Tortilla Jo's is open, somewhat

[JenGood008]

OK, I went there with the family after we went to the TOT preview on Saturday evening, and I can't say that I would recommend it to all of you discriminating Padders ;) .

When we arrived, there was a not-too-long line coming out of the door and we realized that they were just seating people as they got to the front. We ended up waiting about half an hour in this very short line and we thought that it was kind of odd that they were telling people that wanted to know how long they would be waiting in the line (which had tripled by this time...) that it would only be about 20 minuted. hmmmm...

So we finally get seated and the service was very nice. The staff didn't seem to be all that comfortable yet, but that's totally to be expected when a place is so new :). So we order (soft)drinks and a nacho appetizer and the first thing I noticed is how tiny the drink glasses are. VERY tiny glasses that are very dark blue glass, which makes it impossible to tell exactly how much liquid is left in the tiny cup ( I PROMISE I'm not all that picky. REALLY! ;))

The nachos (with chicken) were very good. I would recommend them, however everything just went downhill from there. The dinner salad was drenched in a very STRONG salty peppery limey dressing that we could hardly eat, and then the entrees were covered mostly in very spicy (not the yummy kind of spicy, in my opinion) red sauce. The combo items didn't seem like very large servings for the price, but I thought that the crispy taco was yummy. Oh yeah, and we had to ask for drink refills three times before we got them. heehee :rolleyes:

These people were trying very hard, and there were abviously a lot of kinks to be worked out with it being a new restaurant, but I don't think I will be going there (at leats not to the downstairs part) again...I hope all of you have better experiences than I did :D .

[lilblckrncloud]

I would highly recommend waiting at least a few more weeks to try out the sit-down portion of this restaurant. Based on my experience tonight, they really have a LOT of kinks to work out. :(

We met some friends who had already gotten a table about 10 minutes earlier. From the moment we sat down, I realized we were in for an evening of chaos. A busboy asked my friend and I if we wanted drinks. Being at the other end of the table, I didn't realize that he hadn't asked our other friend if she needed one, too. I was finally able to get someone's attention and let him know that not only did someone at the table still need a drink, but most everyone else was ready for refills. Several times throughout our (interminably long) meal this happened - someone would come and fill two drinks and not the rest of the completely empty glasses, and then someone else would come by and fill the rest. It was very odd.

On to the meal. First off, BEWARE of the "Would you like to add soup or a salad?" shtick, because the nasty little dinner salad is almost $6 and is HORRIBLE. It is drowning in that extremely strong dressing described above (there is no dressing option), and sprinkled with VERY stale tortilla strips. For the main course, I had a picadillo burrito which was tasty, but I asked for no onions and it was LOADED with them. This was no big deal because this happens to me most everywhere I go, and small potatoes (no pun intended) compared to the rest of the problems we had.

The friend sitting next to me ordered a #1 combo, taco and enchilada. She asked for a cheese enchilada, but the waitress said that wasn't possible - only beef or chicken. This was no problem, so she ordered the chicken enchilada and beef taco. The person next to her ordered the same combo, but both items with chicken. When the food arrived, the server gave one person a plate and then realized it had both chicken items, so they passed it to the correct person. He then handed the other person a tamale and enchilada. She said, "This isn't mine" but he just walked away and continued handing out food. He finished and she said, "Excuse me, this isn't mine." He asked, "What's wrong with it?" She explained that she ordered a number one and he asked, "Are you sure?" Yes, very sure. Meanwhile, we noticed that someone at the other end of the table had been given NO food at all. At first we thought maybe the mistake plate was hers, but it wasn't hers either. The server left with the mistake plate, and we never saw him again. Soon I noticed the aforementioned onion overload, and another friend was totally grossed out by her "crispy shrimp burrito" which contained a grand total of THREE shrimps that were not crispy at all.

