Cafe Pacifico

Visited 22 Jan 2013 - This so called Mexican restaurant is every bit as bad as previous reviewers have reported - dull, microwaved food - expensive and in short rubbish! Service was bad as were the restrooms also dire. Perhaps the staff could be better employed cleaning the restrooms - they certainly did not know how to serve. And then to be charged a further £2 for a small bowl of chips that I did not order.
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charles land-reeves
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Thursday, January 24, 2013

At one point in time, Cafe Pacifico used to be one of the only London restaurants who actually knew what a burrito meant. Today, with a number of competing Mexican restaurants popping up each yearby the dozens in London, you'd think Cafe Pacifico would do something to keep its edge - but instead it has gone in the opposite direction, seeming unconcerned that loyal patrons such as myself may start frequenting other restaurants.

Upon recently arriving at the Cafe Pacifico, we were seated quickly but it took over 30-minutes to actually get our order taken (only after I prompted the host to find out where our waiter was). After complaining, someone did eventually take our order and our food followed fairly quickly, but one of the dished ordered was wrong. Deciding to eat the wrong dish rather than return it and wait even longer, we started eating and immediately noticed how the quality had gone down compared to what was prepared five or even 10 years ago.

We finished eating and low and behold, had to wait another 30-minutes before having our bill brought to the table, despite asking various waiters and waitresses, and only after it looked like we were about to leave without paying the bill.

Needless to say, the experience was not acceptable, unless you're the type who doesn't mind waiting around for Mexican food that isn't very tasty. Also, if you're looking for a restaurant where you can have a quiet conversation, Cafe Pacifico is not the place.
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John Noi
3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 5
Saturday, October 06, 2012

My wife walked by the open kitchen and said plate after plate was coming out of the microwave. Our meal cost £55 not including drinks. Not acceptable.
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David S
4 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Sunday, August 21, 2011

I have been coming here for years. It used to be such fun with great service, great drinks and proper Mexican fare. They just cant be bothered now. I went there with 3 gal pals for some birthday drinks and lots of food. From start to finish we had to practically send up a flair to get anyones attention and when we did it was usually the bus boy who was very sweet, but unable to take any order from us. Our waitress was surly, condescending and lethargic. We arrived early at 5pm so it was not busy, there were plently of staff including the manager who seemed to spend most of her time leaning and chatting.I cannot remember ever not paying the service charge, but on this occasion it felt like money for old rope and we were not willing.
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2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 3
Friday, May 20, 2011

Cafe Pacifico is an excellent and warm corner in Covent Garden, with a good menu and very good care of its services. I highly recommend it
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Mariano R. Cano
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, April 29, 2011

I recently visited this restaurant with a large party of 38 people. During an earlier visit, I had spoken with the general manager and left armed with various menus. We pre-booked our meals, sending the individual choices by email.

On arrival, we were shown to our seats, drinks orders were taken and served promptly, and the enormous task of cooking and serving all 38 meals was achieved promptly and without fuss.

Every person in the group of 38 commented on a) the quality and b) the quantity, with all comments being favourable.

As far as I am concerned, this is an excellent choice of restaurant were the staff cannot do enough for you.
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Rob McDermott
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Oh Dear!!! KEEP CLEAR!!

Firstly I cannot express enough how bad this restaurant is and keeping it confined to acceptable words within the English language.

I had been to this restaurant before, around 5 years ago and found it fairly reasonable considering the price and location, but my visit here last night 14/2/2011 left me confused to how this place is still open, and not shut down.

I ordered the Tequila Firecracker prawns for starter, they were actually presented quite well on the menu and sounded deliscious, but when it came to eating them I was traumatised by what was presented to me on a so called plate of food. Firstly 3 wonderful pieces of seafood were chargrilled to obliteration, to the point where it would have taken a precision engineer with a samurai sword to part the flesh from their shell. Even worse to come was the discovery of the internal tract on these rather large prawns were not removed. For those of you who do not know what the tract is, simply it's like serving a steak with the cows bowels as a side salad!!!!

Whilst almost lost for words at what we were served we managed to finally flag a waitress down to complain, who in turn took 5 minutes to digest what we had said, if in fact she even understood, have a little chat to other people, before finally sending over our original waitress to ask what our complaint was. This particular waitress told us the chef said the prawns were not de-veined as the shell was still on!!!!!! but even as she said this her expression was clear that she knew this was wrong.

Much to our own stupidity we continued and allowed the main course to be served. We ordered the Enchilada and the Burrito's. Another culinary disaster, and a disgrace to call such slop Mexican food. Both meals were poorly presented, looking more like a farm yard troth than an appetising meal. Salt, Salt, and more salt seemed to be the 3 main ingredients in both meals, the refried beans looked more like a dry river after a long hot summer of drought.

It says a lot when the most enjoyable part of the meal was the side dish of sour cream, which we probably have a high street supermarket to thank rather than the restaurant, although they did put olives in it to their credit??????

The young lady I was with last night actually said it is the first time in the 9 weeks we have been seeing each other that I have left any food on my dinner plate. We both left pretty soon after the main course was delivered.
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Jamie
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Excellent cocktails, good friendly service, good food, but hugely overpriced.
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7 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I'm mexican and I was appalled and ofended by the food they serve here and called mexican. First of all, the quality of the ingredients was questionable, secondly the presentation! The dishes were cramped and unnatractive, nothing to do with mexican food ( why do they think we only eat rice and beans?), thirdly, the taste, well, awful! I didn't pay...Don't go, anyone can cook better than this people. Besides, the place was dirty (including the bathrooms, and that is bad news), shabby and depressing, not even the power of tequila would have helped to overcome it.
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Alex Elorza
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Sunday, July 18, 2010