the Lamb Loin with gravy over mashed potatoes with carrots. The person who ordered the Lamb said it was excellent. He eats out daily, orders Lamb a lot and knows his food. My Pork Loin dinner was excellent and very tender. Everyone liked their meals.

We highly recommend Roberto's restaurant.

Food quality and quantity: Excellent
Service: Excellent
Prices: Average for Ajijic
Ambiance: Very nice
Cleanliness: Very good

Roberto's
766 1616

4 of us went there a month ago. We ordered our lunch which came with salads. First to come out was our meal, we asked about our salads and they came out after we finished the meal. We asked a number of times for more drinks and water and they never came.

Not happy with this place anymore.

Hensley wrote:4 of us went there a month ago. We ordered our lunch which came with salads. First to come out was our meal, we asked about our salads and they came out after we finished the meal.

Perhaps Roberto´s is serving continental style. In France, the salad is served after the main course.

We have always found Roberto's to be a bit mediocre with occasional but rare brilliance. We do go back as we live nearby and at times have good meals there.

I've been there a couple of times in the last 2 weeks. Food was good, service good & I was satisfied. I'm not the type who requires platters of food by any stretch but I will say I always find their portions small.

Hensley wrote:4 of us went there a month ago. We ordered our lunch which came with salads. First to come out was our meal, we asked about our salads and they came out after we finished the meal. We asked a number of times for more drinks and water and they never came.

Not happy with this place anymore.

hensley - One bad experience or one bad waiter and you trash the place? Ask yourself this, why is Roberto's one of the 3 most popular restaurants in Ajijic with a parking lot full of cars ALL the time.

Did you complain to Roberto? If not shame on you.

CarryBean - The lunch portions tend to be small. The Dinner portions are not.

Ahhh, thanks John. I'm mostly there at lunch.

hensley[/b] - One bad experience or one bad waiter and you trash the place? Ask yourself this, why is Roberto's one of the 3 most popular restaurants in Ajijic with a parking lot full of cars ALL the time.

Did you complain to Roberto? If not shame on you.

Yes I did complain to Roberto and he ignored me and didn't do anything, he was sitting at a table with other people and I politely pulled him away and he didn't even respond to me. Don't need it. There are plenty of places to go.

WOW!!! I am surprised. Not a good way to run a restaurant. Maybe he's just getting too old for the business, but that's no excuse. Sorry to hear of your bad experience. If that happened to me, I wouldn't return either. Too many other restauranteurs who really care.

johninajijic wrote:WOW!!! I am surprised. Not a good way to run a restaurant. Maybe he's just getting too old for the business, but that's no excuse. Sorry to hear of your bad experience. If that happened to me, I wouldn't return either. Too many other restauranteurs who really care.

That is so unlike the Roberto we've dealt with that frankly, I think there is much more to the story. Unfortunately, we don't have a videotape of the incident, so I'm just going by the many positive experiences we've had there.

If there has been a problem, he deals with it promptly. For example: one time, the cook had put too much salt in the poblano soup. We mentioned it and he went dashing to the kitchen to correct the problem. He does care, shows it and that is the reason he has so many repeat customers.

My idea of a restaurant that shows the kind of indifference that sticks in the customers' craw was the time a group of eight of us went over to Number Four and ordered drinks and anticipated dining there afterwards. Without going into details, the only one who got what was ordered was the one who ordered a beer. Everyone else was wondering if the bartender was on some wacky tabaccy. We complained, but the end result was being charged full price whether we drank up or not. No apologies, no nada. We walked out and dined elsewhere.

Roberto too old?

kipissippi wrote:Roberto too old?

Well, I thought it best not to go there...........but ROFL

Typical of how things are different from visit to visit: I ate at #4 Sunday & was completely bowled over with the food (braised short rib that was perfection) and the service which was world class. Needs anticipated, friendly without the waiter suddenly becoming my best friend, "Hi, my name is Jason, love your hairdo blah-blah-blah" and interrupting conversation every 5 minutes or asking how my food was as soon as I have a mouthful.

Carry Bean wrote:Typical of how things are different from visit to visit: I ate at #4 Sunday & was completely bowled over with the food (braised short rib that was perfection) and the service which was world class. Needs anticipated, friendly without the waiter suddenly becoming my best friend, "Hi, my name is Jason, love your hairdo blah-blah-blah" and interrupting conversation every 5 minutes or asking how my food was as soon as I have a mouthful.

That's totally different from mine and others experiences there. I've heard it had gotten worse since their 2 chefs left. I couldn't imagine that since we've never had a good meal there even at those Toronto/New York prices.

Much better food, service and realistic prices at Hole in One, Laurent and Ninette. Those are THE 3 top restaurants at Lakeside.

Well, John I wasn't lying. Didn't even look at the prices since I was the guest of the person I was with.

Most of us are living in a world of lowered dining expectations in Lakeside.

I've had bad experiences at practically ALL of the local eateries. My ratings are "average experience". When the scale tilts too far in the wrong direction, I don't return. I'm just glad we have a few alternatives to taco stands and burger bars.

THE best food I've had in this area has come out of my and my friends' home kitchens.

gringal wrote:Most of us are living in a world of lowered dining expectations in Lakeside.

I've had bad experiences at practically ALL of the local eateries. My ratings are "average experience". When the scale tilts too far in the wrong direction, I don't return. I'm just glad we have a few alternatives to taco stands and burger bars.

THE best food I've had in this area has come out of my and my friends' home kitchens.

When we have dinner guests about twice a month, they tell us the best restaurant in Ajijic is at our house.

Bob has always said that the best cafe in town is in one's own kitchen.
You can have what you want, prepared the way you want it.

Restaurants are where one goes to feel special... to have good food and great service... and no mess to clean up.

Personally, I would rather have mediocre food and great service than great food served by people who couldn't care less. And I especially don't like that attitude when it's attached to a steep price. Lizzy

One of life's little ironies is a poorly paid waiter (who's REALLY an actor, artist, author, etc.) trying to out-snob the paying customers, many of whom could afford to have him offed by a really good hit man.
And would occasionally like to.

You know we don't eat out much, but when we do it would be nice to get good service, and good food, we went there because we heard David worked there, but it was his day off.
I am from the food business and I try my hardest to not be too picky, but bad service is bad service and then when the owner doesn't care either, oh well I guess I don't either about the place.
In my businesses the customer was always right and the answer is yes what is the question.
There was nothing more that happened, plain and simple. Salads came after the meal and we couldn't get anymore drinks, what is so hard to understand about that.

It's not hard to understand that you had a bad experience and never want to go back.
Got that.
My point is that I have had a multitude of good experiences there, will go back, and continue to give positive reviews. In fact, I just had lunch there today and had excellent service and good food.

Different experiences, different opinions. How about letting it go at that?

I don't doubt you at all, Hensley. It seems to be the way it is around here. One person has good experiences always & sometimes the ball is dropped. Too bad you hit it on the ball dropping day.