About 10 minutes later, the one woman's food still had not arrived, and the replacement plate for the other hadn't arrived either. The rest of us kind of picked at our food while we waited, and several minutes later a manager came up. She asked, "Did you ask to see a manager?" My friend said not yet, but she may want to stick around because she was about to start complaining soon. The manager asked what was wrong, so she explained all of the various problems. All the manager kept saying was, "Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, we are still learning the menu which is no excuse but we are trying really hard..." and would BARELY listen to what my friend was even saying. It was so obnoxious. She also said, rather accusatorially, "Well, you DID return your food, didn't you?" to which my friend replied, "No, I really didn't since they gave me the WRONG food to begin with!" Then the manager turned to me, who had been sitting there silently the entire time and said, "What about yours? Is something wrong with YOURS?" I felt like I was in trouble or something, when I hadn't said a word!! I replied that it was delicious, despite the fact that it had onions when I had asked for none. SHE ROLLED HER EYES AT ME!!! Insanity.

She left and returned yet AGAIN with another guy (no idea who he was, since he had NEVER come to the table before that) and he said that my friend had "changed" her order so that was why it was taking so long to bring her a new plate! Well, since the man wasn't even THERE when she ordered or when she refused the food, I am not quite sure what he was being so defensive about. We then pointed out that the other person had still not even received her food, and they were all indignant, acting as though they didn't believe us!! It was getting to be comical. I seriously thought we were on a hidden camera show. The manager left and returned and BEGGED the shrimp burrito friend to let her bring her a new one, but she just wasn't interested, so she kept saying no until the manager finally said she would take it off the bill.

Finally they brought the correct plate to the one person and the original meal to the other. They both said their meals were good, but by that time they felt all rushed because the other four of us were pretty much finished. The manager returned and asked if we were finally set, and we all just kind of mumbled yes. They made us feel like we were trouble makers or something!

They removed the shrimp burrito from the tab and put a note that said "DIDN'T LIKE" there, but that was it. Both of the other long delayed meals remained. We just wanted to get out of there, so we paid the bill and one of the people in our party asked if he could get validated. Too bad - they don't have a validating machine yet. "If you hurry and leave within a half hour, you won't have to pay because you are still under the 3 hour limit!" the man said. Yea, that's the way to get people to stay and shop at DTD. *sigh* It was really just disastrous from beginning to end.

The weirdest part was that the entire staff behaved as though they had never even BEEN to a restaurant, let alone worked in one. They were completely befuddled any time we asked for even the simplest of things, like when we asked for more chips and the guy first stared at us for a while, and then returned with one basket... after he had removed three empty ones from the table. They just kept staring at us like we had extra limbs growing out of our heads every time we spoke. It was bizarre. We had no less than 10 different people attend to us during the course of the meal, and none of them seemed to have a clue what was going on. The original waitress who took our orders didn't show her face again till the very end when she removed our plates, and even that was done strangely. She reached in front of my friend, placed her silverware on her plate, picked it up and THEN asked, "Are you finished?" What??? SO STRANGE.

Also, on another note, the bathroom was a mess. No paper towels, overflowing trash cans, water splashed all over the sink. It was just yucky.

The bottom line is that I kept defending the place to our group for the first half hour or so, saying, "It just opened... they are still learning" but when the servers and managers started treating us with open hostility I was done. You can screw up a ton but if you treat me nicely I am almost always willing to forgive it. On the flip side, if you are perfect and treat me rudely I will remember the attitude above all. So, when you provide horrendous service coupled with even worse attitudes, you have lost me completely.

I will probably try the walk-up some time in the future, but the sit down part left a very bad (onion tainted) taste in my mouth! :mad:

[cstephens]

Ordinarily, I would wait at least six months following the opening of a new restaurant to try it out, understanding the problems and adjustments that are inherent with such an endeavour. However, since we'd been waiting for more than a year for the opening of Tortilla Jo's, we took the first opportunity available to try out the restaurant, two days after their official opening.

