I suspect Fred's is owned by the same company as Harry's and Puerto Madero. They are all right next to each other, with similar architecture and similar presentation, which means you have five people assigned to your table whose job it is to get you to order lots of mediocre food, speed you up and push you out the door if you don't break a certain tab - $150 US maybe?
First off, they wheel out the pushcart of different seafood on ice with a sales spiel on each one. They do this at all the restaurants listed above. Sheesh.
We ordered drinks and an appetizer to start - 5 giant clams. They brought out the free appetizer (which is really bad) - a plate of fried taco shells essentially, some topped with cayenne, and a giant carousel of hot sauces, plus 2 small plates and 3 more side dishes of sauce for each of us (total 6). With the clams came more plates and more side dishes.
Within 30 seconds of dropping off the clams, the head waiter comes by to ask how it is. Another 30 seconds 4 waiters start clearing all the items related to the free appetizer. Another 30 seconds later, while we are each chewing on our first clams, they start taking away the empty shells, and try to take away all the spices. My partner firmly but politely told them he was eating and to wait, so, I kid you not, two of the busboys hid behind a nearby column and peeped their heads out every 15 seconds to see if it was safe. Finally, as my partner lifts the 5th clam but before he has had a chance to add any sauce to it, 4 waiters come over, clear everything and then another group brings the main courses while he is still chewing. I get they hire a lot of waitstaff and in Mexico, 'teams' handle each table, but this is ridiculous.
The main dishes were pretty weak. Shrimp prepared in different ways. Nothing special, and absolutely not enough food for dinner. We wanted to order more food, but they started clearing our plates after we had each just had one shrimp. It was ridiculous.
This was the worst dining experience we've had in a long time, and so of course, you know it can only get worse. How worse? The table next to us - a family of five. The father starts shaking and looks like he is having a heart attack. The wife calls for help. The tell her they have called an ambulance but only after she pays. So they rush to print up the check, even though none of them have eaten any of their food. Then someone in charge thinks it would make sense to move the guy, now in convulsions and half paralyzed, foaming at the mouth, turning purple. Four waiters try to drag the poor guy out the door, so as not to disturb the other diners. Easily the most reckless and terrible thing I've ever witnessed. The poor 8 year old son watching as his father dies on the spot, and they are making the mother rifle through her purse for a credit card!
Frankly you're all a bunch of b*stards. We were certain the man was dead on the floor as we left as the ambulance came to the door. MIRACULOUSLY, on our last night in Mexico, we run into the family. Turns out he wasn't having a heart attack. It was paralytic seafood poisoning! Makes sense, seeing as this is a seafood restaurant.
He was in the hospital for 2 days but luckily survived. I am not blaming the restaurant for the poisoning, though one could. I am blaming them for the way they handled it. We wanted to intervene but we don't speak the language and were in a foreign country.
We were so shaken up - by being rushed, forced to sit through a high pressured sales pitch on food to order (felt like the timeshare racket you suffer through in cancun), the mediocre food and then seeing this.
No one died when we ate at Harry's or Puerto Madero, but it was the same high pressured sales tactics and rushed service. I'll stick with hotel restaurants over this any day. read more