Plaza Del Sol, Tex-Mex on St. Elmo Avenue in Downtown Bethesda - Closed

[jandres374]

Didn't see a thread on this place but recently read a review in The Gazette - anyone been.
http://www.pdsolrestaurant.com/

[JoshW0615]

Not that I would know (I can't help it...my friends drag me there!), but their beverage menu is EXACTLY the same as Lauriol Plaza's--right down to the $5.80 price of a shot of Cuervo Gold. Their food menu is also pretty much an exact duplicate, although a couple of items are missing and some of the prices are off by a dollar.

[DonRocks]

Not that I would know (I can't help it...my friends drag me there!), but their beverage menu is EXACTLY the same as Lauriol Plaza's--right down to the $5.80 price of a shot of Cuervo Gold. Their food menu is also pretty much an exact duplicate, although a couple of items are missing and some of the prices are off by a dollar.

This is extremely observant, to the point where they're either sibling restaurants, or one is a direct rip-off of the other. Note that on Lauriol Plaza's webpage, they say their sibling restaurant is Cactus Cantina, not Plaza del Sol.

Very, very good catch, Josh.

[mtureck]

A Yelp review (grain of salt, obviously) said that "Chef Jose Reyes came from Lauriol Plaza".

Maybe he took the drink list with him...

[DMVDining2]

We went on Friday, and let me just say, it’s a good thing I don’t have a Yelp account. This was one of the most miserable dining experiences I have ever been a part of.

My parents visited this past weekend, and every time they come we always go to Guapo’s. I tried to change things up after hearing some positive reviews about Plaza Del Sol, but it couldn’t have been a worse decision.

First of all, the place was crazy loud. Low ceilings, no sound insulation – parents were not happy from the start. My dad orders tamales as an appetizer, and just a minute later, our entrees arrived. None of us were thrilled about that, so then we asked them to take the food back so we could actually eat our first course.

After we had enough time to actually enjoy our tamales (which were so-so), we then got our entrees. Rachel and I split the “fajitas for two”, but honestly, the portions were for one person at best.

Our waitress would give us new dishes after wiping them down with a wet rag she was carrying around right in front of us. Felt like I was eating at a crappy diner. On top of that, they forgot to bring the rice with the fajitas (not sure how you forget that), so they gave us one small dish which was gone within minutes. She then brought us more rice, only by scraping the contents off the old dish into the new one right in front of me!

Meanwhile my mom barely touched her depressing-looking salad. Tomatoes looked old, the lettuce was limp, and it just didn't look appetizing at all.

The whole experience was a disaster, especially the service. They discounted our bill which was nice, but it left such a bad taste in my mouth that we’ll probably never go there again. Rarely have such negative reviews like this but felt this was worth the write-up.

[DavidO]

We ate there a couple of weeks ago (when it was almost empty). Our service and food wasn't bad (but wasn't great). I'd say it was pretty comparable to Guapos.

[DonRocks]

Plaza del Sol is closed, and is being replaced by a Korean Restaurant.