The dining room opened at 5:30, and we arrived at about 6:15 since we had been told that the restaurant does not accept reservations. I was a bit surprised that the waiting method is just to stand in the line outside the restaurant. Most of the other nearby restaurants ask that you leave a name, and then there's some sort of bar or waiting area nearby, so it was a bit odd to just be standing outside the restaurant. We were told that it would be about a 35 minute wait, and that was about how long it took before we were seated. When we got to the front of the line, we were asked to step inside to wait while our table was set up, and I noticed that they have a little gift shop set up. I also was a bit surprised at that, especially with the t-shirts available for sale bearing the Tortilla Jo's name and logo. I've not seen anything like this in any of the other Patina Group restaurants I've been to. The hostess took our party of 5 adults and 1 child to a booth that would have been cramped if we'd just been 5 adults. We told the hostess that we weren't going to fit at that table, so after a minute, they took us back up to the front and we waited a few minutes more as they put two square tables together for us, which worked out much better. Shortly thereafter, chips and salsa were brought to the table. The chips were freshly made and still warm, and the salsa was quite tasty. As we perused the menu, our server came around to take our drink orders. While we were waiting, we looked around at the new restaurant. I'd been in the facility once before when it was run by Y Arriba Y Arriba, and I definitely like the look of the place now much better. It was pretty dark then, whereas the space looks much more open now. It was also nice to see a few familiar faces on the staff, so during the course of the meal, we chatted with a few people whom we had met from our many visits to Catal Restaurant, which along with Naples/Napolini is also run by the Patina Group.

My husband loves ceviche, so he had ordered the sea bass ceviche as a starter. I tried some and found that I liked it very much. The combining taste of mango and green olives was a pleasant if unexpected surprise.

As we were waiting for our entrees to arrive, we noticed a mariachi band consisting of three musicians making their way around the restaurant. They sounded very good, but we laughed when we noticed that one of the songs they were playing was "It's A Small World".

It did take a while for our entrees to arrive, but when they did, they arrived a bit sporadically. Three of the people had ordered combination plates, but since the runners weren't familiar with what was exactly in which combination plate, there was a bit of confusion, which resulted in my husband not getting his order and having to wait a while for them to re-make it. Another person had ordered the tacos but had discovered that the tortillas were a bit cold, and they had neglected to bring the salsa for the tacos. The reaction from our group to the food was mixed. A couple of the people enjoyed their combinations, though they did observe that while the sauces on the items were very tasty, they were also fairly spicy, which wasn't a problem for them since they like spicy food. For another member of our group, though, that did serve to be a problem. She had asked whether the sauce was spicy and when told that it was a bit spicy, she had asked for it on the side, but when it arrived, they had neglected to actually put the sauce on the side. I expect she hesitated to send the dish back to the kitchen as it had taken a while for us to receive our entrees in the first place. She also commented that she thought the rice was a bit too dry and that the cheese enchilada she had ordered contained very little cheese. I apparently made the correct choice of the day, because my steak fajitas were very good. They were very good quality, generous slices of beef, and the marinade was delicious as well. A few of the people who tried a bite of my dinner expressed the same sentiment.

We noticed that there were many parties with children in the restaurant, and Tortilla Jo's seems to have more of a family atmosphere. While some of us appreciate the spicy sauce, having only spicy sauce would seem to be a bit limiting to the general clientele, some of whom wouldn't like very spicy food. We figured it would seem to make sense to have two or three different levels of spiciness in the sauces, which would be more of a hassle for the kitchen but which would seem to better serve the patrons.

The restaurant offers a children's menu (burrito, tacos, taquitos or quesadilla) that seems to be fairly reasonable on paper. No one at our table ordered off the children's menu, and we didn't see anyone else nearby order it, so we didn’t get a look at a children's meal.

For the adults, the restaurant offers an extensive selection of tequilas with which one can order margaritas, ranging from a regular margarita for $5.50 to a $304 margarita made with 1800 Coleccion. I opted for a frozen mango margarita which was delicious.

