So, my family and I have been coming to this restaurant since it opened, but my experience there last night (and on several occasions beforehand) made me really want to write this review.
First of all, I really want to like this place because when we first started coming here service was amazing and the food was big portions, well-seasoned, and a decent price. Lately though the best way to describe the restaurant is inconsistent.
The service upon opening was very fast and efficient, and we often had drinks, chips and salsa, and out entrées out within 15 minutes, and the whole meal took around 45 minutes (great for when we wanted to sit down but didn't have a lot of time). Last night, with only 6-7 tables filled our whole visit, food and chips took 5 minutes, our orders were being taken 15 minutes in, food arrived almost 25 minutes into the visit, and we were there for an hour. For many sit-down restaurants in Mt Airy that is great, but for Plaza Del Sol this was oddly slow. The poor waiter also forgot to bring salt when we asked for it, bring refills for a majority of the meal, and never put in our order for a peach margarita. The most common problem we encounter is we will order a margarita with 1800 gold tequila, and we get charged for it, but we'll watch and the drink is made with Jose Cuervo instead, so we decided it was best not to bother after it never came.
Our problem with the service was not really so much our server though, but the staff as a whole. Our waiter last night ran across the restaurant working hard while all the other waitresses were hanging out in the party room or the kitchen. More than once you could hear them cutting up and goofing off, and usually I honestly could not care less, but there was obviously work that needed to be done (like 2 out of 5 bathroom stalls being unusable in the ladies room and trash on the bathroom floor). The poor bartender wouldn't stay behind the bar for more than 5 minutes either, and even then had his phone in his hands half the time, and he kept leaving the bar to try to see what all the waitresses were doing. Again, I usually would not care, but he left a bottle of Jose Cuervo out on the bar top the entire time we were there, and anyone could have walked over there and grabbed it and left. It is actually a very illegal mistake to make, and paired with the slow wait times, lack of servers on the floor most of the time, and overall dead and underwhelming atmosphere, I would not recommend the place based on service or atmosphere at all. This is not to say the atmosphere is always bad, sometimes the lively music and packed room makes for a fun dining atmosphere, and even service is like it used to be occasionally but again inconsistency.
It is also worth noting that we saw no takeout orders leave the kitchen, on a night when many restaurants are packed, and they would usually be swamped. Personally, I would like to see more effort put into the call-in service because some nights I have called 30+ times and someone will pick up the phone and immediately hang up or just not answer. Other times the ticket is not wrung up correctly and a large food order will be all messed up, this can happen anywhere, but it just seems to happen a lot here. There also isn't a great designated system for pick-ups, you get brought to the back register if you come in and it's at the kitchen door with nowhere to stand, or you pull up to the side door and wait for someone to come out, I usually recommend going to the side door and calling though.
Food on the other hand is a little less inconsistent than service. Before your meal, you are served endless chips and five types of dips: bean dip, salsa verde, mango salsa, tomato-based salsa, and white sauce. Last night we ordered the two spinach quesadilla special, the Plaza Del Sol Cheese Steak, and side orders of beans and rice. The quesadillas are never overly cheesy, and the spinach is always cooked well, but everything else we ordered could have benefited from a good amount of seasoning and a little less grease.
Overall, nothing really amazed us, but other members of our family have more extensively tried the menu, and have found things they really love, so maybe a recommendation is in order if you visit. Again, I want to like this place, the food isn't the best in town, but they spent a lot of money upgrading the interior and with a little better management I believe it can be a really great family restaurant with something for everyone. As it is now though I would not in good faith recommend it to anyone coming into town without a lot of reservations about what they should expect. Three stars off for inconsistent service, food, and dining atmosphere and experience. read more