Excelencia Mexicana

I had a delicious meal here, not to mention a yummy margarita that came to me on fire. Fire make drink good! I’ll be back to try more dishes for sure.

I went here with a group of around 30 people on a slow night. We called the night before giving them notice that we would be arriving and they said it would be no problem. My partner and I arrived 15 minutes after everyone else did. We ordered our drinks: a beer and a water. It took them 20 minutes to give us our drinks. 20 minutes for a bottle of beer and a glass of water? We placed our app orders and that took an hour for us to get, and the entrée took another hour. My appetizer was the shrimp cocktail, and the sauce tasted exactly like their salsa, only extremely watered down. It was like a soup. Dissapointing. Would not go again.

Food is consistently good, especially the chicken excellencia. Salsa is the best ! Don’t like that you need to order 2 dinners (when ordering take out) to get 1 salsa w/​chips

The food is excellent the staff is always courteous and attentive. I am not sure why some of the reviewers say the food is bland I have been there many times and was never disappointed with the food. My wife loves their drinks. Parking sometimes is an issue. But as one reviewer said its a hidden gem in mahopac.

Seriously surpassed our expectations. Went for late lunch/​early dinner and despite the parking lot being empty it was amazing food!

Food here was pretty good, not the best Mexican we have eaten but not the worst either. Waitress was very friendly and kept checking up on us. Would come back again.

You will be hard pressed to find an authentic Mexican Restaurant around this area that delivers the goods as this place does.
Housed in a portion of the former US Mahopac Post Office is an authentic nod to Mexican Cuisine.
Parking can be a bit of an inconvenience, but that’s only because the spots fill up fast to the left of the building. Unfortunately, this forces you to park behind by driving around back to the right, and walking around the same way. There is no rear entrance or foot path to take you directly to their door, which can make it difficult to get to and fro, especially during bad weather months.
The staff is pleasant, and the food and beverages good.
The permanent décor is bright and cheery, but personally I believe the dollar store seasonal decorations, including the placemats cheapen the experience and should be tossed in favor of linen.
I eat here often, and the staff do their best to make everyone happy. The menu pricing isn’t cheap, but for the most part you get what you pay for.
The Negative Nancys who have posted here on Unilocal should go to Taco Bell, or just stay home, and nuke a frozen burrito in their micro while drinking their Heineken. There’s just no pleasing some people.

NIce hidden gem in Mohegan Lake! Would deff go back again!
Went here for Father’s Day last Sunday and had a great experience. When you pull up it kind of looks like a hole in the wall. I was skeptical. Once you open the doors the place is nice! We got drinks at the bar first — margs and sangria. Both delicious. For our mains we got fajitas, a vegetarian dish and I got the pick 3 combination, enchilada, chimichanga and quesadilla. They also bring you chips and salsa. Extremely filling, we all left with doggy bags.
Service was great, staff were nice — no complaints at all.
Would deff go back for Mexican — surprised I haven’t heard of this spot before!

Eating in this establishment was one of the worst experiences of my life… From the time we ordered it took an hour for our food to come… They got two orders wrong, when one of the orders was replaced it had a hair in it… I got a seafood paella that was terrible! It was covered in cilantro, dry, and it was for two but not a large serving was brought… The exterior doors caused a draft to constantly be flowing through the place… I can guarantee I won’t be eating here again nor will I be recommending it to anyone…

Sangria was good. Placed was packed and thought the service was decent with the amount of people in the place. Wasn’t a big fan of the food though… Can’t find a good place in the area for Mexican food ;(

We went here on a Saturday afternoon and wanted to try it out because its fairly new. The margheritas were good, nothing special. The chips were warm and crispy, but salty. Ive never experienced a salty tortilla chip. They were very good, otherwise. The salsa portions keep getting smaller and smaller everywhere I go. We ordered an app of empanadas with beef, looked and tasted like shredded pork. They were ok, but the there was very little beef inside the pastry shell, which was big, yes menu described these as «mini». They needed a dipping sauce of some kind, not just a drizzle of chipotle on top. The big man ordered the ceviche de camaron, which was very good. It was actually an arugula salad with lime dressing, avocado, lime, tomatoes, and red onion. There was no cilanto in sight as menu said. Some of the shrimp tasted a little off, he said. I dont know how the full menu for dinner is, but I might go back to try again. The food wasnt horrible, just wasnt that great.

Excellent burritos and chimichangas. The wife enjoyed her red sangria. The price was great for lunch time specials.

*2^nd UPDATE* David called me and surmised that the waitress looked at the total line and thought that the $ 14.51 was her tip. Honestly I’m not really sure how someone could think they would get tipped that much when they were so bad at their job, but who knows. The charges should be reversed in 2 – 4 business days. David was very apologetic and promptly provided a solution, however this to me is still very unacceptable.
*UPDATE* Just checked my credit card and they decided to charge me almost $ 27 dollars when the nachos were $ 8.95, the skunked beer $ 2.50 and tip $ 2.00 due to the abysmal service. When I looked at my statement before the tip was added on, it was the correct amount, so someone decided to take it upon themselves to add a healthy tip on there. I am expecting a call between 3 and 4 from Ricardo and hopefully they will reverse these charges asap.
I came here last night with a couple of friends and we decided just to eat at the bar. I started with a margarita on the rocks with Patron and it was terrible. Sickly sweet that I took one sip and pushed it aside. They did comp the drink and offered to make me a new one, but I decided to just get a Heineken Light, which was mistake number two. It was skunked beyond belief and clearly had gone bad. I pushed it aside and at the end of the night the server/​bartender asked if I was going to drink it. I told her it had skunked and gone bad.
She also forgot the chicken for my nachos and was soooo slow, couldn’t mix a drink and was clearly not trained well. I don’t think I’ll ever come back as there are better options around.