While our opinions of the food varied, we were pretty much all agreed on the service. Everyone we dealt with was very nice, but there is a lot of improvement that needs to be made. We understood to some extent as servers and runners are still getting used to being at a new restaurant, and we weren't in a terrible hurry, so it wasn't that much of a concern, but there was quite a bit of time between our drink orders being taken and our dinner orders being taken and our dinners actually arriving. That's going to be a concern as we figure most people will be stopping in for a meal and then wanting to go back into one of the parks, so a quicker turnover is what they'll be expecting.

The biggest problem we discovered is that our water glasses weren't being filled nearly often enough. With the chips and salsa and the spicy food, it's essential that water is kept refilled. The water glasses weren't that big, so that contributed to the problem as well. In other restaurants, it seems that it's usually the runners and bussers who refill the water, but in this case, our server was refilling the water. With her other duties as well, she wasn't available as often as necessary to do that. It would seem to make sense to have more runners and bussers available who can be more attentive to making sure that water glasses are kept full.

The prices in the restaurant aren't inexpensive, but I don't think the prices are unreasonable given the portion size of the entrees and location of the restaurant. Some of the appetizer prices are a bit higher than I would have expected in a restaurant like this though, with appetizer prices somewhat comparable to what one might find at Disney's Napa Rose, but with entree prices more comparable to those found at Catal.

It seems there should be a better method of waiting for a table than just standing in the line, but we weren't sure what that would be. There are usually musicians playing in that area, and coupled with being right next door to the House of Blues, I'm not sure people would be able to hear their names being called. They could go with the beeper/buzzer method, but I'm not sure how well that would work as I could see people just walking off with them if they changed their minds about eating there. The restaurant isn't necessarily designed to accommodate the most number of tables, probably because when it was constructed, it wasn't intended to be a regular restaurant. If the building were to have been built from scratch to accommodate Tortilla Jo's, I'm sure they would have asked for a different configuration, but they're making do with an existing structure in this case. The upstairs area of the restaurant is for private parties but can also be used for overflow, so perhaps once that's put to use, the waiting won't be as much of an issue.

We looked at the menu for the cantina, and we plan to try that sometime as well. The menu is similar to that of the dining room, with the soups, main course salads, combination plates and most of the main platter entrees excluded.

We confirmed that reservations are not being accepted directly by the restaurant, though we were told that reservations can be made through the Disney Dining line as well as through the Open Table reservation service (http://www.opentable.com). I checked with Disney Dining and was told that while they're not currently taking reservations for Tortilla Jo's, they expect to in the future. I also checked Open Table and while most of the other Patina Group restaurants are listed, Tortilla Jo's is not currently included in their restaurant list.

Tortilla Jo's offers a 20% discount in the dining room, the cantina and the taqueria to Disney Cast Members. At the moment, the discount is being offered every day, though it's expected that as the restaurant gets busier, the CM discount policy will be modified to exclude Fridays, Saturdays and possibly Sundays, mirroring the discount available at Catal and Naples.

Tortilla Jo's also offers discounts to annual passholders. In the dining room, for every two annual passholders who order an entree, they will receive a free appetizer. In the cantina, for every two annual passholders who order an entree, they will receive a free dessert. The taqueria does not currently offer an annual passholder discount.

While I enjoyed the food and enjoyed our dining experience even with all the mishaps, I don't expect we will be in the dining room very often until some of the bumps get smoothed out unless we know that we have time for a long dinner when no one is very hungry already when we sit down and we're prepared for things to not go entirely smoothly. I expect that we're more likely to find ourselves in the cantina (which didn't seem as crowded as the dining room) or getting something from the taqueria.

[cstephens]

The signage is up on the restaurant. Here's the main sign over the front door of the dining room area: http://www.colddeadfish.net/images/DLR/tjs-sign.jpg, and here's the sign in the cantina area: http://www.colddeadfish.net/images/DLR/tjs-sign-cantina.jpg.

