John Gray's Kitchen

They do take credit cards now. My wife and I liked the place a great deal. We were walkins about when it opened. A few minutes later and we would have been closed out for the night. The menu is just a few items with a couple specials. I had the amber jack, somebody back there knows how to cook and present a meal. It was very good. My wife ate the chicken. She is still licking her lips. The wine list is just fine for this place, and the best part may be the rum bread vanilla ice cream desert. My only criticism would be their weakish and coolish coffee. We did not find it loud. Service was tempered by the usual Mexican pace, but we had no where else to go and were working through a fine bottle of Argentine red.

We so looked forward to a lovely meal at John Gray's and left totally disappointed and irritated that at $50/head, a pretty penny in Mexico, we received such poor treatment. Although John introduced himself to us when we arrived, he (and his staff) totally ignored us while we waited at least a half an hour for our table. With not even a comment like "your table will be ready shortly, can we get you a drink?" we waited and waited for someone to acknowlege our presence. It went downhill from there. The wait staff did not speak English and was not informed about the dishes. One of the specials was simply referred to as "salmon". The waiter had no clue about how it was prepared or what it came with. That's fine when you're paying $10, but for entrees that are close to $30 I sure expect more. Ordering wine was completly frustrating. Our waiter was totally unable to tell us what red wine was served by the glass. I finally went to the bar to ask the bartender. Sure the food was good, but John Grey is clearly getting away with underpaying his staff by hiring locals who only speak spanish, and not training them correctly. We had to look and look for service, not even getting bread or chips or any food until our appeitzers arrived at 9pm (our res was at 8). We had to keep looking and looking for service for water, for dessert, for the check. We left feeling totally ripped off. The place has an attitude that you are lucky to be eating there. No thanks. I'll take the palapa bar down the street anyday where they appreciate your business AND serve good food.

The food was just delicious but the atmosphere was very poor. You could not carry on a conversation as you heard everybody else talking and the music was too loud. John is a sweetheart.