Not sure this why this restaurant has two Unilocal pages. They probably tried to restart because their reviews are terrible. But here we go…
Everything went wrong. Sat down and waited 20 minutes with no waiter. Had to ask the bus boy to bring one over. Finally order drinks and waited another 20 – 25 minutes before getting them. Guess what, the order was wrong and they had to go back and remake the margaritas. No water ever brought to the table.
Food took a very long time and when it finally came out, it was obvious that it had been sitting because my chimichanga was very cold. Obviously had been sitting out over 15 minutes.
Not to mention, the ambiance in this place is all wrong. Lights were full bright and felt like a cafeteria rather than an intimate Mexican restaurant. Not to mention this place was so loud!
Won’t be back.

I’d really give it between a 2 and a 3. The food took a little long to come out (about ½ hour) but nothing outrageous. The food quality was quite good, but not amazing — flavorful but so mild that were it not for the tortillas, you wouldn’t know you were eating Mexican. No spice, no kick, no heat (flavor — food temp was fine). My husband’s margarita was too strong and tasted odd. My unsweetened ice tea was SO watered down that it tasted like cold water with a slight bit of tea flavor (and yes, if I wanted a refill, I would have paid for another drink but we only found out because we asked). Even the salsa that was put on the table was fresh but bland. I asked for water because I usually need it in a Mexican restaurant but I left it untouched. Not exactly «a-​ok.» Just «okay.»

What a pleasant surprise… the food was delicious! We have been living in the area for many years and never knew that Exelencia Mexicana existed. What made us think of going was their recent ad in the Community Buzz. So when we were looking for a different place to go out for dinner on a Friday night we remembered the ad and thought we would give it a try.
When we walked in to the restaurant the ambience was fine, nothing over the top, nice clean tables, pleasantly appointed, wait staff friendly. We were greeted at the door and immediately seated. In reading through the menu, it had more than traditional Mexican faire, which we liked. The menu and food were a surprise because we felt as if we were eating authentic Mexican food and not just a an American version of a empanada, taco combination platter.
My friend and I started and shared the Empanada appetizer which was absolutely delicious. The empanadas were fried and stuffed with creamy mashed potato and cheese. They were truly yummy. The dish was served with fresh salsa and guacamole. Would certainly get this again.
For dinner, I had the Tamale special, Wow, I never saw tamales quit like this. The main dish was served with two tamales… one was pork and the other was chicken. When they arrived on my plate there were open and heaping. I can only describe them as absolutely flavorful and delicious. They were the best tamales I ever had by far! My friend had the Steak in Pink Sauce special, the steak was cooked to perfection… a nice crust on the outside and beautifully medium rare on the inside, just like was ordered. The steak was surrounded with what they call a ‘pink sauce’. The ‘pink sauce’ was like nothing my friend ever tasted and was a lovely accent for the juicy steak. The steak cut like butter, it was beautifully seasoned and truly delicious!
It took quit some time for our entrees to arrive, which we can accept because we felt the food was cooked fresh just for us. But as a reward for waiting, I just think they could have been a little more generous with the chips. I would have given this 5 stars but had to take some off because the drinks were a little small for the price, they were good but slightly overpriced; the wait staff could have been a little more attentive, and we had to ask 4 times for more chips. I would certainly recommend Excelencia Mexicana and look forward to going back for another culinary experience.

The Nachos Grande was literally 9 chips with cheese and chorizo on top. Void of any flavor. Not worth the $ 9.99
The beef enchiladas were also void of spice and a little cold.
The cocktail was more juice than booze.
I actually asked the waiter where the spice was and he said they cook for an older American crowd.
Not the best — not the worst.

My husband and I had a perfectly fine lunch at Excellencia on a Sunday afternoon. It was completely empty inside aside from another couple at the bar, so the vibe wasn’t as lively and fun as you’d like a Mexican place to be. Too quiet. Wish they had some mariachi music piped in or something.
The dining room was clean, bright and cheery. Fun décor.
The food was good. Not the best Mexican I’ve ever had, but it hit the spot. Mahopac has been needing a Mexican place since Hacienda Tres Amigos went out of business. I had the Enchiladas Suisas and thought the sauce was good.
A bit pricy. We had two entrees, two sodas and guacamole and it was $ 50.
I’d definitely come back next time I’m in town and in the mood for Mexican.

I purchased a Groupon for this new Mexican restaurant almost a year ago. After purchasing it, the negative reviews started to worry me, so we put off going for almost a year, until our Groupon was about to expire– we finally went tonight. They have obviously worked out their «newly-​opened kinks», because we had a great meal! The food was excellent, the service was great and the décor was classy. Happy to have a great Mexican restaurant close to home again. We’ll be back!

Management gave us a hard time for not making a reservation because we came with a Groupon. There were maybe 4 other tables being used. They tried to add an additional $ 20+ to our bill. One of the two owners was extremely rude to us when we were trying to get clarification on our additional charges. Not worth the hassle for mediocre food.