Here are the posted hours:

hours of operation
Sun-Thu 11am - 10pm
Fri-Sat 11am - 11pm

Taqueria
Sun-Thu 11am - 11pm
Fri-Sat 11am - 1am

Cantina
daily 3pm - 1am

[CarlieB]

Hmmm, I hope they get that waiting in line thing sorted out. I don't think I'd be keen to just stand in a line for 30 minutes (or more) before being seated. They should definitely have a bar or proper waiting area/lounge you can wait in. I look forward to hearing more about this restaurant, and whether they iron out the small problems they seem to be having at the moment (I hope they do - I really want to try this place:) )

[cstephens]

Having had dinner in the dining room last week, I decided to try out the taqueria for lunch today. When I'd read the menu a couple of weeks ago, the mexicone had definitely caught my eye. It's basically a fried corn tortilla shaped like a waffle cone and filled with burrito fixings (beans, rice, onions, cilantro) and a choice of chicken, carne asada, ground beef and potato, carnitas (shredded pork) and just bean and cheese. I opted for the carne asada. The mexicone comes sitting on its side, and I was offered a side of salsa, which I accepted. It was very tasty and filling, definitely worth the $6.50 price, I thought. I really enjoyed the crunchiness of the shell, kinda reminding me of a tostada, but not nearly as messy. The only thing is that the cone is filled from bottom to top, so if you do eat it like an ice cream cone, you end up getting to the ingredients pretty much one by one. The top layer is the meat, onions and cilantro mix. Right under that are the beans and then at the base of the cone is the rice. To be able to eat the mexicone with the ingredients mixed like you'd get in a burrito, you'd have to break the cone open.

I absolutely loved the mexicone, and I'm definitely planning to try some of the other items as well. I can see that the taqueria is going to be somewhere I'm going to be wanting to go often. Fresh good food for a reasonable price without a long wait.

The only concern I could see was with regard to seating. There are a number of tables and chairs set up right outside the taqueria. On this 85 or so degree day in April, it was fairly warm out, especially with the sun beating down from the cloudless sky. There was one table in the shade underneath a part of the building. Some people were sitting there when I walked up and ordered, but by the time my food was ready, they were leaving, so I took their table. It was very pleasant sitting in the shaded area, but it would have been very uncomfortable to sit at any of the other tables which were baking in the hot sun. And, as I ate my meal, a number of other people came up and ordered, but none of them stayed with their food. I can imagine that during the very warm summer, it's going to be even more uncomfortable to try to sit at those tables in those chairs, and I think that could be a deterrent to some people. I think that having something like an awning or even just umbrellas over the tables and chairs would be much more likely to entice more customers.

A definite, definite recommend.

[Ghoulish Delight]

We ate at Tortiall Jo's last night with a relatively large group (11). there were definite service problems. It took about 4 requests to get everyone water, it took a few requests to get enough chips on the table, the bottom dropped off one of the hand made water glasses.

But this place isn't even oficially opened yet. It doesn't oficially open until May 5th. So I am not judging their quality of service at all because it's simply not fair. They obviously have a lot to work out, but that's why they are doing this soft openeing, to work it out. I'm going to reserve my judgement until after May 5th.

For now, if you're willing to deal with a few bumps in the road, the food is fantastic.

[Kevy Baby]

I was with GD in that group last night. In light of the soft opening they appear to be in right now, I will reserve judgement on the service.

I will however, comment on the atmosphere and theming in the dining room. Since GusGus and I had already eaten before joining the group, we were just along for the ride, which afforded us the luxury of noticing the details. All of the furnishings and serving items (except the silver - which is Oneida) came from Mexico. As GD mentioned, all of the glasses used are hand blown (I believe the bottom falling out of the one glass was a freak accident).

GusGus and I were very impressed with the simple and pleasant atmosphere in TJ's. We had the long table in the dining room and it was just the right size for our group of 11 (12 would have fit just as easily). With a group that size, it is sometimes difficult to talk from one end of the table to the other, but not at this one. Also, I loved the silver candelabras on the table. It would have been a crowning touch to have candles in them though.

With it's open ceiling design, the sound is not bounced around like in other places, so it didn't seem too loud. And while the lights were dimmed to create a more intimate atmosphere, it was definitely not dark. They got that just right.

The plates are marvelous. Definitely a taste of old Mexico with a simple blue pattern. I also liked that they used real stone for the guacamole dish, not the cheap plastic ones so often used today.

The enormous chandalier in the alcove was beautiful. But unfortunately, they left some of the sound and lighting equipment in the alcove from the Y'Arriba days and that distracted from the look.

While GusGus and I didn't order anything, we did get to sample a couple of items. DT's margarita was heavenly. The Mexican brownie (I think that is what it was called - I didn't hear for sure) was VERY tasty. And yeah, the chips and salsa were good.

So it loooks like they have two out of three down (food & atmosphere good, service needs work).

[Not Afraid]

Last night was my third time eating at TJ's - once in the taquera and twice in the restaurant.

Both times that we ate inside had some service issues. It was mostly with the bus boys or kitchen and not for the server itself. However, they are in a SOFT opening. Its there to work out the kinks. If you go there before May 5th, expect to be a guinea pig. However, this ginuea pig was feed quite well with delicious food. I'll keep going back just to eat and see the improvements. :)

[cemeinke]

We had the long table in the dining room and it was just the right size for our group of 11 (12 would have fit just as easily). With a group that size, it is sometimes difficult to talk from one end of the table to the other, but not at this one. I've already eaten here twice with large groups and I have to say I really like the seating options they have for 8-12 people. Most places can accomodate by pushing several tables together, which usually means you just end up interacting with your neighbor. Torttilla Jo's has a wonderful round table in its alcove that makes for intimate dinning with 8.

I've also found the food to be quite good and expect to be back again.

[Not Afraid]

Torttilla Jo's has a wonderful round table in its alcove that makes for intimate dinning with 8.

Then there's that table upstairs in it's own "room". I want to eat there!

[Grumpy4]

We ate there on Thursday night at the cantina. The menu was a little smaller than the sit down rest. The burritos were quite tasty. The margaritas were just OK, but they make them the traditional way so I'm not sure if I just wasn't used to them. We ordered a pitcher and got 3 glasses out of it-like 8 oz. glasses!! The whole pitcher was full of ice. After the pouring, the pitcher was about 1/2-2/3 ice left. Don't order the carnitas tacos. As the meat was good, that was all you got. No lettuce, no cheese, no onions, no nothing. Tasty, but empty. The carne asada burrito was very good. Of course I had to wait longer because they brought chicken first. Oh well. I wasn't complaining too much about the service because they are new and still getting the kinks out. My dad's restaurant was the same way. It just takes a while to get used to all the new stuff and get a rhythm going. I had a good time. The chips and salsa they have are quite tasty. Check it out, but try not to have high expectations.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Yeah, at $20, we figured the pitcher wasn't worth it. Looks like we were right. I though the house margaritas were fabulous. They use real lime juice, not margarita mix, and it tastes like it. Fresh and delicious, not over sweetened. Yummy yummy.

[HBTiggerFan]

I was also a member of that party of 11. I was a bit cranky so my perception may be slightly skewed...

I was the one who had the bottom of the glass fall out on me. I agree that it was probably a fluke, it was bizarre. After that happened they kind of looked at me like what did you do to the glass. They were quick about cleaning it up and bringing me a new glass of water.

We did have to ask a bunch of times to get enough water for our table both before and after the incident, and for refills.

The atmosphere was great, and the chips were awesome. The food however IMHO is a different story.

We had enough APs to get the "free appitizer with 2 entrees" deal. So we had 4 appitzers between us. We got the guac which was really limey (and I think Chipotles is better...). It was freshly made and wasn't bad. We also had the vegetarian quesedilla which was pretty good.

I didn't try the other things but for the prices they were charging the portions were insanely small (even by Disney standards).

I ordered the 2 crispy shirmp soft tacos. I was expecting lettuce, and other taco fillings, but what I got was some (what looked like onion, but it could have been chopped lettuce) and 3 or 4 ok size shrimp. The shrimp were pretty tasty, but the entree wasn't worth the $7.50 (I could have had better soft tacos at Whaoos, Baja Fresh or Chipotle...).

The food is quite spicey, I didn't think to ask if they could make it less so. I will eat there again (probably on Monday) and I think I want to try the outside part this time. I know that I will be eating there again, but I'm not sure I'd do so on my own.

The service wasn't great, however I do understand they are just soft opening and experiencing growing pains and everyone is still getting used to it. I will go there again after it opens.

[lilblckrncloud]

But this place isn't even oficially opened yet. It doesn't oficially open until May 5th. So I am not judging their quality of service at all because it's simply not fair. They obviously have a lot to work out, but that's why they are doing this soft openeing, to work it out.
I agree with you 100%. However, no matter how many kinks they need to work out, when they are flat out rude and hostile that speaks to a lot more than just them needing to learn the ropes. I would have been totally fine with the service I received if they had just been friendly when correcting the mistakes THEY made, rather than acting like everything was our fault. They seriously treated us like we were bothering them the whole time, and we were honestly not being demanding or anything. My group was INSANELY polite in light of the way it was treated. If they are having problems learning how to serve, I think they should be trying their best to engage the customers with a friendly, upbeat attitude. When even the MANAGERS were rude (managers that came to US and demanded to know if we had a problem, not the other way around), that doesn't bode well for the future. I sincerely hope that changes.

I am SO easy to please when it comes to people in the service industry because I worked retail for a long time and I know what unreasonable jerks people can be. If you smile whenever you come to the table and talk to me like you are happy I am there, that will go a really, really long way with me. I will spread positive reviews of the place and leave a generous tip. If you act like I am ruining your life by being there, however, and accuse my friends of making trouble when they don't, it makes me very hesitant to want to give you any more of my money. :(

[NirvanaMan]

Yeah, at $20, we figured the pitcher wasn't worth it. Looks like we were right. I though the house margaritas were fabulous. They use real lime juice, not margarita mix, and it tastes like it. Fresh and delicious, not over sweetened. Yummy yummy.
"we" ? Didn't you debate me on it for a while? :fez:

The service was pretty bad, but not a big deal as the joint is still new. The decor was awesome, as were the margaritas. I was not overly impressed with the food. Perhaps it was just the brown sauce that was over everything that I did not like. The apps were pretty good though. I would give the place another chance...

[Ghoulish Delight]

"we" ? Didn't you debate me on it for a while? :fez:
A while? Man, you must have been timing that "debate" on east coast time. I believe the entire conversation was:

NM: The pitcher's not worth it.
GD: Yes it is [looks at price of a single margarita]. Oh, no it isn't
END

http://members.aol.com/mreurodisney/images/rolleyes.gif

[NirvanaMan]

A while? Man, you must have been timing that "debate" on east coast time. I believe the entire conversation was:

NM: The pitcher's not worth it.
GD: Yes it is [looks at price of a single margarita]. Oh, no it isn't
END

http://members.aol.com/mreurodisney/images/rolleyes.gif

details...details...

I think there was an extra sentance or two in there.

[Not Afraid]

I ordered the 2 crispy shirmp soft tacos. I was expecting lettuce, and other taco fillings, but what I got was some (what looked like onion, but it could have been chopped lettuce) and 3 or 4 ok size shrimp. The shrimp were pretty tasty, but the entree wasn't worth the $7.50 (I could have had better soft tacos at Whaoos, Baja Fresh or Chipotle...).
Well, they're style is traditional Mexican, not the Americanized version that the others serve.

We have a good little traditional place near work. They do their tacos in the same way that TJs does - only TJs does them better.

[SusanP.]

We ordered a pitcher and got 3 glasses out of it-like 8 oz. glasses!! The whole pitcher was full of ice. After the pouring, the pitcher was about 1/2-2/3 ice left.
I was in on these margaritas, and again with the handblown glasses, my glass was sustantially smaller than the others! In retrospect, we probably should have complained that we only got 3 drinks out of the pitcher and had them adjust the bill to reflect that, but everyone was so busy running around, presumably "putting out fires" throughout the restaurant... The burritos looked awesome, though, and I'm sure we'll try them again to give the benefit of the doubt during the soft open.

[heidi and miriam]

I went for lunch at Tortilla Jo's this Friday and I can say with absolute conviction that the food and the service was terrible. I will never eat there again. :mad:

[Not Afraid]

I went for lunch at Tortilla Jo's this Friday and I can say with absolute conviction that the food and the service was terrible. I will never eat there again. :mad:
That's good for me! Fewer people to fight with to get a table.


I am sure their service will improve (they aren't really officially open yet). I already enjoy their food a great deal. Yummy.

[SoCalDisneyLover]

So does that mean since TOT is Also not "officially" open yet, the cm's working the attraction should be less courteous, and not as ship shape...since they're technically not "open" yet?

I agree that it's not necessarily fair to judge until they are "officially" open, but they are "Open." And it sounds like the service Especially, and perhaps the food, leaves a lot to be desired thus far. Perhaps they will get their act together....in the next 10 Days...but it sounds like they're banking on the fact that "if we open, they will come." That and also the fact they're in Downtown Disney, and are owned by a company with deep enough pockets, that they're going to be here awhile.

If there is not considerable improvement, and MUCH better reviews in the coming weeks...then this new restaurant is a further waste of valuable DD real estate. Other than Rainforest Cafe, and the ESPN Zone (both acquired tastes)...the only restaurant that seems to get consistently good reviews in DD, is Catal.

[Not Afraid]

So does that mean since TOT is Also not "officially" open yet, the cm's working the attraction should be less courteous, and not as ship shape...since they're technically not "open" yet?....................If there is not considerable improvement, and MUCH better reviews in the coming weeks...then this new restaurant is a further waste of valuable DD real estate. Other than Rainforest Cafe, and the ESPN Zone (both acquired tastes)...the only restaurant that seems to get consistently good reviews in DD, is Catal.
Actually, the CMs at TOT DO need some work. The CM previews were giving them a chance to get comfortable with their spiels in front of an audience while giving CMs a chance to experience the attraction and be able to speak knowledgably about TOT to guests. (It also provides them with a nice perk.) I think that's part of the purpose of the CM previews.

That's exactly the same situation with TJ's. They are learning how the restaurant works and becoming more experienced with the food and set-up. It takes time to perfect the skills needed to run a restaurant successfully. I think they are working out their kinks. I have seen improvement over the 3 different times I've eaten there.

I also am not going to dismiss TJ's as a waste of space at this point. I IS a Patina Group restaurant and they are known for their quility food and service. They KNOW Naples needs work and I'm sure they're on top of this place too.

No, I KNOW they are on top of these things.;)

[Ohana33]

i havent been but 3 CM friends of mine went on thursday. they said the food was overpriced for what it was and wasn't that awesome (they compared it to the el torito chain). it wasn't crowded when they went, but it was semi early (4pm) and on a week night. also, two out of the three ended up getting food poisoning from a beef dish that they shared... they called tj's and they said they hadn't received any other reports yet. so it's possible they picked it up somewhere earlier, but kinda doubtful... personally, i think i'll pass of this place. i love y arriba... dancing there on friday nights used to be the highlight of my weekend! they need to bring it back! :cool: